What classics did you see last week ? (1 Apr - 6 Apr 2019)

Children of Men (2006) 9/10

Rules of Engagement (2000) 6/10

Chloe (2009) 5/10

Grosse Point Blank (1997) 8/10

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) 6/10

Crank (2006) 7/10

Flightplan (2005) 5/10

The Last Hurrah (1958) 7/10

Overlord (2018) 8/10

The Flame Barrier (1958) 4/10

Creed II (2018) 7/10

The Favourite (2018) 7/10

The Case Of The Black Cat / William C. McGann (1936). Warner. This was the fifth of six Perry Mason mysteries produced by Warner Bros. during the 1930s and the only one to star Ricardo Cortez as Mason. After this series was finished, viewers had to wait another 10 years for the classic TV series to begin. The film is made from one of Erle Stanley Gardner’s most complex murder plots, but, at about 65 minutes, had to leave out a lot of the clues that lets Perry solve the case and get his client off. In the climactic court scene, when Mason lays out the events, he seems to be pulling it all out of his…uh…hat. Still, there is a one really big surprise that I was not expecting in the final revelations. As with so many films from this period, there are a large number of wonderful well-known faces (even if not names) of hard-working character actors. Amongst the victims, suspects, and other sundry individuals you can spot Bill Eliot just a couple of years short of B-western stardom, Harry Davenport, Clarence Wilson, Guy Usher, and Gary Owen (Paul Drake as comic sidekick). BTW, for animal performance fans, there is a really good part for the cat (who is not black).



The non-black cat in The Case Of The Black Cat



The Power Of The Whistler / Lew Landers (1945). Larry Darmour Productions. The third of eight in this genuinely noir movie crime series. Richard Dix stars (as he did in all but the last episode) in this anthology cycle. Here, he is a man who has a minor accident, hitting his head, on a city street. It gives him temporary amnesia. Inside a restaurant, Jean Lang (Janis Carter) is playing fortune teller with two friends. When she turns over cards of Dix, death within 24 hours comes up twice in a row. Feeling guilty, she makes friends with him to protect him and starts helping him find out who he is. But maybe she would be better off not knowing. He seems like a nice guy but everywhere he goes, small animals seem to die. You know you are in a noir universe when a kitten is killed. The first three of the Whistler films are very strong stories. Recommended.




The Blue Gardenia / Fritz Lang (1953). Alex Gottlieb Productions (Warner). Based on a novel by Very Caspary (“Laura”). Nora (Ann Baxter) is a telephone operator with a fiancé in Korea. When she receives a letter in which he unceremoniously dumps her for a nurse, she impulsively accepts a date from masher Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr as yet another jerk who won’t take a woman's “no” for an answer). They go to the title night club where she gets stinking on six Polynesian Pearl Divers. The movie doesn’t give the recipe for this cocktail but you can find it online. Back at Prebble’s apartment, she drunkenly fights off his attempt at rape with a fireplace poker before running out. The next day headlines blare out Prebble’s murder. So what happened? Did Nora kill him? She can’t remember, but ace newspaper columnist Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) is on her trail determined to beat the police to Prebble’s murderer. Also in the cast is Ann Southern as Nora’s wisecracking flat mate and George Reeves as a sardonic police captain. Nat King Cole sings the title song while performing at the night club, on the radio, on a juke box, and on a phonograph. They really want you to buy this record. This movie is a dandy crime puzzler but doesn’t contain as many film noir elements as other Lang features – there are a couple scenes in the dark and one startling image during the recreation of the crime flashback. Good acting from the whole cast in a satisfying whodunit (or rather a “did she do it?”).



