Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

A comedy drama set in the academic world of English Literature during winter in Pittsburgh is already ticking quite a few boxes for me.  Add to that a fine cast headed by Michael Douglas and a decent director, Curtis Hanson, fresh from his triumph with 'LA Confidential', and everything's set fair. And yes I enjoyed this quite a bit, but by the end I was left feeling disappointed.  It never quite takes off as I hoped it would.  It didn't help that between seeing this picture for the first time and this rewatch I had seen 'The Holdovers' which scratches a similar itch, but just a whole lot better. It also doesn't help that a lot of the film is taken up by Tobey Maguire, not a favourite actor of mine, who inevitably plays a gifted but odd student of Professor Tripp (Douglas), at the expense of screen time that could have been better allocated to Robert Downey Jr (Tripp's editor) or Frances McDormand (Tripp's mistress). As a comedy it's not that funn...

I’m always up for an outing for the Caped Crusader even if the word on the street was that this reboot was relentlessly grim, overly long and altogether quite unnecessary.  To make matters worse it was directed by Matt Reeves who was responsible for two underwhelming 'Planet of the Apes' sequels. Each reboot of a franchise has to find a new angle, if only for marketing purposes - in this case we were told it was to be a focus on the noir and detection aspects of the Masked Manhunter's persona. So Batman is allowed by Jim Gordon to be present at several crime scenes so that he can deploy his famous detective skills, if only to solve the riddles left by you-know-who.  And naturally it's a darkly lit film, in which Gotham comes across yet again as a crime-infested dystopia where it is always raining and the sun never shines.   I can't say that the basic story did much for me; it turns out that, apart from Gordon, everyone in positions of power in Gotham, from the mayo...

This 1938 musical is the seventh outing (of nine) for Fred and Ginger, and there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s not their best work. Most of the blame for this lies with RKO Studios who were fretting about the rising cost of these vehicles, and as a result this one feels more like a Robin Reliant than a Rolls Royce. It has a short running time, with a bare minimum of musical numbers (written by Irving Berlin, mostly in something of a rush) and it is devoid of any glamour or spectacle. Having said that, second-rate Astaire and Rogers is still better than most. Fred is oddly cast as a psychiatrist whose friend Steve wants him to sort out why his girlfriend (played by Ginger) won't marry him. Since Steve is played by boring Ralph Bellamy, the answer is quite obvious. Of course it’s not long before Fred and Ginger fall in love. She realises this when she has a dream in which they dance (what else?) and which ends in what for them is quite a long kiss (sadly not in closeup). ...

In this sequel to 'Wicked' we get to enjoy the unfolding of the dramas which were set up in that film, with the music taking a bit of a backseat in that the individual songs are not as strong. We pick up with Glinda enjoying herself as the centre of attention in the Emerald City, especially since she now has a magic bubble to float around in, and that she is going to marry handsome Prince Fiyero.   Elphaba on the other hand is stuck out in the woods, singlehandedly trying to fight a propaganda war against the combined forces of the Wizard and Madame Morrible. It's a war she can't win, so thankfully we move onto a more intimate scene in which Glinda successfully plays peacemaker between Elphaba and the Wizard.  Unfortunately (and for no very good reason that I could see) the peace deal breaks down almost immediately and this leads Madame Morrible to come to the fore.  She creates a tornado in order to drop a house on Nessarose, killing her.  This doesn't make a whole...

As someone who is suspicious of any film musical since 1979's ‘All That Jazz’ (a kind of high water mark), and as one who doesn’t feel that every villain needs a backstory, I approached this film with some trepidation, especially since I felt that  turning a stage musical into two lengthy films seemed self indulgent. Despite all of these concerns however, I enjoyed the ride.  It didn’t drag, it has some decent songs (and one very good one), and it wasn't as CGI-heavy as it might have been. It also sprung a few surprises. For example, it's very woke.  Not content with a main character, Elphaba, who is discriminated against solely because of the colour of her skin, the story gives her a sister in a wheelchair, as well as (another surprise) talking animals who are being persecuted. Their oppressor is of course the Wizard of Oz himself, but trying to explain to any young children watching this film why he is being so beastly to the cuddly animals might be challenging. ...

I was at the BFI in London anyway, and so I thought why not dip into whatever was available, which happened to be this  Italian romantic comedy from 1932. The story is quite thin, running to just over an hour, with the odd moment of nice comedy scattered throughout.   Fortunately the two lead actors are each very charming in their own way.   There's not much of a 'meet cute' to kick the romance off - Bruno, a chauffeur/mechanic, sees Mariuccia, a shop girl, one morning at a kiosk, is instantly smitten, and immediately follows her around on his bicycle in a way which some might find annoying but which amuses Mariuccia. He 'borrows' his employer's car so as to impress her on their first date.  Needless to say this goes wrong, leading to misunderstandings and him losing his job, before they meet again at the Milan Fair, and we reach a happy ending in which they declare their love to each other in the back of a taxi.  The taxi driver is Mariuccia's father,...

