What classics did you see last week ? (1 Sep- 7 Sep 2019)

A fan of the re-boot games,I liked how they made Lara a tough sporty type, instead on the blowup sex doll of the past.

The Adventures of Robin Hood, no review to share, I did have one but it wasn't good enough so deleted it, it's one I'm more than willing to rewatch - what a film!

The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers / Lewis Milestone (1946). Hal Wallis Production/Paramount Pictures. A masterful example of what later became known as film noir. The story opens in the past, 1929, with two tweens a boy and a girl, trying to hope a freight train out of Iverstown. They are Martha Ivers and Sam Masterson (Janice Hickman and Darryl Hickman). Caught by the police, Martha is returned to her rich guardian and very strict aunt (Judith Anderson). Sam, whose father works in the Ivers’ factory, has to run off. The aunt’s lawyer, O’Neal (Roman Bohnen) and his young son Walter (Mickey Kuhn) come to claim credit for alerting the police to the children’s whereabouts. Sam shows up again to try to talk Martha into trying another train. Events then quickly happen that changes everyone’s life. Sam run away, Martha and Walter grow up and get married, sharing a deadly secret. 18 years later, Sam (now played by Van Heflin), returns to Iverstown. This causes consternation with Walter and Martha (now Kirk Douglas and Barbary Stanwyck). Walter is the hard-drinking District Attorney while Martha has grown up into a hard-as-nails business CEO who has expanded the Ivers company and become even more wealthy than before. They are convinced that Sam has returned with blackmail on his mind. But Sam has other things on his mind after meeting the lovely and vulnerable Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott) who is one her way out of town by bus. Amazingly, this was Kirk Douglas’ film debut. There must have been great confidence in him to give him such a large and important part in an important movie, but he nails it and proves himself. This is a major historical star-making movie. Stanwyck could probably have played Martha Ivers O’Neal in her sleep, but doesn’t although I feel that her character, even though in the title of the movie, is the least important and least memorable of the four leads. Van Helflin, already an Oscar winner, continues a good run by practically carrying the movie against formidable competition. When I first began my film noir journey about two years ago, I read some serious shade thrown at Lizbeth Scott’s acting but I have loved her in everything I have seen her in. “The Strange Love…” though is maybe her best work. The cinematographer is Victor Milner (Union Pacific, The Lady Eve, Dark City). The writers are Robert Rossen (The Sea Wolf, All The King’s Men, The Hustler), John Patrick, and Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Lost Horizon). FUN FACT: Mickey Kuhn who plays the boy who grows up to be Kirk Douglas in “Martha Ivers” later played the boy who grows up to be James Dean in “Red River.”







Behind Locked Doors / Budd Boetticher (1948). Aro Productions Inc./Eagle-Lion Films. Gal reporter Helen Lawrence (Lucille Bremer) gives fledgling Private Eye Ross Stewart (Richard Carlson) his first case by going undercover at an upscale asylum. Helen had followed the fiance of a wanted criminal to the asylum. Believing that the fugitive was being hidden within by the institution's owner (Thomas Browne Henry) and staff, she wants Ross to confirm that the wanted man was within. After being incarcerated, Ross has to deal with the brutal Larson (Douglas Fowley) who uses physical force to control the patients and has to find his way into the locked area where the violently insane are kept, including The Champ (Tor Johnson) who attacks everyone he sees, believing he is in the boxing ring. What I kept waiting for was for Ross to tell Helen (she would visit posing as his wife) to forget the crime story and cover the abusive conditions in the asylum – but he never did.

Very misleading poster

Lucille Bremer and Richard Carlson



Port Of New York / Laslo Benedek (1949). Samba Pictures/Eagle-Lion Films. Semi-documentary style police procedural with narration that focuses on Treasury Department enforcement officers from Customs and Narcotic agencies. This film is the second Auspicious Film Debut I watched this week. The debut actor is Yul Brynner who plays the head of a drug smuggling ring, a quiet talking but ruthless killer, who always dresses like a rich toff out on the town. Brynner didn’t show up in another movie for nine years but in 1956 he stormed Hollywood with three – count ‘em – three blockbuster hits: The King and I (he won the Best Actor Oscar), The Ten Commandments, and Anastasia. Now back to our show: after a cleverly and successfully executed smuggle of a huge shipment of narcotics destined for a medical lab, Mickey Waters (Scott Brady) from Customs and Jim Flannery (Richard Rober) from Narcotics swing into action. The story never lifts its eyes from the investigation. As far as the movie is concerned, these guys not only have no personal lives but they are always on duty never stopping to eat or sleep. The last 30 minutes injects a little drama into the proceedings when an agent is shot and another goes undercover with a high probability of getting his cover blown. Neville Brand is uncredited as one of Brynner’s thugs. I didn’t know any of the other supporting players: K.T. Stevens (her father was director Sam Wood) and Lynne Carter. Director Laslo Benedek went on to direct some notable films such as “Death Of A Salesman” (1951) and “The Wild One” (1953).



