2016 - INTO THE INFERNO, more Herzog ranting

When it comes to the subject of volcanoes, Werner Herzog would seem to be your man.  With that voice and his typical pessimistic view of the world it would seem that Into The Volcano would be a nice way to watch some great visuals and hear some sour commentary. 

However even for Herzog this film seems more disjointed than usual.  The pretext of traveling around to look at some of the world's greatest volcanoes is merely and excuse for some rambling scenes involving native tribes, bone collecting and a visit to North Korea for some reason.

As usual in a Herzog film the the images are very arresting but even the scenes of the massive volcano eruptions  can't compensate for the disjointed nature of this film.

Kind of a disappointment.

104 minutes

1967 - VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, campy trash fest if ever there was one.

 For some reason Criterion decided to release this film into their collection.  I believe the thinking was that they were trying to market this mess as some sort of glorious camp fest for their audience.  After all one can't consume a steady diet of Ingmar Bergman and Ozu films.  

I don't know if Valley of the Dolls is worthy of the Criterion treatment.  Even if you consider the camp factor of the film, it's kind of struggle to get through this thing.  The story about three women trying to make it in show business has been done before so this isn't exactly an original plot going on her

The actors played by Patty Duke, Barbara Parkins and Sharon Tate are all over the place.  Duke had something of a reputation as a serious actor once upon a time but in this film she really hams it up as a young Judy Garland type of character who resorts to popping pills to keep going.  Barbara Parkins has that sophisticated sexy look thing going but struggles to act.  Sharon Tate of all people actually gives the best performance in the film.

The film was directed by Mark Robson an old Hollywood filmmaker.  Robson films the whole thing like a middle aged guy trying to act hip or as hip as you could be in 1967. 

123 minutes.

1935 - THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, the classic horror comedy

The classic Universal Horror film.  Directed by James Whale who probably didn't do one thing wrong throughout the film.  The Bride of Frankenstein combines horror and comedy so assuredly that you can only wonder how they got it all right for this film.

The stylized studio sets, the casting of Karloff as the monster the moody black and white photography and the acting create a one of a kind horror film that probably hasn't been topped since it came out in 1935.  

Whale edited the film down from ninety to seventy five minutes so there isn't a wasted moment in the entire picture. A brilliant film.

75 minutes, written by William Hurlbut.

1956 - CHECKPOINT, British racing film with a ridiculous plot.

To see this is to disbelieve this.  Probably one of the worst stories for a film that I have ever seen.  There are so many plot loopholes and coincidences that I could probably fill up two posts with the insanity of this film. The film has something to do with stealing the blue prints for a racing car smuggling a bad guy across the border during a race and substituting drivers I guess.

The film was directed by hack British director Ralph Thomas and produced by hack film producer Betty E. Box.  How these two had such a long career in the British film industry is a mystery to me.

 For a racing film the cars are kind of cool with featured footage of Lotus Mark 10 Aston Martin.

80 minutes screenplay by Robin Estridge.

1954 - REAR WINDOW, the Hitchcock classic

Alfred Hitchcock and his writer John Michael Hayes created this film about voyeurism and didn't miss a trick incorporating a murder mystery and a love story into the plot.

 

James Stewart playing a photographer with a broken leg has noting to do but spy on his neighbors with his binoculars and eventually a telephoto camera.  Each different apartment window has it's own little story.  Eventually Stewart becomes aware that all is not right with the apartment directly across from his.  It seems the invalid wife of a salesman has suddenly vanished.

Hitchcock was always able to bring out the best in established actors.  James Stewart is very good as the photographer.  Thelma Ritter is the home health care nurse and Grace Kelly looking great as usual in her third Hitchcock film is good as Stewart's on again off again girlfriend.

Considering the dramatic and technical challenges this is an impressive and very entertaining film.

112 minutes.

1991 - A MURDER OF QUALITY, the return of George Smiley

John Le Carre's master spy George Smiley is called in when there is a murder at a boys school in some rural location in England.  As usual with Le Carre, the film is about social and class differences in English society among other things..  The film also features another interpretation this time by Denholm Elliott of Smiley a very self deprecating character who is smart as a whip.

