What to write about next ?

... that is the question.


4 new movies? Tilda in I AM LOVE, Polanski's THE GHOST (WRITER), Ewan (again) and overcoming my aversion to Jim Carrey to watch I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS, and that recent version of Margurite Duras' THE SEA WALL with Isabelle Huppert - after having finally re-seen the 1958 original...

a Vitti double bill: BLONDE IN BLACK LEATHER (with Cardinale!) + THE SCARLET LADY

more on Romy Schneider, Anouk Aimee, Claudia Cardinale, and that 60s classic DANGER DIABOLIK

Clement's all-star IS PARIS BURNING?

People we like: Jeffrey Hunter, Michael Craig, Clifton Webb, George Sanders, Claire Bloom, Glynis Johns, Flora Robson, Belinda Lee, Anita Ekberg ...

Jeanne Eagels: Kim Novak in 1957 -v- the real Eagels in the 1929 THE LETTER

Theatre programmes since the '60s: Vanessa in DESIGN FOR LIVING, Glenda and Marianne in 3 SISTERS, Maggie in Ingmar's HEDDA GABLER, Barbra's FUNNY GIRL, 3 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSICs, 6 HAMLETs and so on ...

Jacques Demy's magical movies: LOLA, BAY OF ANGELS, UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT, THE MODEL SHOP, DONKEY SKIN, THE PIED PIPER...

Francois Ozon's French movies - and now that he has died aged 80, Claude Chabrol's .... so many favourites here!

Sheer Exploitation: NIGHT OF THE QUARTER MOON, GIRL OF THE NIGHT, THE SWINGER, BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN, THE DETECTIVE, THE UNHOLY WIFE, 3 IN THE ATTIC

Von Sternberg's THE SHANGHAI GESTURE - where has Mother GinSling been all my life?

'40s delirium in DESERT FURY, a delicious noir in blazing colour

1950's "Picture Show" star portraits

let's join Tony Hunter (Astaire) and Gaby Gerard (Charisse) on THE BANDWAGON - my very favourite musical - Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan) is an insane delight too, plus Levant, Fabares and Ava Gardner! Cinema doesn't get much better than this...

return visits to BONJOUR TRISTESSE and I WAS HAPPY HERE on the big screen

Those forgotten cinemas - the art houses and revival cinemas of London in the 60s and 70s

the new London Film Festival programme for 2010 - those interesting new ones for next year: THE KING'S SPEECH (Colin Firth on the Oscar trail again, maybe winning this time), THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (ditto Annette Bening and Julianne Moore), the highly regarded Thai UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, a new Mike Leigh ANOTHER YEAR, an intriguing Italian comedy LOOSE CANONS (MINE VAGANTI) and Franco and Hamm in the Allen Ginsberg film HOWL etc. and a restored new print of Kazan's WILD RIVER!

.... "decisions, decisions"!

Fun and Games

“Ze snake iss loose"!!



VENOM – How about this storyline: the kidnapping of a wealthy kid goes wrong and the kidnappers find themselves holed up in the family home as the police surround them and THEN they find out that the snake the kid collected that morning is not harmless but is in fact a deadly mambo who soon escapes from its box and slithers into the ventilation shaft, after biting the nanny (Susan George, expiring in grand fashion) … This farrago was originally to be directed by Tope Hooper, but was taken over by Piers Haggard and features a cast of temperamental actors who here, in 1981, were not quite as famous as they used to be, but when one’s career is in the descendant one has to take what work one can – so we find Klaus Kinsi and burly Oliver Reed as the kidnappers, Sarah Miles with nothing to do as the medical specialist and Sterling Hayden as the grand-father, and the once promising Nicol Williamson is the police superintendent. Its satisfyingly worked out – Klaus gets a good scene with ze snake – as does Olly when it slithers up his trouser leg! and dear old Rita Webb owns the pet shop the snake comes from!



EYE OF THE CAT - A drifter and a mercenary nurse plan to murder his eccentric but wealthy aunt once she has changed her will in his favour. However, the aunt keeps dozens of cats in her home, and the man is deathly afraid of cats … interesting premise for a Joseph Stefano (he scripted PSYCHO) thriller ably directed by David Lowell Rich in 1969 and with another top notch Lalo Schifrin score. Its another of those glossy Universal late 60s thrillers – which we saw here in England as supporting features but they certainly made their mark. This one is fabulously entertaining to see again now as its twists and turns and the cats are all terrific, particularly that main cat. What a star! Stunning sequences include the aunt in the runaway wheelchair, Sarrazin explaining his childhood fear of cats and Gayle Hunnicutt surrounded by all those hungry moggies – not only a clever homage to Tippi and those BIRDS but surpassing it! All 3 leads are terrific: Hunnicutt with her big hair and Sarrazin are so typically late ‘60s and nice to see Eleanor Parker again as the aunt. Even dependable Laurence Naismith pops in as the doctor! Then there is the brother, Tim Henry – whatever happened to him? San Francisco looks terrific too as lensed by Russell Metty.