Yul Brynner



Private Hell 36 / Don Siegel (1954). The Filmakers. Outstanding noir crime drama that boasts a top cast and direction, a great script, and was photographed by a future two-time Oscar winning cinematographer. Two Los Angeles robbery detective partners Cal Bruner (Steven Cochran) and Jack Farnham (Howard Duff) have run across a $50 bill that had been stolen in a robbery-murder in New York City. Their boss, Captain Michaels (Dean Jagger), tells them to trace the bill’s ownership as far back as they can. They go from a pharmacist, to a bartender, to a lounge singer, to the unknown man who tipped her the fifty. The singer, Lily Marlowe (Ida Lupino), agrees to help the partners find the tipper who told her he had a good day at the races. Lily agrees to help them but didn’t count of spending a whole week at the track trying to pick the man out of the crowds even though she and Bruner begin to fall for each other. On the last day she does spot him but he speeds off in his car. The two cops give chase until the robber’s car goes off a cliff. The partners find the man dead along with a metal box with thousands of stolen dollars. Both men have reason to need money. Farnham has a house in the suburbs with a perfect ‘50s wife (Dorothy Malone), a newborn, a mortgage, and not much left over from payday. Bruner is the more cynical. He not only wants money for himself but because Lily has expressed the dream of marrying rich. Bruner has to practically shove Farnham into helping him pocket $80,000. The larceny doesn’t bother Bruner but family man Farnham begins to crack almost immediately. This was the last film from The Filmakers, a company started by Ida Lupino with her then husband, (her second) producer Collier Young. Their marriage ended just about the same time this movie was released. But don’t worry about Ida; husband #3 was already lined up in the person of this movie’s co-star, Howard Duff. The script was written by Lupino and Young. The cinematographer was Burnett Guffey who had scored one Oscar for “From Here To Eternity” and would go on to win another for “Bonnie And Clyde.” He was nominated three other times. Some familiar faces who appear in small roles are Dabbs Greer, Richard Deacon, and King Donovan. I believe this film should be more widely seen and raked higher that it is.

Self preservation society of the Old Aussie family? Big screen job?

Thank you so much for sharing such a superbly detailed review COE! Just before getting to Lara,I wanted to pick up on your comment about Vikander's 'micro-expressions.' This aspect of her performance in Ex_Machina is actually what made me a fan of her work,due to the micro-expressions playing such an important role in the characterisation of Ava.

 Onto Tomb Raider, (which I saw opening day-the chance to see Vikander with the stars of The Shield & The Wire made it irresistible!)you sum up the early scenes so well,with the training sequence in particular showing that Lara is not a superhero, but has to train and play tough to win each fight. Having actually fully gotten into the re-boot games as a result of seeing the movie (which I do recommend)  I was taken by how the makers actually expanded on one of the main plot points in the 2013 game, via making the island a gruelling experience for Lara,where taking on the baddies is not a fun day out, but a real physical & mental challenge for her.

To wrap this post up,here is what I wrote last year on the film.

8/10.

Playing the two main men in Lara's life, Walton Goggins and Dominic West (Shane Vendrell meets Jimmy McNulty!) give fun performances as boo-hiss baddie Mathias Vogel and her reckless dad Richard,with Goggins firing up Vogel's years of desperation to find the tomb,and West bringing a joy out in Richard witnessing Lara follow in his footsteps. Leaping into the first raided tomb, Alicia Vikander gives an excellent take on Lara. Doing the hand to hand combat and running stunts herself, Vikander gives the action a real crunch with a fluid performance of each sweeping punch/jump. Set before Lara gets her hands on the family cash, Vikander brings out the vulnerability in Lara over the question of Richards disappearance.

Inspired by the 2013 re-boot of the video game, the writers do very well at giving the origin set-up a lightness,as each piece revealed about Lara's childhood is pushed with the momentum of an adventure on the horizon. Going into Adventure Movie mode, the writers get Lara to face an exciting obstacle course, from Vogel's henchmen to fighting to avoid going downstream,and raiding her first tomb. Locking the tomb up with curses, the writers intriguingly make the main twist be a change in perspective on the reason for the tomb being built.Riding the wave of his Disaster movie The Wave,director Roar Uthaug & cinematographer George Richmond successfully adapt the video game with closely held camera moves giving the leaps in physics for the major CGI set-pieces a cover system atmosphere. Presenting Lara as a real sporty type, Uthaug and Richmond give the hand to hand combat scenes a rough and tumble mood, with crisp tracking shots following Lara's run to be the first tomb raider.