Anne Baxter and Richard Conte



5 Against The House / Phil Karlson (1955). Columbia. I really enjoyed this dandy crime caper that brings up an important social issue that is still very relevant today, which is the psychological damage war does to the soldiers who fight it. PTSD was not very understood or named in the mid-1950s and treatment was sketchy, but VA doctors knew what it was. As four college guys are returning east for the new term, they stop off in Reno. We have Al (Guy Madison) and Brick (Brian Keith), two Korean War vets. Ronnie (Kerwin Mathews), a spoiled rich kid, and Roy (Alvy Moore), a wisecracking sidekick. While visiting Harolds Casino, they witness an attempted robbery that is quickly thwarted. “Nobody can rob Harolds and get away with it,” boasts a cop. But Ronnie has other ideas, mainly pull off the perfect heist and then return the money just to show it can be done. Al is the most reluctant to go along with it because he plans on marrying lounge singer Kay (Kim Novak in her third credited role). But Brick, who usually is quite normal behaving, is still unsettled from his combat experience. He decides he has other plans for what happens to the stolen money. The story speeds along at a good clip except for the romance scenes between Al and Kay which skid the film to a halt. Seems SHE is the one with commitment issues. The heist scheme is a good one and its execution is appropriately tense.




Les Glaneurs Et La Glaneuse (The Gleaners And I) / Agnès Varda (2000). France. Agnès Varda, delighting in her new digital camera – her first – and inspired by Jean-François Millet’s 1957 painting, The Gleaners, takes a road trip across France to find modern gleaners. She finds some who follow in the Millet tradition of going into a field after harvest to collect whatever product has been left behind – and there is sometimes a lot (which is mostly wasted) because modern machinery can’t get every bit. Tons of potatoes and tomatoes are left to rot each fall. In the cities she finds a different type of gleaner, people who collect others’ trash to repurpose or sell or just to store away. This is a pleasant film, not much conflict at all, a somewhat loosely organized essay on the modern world, on waste, and on alternate life-styles.




First Man / Damien Chazelle (2018). Universal and Dreamworks. Except for the flying scenes, dynamic director Chazelle falls down with a thud in the historical and family scenes of the film. Mainly, I think, this is because of a hole at the center of the movie in the performance by a blank-faced and emotionless Ryan Gosling. In this case, the Kuleshov effect fails Gosling completely. Neil Armstrong did have a reputation of being quiet and shy, but Gosling’s portrayal of him is so passive and uncommunicative that he comes close to putting Armstrong somewhere on the autism spectrum. The movie shifts gears into high, however, during flying and rocket take-off sequences. In what I take to be a realistic portrayal of early space flight, the shaking as if the vehicle is about to come apart and the creaking and screaming of stressed metal is quite scary. Claire Foy, as the supportive wife, has a couple of good scenes but mostly she seems more than a little detached as if she is just hitting her marks and speaking her lines. In spite of a promising supporting cast, no one really shines. On a personal note, I and my family lived the last five years of the 1980s in Wapakoneta, Ohio, where Neil Armstrong was born, raised, and learned to fly. His official museum is there. You can even see the bicycle he rode to the airport for flying lessons. Unfortunately, Wapak (as the residents call it) is never mentioned in this movie. I give a soft recommendation for the portrayal of the launch procedures and the in-cabin experience of the first men in space. NOTE: Where were you when Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the moon? I bet you remember. I do.




The Donmar Warehouse's All-Female Shakespeare Trilogy: Julius Caesar / Phyllida Lloyd (2018), This 2012 production, called the most important theatrical event in the last 25 years, has just reached the shores of the U.S. of A in a PBS Great Performances premiere on May 29, 2019. This is the first of three Shakespeare dramas set in a women’s prison in England. So the actors are playing prisoners who are playing characters in “Julius Caesar,” hence the all-female cast. This is really thrilling theatre played with passion and spirit. A couple of legitimate theatre veterans take the key roles of Brutus (Harriet Walter) and Caesar (Jackie Clune) along with a cast of amazingly talented younger actors. To name a few, Jade Anouka as Marc Antony, Clare Dunne as Portia & Octavius, and Karen Dunbar as Casca. This is a Shakespeare to live with. It will get inside of you. There is a short highlight reel below but these short clips can’t really convey the power of the whole. It took seven years for this video to reach America. I hope it won’t be nearly that long before we can see the other two plays: Henry IV, Part 1 and The Tempest.

