1969 - THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA, interesting story, poor presentation.

Towards the end of World War II, the citizens of the small town of Santa Vittoria hide over one million bottles of wine to keep the German army from confiscating them,  The Secret of Santa Vittoria turns into a battle of wits between the mayor and the German Army Captain to keep the Krauts from locating the hidden bottles.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria was a well regarded novel by the author Robert Crichton.  Somehow producer/director Stanley Kramer acquired the rights to the book and got United Artists to finance it.  Kramer had made his reputation producing low budget message films early in his career. He was lucky to have decent filmmakers like Fred Zinneman, Richard Fleischer, Carl Foreman and Mark Robson work with him.  After a string of successes with Champion, Home of the Brave and The Men.  Kramer got it into his head that he wanted to direct as well as produce his own films.

 

Kramer turned out to be a film director who wasn't particularly good at directing.  Among the films that Kramer had a hand in were, The Pride and the Passion, a film about a bunch of guys dragging an enormous cannon around.  On the Beach the end of the world nuclear war film had more soap opera than message.  Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Kramer's sort of comedy film about interracial marriage and race relations was so free of conflict it's safe to say there was no conflict.  All of these films suffered from Kramer's inability to tell a story while at the same time bludgeoning the movie viewer with his sanctimonious liberal sentiments.  Kramer was reasonably successful for a while but as he moved into the 1960's his liberal themes seemed extremely dated.  Kramer actually thought the tepid Guess Who's Coming Dinner put him in the category of major directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria is a very good example of a late in his career film. Written by his longtime screenwriting associate William Rose who in this case had certainly seen better days.  Kramer signed up and interesting cast to say the least.  Anthony Quinn who only had one performance level which was always over the top. Anna Magnani was a performer who could match Quinn for exaggerated and hysterical acting.  Hardy Kruger the German officer looking for the wine seemed frightened dealing with these bombastic actors.  The great Virna Lisi had a nothing part as Kruger's love interest.

 

The film is an overlong mess with Kramer indulging in that 1960's photography crutch, the zoom lens to drive home any plot point he had already driven home. It's unfortunate that a better filmmaker and writer weren't involved in this movie, the plot is actually kind of interesting.  But as they say it's how you tell the story that counts as well.  As one critic said about Kramer "he was a man directing a comedy who never understood how drama worked."

The running time is 139 minutes

2024 - MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS, butt kissing tribute to the maestro

Steve Spielberg and count em (10!) producers pay tribute to film composer John Williams in this so called documentary that is a very quick journey through Williams's professional life while an endless stream of talking heads sings his praises.  

  

I don't think that anyone can argue that Williams isn’t important to film history.  His orchestral scores for Jaws, E.T., Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the  Lost Ark certainly contributed greatly to the classic status of these films.  However I think there should probably be a limit to how many times someone should be called a genius and in this film he's called that over and over and over by the usual bunch of Hollywood hot shots.  Spielberg, Lucas, Ron Howard and J.J. Abrams, ad nauseam. They seem to exhaust about every superlative they can think of in their praise of Williams.  Spielberg can be justly proud of his collaboration with Williams, but after a while his fanboy blathering dilutes William's achievements.

This film would have probably been maybe a tad more interesting if usually competent documentary director Laurent Bouzereau spent a little time investigating some of the films he was involved in that weren't exactly a raging successes like 1941, Always, Amistad, Hook and The Terminal some of Spielberg's lesser films.  Williams may have been a major player in many commercially and critically successful films but his music in these disappointing films is about the only reason to watch them and might be interesting to hear how he tried to improve them.

 

Probably the person who comes off best in Music by John Williams is John Williams himself.  For all of his success he is a rather soft spoken and modest man.  Williams seems like a talented craftsman doing his best in about any project he's involved in which in it self is plenty impressive.

The film's running time is 105 minutes. 