Hammer's Mummy is my favourite because they went against type, important to note they didn't remake the original either.


Gorgeous & Creepy Hammer Horror Winner.

Hammer Film Productions rework some of the classic Universal Studios mummy material to great effect. Directed by Terence Fisher, this is not a remake of the seminal 1932 movie of the same name. Starring Peter Cushing (John Banning), Christopher Lee (Kharis/The Mummy), Raymond Huntley (Joseph Whemple) and Yvonne Furneaux (Isobel Banning/Princess Ananka), the film is written by Jimmy Sangster and was filmed at Bray & Shepperton Studios in England and is photographed in Eastman Color. I mention the latter because Eastman Color has a different hue to it, something that makes this movie all the more affecting as a horror piece.

The plot sees three archaeologists (Stephen & John Banning & Joseph Whemple) desecrate the tomb of Egyptian Princess Ananka. This awakens Kharis, Ananka's blasphemous lover who was buried alive for his unlawful deeds. Taken from the tomb to London by Egyptian priest Mehemet Bey (George Pastell), the three archaeologists find they are being hunted down by the vengeful Kharis. The only salvation may come in the form of Isobel Banning who bears a striking resemblance to Princess Ananka.

This Mummy is adroitly directed by Fisher, his choreography for the action scenes is stunning. Lee's incarnation as the mouldy bandaged one is swifter than most, thus Fisher has him stalking around Victorian England one minute, then the next he's crashing thru doors or windows with brute strength - with murder his (its) only goal. It's a top performance from Lee as he really throws himself into the role, with his dead eyes ominously peering out from gauze swathed sockets sending those little shivers running down the spine. Technically the film belies the budget restrictions that was a staple of Hammer productions. The sets are very impressive with the Egyptian tomb set original and authentic looking, and the swamp based set-up nicely constructed. The latter of which provides two genuine horror classic moments, as first we see the Mummy for the first time as he rises from a foul bubbling bog, and then for the dramatic swampy finale. It's also atmospherically filmed by Fisher, with Jack Asher's photography utilising the Eastman Color to give off a weird elegiac beauty.

This is not about gore, Fisher and the makers wanted to thrive on atmospherics and implication, something they achieve with great rewards. The Mummy would prove to be very successful in Britain and abroad, thus ensuring Hammer would dig up more Mummy's for further screen outings, none of which came close to capturing the look and feel of this first makeover. Crisply put together and with another in the line of great Christopher Lee monster characterisations, this Mummy is essential viewing for the creature feature horror fan. 8/10

Vegalyra, about the MUMMY Poster...
According to Peter Cushing, on viewing the picture, and its depiction of the Mummy's hole wound, he asked about its basis in the film. When he learned that the creature doesn't get such a wound in the film, Cushing demanded such a scene had to happen to respect the audience's expectations. So, the spear scene was added. It worked for me. When I saw the poster for the first time, my reaction was 'the Spear scene.'


THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939) 80TH ANNIVERSARY The second and last of the Rathbone-Bruce films set in the period (as well as the last with Rathbone donning the deerstalker) but the first with Moriarty (played here by George Zucco). Although the film states credit to the Gillette play, only the names exist in connection. First saw this as a St. Nick’s present in 1992. MPI Blu-Ray. Just in case anyone’s interested:

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) UNITED ARTISTS 100TH ANNIVERSARY. Western based on the Japanese THE SEVEN SAMURAI. First saw this film in my college theater, when my Uncle put up a screening. MGM/UA DVD.

THEATER OF BLOOD (1973) UNITED ARTISTS 100TH ANNIVERSARY. Bard thespian Vincent Price has his revenge on eight crit.ics (Ian Hendry, Carol Browne, Arthur Lowe, Dennis Price, Robert Morley, Michael Hordern, Robert Coote, Jack Hawkins) via the works of Shakespeare (with help from Diana Rigg). Saw bits and pieces here and there (one was an OffBeat Cinema Broadcast on my NBC station), until I saw the whole thing last year. MGM/UA DVD.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) UNITED ARTISTS 100TH ANNIVERSARY The Second James Bond Film, and the template for the ‘Serious’ Bond formula (in contrast to the OTT Goldfinger formula). Also notable as the film where Bond’s largest number of conquests (four). First saw parts of this on TBS in 1992, then saw the full film on DVD in the Spring 1998.