I’ve been putting off watching this oddity for a long time because I didn’t feel that a comedy would play to the strengths of either director John Huston or star Humphrey Bogart, especially a comedy which has the reputation of being self-indulgent.  Co-writers Huston and Truman Capote apparently intended it as a spoof of ‘The Maltese Falcon’.  Since it doesn't obviously take aim at film noir tropes, t he only connection I could see to the earlier Huston film is the presence of Bogart and of Peter Lorre, and that the character played here by Robert Morley bears some resemblance to that played by Sydney Greenstreet. OK, let’s try to summarise the plot, such as it is. Morley is in charge of a disparate gang of misfits who have developed a scheme to make a fortune from mining uranium in Africa, and Bogart is helping them to acquire the land they need on the cheap. Whilst waiting in an Italian port for a ship to take them to the dark continent they get to know Mr and Mrs Chelm, a ...

I’m not at all interested in the pioneering efforts of test pilots to fly above the speed of sound, so could director David Lean and writer Terrence Rattigan create a drama that would hold my interest? The answer was ‘yes’, just about. The two main characters are John Ridgefield (Ralph Richardson) and his daughter Susan (Anne Todd).  An ex-pilot, he now owns an aviation company, and is obsessed with building the first plane to break the 'sound barrier'. In an early and suspenseful scene, his son Christopher (a very young Denholm Elliott) dies on his first solo flight. He was simply trying to live up to his father’s expectations, and his death casts a shadow over the relationship between father and daughter, since she can’t help blaming him for her brother’s death. To make matters worse Susan is married to Tony, her father’s leading test pilot. Given the inherent danger in trying to break the sound barrier she questions the whole point of the endeavour, leading to some i nterest...

Anyone who found ‘A House of Dynamite’ tense and scary should really check out this 1964 precursor. It had the misfortune to come out a few months after ‘Dr Strangelove’ and as a result suffered at the box office, but in its own way it is very impressive.   As the result of a freak accident, in which some new Soviet jamming technology plays a part, a group of US bombers are ordered to invade Soviet airspace and drop their nuclear bombs on Moscow.   That’s bad enough of course, but the real problem is that the Russians will inevitably launch an all-out retaliatory strike, leading to total nuclear Armageddon. Cue frantic efforts to stop the bombers by any means, and to convince the Russian Premier that it’s all an accident.  But there's a relentless inevitability about the fact that whatever desperate measures are used, including the US military giving their opposite numbers help in trying to shoot down the bombers, one plane will get through. At that point the US Pres...

This 1944 musical,  featuring music written by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin, and directed by Charles Vidor,  was a big hit although I struggled to see why.  There's only one outstanding song, 'Long Ago (and Far Away)', and even that isn't well treated given that Rita Hayworth mimes to it. Since I don't find her dancing to be up to much it's a bit of a mystery what she is doing in a musical.  But she's extremely good-looking in a glamorous way, which is helpful for a story in which she is propelled to fame by being chosen for the cover of a magazine.   Kelly is her boyfriend and he's not best pleased about her success, fearing that he'll lose her.  And of course his sourness has precisely the effect of driving into the arms of a theatrical impresario, who wants to marry her. There's a weird angle to the plot in that some forty years earlier the magazine's editor was in love with Hayworth's grandmother, who jilted him at the altar because a...

This 1954 Western is the fourth (of five) to be directed by Anthony Mann and to star James Stewart. It's written by Borden Chase whose cv includes such classic Westerns as 'Red River', 'Winchester 73' and 'Vera Cruz'.  Although this might not be quite in the same class it comes close, one of its virtues being that it's never at all predictable.  It has an unusual setting and for most of  its running time I found it pretty hard to pin down.  We start off in 1896 in Skagway, a town in Alaska, where Jeff (James Stewart) arrives with a herd of cattle, but straightaway the herd is confiscated by a guy called Gannon who has appointed himself the law.   For a bad guy he is surprisingly jovial and he has a grudging respect for Jeff. But he's not amused when Jeff steals the herd back, and he vows vengeance.  In the meantime Jeff takes the herd to Dawson, in Canada, where the small population of goldminers are mighty glad to see him, tired as they are of a die...