1992 - YEAR OF THE COMET, attempt at a romantic action comedy

The Year of the Comet should have been a winner but for some reason the film just never came together.  The story is one of those couples on the run from bad guys in pursuit of something.  It's clearly trying to be an Alfred Hitchcock film.  While Hitchcock was working at Paramount Studios he developed a story formula called "beautiful people, beautiful places."  Put an attractive couple together, have them fall in love where the backgrounds are all beautiful locations in Europe or somewhere and you have an entertaining film.

The film was written by William Goldman who was considered one of the top screenwriters in the film business.  Peter Yates was the director.  The on location filming was in Scotland and France so all the ingredients were there for a entertaining rom-com but the film just doesn't work.

 

The leads were Timothy Daly who had been working on the comedy series TV series Wings so he knew how to put over a joke or humorous situation.  His romantic partner was a young woman named Penelope Ann Miller who had appeared in Kindergarten Cop, Biloxi Blues and The Freshman.  She also had a decent background in comedy.  But these two just didn't seem to have the chemistry to play a couple who fall in love.  If a film couldn't really work up any "juice" between the two leads it has a serious problem.

The director Peter Yates had made many fine films but  he just didn't seem to be able to make the story interesting.  Frankly a lot of the humor in the screenplay was kind of labored.  William Goldman may have been a great screenwriter but the comedic and chase scenes had a seen it all before feeling to it,

Probably the only interesting thing in the film is the actor Louis Jourdan who at the time was 71 years old and knew how to provide the light comedic touch the other actors were missing.   Although the critics really crucified it, The Year of the Comet isn't really a bad film, it's just kind of a mediocre film.

The running time is 91 minutes.

1964 - VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, 11 Days to Zero

Kicking around in my DVD collection is the first season of Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.  Let's take a quick look at the pilot episode for this series.

The first season of this series was shown in black and white on television but the producer Irwin Allen was prescient enough to film it in color since the remaining seasons were broadcast in color.  Irwin Allen was what I guess you would call a character.  He was drawn to science fiction and fantasy themes but as an actual producer he was kind of a cheapskate.  Allen was known for reusing footage from other episodes of his TV series and any movie he could lay his hands on. The later seasons of his TV shows tended to get more ridiculous plot wise as the look of the series got cheaper.

For the pilot episode 11 Days to Zero, Allen actually cast interesting actors.  Richard Basehart was Admiral Nelson the inventor of the submarine Seaview.  David Hedison played Captain Lee Crane.  It should be a tribute to these two actors that they kept a straight face during the run of the series when faced with a series of ridiculous monsters.  Giant sea plankton, a giant manta ray, a giant jellyfish and who could forget the unforgettable heat monster that threatened the Seaview during the series run.

The pilot episode of 11 Days to Zero was written and directed by Irwin Allen himself.  A close examination of the episode shows that it was a rehash of Allen's 1961 movie version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.  Allen cleverly loaded the story up with lots of stock footage from that film and stuck in a decent guest star, in this case Eddie Albert who was able to stir up a little character conflict.  The pilot is enjoyable mostly because it's fun to see how many scenes he lifted from the movie and stuck in this episode.

Probably the coolest thing about this series was always the submarine Seaview itself.  It has a pair of wings in the back of it and the famous windows in the front.  Inside the Seaview itself it's like living in a Hilton.  Everything is spacious and very bright.  I have no idea if this design is even practical but for a 10 - 12 year old kid it's probably the ultimate in cool.

 

Obviously Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was no Star Trek but as a simple and at times very silly adventure series it entertained.

The running time for 11 Days to Zero is 52 minutes.

1965 - CASANOVA 70, a very funny sex comedy.

Marcello Mastroianni one of Italy's best actors never had a problem appearing in films where he made fun of his image as the great Italian lover.  Casanova 70 is one of his best roles.  In this film Mastroianni is a NATO officer who can't get aroused with a woman he wants to screw unless he is in some sort of situation where he's in danger. The best solution his psychiatrist can offer him is maybe he should try men instead of women, apparently a non starter for Mastroianni.