Highlight Reel

And here comes my week:


Not a bad story idea for a start, but somehow they forgot it halfway through, and it became a very lazy stealing a diamond story instead. Great actors enjoying French Riviera location is one thing, but the movie was a mess of half-baked ideas that didn't work at all.



The two stars carry this movie a long way, not great but not too bad either.


I loved the very 1980s feeling of this movie, and was it really that long ago?
The movie in itself is rather half-baked, but who can hate a movie that values the memory of Jimmy Durante.


Some birds can't fly, and neither did this Concorde. Feels like a parody played straight.
The last of the Airport movies that started in 1970.
French superstar Alain Delon and Bergman actress Bibi Andersson got involved in it to too, somehow.


Poker is boring, but thanks to the actors and actresses this became a very entertaining movie. Robinson is such a grand old man!
McQueen does what he does best, react and don't talk too much. Blondell is fun as an older in-active card shark who just keeps on rambling about people who has died.
I liked this one, such a grand cast makes this good entertainment.


Even old Teleadm got emotional. Such a lovely movie, but to be honest I didn't like it at all the first time, I thought it was too manipulative then, but I've changed my mind since then. It's an old fashioned story that is well told, and I liked it
The poster posted is wrong by the way, Donat's Chips was older and had a bushy moustache when he met love in the shape of Greer Garson.

Well that was my week, and now over to the next participant:

A Night in Casablanca (1945) 7/10

Nightmare Castle (1965) ftv 8/10

The Black Windmill (1974) 7/10

The Ultimate Warrior (1975) 7/10

Breakheart Pass (1975) 7/10

Escape from New York (1981) 8/10

True Believer (1989) ftv 6/10

First Option (1996) ftv 6/10

Tomb Raider (2001) 6/10

If my viewings seem a tad more prestige-ish this week, it's because I made the hard push to get myself one of those IMDB Top 250 badge thingies. Still didn't get one but made some progress.

Virginia City (1940) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0033226/reference

Oh, I'm an expert at that now. Treating friends like strangers and enemies like friends.

Virginia City is directed by Michael Curtiz and written by Robert Buckner. It stars Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott, Miriam Hopkins, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Hale and Guinn Williams. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Sol Polito.​

Story is a loose working of actual events that happened in December 1864 at the tail end of the American Civil War. A group of Confederate sympathisers are trying to ship a substantial amount of gold out of Virginia City to rebel leader Jefferson Davis, where it is hoped that the course of the war that the Confederates are close to losing will now be changed...​​

It was a messy production, not very many people got on, the pic started without a finished script, and with the bad weather mixing with bad blood it was something of a chore for many of the cast. Add in that the great Bogart is woefully miscast - and he knows it - then you got a picture that considering the talent involved across the board is a long way away from being a genre classic.​​

It starts off so promisingly, we are thrust into the murky confines of Libby Prison - The Black Hole Of The Confederacy (AKA: The Devil's Warehouse), where the ever splendidly twinkled Flynn is burrowing out through a tunnel with his two comedy sidekicks, Hale and Williams. Before you know it they are to be confronted by that bastion of Western/Southern film greatness, Randolph Scott, this is classic film fan nirvana. Sadly it's a false dawn that precedes a film of great moments cobbled together to almost outstay its welcome.

However, such as it is that a love of classic film can keep one engaged for escapist fare value, so it be here. Curtiz at least keeps things brisk enough with a number of action sequences, where we at times find the genius that is stuntman Yakima Canutt at the core of things. Some stunts here beggar belief, including one involving a horse that the ASPCA must have raged at! The stars hold court for their scenes - well except for Bogart trying to munch his way through a Mexican bandit accent and Hopkins out of tone the for the singing sequences, while as fluffy as it is the ending has a warm glow to it. Which leaves what?

