R.I.P: Some more obits & 1982

JOHN HOWARD DAVIES (1939-2011) - Oliver in David Lean's 1948 classic, when he was 9. He grew up though to produce (and direct) some of Britain's finest comedy classics during the golden age of television. FAWLTY TOWERS and the early MONTY PYTHONS for the BBC, (he directed the first 4 episodes). He produced THE GOOD LIFE for it's entire run, THE WORLD OF BEACHCOMBER in the early days of BBC2. He became Head of Comedy at BBC lauching series like YES MINISTER, NOT THE 9 O'CLOCK NEWS, ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES. It is a great legacy.

RICHARD PEARSON (1918-2011) Richard Pearson was one of the most distinctive English actors, on stage, television and cinema since the 1940s. He was the kind of actor on which the British theatre has always relied: utterly dependable and totally distinctive. He could always be counted on to play doctors, accountants, politicians, policemen and churchmen: anyone, in short, who seemed to embody professional solidity. Pearson always managed to invest these characters with an inner life and a look of wounded dignity.

I would have seen him on the stage as William Cecil opposite Eileen Atkins' Elizabeth I in Bolt's VIVAT REGINA in the 70s, and in the 80s he co-starred with Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack in the hit LETTICE AND LOVAGE. He also played in LOVE AMONG THE RUINS in '75 for Cukor with Katharine Hepburn and Olivier. Other films include CHARLIE BUBBLES, THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE, SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY and Polanski's PIRATES. It was a long enduring career - he was in the original production of Pinter's THE BIRTHDAY PARTY in '58 - and he had a good innings at 93.

STAN BARSTOW (1928-2011). Barstow was one of those new "kitchen sink" novelists who burst on the scene in the late 50s and early 60s, along with John Braine (ROOM AT THE TOP), Keith Waterhouse (BILLY LIAR), Shelagh Delaney (A TASTE OF HONEY) and Alan Sillitoe (SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING). Barstow's best known book A KIND OF LOVING was an enormous, likeable hit, its transends its period in it's timeless tale of a young couple falling into lust and then having to get married when she is pregnant - AND having to move in with her disapproving mother. John Schlesinger made a marvellous move from it in 1962, with great performances by Alan Bates, June Ritchie and Thora Hird. The book has always been in print, and is just one in Barstow's long career.



1982
Re-reading "Sight and Sound"'s partwork "Chronicle of Cinema" which they gave away some years ago, it is fascinating reading the lists of who died in each year - 1982 would have been of particular interest for me - as it saw the departure of several of my favourites: Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly's fatal car crash and Romy Schneider's mysterious early death, as well as the suicides of Patrick Dewaere and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (or accidental overdose, like John Belushi), as well as the likes of stalwarts and vererans Celia Johnson, Kenneth More, Henry Fonda, Eleanor Powell, Jacques Tati, Isa Miranda [whom I have just discovered], Curt Jurgens, Alma Reville (Mrs Hitchcock), directors Charles Walters, Elio Petri, Valerio Zurlini, King Vidor - and that great comedian Arthur Askey!

The Sea Wall, again ...

From "Lost Films of the Fifties" by Douglas Brode (an ideal companion to his essential "Films of the Fifties") a selection of stills from one of my favourite films, mentioned on here quite a bit (Mangano, Perkins, Clement labels) THE SEA WALL or THIS ANGRY AGE from 1958 - which I liked at the time, and finally saw again - in an Italian copy - last year [thanks to my IMDB pal Timshelboy]. I also wrote about the recent French remake of this Marguerite Duras story, LE BARRAGE CONTRE LE PACIFIQUE starring Isabelle Huppert [French label]. The '58 version though by Rene Clement for Dino De Laurentiis, starring his wife Silvana Mangano, is one of the first international co-productions made in Thailand, and remains a fascinating lost movie.