One of the funniest parts of the film is Mastroianni's engagement to the stunning Virni Lisa who Mastroianni can't get aroused around.  Baring her failed engagement to Mastroianni, she has decided to join a convent and become a nun which she has already been in training for anyway, and so it goes in this film.  All of this stuff is orchestrated by the director Mario Monicelli who was one of Italy's top comedy filmmakers.  I'm familiar with Big Deal on Madonna Street his spoof of crime fllms and it's also a very funny film as well.

 

The film is well photographed by Aldo Toni who had worked with Visconti, John Huston, Fellini, and Roberto Rossellini.  The color is vivid but not garish.  Overall the film is very entertaining and has a lot to say about the male ego especially when it comes to their attitudes about women and sex.

 

The film was written by Mario Monicelli, Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Tonino Guerra.  All of them talented Italian film professionals.  The running time is 113 minutes.

1973 - THE FATE OF LEE KHAN, or Ying chun ge zhi Fengbo

A transitional figure in the Asian martial arts genre the writer/director King Hu was extremely influential in bringing the rather primitive film making processes of the early martial arts genre towards a more sophisticated style.  The Fate of Lee Khan is also known for Hu's focus on his female characters instead of the usual male head busting protagonists that are found in this genre.

 

The Fate of Lee Khan chronicles the attempts of some rebels to stop the notorious General Lee Khan and his daughter who are ruling the country like a couple of martinets.  The film is primarily set in an inn owned and operated by Wan Jen-mi and her female staff.  There's lots of intrigue during the first part of the film and it all leads up to an extended action climax.

 

KIng Hu was apparently working on a tight budget but it certainly looks good and is well staged.  The acting is at a high level with the actor  Li Li-hua as the clever Wan Jen-mi the owner of the inn, working to defeat General Lee Khan.  Also in the cast is Angela Mao who in the world of these wuxia films went on to be considered one of the best martial artists working in Hong Kong cinema.

Overall a very entertaining and well made marital arts film.

The film was written by King Hu and Chung Wang, the running time is 105 minutes.

1993 - GRUMPY OLD MEN, a couple of old comedians show how to steal the movie

If anyone should get the credit for this film is should be the casting director, Sharon Howard-Field.  Obviously Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were the stars of this film but Sharon Howard-Field surrounded them with a strong supporting cast played by Ann Margaret, Buck Henry, Ossie Davis, Kevin Pollak, Darryl Hannah and Burgess Meredith.  All of these actors are in the service of making Lemmon and Matthau funny.

The film tracks the 30 year rivalry between Lemmon and Matthau as they attempt to romance free spirit Ann Margaret (and what could she possibly see in either one of these two old fuddy duddies) and a contest to see who can catch enough fish during a chilly winter on a frozen lake in Wabasha, Minnesota, a town by the Mississippi river.

 

Truth be told this isn't that hilarious a film but Lemmon and Matthau are such professionals they know how to milk every line for humor.  They also acted together in enough films which made their comedy timing with each other impeccable.

Probably the most interesting part of the film are the scenes set in Wabasha, Minnesota during the winter.  People are out shoveling, the snowplows are plowing and the proliferation of fishing huts on the lake is very funny.  Thirty years later climate change in Minnesota has taken it's toll.  There's hardly any snow during the winter and whatever accumulates melts because of unseasonably warm temperatures in January and February usually the coldest months of the winter in this state.

 The film was written by Mark Steven Johnson, the running time is 104 minutes.

1943 - GUADALCANAL DIARY, fairly good World War II film

For one of those rah rah World War II fighting films Guadalcanal Diary is a pretty good war film.  It doesn't hit the viewer over the head with the usual amount of government propaganda that the American public was saturated with during World War II.