GAMES – another young couple back in the swinging 60s in San Francisco (not seen much as its mainly interiors) and an older woman who joins their games in Curtis Harrington’s stylish whodunit which also looks terrific (and may well have influenced EYE OF THE CAT) and benefits from the casting of Simone Signoret in a terrific role for her here in 1967. She is Lisa Schindler the saleslady who manages to become the houseguest of bored rich couple James Caan and Katharine Ross and joins in their kinky mind-games. The games turn deadly though when mysterious Lisa insinuates herself into their lives. After a rather slow start, Games soon segues into an exciting, serpentine mystery that seems way ahead of its time for 1967. Good to see Estelle Winwood too. Another interesting thriller then with twists one can almost anticipate as one begins to realise who is pulling the strings. Signoret of course was in LES DIABOLIQUES ... It was a second feature when I first saw it back then, I loved seeing it again.



A Shelley Winters double bill!



WILD IN THE STREETS – Another ‘60s trash classic I had forgotten but its also vastly enjoyable now. Barry Shear’s film of the Robert Thom story for American-International was a hit in 1968. Its certainly a wild and woolly view of hip culture then as millionaire singing idol (Christopher Jones) helps a Kennedy-like congressman (Hal Halbrook) become senator on the platform of lowering the voting age to 15, through sheer charisma gathers to rallies in both L.A. and D.C., Jones even wins the office of U.S. President and then forces anyone over 30 into a "paradise camp" to be forever happy on LSD so that they are incapable of causing any more trouble. Its mad, its wacky, its enormous fun, particularly with Shelley Winters on the rampage as Jones’ whacked out mother. Chris Jones is much more animated here than the waxwork he had to play for David Lean in RYAN’S DAUGHTER, and there’s also ‘50s starlets Diane Varsi as a spaced out senator and Millie Perkins as the senator’s wife, and there's a young Richard Pryor! Nice ending too with Jones being told he is too old by the new generation of kids wanting power... Its all an outrageous take on events of the counterculture late 60s. Now for A-I’s companion piece THREE IN THE ATTIC!



SOUTH SEA SINNER (not SOUTHSEA SINNER, that part of Portsmouth where I lived for 10 years!). This 1950 yarn finds Shelley in the South Seas as the bar singer Coral, Macdonald Carey is as dull as ever, also Frank Lovejoy. There is a kind of plot but its mainly Shelley torn between the two men and warbling a few ditties, in some very kitsch costumes. A nice programmer for a rainy afternoon, pity its not in colour. Also called EAST OF JAVA.

"Film of the Week"

50 years ago English film weekly PICTURE SHOW ran a "Film of the Week" showing - yes - a film of the week in stills and captions. Nice idea. Here's their take on those 1958 imperishables AUNTIE MAME and SEPARATE TABLES: (click to enlarge) [here are some scenes from it as the BFI is not including it in their current Deborah Kerr season!] plus one of their ads of the time: Jean Simmons selling Lux soap!

Magazines (7) - another trawl through the archives!

Many thanks to Cristina in New York for sending the 1984 Truffaut issue of CAHIERS DU CINEMA. This 1963 'monograph' on Antonioni, which I got when I was 17, must be the about the first English publication on him - I had lost it for years but found it in a box in the garage the other week. Terrific! Fascinating too to read Pauline Kael's long essay "Fantasies of the Art House Audience" in this 1962 SIGHT & SOUND (its reprinted in her 'I Lost It At The Movies' book), and some other assorted covers - I have written about FILMS & FILMING, MOVIE and WHO'S WHO IN HOLLYWOOD 1966 previously. I wish I had kept more of those late '70s/early '80s AFTER DARK magazines - they are like messages from an exotic vanished world now.

Glamour (3): Some stunning '30s portraits + 2 '60s.

Carole Lombard, 1935 / Garbo, 1929 / Loretta Young, 1931 / Erroll Flynn, 1935 / Gary Cooper, 1931 / Marlene Dietrich, 1934 - and Susan Hayward, 1961 / Romy Schneider, 1963.

Pandora, again, on the big screen!

I did a rave about PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN a while back, Albert Lewin's fantastically styled delirious surreal swoonsome melodrama from 1951. Yesterday a friend and I saw it again on the big screen at a special matinee at the local art cinema, and it was a revelation. There is just so much in it to savour - those interiors, Ava's endless supply of amazing dresses and lush close-ups of her. There couldn't have been anyone more beautiful than her then, and James Mason is also magnetic as the mysterious Dutchman whose schooner arrives in that Spanish bay, as the expats enjoy the local culture, headed by playgirl Pandora and her admirers including Marius Goring drinking himself to death and motor racer Nigel Patrick who will send his beloved car over the cliff when Pandora asks him to, and then that bullfigher who wants to eliminate the competition so he can have Pandora to himself - but the Dutchman cannot be got rid of that easily, as Pandora finds out that "the measure of one's love is what one will give up for it". Jack Cardiff's photography is up there with his work on BLACK NARCISSUS. Its a movie one can sink into and watch again just to savour those moments. Its now in my top 20!

Next up on the big screen: revivals of BONJOUR TRISTESSE [more on that later with some nice photos] and maybe THE INNOCENTS [already discussed here as per label] in the current Deborah Kerr season in London.