Here we have Silvana and a pre-PSYCHO Tony Perkins as the siblings, the great Jo Van Fleet [as good as in EAST OF EDEN or WILD RIVER] as their mother trying to protect their rice plantation from the sea, and Mangano with Richard Conte, and Nehemiah Persoff. I love the scenes with Perkins and Mangano dancing. Alida Valli also appears as the woman who picks up Perkins in the cinema! Maybe one day a proper print will be available .... ditto, De Laurentiis's THE TEMPEST, another international co-production, by Lattuada with Mangano in '58 from the Pushkin novel set in the Russian steppes. I loved it when I was 12!

Meek's Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt's gaunt, mysterious and superbly crafted film about pioneers and the old American west appears to have come from another age – from the early days of Malick or Antonioni. Some sequences are almost entirely wordless, and long stretches will go by in which you can hear only the repeated whine of the wagon wheels as the pioneers grimly trudge along, alongside the cattle pulling the wagons across the endless flat prairie. Sometimes, this sound is only just audible above the roar of the wind across the plains.



The three families have been persuaded to break away from the main column on the promise of a short cut, by the guide Stephen Meek - a wild man of the plains. Now they are hopelessly lost. They travel mostly on foot, leading their horses to save energy and water, their wagons, containing precious barrels of water, pulled by oxen. It nightmarishly portrays an old West of no roads, no signs of water, and no signs of civilization. But they follow Meek across the plains, hoping that the hill over the next horizon will bring hope. They they capture the Indian, a solitary man. The braggart Meek and the men discuss whether to kill him before he leads them into an ambush, the women want to keep him as maybe he can show them the way or lead them to water. The women in their long calico dresses and bonnets are stoic and resourceful.



The ending is very enigmatic - is the tree a symbol of water? The Indian feels he has fulfilled his part of the deal, and he leaves. He is secure in his position, the settlers have been saved but in truth they do not belong in this environment, they are invaders in a landscape as alien to them as the moon. Imagine what they must have felt: having crossed the long prairies, the rivers, worried about Natives and disease, crossed the Rockies - all that, and then they're being led into the wilderness by what they must have thought a lunatic. It is one of the most fascinating, powerful, hypnotic westerns I have seen.







Michelle Williams - soon to be Marilyn Monroe in the film about the making of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, she will surely be as amazing as usual - excels here as the main woman who feels she can trust the Native. Other scenes like the destruction of one of the wagons are marvellously paced. These settlers, like all the others, had to have True Grit indeed. It makes other westerns about pioneers and covered wagons, such as 1959's THUNDER IN THE SUN with those French Basques taking their vines to California (led by Susan Hayward and Jeff Chandler) seem very bland fare indeed, with the Indians as "the enemy" to be defeated; perhaps only Jan Troell's THE EMIGRANTS (1971) and THE NEW LAND ('72) caught the hardships of the new immigrants? as Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann travel from Sweden to the new land - and of course Lelouch's ANOTHER MAN ANOTHER WOMAN with its immigrants from France ...

Trashy delights

Before we return to the art house [a feast of Catherine Deneuve - 6, maybe 8 titles, more Techine, Chabrol, Melville and 2 rare Antonioni's, plus more Gerard Philipe, Ozon and Fassbinder] and more middle-brow entertainment [THE LION IN WINTER, those Troy Donahue movies, and a brace of Glenda Jackson's] how about a look back at some of those trash classics reviewed here? Call them what you will: Bad Movies We Love, The Great Bad Movies, Trash Classics or Guilty Pleasures, there is still a whole lot of fun to be gleaned from re-running crazy flicks like:



MAMBO - 1954 meller set in Italy, where Shelley Winters has the hots for Silvana Mangano, who dances up a storm. Shelley runs into a truck ....



SYLVIA - Carroll Baker is the poetess investigated in this 1965 hoot by George Maharis for sleazy Peter Lawford, cue lots of cameos by Viveca Lindfors, Joanne Dru, Edmond O'Brien, Aldo Ray and a scary drag queen.



