2016 - CAFE SOCIETY, a very weak Woody Allen film

Woody Allen seems enamored with the Hollywood social life of the 1930's because his screenplay sure names drops a lot of old Hollywood stars which probably means nothing to a modern audience.

This is another one of those Woody Allen movies about star crossed lovers which ultimately ends with one of his typically melancholy endings.  The premise of the film is that Jesse Eisenberg travels to Hollywood, California to work with his uncle played by Steve Carell.  Eisenberg falls in love with Kristen Stewart but doesn't know that Stewart is having an affair with his uncle.  Eisenberg eventually ends up marrying Blake Lively who isn't exactly chopped liver.

All the typical Woody Allen cliches are here.  The black and white credits, the jazz music, the weird way all of his characters talk mouthing his stylized dialog etc.  The conceit in this film is that Kristen Stewart is a woman who is so attractive that she has two men who are head over heels over her.  Really the film needed a young Diane Keaton to carry that one off.

As usual with a Woody Allen film the production is top quality and the cinematography by Vittorio Storato is very good if maybe a little to heavy on the golden California sunshine look.

96 minutes, written by Woody Allen (who else).

1962 - SERGEANTS 3, a remake of a remake

The last film containing all of 'The Rat Pack" before Frank Sinatra kicked Peter Lawford out of the group.  This film is a remake of George Steven's Gunga Din which was a remake of The Front Page.

 The director is John Sturges who had worked with Sinatra before and had probably knew what he was getting into or should have known.  For the most part the first half of the film works pretty well since it sticks to the first half of Gunga Din.  After a while the film starts to take a toll on my patience especially with the Sammy Davis Jr. character Jonah the freed slave civil war slave. 

The film has nice scenery since it was filmed Utah and Sturges as usual was good at deploying his actors in rugged landscapes.

 

An OK time killer.

112 minutes, written by W.R.Burnett.

2015 - DE PALMA, a documentary about the director Brian De Palma

The director Brian De Palma sits down for some interviews where he reviews his films and career.

For one of these documentaries about about a film director this is pretty good.  De Palma is a pretty good raconteur and is probably a little more truthful about the way films are made in Hollywood.  

De Palma with the directors of this documentary

The film ends rather poignantly with De Palma who is now in his 70's acknowledging that his best movie making days are probably behind him.

An interesting film about a controversial director who calls himself the true heir to Alfred Hitchcock.

110 minutes.

1950 - SO LONG AT THE FAIR, attempt at a Hitchcock like thriller

A brother and sister travel to Paris to attend the Paris Exposition of 1889.  The brother mysteriously vanishes or does he?  Everyone the sister meets tells her that she traveled alone and no brother ever existed.  Let the mystery begin as the sister and some guy she meets attempt to figure our what is going on.

The stars are the very pretty Jean Simmons and British matinee idol Dirk Bogarde before he became a real actor.  The brother is played by David Tomlinson who everyone will recognize as Mr Banks from Mary Poppins.

This film kind of plods along as the mystery of the brother's disappearance unravels.  Frankly the film is so stolid and kind of lifeless that the resolution is disappointing.  The film really needed an Alfred Hitchcock to whip it into shape and juice up the suspense situations.

86 minutes, written by Hugh Mills.

1947 - FOREVER AMBER, some sort of English soap opera

A trashy novel about an English slut dressed up with lots of 20th Century Fox production money and filmed in 1940's technicolor.  

Clearly the idea was to do a version of Gone With The Wind set in 17th century England.  The audience is supposed to be interested in the social climbing adventures of one Amber St. Clair a woman who sleeps her way up to social status and power.  However since this was filmed in the 1940's all that sex stuff was pretty much implied

What you get in this picture is American actress Linda Darnell playing an English woman.  Darnell doesn't even attempt an accent.  Come to think of it the cast, a mixture of British and American actors and the director Otto Preminger didn't seem to sweat all of that dialect stuff.

This is the kind of film where the men run around in those goofy 17th century wigs and looking like a bunch of fops as they say.  The women heave their bosoms and Amber gets her comeuppance for being a naughty girl.  The whole thing is watchable only for the sets and a decent music score from David Raskin.