The film is based on the United States invasion of Guadalcanal in 1942. The mission was to shut down a Japanese airfield that could have threatened Australia and New Zealand.  This film is a little unusual in that it keeps it's focus on a platoon of soldiers instead of the usual military officers barking out orders.  The soldiers are mostly character actors with not a major star in the group.  No Tyrone Power, John Wayne or Clark Gable which does add a little more realism to the story.  Power and Gable were actually serving in the armed forces during the war anyway.

 

Guadalcanal Diary has an interesting cast of actors some who could probably pass for real marines.   William Bendix, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, Preston Foster and Lionel Standler show up playing grunts.  Most of these guys were usually supporting players in "A" pictures or leads in cheapo B movies.  The film is also the debut of Richard Jaeckel a character actor who appeared in around 70 films until 1994 when he retired.

 

Guadalcanal Diary was mostly filmed on location and not on a studio sound stage if you can call filming at Oceanside, California on location I guess.  The film was written by Lamar Trotti and Jerome Cady.  The running time is 93 minutes.

2024 - FROM ROGER MOORE WITH LOVE, kind of odd tribute to Roger Moore

The actor Roger Moore passed away seven years ago.  Moore appeared in his last James Bond film almost forty years ago.  So it's kind of strange that this tribute film to Moore was made now.  Apparently the film aired on the BBC during the holidays.  This is the usual mixture of interviews and home movies.  Moore apparently liked to run around with a Betamax VHS camera of all things and filmed a lot of the guests who stayed at his home in Switzerland.

Moore started his career as a sweater model and was lucky enough to hook up with the director Brian Desmond Hurst who apparently mentored him when he entered the acting profession.  Moore never had the acting "chops" for heavyweight dramas and was dropped by MGM after a couple of less than outstanding performances in Interrupted Melody and Diane.  This film doesn't mention his time at Warner Brothers where he mainly did television shows like Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip. 

 

After his failure in America, it was back to England where he found his signature role in the popular TV show The Saint playing sort of a gentlemen thief.  After working in television for a while he was cast in the James Bond film Live and Let Die. He was James Bond number three during the 1970's.  Moore was blamed for bringing a lot of silliness to the James Bond franchisee but the reality was the series took a sharp turn towards goofiness with Sean Connery's last Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. 

If there is anything to be learned from this documentary and I use the term documentary very loosely it's that Roger Moore recognized his limitations as an actor and was able to turn these limitations into a film and television career.  Moore was apparently a very nice guy in real life.  He was never a prima donna on film sets and he apparently never turned his nose up at his fans.  Moore was also a very lucky man in his career.  Christopher Walken who never does these tribute interviews shows up and speaks very highly of him.

 

From Roger Moore With Love is about as lightweight as Roger Moore was.  It's a painless way to pass some time, sort of entertaining if you are a fan and in the end not remotely memorable.

The film is amusingly narrated by actor/writer Steve Coogan imitating Roger Moore's voice which Coogan has made a career of, the running time is 79 minutes.

2024 - THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT, a true life World War II story

Tyler Perry gets a lot of crap about being a less than good filmmaker.  His Madea character which is basically Perry playing an old lady in drag has been very popular much to the chagrin of many critics.  However Perry is a very successful filmmaker with studios in Atlanta, Georgia.  All of this is a lead up to discussing Perry's latest film The Six Triple Eight.

Based on a true World War II story, The Six Triple Eight was an all black female Army unit which ended up being assigned to Glasgow, Scotland where they are ordered to sort and deliver millions of letters to soldiers in the European theater that were just sitting in a warehouse undelivered.

 

This film is about their efforts to clean up and organize this military mail mess.  Kerry Washington plays the commanding officer of this Army unit who faces a stream of racism from white Army enlisted men and officers. She's based on the real commander Lt. Col Charity Adams a very remarkable woman in real life.  Ebony Obsidian is one of the enlisted women who is involved with a white Jewish pilot in a rather far fetched romantic subplot.  Oprah Winfrey herself shows up in a small role and Sam Waterston and Susan Sarandon are Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

Frankly the film is really not that good.  The incidents in the film appear to be mainly true but the storytelling is a little "hit you over the head" blunt as it goes through the motions.  The characters at times seem awfully stereotypical.  