LOVE HAS MANY FACES - the best of the Lana melodramas? Lana is glazed in Acaculpo, with beach boy gigolos including Hugh O'Brien in speedos, while Ruth Roman pays for what she wants .....



A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME - Shelley again in this 64 sudser about a famous madam in 20s New York - the gals lounge around in evening dresses and make prostitution look easy



THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER - Jane Russell, sensational, is the hard-boiled gal buying up wartime Hawaii, while Agnes Moorehead is the even more hard-boiled blonde madam running that cat house ..... 1956 treat.



GO NAKED IN THE WORLD - Gina Lollobrigida is another high-living working girl in this 1960 expose - but BUTTERFIELD 8 got all the kudos



THE PRODIGAL - the most hilarious of the biblicals, this 1955 one has Lana in the barely there outfits as the pagan priestess tormenting Edmund Purdom, who wrestles with a stuffed vulture, Lana takes a tumble when the slaves revolt ....



THE SINGING NUN - MGM must have thought another nun film would clean up in 1966 after Julie's success - this though is hilariously awful as Sister Debbie Reynolds plays her guitar and gives up wordly success to look after babies in Africa - see it and hoot.



WHERE LOVE HAS GONE - enjoyable tosh with Susan and Bette snarling at each other in 1964, camp probably doesn't get much better than this, with horrible fashions, no period detail and wooden male leads. More Joe Levine garbage.



VALLEY OF THE DOLLS - this knows it is trash and all the better for it, THE trash classic? those girls Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke as Neely O'Hara, Sharon Tate, and Susan's Helen Lawson and that catfight in the ladies room ...... we cherish every awful wonderful moment.



A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY - as I say in my review (trash label) "any film that begins with Franco Nero in his underwear tied to a chair while Vanessa Redgrave removes her panties and begins to chew his nipples can't be all bad ...." this 1969 arty euro-drek is well worth a look.



THE LOVE MACHINE - maybe the one I love to hate the most - this 1971 flick is an absolute scream: John Philip Law as the hollow heel, David Hemmings camping it up as the gay photographer (sending up BLOW-UP perhaps), Dyan Cannon yelling "fag" at everyone - more lurid trash from Jacqueline Suzann.







Of course there are also more 'guilty pleasures' I love like WALK ON THE WILD SIDE and THE CARPETBAGGERS - movies which know and wallow in their trashiness, and those delirious sudsers like Anouk's JUSTINE and Susan Hayward's STOLEN HOURS, ADA, BACK STREET, I THANK A FOOL, and Romy's awful MY LOVER MY SON, and Burton's terrible BLUEBEARD, a howler from 1972 ...



and the two I despise: THE OSCAR and the Carroll Baker HARLOW. For me there is nothing to enjoy in these, they are made with such contempt for the audience, and the would-be sleaze is laughable.



Check out the Trash reviews and enjoy at Trash or labels on any of the above: Lana, Shelley, Susan, Debbie, Gina, Silvana, Vanessa, Franco, Anouk, Jean Sorel, Carroll Baker etc ......

Showpeople: when Joan met Greg, Sophia and Max; and when Margaret met Harry ...

My 400th post! So here is another look at that great photo of the 1962 Oscar winners, with as was the custom, the previous year's winners, plus a great Margaret Sullavan anecdote, which I have to thank my pal Daryl for!



I wrote a while back about Loren and Peck presenting each other with Oscars - here again is that great shot of Joan Crawford graciously sharing their limelight! You have to hand it to Joan! No wonder Bette was left seething with rage in the wings!



The 1961 winners (Maximilian Schell and Loren) as was the custom presented the 1962 best actor and actress awards. Bette was nominated for WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? but Joan (who hadnn't been nominated for their little film) had volunteered to accept the best actress award on behalf of any nominee who could not be present. Peck got his from Sophia and Max announced that Anne Bancroft had won as best actress, but Anne was not there so Joan swept past Bette (they were both backstage) and (as legend has it, said "excuse me, I have an Oscar to collect") graciously accepted the award on Anne's behalf and she (looking terrific by the way) got to pose with the other winners! [that is Max next to Joan - looking like her hot date for the night]. So there was Bette empty-handed while Joan posed clutching an Oscar (so what if it was not hers) with Greg and Sophia and Schell basking in the publicity! Things were even less cordial between Joan and Bette after that !