This is a David vs Goliath courtroom drama loosely based on an actual legal case.   The issue with any such film is its inherent predictability, because we know David is going to win, or why else make the film? As we saw with ‘Erin Brockovich’ this problem is not insuperable. But in that instance David (in the form of Julia Roberts) was easy to root for, and Goliath, the company that was giving people cancer, was easy to hate, whereas in this case it’s a little less clear cut. Admittedly the little guy here, Jerry (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is sympathetic, as a 75-year old owner of a small funeral business, but the injustice done to him doesn’t seem that compelling. Due to financial problems Jerry made a verbal agreement with Mr Loewen, CEO of the Loewen Group, to sell part of his business. But then Mr Loewen didn’t back up the verbal agreement by signing a written contract, probably because he was banking on Jerry having to file for bankruptcy so that his business could be bought...

In a survey of 25 film critics in 2004, conducted by the Total Film magazine, this was voted the  best British film of all time. Good grief. I've nothing against this gritty 1972 crime thriller in which Jack Carter (Michael Caine) goes back to his home city of Newcastle to find out the truth about the death of his brother Frank.   But really, putting it ahead of, say, 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp', or 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Brief Encounter', and so on.  Ridiculous. OK, rant over. On his train journey back to Newcastle Carter is reading a Raymond Chandler novel, which seems appropriate given that the plot of this film is labyrinthine, and that there's plenty of violence and corruption beneath every stone Carter upturns.  Not that Carter himself is a Philip Marlowe-type character -  he is most definitely not "a man ... who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid" to use Chandler's description of his ideal hero.  In fa...

It's 1942 in Port Talbot, and Philip Burton (Toby Jones) is a teacher who lives on his own, frustrated that the War interfered in his aspirations to make a career in the theatre, as a playwright, or director.  One of his pupils, Richard Jenkins, a miner's son (played by Harry Lawtey), shares something of Mr Burton's passion for the stage, and he has some raw talent.   So Mr Burton takes him under his wing, helps him develop that talent, and uses his contacts to open up a remarkable opportunity for him to go to Oxford University. The only snag is that for him to take up that opportunity he'll need to become Mr Burton's adopted son.   Well, that happens and so Richard Jenkins becomes Richard Burton (yes, that Richard Burton). Everything seems to be going swimmingly well except that out of the blue young Mr Burton gets the idea that maybe old Mr Burton's motives might not be what they seem - after all he does live alone. When he gets drunk and angrily expresses hi...

This black comedy thriller, set in a dead-end fishing town called Easter Cove, has two linked plots, both involving a violent death. In the first, young Mary Beth, somewhat intoxicated on the day of her mother's funeral, kills a creepy lowlife by the name of Gorski, using first a harpoon, followed by a brick for good measure.  By way of mitigating circumstances she was freaked out by some stuff she saw in his car boot (bloodstains, girl's belongings - you know the drill). She and her sister Priscilla then dispose of the body. In the second, a prostitute, Dee, has been shot dead. Well, it doesn't take a Hercules Poirot to work out that Gorski killed Dee.   The plots intersect through the person of Enid, who runs the town's brothel and who employed Gorski (in what capacity I was never sure).  Enid works out that Mary Beth and Priscilla are responsible for Gorski's disappearance - not difficult because the two young women have left the odd clue lying around.  ...

This 1956 film features an older woman who has a relationship with a younger man, who turns out to have some mental health issues.   On the face of it this sounds like a classic "woman's picture", the sort directed typically by a Douglas Sirk or a George Cukor. In fact it was directed by Robert Aldrich, whose films (according to AI) have "a consistent theme of compromised masculinity and individual integrity tested in a hostile world".  So not an obvious choice for this type of drama it would seem. Except that the film stars Joan Crawford, surely the most masculine of female movie stars, what with her strong jawline, intense eyebrows, shoulder pads and the like.  And indeed her character's integrity is tested, so maybe it's not that surprising that Aldrich is able to turn the soapy storyline into something that packs quite a punch. Crawford plays Millie, a middle-aged woman who fears that life is passing her by.  W hen she meets Burt (Cliff Robertson in ...

For the second time I’ve now seen this personal favourite at the BFI, the first time being way back in the days of the National Film Theatre.   And even though this is a film I know intimately there’s nothing like seeing it on the big screen with a live audience. It’s the best way  to appreciate both the crispness of the black-and-white photography and the crackling dialogue, especially in the early scenes where fun is being poked at Hollywood's expense.   The BFI programme notes included a contemporary review by James Agee, in which he rightly admired its courage in portraying a sexual relationship between a rich woman of fifty and a kept man of half her age.     In addressing some criticisms of the film, Agee defends Billy Wilder the director and Charles Brackett (the producer and Wilder's co-writer), by saying that "they are evidently much more concerned to make a character interesting, than sympathetic, and the interest itself is limited by the quality ...