It's not the disaster it could have been given the behind the scenes problems, and for sure a love of the era of film making it comes from ensures you have to give it props (it was popular on release). But this could have easily have had twenty minutes shaved from its excess, for then it might have spared an unhappy cast and an expectant audience the sense of disappointment that it isn't top line stuff. 6/10



Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0033553/reference
Review > www.imdb.com/review/rw4762354/?ref_=tt_urv 5/10



Meet John Doe (1941) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0033891/reference

The meek can only inherit the earth when the John Doe's start loving their neighbours.

After crafting Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington for Columbia, Capra quit and made this third film about an average Joe who is thrust into a powerful world where exploitation is high on the agenda. Thus, in true Capra style the story unfolds to a customary flip flop triumph.​

Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) is a struggling journalist who gets fired from her newspaper job by new editor Henry Connell (James Gleason). By way of venting her frustrations she writes in her stinging last article about a man called John Doe who is tired of being pushed around and held back by the big bosses. She finishes the piece by claiming that Doe will commit suicide on Christmas Eve by leaping off of the roof of city hall. The public react to the letter with tremendous heart and Doe becomes a champion of the people. Enter a certain unemployed minor league pitcher named Long John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), who down on his luck is prepared to be the mythical John Doe.​​

In true Capra form there's a jovial glee pumping through the pic for the first half, luring us in with characterisations that charm us personified. A make believe baseball game is delightful (the actors superb), the attraction between Doe and Mitchell believable and understandable, but all the time there's a cynicism hovering like a conglomerate cancer, making us wonder if this Capracorn has bitten off more than it can chew?​​

The Sourpuss Smithers Speech.​​

Kapow! Here's Capra in full effect, tantalising and daring us not to be swept away with his call to arms for humanity to exist on a par with each other. Observe as the soda jerk gives it his all and Cooper the magnificent shifts between joy and sheepish shame purely on visual ticks alone. Pic has now shifted into a dark territory, trawling dark territories that has often​ been forgotten where Capra is concerned. Whilst arguably not being up with the best Capra films in his armoury, it is however one of his smartest. The portrayal of the human spirit in many guises is stark and poignant, whilst thematically Capra got his point over about the unsavoury elements blossoming in America.

The cast are nailed on watchable, Cooper as Doe has the right amount of sympathy and guts to draw the audience into Doe's mindset, and in one rousing address he has the viewers in the palm of his hand. Stanwyck as Mitchell delivers a multi stranded emotional​ turn that calls for convincing thesping, which she delivers in spades, while the support cast are all solid with the stand out a bizarrely unnerving Edward Arnold as D B. Norton, now here is a man wishing to be a dictator if ever there was one! 9/10



Warlock (1959) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0053434/reference
Review > www.imdb.com/review/rw2007058/?ref_=tt_urv 9/10



Downtown (1990) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0099460/reference
Review > www.imdb.com/review/rw4758835/?ref_=tt_urv 6.5/10



Cutthroat Island (1995) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0112760/reference
Review > www.imdb.com/review/rw2643325/?ref_=tt_urv 7/10



The Last King of Scotland (2006) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/reference
Review > www.imdb.com/review/rw4762434/?ref_=tt_urv 8.5/10

Watched a few this week, I'm about a 1/3 into "The Quiet American" with Audie Murphy. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm enjoying it so far.

The ones I finished this week were just two, but they were both interesting in their own ways.

Dark of the Sun (1968) aka the Mercenaries



Very intense film for the period, quite violent. Rod Taylor was amazing as well as Jim Brown. I've always been interested in post colonial Africa and this film didn't let me down with the struggles between corrupt governments controlled by diamond or other mineral interests and the mercenaries that were employed by them. Yvette Mimieux didn't have much to do except cry or scream or hang on tight to Rod Taylor. She never embraces any of the characters as she is portrayed on the poster. The chainsaw fight between Rod Taylor and the former (?) Nazi working with the Congo governmental forces was pretty amazing. The brutality of the Simbas is portrayed when they capture the people attempting to escape the town where the diamonds are held. The cinematography was well done. I believe it was filmed in Jamaica rather than somewhere in Africa but its a good stand in.