A Murder of Quality also features the rarely seen actress Glenda Jackson as Smiley's associate.  Jackson who quit acting in 1992 and went into politics. 

A Murder of Quality is a well made film with interesting characters that is very enjoyable as that type of civilized entertainment the British could knock out in the good old days.

103  minutes.

1945 - STATE FAIR, lesser Rogers and Hammerstein musical

An original musical from Rodgers and Hammerstein.  But really not much of a musical. The plot what there is of it, involves a family traveling to the Iowa state fair to compete in the best hog and pickle contests.  The brother and sister fall in love at the fair.  The mother and father fret over their canned pickles and the big fat hog they are about to enter into competition.  Incidentally, the hog falls in love with another hog.  And that's about it for plot.

For a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical this film has about 2 decent songs and one song in particular, "It Might As Well Be Spring," is sung over and over.  Most of the cast is dubbed during the musical numbers, I think there are two actual singers in the film.

The emphasis in this film is on wholesomeness.  The film is set in Iowa and it's probably the cleanest state fair I have ever seen.  No garbage or drunks or crappy food vendors.  

This film is just so much "nothing" that I could barely remember it after it was over.  State Fair was filmed in very gaudy technicolor to put it mildly.

100 minutes.

1981 - INCHON, war movie from the Unification Church.

Inchon is the notorious war film financed by the Unification Church of Korea better known as the "moonies."  The film has gained a reputation as one of the worst films ever made.  After sitting through it I can report that it is not one of the worst films ever made.  In reality it is just another mediocre movie.

The story line is about General Douglas MacArthur's brilliant amphibious landing to retake the city and port of Inchon during the Korean War.  The move mixes the usual war scenes with some dreary romantic triangle stuff before the big battle.

The cast is certainly eclectic and somewhat notorious.  Laurence Olivier was hired to play Douglas MacArthur.  Ben Gazarra is his aide and the leader of a commando attack that saves the day.  Richard Roundtree is the token black guy and Jacqueline Bisset and her bosom play Gazzara's estranged wife.  Everyone is obviously here for the paycheck. 

The director Terence Young had seen better days directing the early James Bond films.  This was clearly a paycheck  job for him as well.

140 minutes screenplay by Laird Koenig and Robin Moore.

1955 - MISTER ROBERTS, film version of the famous 50's play

Considering all the behind the scene drama during the production of this film it's amazing Mister Roberts turned out as well as it did.

Henry Fonda had performed the play for three years on Broadway and was locked into his interpretation of how it should be presented.  John Ford would have seemed to have been the perfect director for a story about the navy.  However Fonda was extremely unhappy with the changes Ford made in the play.  The end result was Ford leaving the picture and Mervyn LeRoy finishing it.

You can certainly tell what parts Ford directed.  All of the exterior shots on the ship and at Midway Island are Ford's work.  The later scenes set in the studio have that phony sound stage look to them.

Still, the film turned out pretty well.  Fonda is very good as Mister Roberts.

123 minutes.

1943 - BACKGROUND TO DANGER, typical World War II movie stuff

There's just not much to say about this piece of World War II propaganda from Warner Brothers studio.  George Raft is a salesman doing business in Turkey during the war.  He gets mixed up with a bunch of Nazis led by British actor Sydney Greenstreet.

 

 When you needed an actor to play a cultivated German bastard studios always hired British actors. Anyway, Raft gets mixed up with the Nazis and a Russian spy played by German actor Peter Lorre and American actor Brenda Marshall playing Lorre's sister of all things.

This is the kind of stuff that Hollywood could pump out during World War II and generally it made money even if the picture itself really wasn't that good.  One of Warner Brothers best directors Raoul Walsh put this film together probably in his sleep in this case.

 

The film has the required amount of shootings, fistfights, car chases and double crossing spy stuff.  Even for a 1940's film it's all kind of tired and boring this time.

The screenplay was by W. R. Burnett, the running time is 80 minutes.