138 minutes, written by Philip Dunne and Ring Lardner Jr.

1937 - KING SOLOMON'S MINES, version 1 with bonus musical numbers

The old H. Rider Haggard novel about adventurers in Africa searching for the lost diamond mines of King Solomon was filmed for the first time.  The cast is a rather interesting one.  Cedric Hardwicke is Alan Quartermain.   Anna Lee is the female lead.  Roland Young is Commander Good and Paul Robeson is the mysterious African native they pick up in darkest Africa.

The film is a little creaky but actually pretty entertaining.  You have lost diamond mines, native uprisings, 2nd unit African scenery and a volcano ready to blow.  A lot of stuff crammed into an 80 minute film.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the film is the actor Paul Robeson.  An African/American actor and singer, his left leaning political views in a very conservative and racist American during the 40's, 50's and 60's caused him to be persecuted by the United States Government.  Robeson was a noted singer with a strong bass voice.  He sings very improbably several times throughout the film.  At times it's like watching a strange hybrid of adventure film and musical film.

The film was directed by future Walt Disney studio director Robert Stevenson (Mary Poppins, That Darn Cat etc.).

80 minutes

1995 - JADE, a sleezy sex thriller

William Friedkin, a director who is challenged to control his over the top impulses takes on a script by sleazy writer Joe Eszterhas.  Friedkin apparently did an uncredited rewrite which apparently didn't make Eszterhas very happy.  I'm not sure Friedkin improved on it much but I will assume the sex titillation stuff was in both versions of the script.

This was a big expensive Paramount studio production.  The on location photography and the sets could not have been cheap.  The film also has one of Friedkin's famous car chases and I'm sure crashing cars around San Francisco wasn't cheap either.

Say what you want, but the film is well made.  Friedkin knows how to assemble a film.  He just seems to have some issues with his tendency for excess which seems to be a running theme in a lot of his films.

I guess if you are feeling in a " I want to watch something kind of slimy" mood.  Jade will probably deliver the goods.  The film is under 2 hours which is a selling point.  A little of this stuff goes a very long way.

95 minutes.

1959 - THE HORSE SOLDIERS, John Ford's Civil War drama

A big budget Civil War film.  John Ford was a noted Civil War history buff but for various reasons the film didn't really meet anyone's expectations.  The chief problem seems to be the script.  Although it is "based on a true story" for whatever that's worth. 

 

 The Horse Soldiers is about a Union raid into the deep South around 1863.  The inclusion of a love interest for John Wayne in the film and a very contrived conflict between Wayne's Union Colonel and William Holden's doctor is really hard to believe and adds nothing to the story.

Still it's an entertaining film.  Ford is able to muster some of his strength's in composition and the cinematographer William Clothier has given the film a beautiful golden look.  This is a professional piece of film making.  Let's face it they can't all be masterpieces from John Ford.  But he did know how to tell a story.  Most John Ford fans don't really care for this film, but it's good on it's own merits.

119 minutes,  John Lee Mahin and Martin Rackin,.

1938 - YOU AND ME, Fritz Lang's very strange musical

Well here is one for the movie books.  The director of M, Fury and Metropolis attempts to direct a musical with music by Kurt Weill.  This is a very strange film and it is also a very mixed bag of a film.

Lang's film involves ex-convicts working in a department store attempting to go straight.  The film's message is literally "crime does not pay."  A point driven home by Sylvia Sidney literally given a lecture on a blackboard to a group of criminals the of which is "crime does not pay."

Fritz Lang directs George Raft and Sylvia Sidney 

Lang is at his peak deploying all of his visual noir camera angles throughout the film.  Just to make it interesting Lang also integrates some strange Kurt Weill songs throughout the picture which reminds me of the German Expressionist period in theater. 

The film was not a success when it was released to put it mildly.  However viewed now one has to admit it is a rather unique and weird film from one of the cinema's greatest directors.  Certainly worth a look.

90 minutes, screenplay by Virginia Van Upp.

1961 - THE LADIES MAN, another so called Jerry Lewis comedy.