The Curious Female (1970)



Pretty dumb film (with occasional jolts of genius) but the premise was interesting and I remembered watching the heavily cut version on USA's Up All Night a long time ago so I was sort of in a nostalgic mood. Set in the distant future, Los Angeles is now an island and the society is controlled by "Master Computer". All societal norms considering sexual morality have been replaced with free love. Apparently a film industry still exists in the future but it is all controlled by Master Computer. Underground groups form that view 20th century films after claiming to have jammed Master Computers ever watchful eye. The small underground group in the film view a movie called the Three Virgins that explores how three young co-eds that are the last virgins on campus attempt to deal with losing their virginity. Angelique Pettyjohn is a standout in the film. There were ocassional jabs at the film industry because during one sequence of the film within the film the reel ends with a motorcycle jumping a train rail car and one of the future viewers asks why they included that apparently disconnected sequence to a film discussing losing virginity. The host of the underground meeting stated "In the 20th century, it was commonly viewed by movie studios that for a film to be successful, it needed a scene including a motorcycle." I was wondering if it was a jab at Easy Rider, the Born Losers, or another motorcycle picture. Interestingly enough, for a film that was supposed to be teaching traditional sexual morals of the 20th century to a future audience, the only girl that follows the traditional pattern (i.e. finding true love and getting married) has the worst "first" sexual experience at the end of the film As to the other two "virgins", Pettyjohn becomes vested in the "free love" and multiple partners scene, while the other girl has an encounter with a male where she laments to a female friend that she "felt nothing" and then finally finds satisfaction in a lesbian relationship. I thought that was very "curious" and the film was actually pretty subversive in a sense regarding preaching morality.

Under Fire is one that seems to have passed me by! I'll have to put it on my radar.

Human Desire >

You never knew me. 


Human Desire is directed by Fritz Lang and adapted for the screen by Alfred Hayes from the story "The Human Beast" written by Émile Zola. It stars Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Broderick Crawford. Music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof and Burnett Guffey is the cinematographer. The story had been filmed twice before, as Die Bestie im Menschen in 1920 and La Bête humaine in 1938.

The plot revolves around a love triangle axis involving Jeff Warren (Ford), Vicki Buckley (Grahame) and Carl Buckley (Crawford). Crawford's Railroad Marshall gets fired and asks his wife, Viki, to sweet talk one of the yards main investors, John Owens (Grandon Rhodes), into pressuring his yard boss into giving him his job back. But there is a history there, and Carl is beset with jealousy when Viki is away for far too long. It's his jealousy that will start the downward spiral of events that will change their lives forever, with Jeff firmly in the middle of the storm.

The Production Code of the time ensured that Fritz Lang's take on the Zola novel would be considerably toned down. Thus some of the sex and violence aspects in the narrative give way to suggestion or aftermath. However, for although it may not be in the top tier of Lang's works, it's still an involving and intriguing picture seeping with film noir attributes. It features a couple of wretched characters living a bleak existence, what hope there is is in short supply and pleasures are futile, stymied by jealousy and murder. Thrust in to the middle of such hopelessness is the bastion of good and pure honesty, Jeff Warren, fresh from serving his country in the Korean War. Lusted after by the sweet daughter of his friend and landlord (Kathleen Case and Edgar Buchanan respectively), Jeff, back in employment at the rail yard, has it all going for him. But as the title suggests, human beings are at times at the mercy of their desires, and it's here where Lang enjoys pitting his three main characters against their respective fates. All set to the backdrop of a cold rail yard and the trains that work out of that steely working class place (Guffey's photography in sync with desolation of location and the characters collision course of fate).