1953 - SHANE, on Blu Ray

George Steven's extremely well made western looks great on this Blu Ray presentation.  The film was shot in standard format.  However Paramount wanted it printed in the Vista Vision format so they hacked the top and the bottom of the frames when they printed it to get it that widescreen look.

However this Blu Ray release is in the original standard format and it looks great.  The scenic values shooting with the Grand Tetons in the background are very impressive.

Stevens was known as a meticulous director who would shot take after take after take in order to get what he wanted.  He would drive the production costs of a film up and at the same time drive a budget conscious studio crazy.

However the end results can't be denied this is an impressive film.

118 minutes.

1943 - STAGEDOOR CANTEEN - another rally the homefront revue

If you've seen Hollywood Canteen you've seen this film.  This is I guess the east coast version of that film.

Once again celebrities and stars assembly at a World War 2 nightclub to entertain the troops before they are shipped overseas.  The interest here (if there is any interest) is that these are most Broadway and east coast actors and performers.

The featured list of performers to name a few is as follows:

 Edgar Bergan, Katherine Cornell, Gracie Fields, Katherine Hepburn, George Jessel, Gypsy Rose Lee, Yehudi Menuhin, Ethel Merman, Ethel Waters, and Ed Wynn to name just a few.  As the years roll along most of them are or will be forgotten.

This film is mostly for film history.  Probably most people won't have the remotest idea of what this is all about or why these people were a big deal in the 1940's. 

132 minutes.

2016 - THE FINEST HOURS, based on a true story possibly.

Supposedly based on a true story of a Coast Guard rescue of a sinking ship.  This is a sincere attempt at a story about professionals under duress while doing their job in an extreme situation.  This is the kind of story that Howard Hawks could skillfully assemble in his prime.

The acting is fine, the film has a good cast.  Unfortunately something about the story just doesn't ring true.  I can't put my finger on what's missing in the film but it seems to me that the dramatic conflict of the rescue just doesn't ring completely true.  Somehow the little Coast Guard life boat crashing through the gigantic tsunami sized waves to rescue the crew of the sinking ship just doesn't look real.  The computer generated waves make the rescue look kind of fake.

Disney gambled that audiences would want to see this true story.  Unfortunately they didn't. 

117 minutes.

2016 - STAR TREK BEYOND, overblown version of a TV episode of the series

This overblown Star Trek film, the third in the restarted series is just another junky action flick.  Too bad, because the cast was just starting to come together as an ensemble.  Simon Pegg the actor who plays Scottie is a co-writer on the film so there is some attempt to inject some humor into the series this time.  Unfortunately there isn't enough humor in the galaxy to smooth over this contrived plot.

It seems that the USS Enterprise on a mission to rescue another crew trapped on an alien planet is lured in to a trap by some alien megalomaniac who wants some super weapon stored on the Enterprise etc.

Star Trek Beyond is yet another summer popcorn film which just doesn't know when to quit.  The film is overloaded with action scene after action scene.  There is a prolonged fight towards the end of the film on some improbable space station that just goes on an on and adds nothing to the story other than to make the film longer than it needs to be.

I would rate this Star Trek film about as good as a mediocre episode of the old series.  At least the old series could have knocked this plot out in about 45 minutes without all the over stuffed action scenes.  A real missed opportunity.

122 minutes, written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung.

2000 - U 571 it's a World War II movie it's got subs.

U-571 is a very very tall tale of a movie.  The premise,  American sailors on a submarine have to take over a German submarine in the middle of the Atlantic after their submarine is sunk.  This leads to a preposterous mission where the Americans in the German sub have to steal the Enigma coding device, oh whatever.

This is just a real contrived war movie to put it mildly.  The characters are the usual bunch of World War II stereotypes.  You have the old salt crew chief.  The captain who doubts himself but pulls it together in the end to complete the mission.  The green sailor on his first mission, etc.

The film had a big budget so it looks good and the action stuff is decent.  I guess you can classify this film as a typical "time killer."

As ridiculous as this film is, incredibly enough this story is based on a true incident that occurred during World War II.

116 minutes.