Jerry Lewis goes with his brand of slapstick comedy and pathos once again.  Paramount had made so much money with him he was able to move into direction, a true auteur.  The problem with Lewis is that a lot of his humor is not particularly funny.  The Ladies Man plays to a lot of his faults and weaknesses.

But, there are some generally funny bits.  Lewis has a tendency to mug his way throughout the film.  It's like he seems to think that if he makes a lot of funny faces the humor will just flow out of him.  He gets involved in a dance routine, his very clumsy and sloppy dancing is supposed to be hilarious.  Instead it comes off as having the class clown run around the room making everyone feel uncomfortable.

He does get some generally surrealistic moments in his film.  Paramount built a huge set that apparently covered two sound stages.  This set allowed Lewis to move the actors around in interesting ways.  It's somewhat of a precursor to what Tati did in Playtime, with his massive sets.

The Ladies Man does require a very high tolerance for the Jerry Lewis brand of humor.  If your not into his infantile behavior steer very clear of this film.

106 minutes, written by Jerry Lewis and his frequent collaborator Bill Richmond.

1949 - SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, on Blu Ray

One of John Ford's most beautiful westerns. Filmed in technicolor by Winton Hoch, one of the top color cameramen in Hollywood.

John Wayne gave one of his best performances in this film.

This Blu Ray looks great.  The on location photography of Monument Valley in Arizona has never looked so stunning.

103 minutes, written by Frank Nugent and Laurence Stallings.

1979 - THE WARRIORS, on Blu Ray

The Warriors was always sort of a cartoon of a film to begin with. However Walter Hill,  the director decided for the Blu Ray release to make a director's cut of the film.

He didn't add new scenes.  Instead he got the brilliant idea to add comic book panes to many of the scenes.  I suppose this was an attempt to emphasize the graphic/comic art nature of the film.  In any case his need to fool around with his film actually kind of cheapens it.  The comic book pictures just make the film look kind of silly on the Blu Ray.

If possible it's probably best to stick with a DVD of the original cut of the film.  A great film messed up by a filmmaker who should have known better.

93 minutes, written by David Shaber and Walter Hill.

1953 - WINGS OF THE HAWK, not bad Budd Boetticher western

Probably not a western that the director Budd Boetticher will be remembered for.  Nevertheless this is a pretty decent western.  The action is well staged by the director and while the cast may not have been "A" quality talent but they all acquainted themselves very well.

Universal knocked out a lot of these cheap back lot westerns.  Wings of the Hawk is one of the better ones that I have seen.  Probably not a personal project for Boetticher, but he did a very good job with it.

80 minutes.

1939 - THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, the inventor of the telephone.

In yet another Daryl F Zanuck production that combines history with a very big dose of fiction, Don Ameche plays Alexander Graham Bell the inventor of the telephone.

And, guess what he invents in this film....you got it, the telephone.

98 minutes.

1985 - TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA - a tough crime thriller

Tough guy director William Friedkin tries for that old French Connection magic again with this sordid tale of a couple of Secret Service agents tracking down a dangerous counterfeiter.

Friedkin probably could do this type of film in his sleep.  He has another exciting car chase and lots of action to keep things moving along.  The cast at the time this film came out was mostly unknown actors which helped with the realism of the film.  This was similar to what Friedkin did in The French Connection, using Gene Hackman who at the time of that film was relatively unknown.

The film was photographed by Robby Müller who frequently worked with German director Wim Wenders and independent film maker Jim Jarmusch.  Müller gave the movie a real Los Angeles "look."  

People who enjoy cop movies should enjoy this one.

116 minutes, written by William Friedkin and Gerald Petievich.

1954 - SEAGULLS OVER SORRENTO or CREST OF THE WAVE

We're on a Scottish island at a British navel testing station.  It seems there is a powerful explosive that the navy is trying to stick into the warhead of a torpedo to blow stuff up.  The trouble seems to be that the explosive tends to blow the submarine up before the torpedo can be fired out of the sub.  After several failures the British Navy sends for USN Lt. Gene Kelly (playing a scientist) to figure out what's going wrong.

The drama arises from the British personnel resenting the involvement of the United States Navy in solving their little torpedo problem.  Perhaps things could have been worked out if Kelly had performed one of his song and dance numbers, from Singing in the Rain or An American in Paris.