Featuring two of the principal cast from The Big Heat (1953), it's a very well casted picture. Grahame is a revelation as the amoral wife stung by unfulfillment, sleazy yet sexy, Grahame makes Vicki both alluring and sympathetic. Lang had wanted Rita Hayworth for the role, but a child custody case prevented her from leaving the country (much of the film was shot in Canada), so in came Grahame and film noir got another classic femme fatale. Ford could play an everyman in his sleep, so this was an easy role for him to fill, but that's taking nothing away from the quality of his performance, because he's the cooling glue holding the film together. Crawford offers up another in his line of hulking brutes, with this one pitiful as he has anger issues take a hold, his original crime being only that he wants to desperately please his uncaring wife. Strong support comes from Buchanan, Case and Diane DeLaire.

Adultery, jealousy, murder and passion dwells within Human Desire, a highly accomplished piece of film noir from the gifted Fritz Lang. 7.5/10

The Blue Gardenia, yep I think your satisfying tag is about right.

A Letter to an Unknown Murderess. 

The Blue Gardenia is directed by Fritz Lang and adapted to screenplay by Charles Hoffman from the short story "Gardenia" written by Vera Caspary. It stars Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr and George Reeves. Music is by Raoul Kraushaar and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca.

Norah Larkin (Baxter), after receiving some horrible news, ends up drunk and at the mercy of a Lothario in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with the distinct feeling she may have committed murder.

More solid than anything spectacular, this minor Lang is never less than interesting. The Blue Gardenia of the title is a nightclub, one where Nat King Cole no less, sings the title song. However, it's the local newspaper that is the key element of the story, the place of work of ace journalist Casey Mayo (Conte), who gets in deep with the story and of course that means Norah as well.

There's some sparky dialogue as the story ticks away, with Sothern (sadly underused) wonderfully waspish, the murder mystery element remains strong enough, while there's dark at work as well (Burr is effectively on a mission to date rape). However, the pairing of Lang and Musuraca should be a dream team, but although there's the odd flash of noir visualisations during night sequences, you can't help but lament more wasn't provided for Musuraca to weave his magic.

A good show from the cast helps ease the pain of the script's inadequacies, especially as regards the not very clever final revelations. So all in all, it's more a case of a mystery melodrama with noir touches than anything thrilling, and really it's one for Lang fans to tick off their to see lists, not to be visited again. 6.5/10

5 Against the House I was pleasantly surprised by because its reputation at the time I sought it out was very average. Not great but good value for a watch.

Four college buddies are out in a Reno casino when they mistakenly almost get arrested for a failed robbery. Upon proving their innocence, they hear a cop saying that robbing this particular casino is nigh on impossible. This gets young Ronnie thinking that it actually can be done, and sure enough he comes up with a fool proof plan that should be played out as a joke robbery. However, after letting his pals in on the plan, one of them, Brick, an ex army loose cannon, wants to do it for real.

There are many good things about this Phil Karlson directed picture, things that made me particularly glad I paid no attention to the meagre rating on the IMDb and watched it with no expectation. The cast is very strong, Guy Madison, Brian Keith, Alvy Moore, a young pre swash buckling Kerwin Mathews and a sultry and gorgeous Kim Novak in only her second credited role. Location work at Lake Tahoe is easy on the eye and the story from John Barnwell (adapting from Jack Finney's novel) is a good one, with a kicker of an idea in how to rob a casino.

I think that newcomers to the film should prepare for a more offbeat picture than what the plot synopsis hints at. It certainly has got tense moments, courtesy in the main from Keith's borderline psycho, but it's practically a talky picture with flecks of humour right up to the finale, where it all comes together without histrionics or fanfare. Phil Karlson, with the awesome Scandal Sheet on his CV, appeared on the face of it to be a good choice to direct, but although he has done crime/adventure/romance films very well before, blending those genres into one film was asking a bit too much. It's not bad directing, it's just an odd fusion that never really comes off, and it possibly stops the film from breaking out to a bigger and more appreciative audience. Karlson remains, though, a director well worth reappraisals because he has some excellent credits on his CV that are well worth checking out.

Still, it's an oddity of sorts, and tagging it as a Noir picture is a bit of a stretch, but this is one that's definitely recommended for the pluses that do indeed far outweigh the minuses. 7/10