1926 - THE STRONG MAN, Frank Capra's first film a real winner.

Frank Capra's first major film is a very good comedy with silent film actor Harry Langdon.  For a time Langdon was considered as important an artist as Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd.  

The Strong Man is full of  many inventive bits of comedy. You can definitely see that Capra was a talented young director to watch.

The film expertly combines humor, pathos and a large scale action scene toward the end.  It also knows not to over stay it's welcome and runs just a little over an hour.

A real pleasure to watch and possibly a comedy masterpiece from the silent era.

75 minutes, written by Arthur Ripley, Hal Conklin, Robert Eddy and Reed Heustis.

1969 - HARD CONTRACT, a so called thriller

What a pile of crap.  James Coburn is an assassin employed by the CIA.  While on a job he falls in love with the very good looking Lee Remick.  Thus an existentialist conflict is born. should he be a lover or a killer.  Time wasted on this dilemma, almost two hours.

The film has a very decent supporting cast, Lilli Palmer, Burgess Meredith and Sterling Hayden among others.  They all yammer on with a bunch of ridiculous talk about love, relationships and in this case the place of a hit man in the contemporary world.

This film has one of those ridiculous non ending endings.  Coburn decides he doesn't want to be a hired killer anymore and the film just stops.  The only people that got killed in this film were any audiences that actually payed money to see this thing.

106 minutes, written by the director S. Lee Pogostin.

1972 - WHAT'S UP DOC, a rehash of a 30's screwball comedy.

Bogdanovich's follow up to The Last Picture Show was this slavish recreation of a 1930's screwball comedy particularly a Howard Hawks comedy.  Peter Bogdanovich was entering his boy wonder director genius period of his career.  After this film the critics and the Hollywood studios were so enamored of Bogdanovich that he was labeled the next Orson Welles.

This movie made a ton of money when it was released.  Audiences loved it.  Bogdanovich juggled a pretty good cast of character actors in the usual eccentric character parts that are a staple of this type of film.  The female lead Barbara Streisand did a pretty good job copying Katherine Hepburn from Bringing Up Baby.  Ryan O'Neal seemed very stiff and uncomfortable in the Cary Grant part.

Bogdanovich probably juggled the set pieces about as well as anyone could considering this film was a rehash without one real original idea in it.  Overall the film has a rather curious distancing effect as is Bogdanovich is observing the action from about 2 city blocks away from the action.

What's Up Doc has a big car chase at the end of the film.  Car chases were big stuff in movies in the 1970's they were always a sure fire audience favorite

94 minutes, written by Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton, but it was apparently Buck Henry who came in at the last minute and rewrote and saved it.

1959 - SLEEPING BEAUTY, on Blu Ray

Walt Disney went back to the well with another fairy tale story.  Disney had very good luck in the past adapting these types of stories.  This time The Disney studio spent lavishly on Sleeping Beauty, animating it in CinemaScope at a then record breaking budget of six million dollars.

Sleeping Beauty is one of Disney's most beautiful films.  Every scene looks incredible.  The design of the film is stunning with the visual qualities of the film always in the foreground.  Unfortunately this lush pictorial beauty tends to overwhelm the characters and more importantly the story.

The score was adapted from the Tchaikovsky ballet.  The film's director Clyde Genonimi is credited as the supervising director but really this type of animated project is the result of many artists and technicians.

The film runs a brisk 75 minutes. 

2010 - PREDATORS, OK time killer

Another sequel to the original Predator.  The plot is basically an update and rehash of The Most Dangerous Game, that old warhorse.

This film has a decent cast who have to work pretty hard to bring any credibility of a rather outlandish story which has something to do with the Predator hunter aliens stealing humans from Earth and putting them into a planetary game preserve for the purpose of hunting them.  A real "oh brother" situation.

This is the usual mindless action film which is probably 10 minutes longer than it had to be.  The film has a lot of alien violence and blood (green colored).  The film cost about 40 million bucks which was cheap for this kind of stuff.  Mindless big budget action films are almost more obscene for the amount of money they waste than the amount of violence they inflict on the viewer when you are watching them.

107 minutes.