And the Margaret Sullavan story? Margaret was one of the great stars of the '30s and '40s (as noted previously, at label). When she made NO SAD SONGS FOR ME at Columbia in 1950 (which turned out to be her last film), there is the story that she had a meeting with the head of the studio, the notoriously vulgar Harry Cohn. Cohn was supposed to have said to her, "Willie Wyler tells me you're really hot in bed," whereupon she stood up and walked to the door. But before she left, she reportedly said, "I don't believe Willie would have told you that, because he's a gentleman... but incidentally, I am!")



I am now taking a break for a week or so, as have family visitors staying so I expect to show them lots of London and various famous gardens! Back soon.

Cult Movies: Something for Everyone

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE. I needed something fluffy and light after Camus (see below), so turned to Harold Prince’s comedy from 1970 – also known as BLACK FLOWERS FOR THE BRIDE here in the UK. This became a cult black comedy that we cherished at the time, as much as HAROLD AND MAUDE. I caught it on its brief release and urged all my friends to see it – just as well, as it then vanished for a long time.







Michael York is Konrad the smooth, ambitious young man cycling in Bavaria who sees the fairytale castle and step by step manages to take it over, by insinuating himself with the Von Ornstein family, who can no longer afford to maintain it. Konrad’s murderous plans include getting rid of the butler and taking his place, and getting close – very close – to the gay son Helmuth (Anthony Corlan, later Higgins). The chubby daughter of the family is the delightful Jane Carr (Mary McGregor from MISS BRODIE) and mother Countess Herthe Von Ornstein is Angela Lansbury, in her first starring role and does she go to town on it! She swoops around delivering bon mots (“There are no men any more – just facsimiles” or "I particularly asked for strawberries") as she bewails the loss of the good old days. Konrad slowly reveals his plans to her, as he has also befriended the vulgar but rich Pleshkes from the city, whose daughter Anneleise (Heidelinde Weis, whom critic John Simon was very cruel about in his review) he has seduced. Konrad engineers the marriage of Helmuth and Anneleise (while keeping them both in his thrall) but soon it is time to get rid of the Pleschkes once the castle has been restored.



But just as Konrad and the Countess are poised to marry …. It is still a delicious black comedy, with Lansbury marvellous in full throttle here. Greek actress Despo (Melina’s friend in NEVER ON SUNDAY) is also a riot as her companion/masseuse. There is lots of local colour and it remains a treat; scripted by Hugh Wheeler.

The Stranger - Luchino Visconti, 1967

THE STRANGER (LO STRANIERO). A very missing movie, this 1967 film of Albert Camus’s “The Stranger” was directed by Luchino Visconti – quite a departure for him from his usual operatic, decorative works, and co-scripted by Visconti's usual writer Suso Cecchi D'Amico. The book was one of those novels one simply had to read back then, and probably still is. It is the bare story of a man who commits a senseless murder, is caught, tried and executed, in Algeria. One of those existentialist works then, as our “hero” Meursault finds life meaningless, he does not care what happens to him or what he does to others, and at his trial much is made of his lack of emotion at his mother’s funeral. Is he a psychopath? We hear his interior monologue.







Marcello Mastroianni gives one of his major performances and is compelling throughout, Anna Karina has the thankless role of the girlfriend. It certainly conjures up the atmosphere of hot, airless rooms and that life lived outside in those hot opressive climates. What I saw was a dubbed copy but that did not detract from the powerful images and mood the film creates. This was made after Visconti's 1965 SANDRA or VAGHE STELLE D'ORSA, that other rare Visconti I re-discovered recently, and is a firm favourite of mine. Visconti was back in operatic mode with his next one, THE DAMNED in ’69.