This Danish historical drama is based on real events from Scandinavian history, 1402 to be precise.  So some understanding of the historical background might be helpful, so here goes. In 1397, Queen Margaret I of Denmark created a Union of the three Scandinavian countries and became its effective ruler.    Ten years earlier, in 1387, Margaret's only son Olaf had died in somewhat mysterious circumstances, which led her in 1389 to adopt her great-nephew as her son, King Erik, in order that he might  eventually succeed her as ruler of the Union. In 1402, when the film starts, Margaret is negotiating with a delegation from Henry IV of England, her aim being to form a defensive alliance with England so as to protect the Union from enemies to the south such as the Germans. Part of the deal is that Erik will marry one of Henry's daughters, Philippa. And then, sensationally, a man appears at the court who claims to be King Olaf.  This is a development which really sets ...

As a teenager I read a fair amount of science fiction, but somehow never got around to Frank Herbert's 'Dune'.  Having now sat through this interminable adaptation (155-minutes!) of just part of the book I don't feel as though I missed much. Defenders of the film wave away complaints that it is ponderous and turgid by saying that it necessarily has to do a lot of "world-building".  To which my repost is that the  original 'Star Wars' film manages in a mere two hours to do a hell of a lot of world-building whilst also entertaining us with exciting action sequences and creating a host of memorable and iconic characters And despite the amount of time spent in this film on world-building I still came out of it none the wiser as to what was so great about the all-important spice.     It doesn't help that this is one of those irritating films whose main purpose is to set up the sequel rather than tell a compelling standalone story.  I guess I will watch ...

It would be so easy to dismiss this 1942 Bette Davis vehicle as a mere ‘weepie’, especially given the more implausible elements of the story. Fortunately Bette Davis (spellbinding as only she can be) is supported by a strong cast, led by Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper and Paul Henreid, under the able direction of one Irving Rapper.   Unsurprisingly Mr Rapper was a new name to me, given that his directorial career was not an especially long or distinguished one.  He was a friend of Davis, which might explain how he got this gig, and indeed went on to direct her in three more films (none as acclaimed as this one).   The film also benefits from strong dialogue, courtesy of Casey Robinson, who worked on several of Bette Davis' films. Davis plays Charlotte Vale, who when we first meet her is a neurotic mess thanks to the attentions of her tyrannical mother (Cooper).  But enter psychiatrist Dr Jaquith (Rains) and very quickly she is off on a luxury cruise, complete ...

Gregory Peck made six films with director Henry King, two of them Westerns: this one and 'The Gunfighter'. The film starts off in Rio Arriba, a small town close to the Mexican border, where Jim Douglass (Peck) arrives in order to see four bad guys hanged the next day.  I guess these are the bravados of the title although I'm not sure it's an appropriate description, since according to my dictionary a bravado is an obsolete word for a swaggerer. Certainly at the start of the film they're not doing a lot of swaggering in their prison cell but things look up for them when they escape, taking with them a young woman, Emma  as a hostage. The rest of the film concerns the efforts of the posse to rescue Emma and bring the bravados to justice, dead or alive.  Very quickly Douglass takes charge of proceedings, and one by one he catches up with the bravados and kills them, but not before trying (in vain) to get them to confess to murdering his wife some six months earlier. Th...

Really, there’s no way this Western should work as well as it does.  It’s far too long and there’s no action to speak of until the end, and even then it’s pretty thin gruel. Worst of all, perhaps, the main character is played by Gregory Peck at his most insufferably high-minded. He’s a rich sea captain, Jim McKay who’s journeyed from the East to Texas to marry his fiancée, Patricia (Carroll Baker). They fell in love in Baltimore but here it’s not long before he realises she’s not for him.  She doesn’t understand that he’s so comfortable in his skin that he doesn’t feel the need to prove himself to anyone, least of all to the woman who is supposed to love him. McKay is a peaceable live-and-let-live kind of guy, so he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Patricia's  father, Major Terrill, who is consumed with enmity towards a neighbouring rancher, Rufus.  Both ranches need water from the Big Muddy river, which is owned by Julie (Jean Simmons).  She and McKay strike up an i...

This is a decidedly odd Australian film starring two US actors, Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis, which is a kind of inversion of ‘Duel’ in that the hero of this story (played by Keach) is the truck driver, who goes by the name of Quid. He's a singular character  who plays harmonica whilst listening to Mozart, keeps up a one-sided conversation with his pet dingo Boswell, and is apt to quote lines of poetry at the drop of a hat. There’s a serial killer on the loose who is murdering and dismembering young girls. Quid, admittedly on the basis of not a whole load of evidence, begins to suspect the driver of a green van to be the killer. When he picks up Pamela (Lee Curtis) they immediately strike up a rapport and she’s more than happy to help him prove his theory, especially when it becomes apparent that the van driver is trying to frame Quid.  This leads to a suspenseful sequence which has echoes of ‘Rear Window’ when she climbs into the Van to try to get evidence, especially to ...