Kelly seems a little out of place in this film surrounded by all of these Limeys, but he's actually not to bad.  It just goes to show you that if you spend a life in the musical comedy genre it tends to really typecast you in more dramatic roles.

Seagulls Over Sorrento is capably by Roy Bolting who combines character studies of the sailors with humor and drama.

92 minutes, screenplay by Frank Harvey and Roy Boultingh

1954 - TARGET EARTH, a rather zany low budget science fiction film

From low budget studio Allied Artists suppliers of cheap crime and science fiction films comes this rather interesting space invasion film with a pretty stiff alien robot monster.  In fact the monster looks like it is made out of cardboard for the most part.

Trapped behind enemy lines. Five people must survive in deserted Chicago as these goofy killer space robots wander the city.  At least one of them anyway.  I can't recall seeing more than one robot at a time.

As if killer robots from space isn't enough of a problem, one of the five individuals hiding out in Chicago,  is some sort of psycho criminal with a gun who trying to run the show.  

Target Earth's cheapness and B movie cast make the film fun to watch.  The film stars Richard Denning who kind of made a career out of this stuff.  Denning's last gig was playing the Governor of Hawaii on the Hawaii 5-0 TV series.

75 minutes, written by James H. Nicholson, Wyott Ordung and William Raynor.

1992 - DON QUIJOTE DE ORSON WELLES, pretty much a travesty

What a mess.  Welles "companion" Oja Kodar, the keeper of Welles unfinished film footage somehow decided schlock/porn Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco was the man to assemble this footage from
his Don Quixote project.  It appears that Welles was never able to get a handle on what type of film he wanted to make.  So Don Quixote along with other films of his remained unfinished.

Franco's assembly of this footage is to put it mildly, atrocious.  Shots don't match, the english dubbing on the soundtrack is horrible and scenes are inserted that were not even parts of Welles footage.  Instead the viewer is stuck with watching endless shots of parades marching down the streets of some Spanish town and a general incoherence that pervades the entire project.

What a viewer comes away with in the end is some very brief glimpses of what might have been.  The lead actor Francisco Reiguera looks like he would have been ideally cast as Don Quixote and as Sancho Panza who else but one of Orson Welles favorite actors Akim Tamiroff.

Still, this film is basically a complete waste of time even if it has footage shot by Orson Welles.

116 minutes.

1966 - PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, not bad Hammer horror film.

A not bad zombie film.  Considering the subject matter, Hammer studios did a very good job producing this film. Acting, direction and production design are at a very high standard.  The story is interesting and doesn't run to long.  

Since the plot involves turning turning dead people into zombies for the purpose of mining coal in Cornwall during the 1800's.  One perceptive critic whose name escapes me, made the point that it would have been easier to just hire people to dig up coal. 

Still the film is entertaining the film has that well photographed look that Hammer brought to their films.   But it's important to remember this is a film about zombies for god sake.

The running time is 90 minutes, the film was written by Peter Bryan.

1958 - TEACHER'S PET, a romantic comedy which isn't a romantic comedy

A very weird romantic comedy.  A veteran newspaper editor finds himself in a college class with a professor of journalism.  It's one of those mistaken identity plot devices so beloved by Hollywood screenwriters.  Naturally the two of them clash when it comes to their views on journalism.  At this point in the film, the repressed sexual chemistry between the two leads should pretty much dictate where this story is heading, but something strange happens.  The film turns into a lecture on the ethics and professionalism of the newspaper business.  Not a love scene in sight for the rest of the film.

The actors are Clark Gable and Doris Day.  The assumption for the viewer would be that this is going to be one of those icky May/December romantic things but no.  Instead we get endless discussions about integrity and ethics pretty boring stuff, especially with a run time of two hours.

For a veteran actor, Clark Gable mugs shamelessly throughout the picture.  Doris Day plays her typical character, the uptight career girl who needs a good man to straighten her out.  The two leads don't really seem to have any chemistry between them.

The film was directed by an old Hollywood pro George Seaton who clearly had more deep thoughts on his mind then just filming a romantic comedy.

120 minutes.