Is this film worth watching?  Well in spite of the at times clumsy execution of the plot, The Six Triple Eight tells a fascinating story about a moment in World War II that had been forgotten.  The achievement of this Army unit is impressive and it looks like most of the story points in the film are true to what actually happened to these women.  So yes the film is worth watching.

The film was written by Tyler Perry, the running time is 127 minutes.

2024 - WICKED, it's long it has a lot of songs

The big hit musical for the holiday season is now showing up on streaming.  Wicked as everyone knows is based on a popular Broadway musical of the same name.  The film was very expensive to produce around $150 million.  It has big sets lots of dancing and two charismatic female stars, it is also very mediocre.

In a musical it should be all about the music.  However in this film I don't think there was one memorable song in the entire film's long running time.  The production team tries to cover this up with lots of big sets and elaborate computer image special effects but after a while it's all just viewer overload.

 

As far as the cast goes Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are certainly talented enough but as an old boss of mine once said you can only put so much "lipstick on the pig" to cover all the problems with this film.  The other cast members well what can you say.  A special song has been dedicated to the original stars of the musical, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth who are showcased in a scene that goes on and on.  Bowen Yang has been carving out a career as a comedian on SNL plays the stereotypical bitchy gay guy which is apparently the best character the writers could come up with.  Michelle Yeoh is also in the film and continues to appear in a lot of films as she enters the "paycheck performance" period of her career.  Jeff Goldblum plays the Wizard of Oz as Jeff Goldblum. 

Wicked is supposed to be a revisionist story of The Wizard of Oz but this film has also decided to be about racism (the green skinned witch) and the social prejudices of the citizens of Oz in this case  talking animals because after all they are different from us (get it).  

I guess the director Jon M. Chu should get some credit for orchestrating all of this junk into a film.  He had to deal with two probably diva stars, lots of overblown special effects and a completely unwieldy screenplay.  By the end of this movie the credit comes up "end of part one" god help me.  To paraphrase my niece the only people who should get awards for this film are the marketing team that sold it to the public.

The film was written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, who have sort of been hinting at a parts 3 and 4 to this film.  The running time is 160 minutes.

2024 - NOSFERTAU, 3rd remake of this vampire story

A passion project for the writer/director Robert Eggers.  Apparently as a kid he was impressed with the 1922 F. W. Murnau film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.  This is actually the third remake for this story.  Besides the Murnau version Werner Herzog filmed his version Nosferatu the Vampyre, in 1979 with madman actor Klaus Kinski as the title character.

I saw this version at an IMAX theater and in 35 mm no less which made for a rather intense viewing experience.  The film was shot in a lot of medium sized screen shots which on the giant IMAX screen really jumped out at me.   I probably should have sat farther back as at times I felt a little overwhelmed.

Some of the acting was a little hard to take particularly Lily-Rose Depp as the victim of the vampire Count Orlok.  Depp plays a character called Ellen Hutter who apparently has some kind of psychic connection with the Count.  Depp's performance is shall we say rather hysterical and at times she seems to be channeling a possessed character like in one of those Exorcist films.  Regardless of what I may think of her performance it's certainly a step up from that mess of a TV series The Idol which she started in.  Probably the best performance in the film is from Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz although the character is usually called Professor Van Helsing, confused yet?

 

Nosferatu is extremely well made you can't argue with that.  The photography, set design, makeup and special effects are at a high level.  Naturally since this is a film released in 2024 and not 1922 there is the expected blood, nudity and sex but that's the way it goes. A well done horror film although I didn't find it particularly scary.  I'm still not sure the world needed another version of Nosferatu but here it is.

The film's running time is 132 minutes.