Back to art house ...

Time to catch up with those art house classics I had been meaning to watch, or in the case of Visconti's SANDRA see again after a gap of 45 years .... its been a dim memory since I saw it aged 19 in 1965, so (again) its been terrific to track down a copy now. [It was on YouTube in segments with Japanese subtitles!]. Its original title is VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA or OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS as it was titled for the UK, and it now seems to be titled SANDRA (much easier all round) and now plays like a classic Visconti drama. Sandra Dawson (Claudia Cardinale) and her husband Andrew (Michael Craig) travel to her hometown, the Etruscan city of Volterra for a homage of the locals to her father, a prominent scientist who died in a concentration camp. The long drive in the car during the credits is fascinating. The couple are welcomed by the servant Fosca, and Andrew becomes fascinated with the house. Sandra has issues over the estate with her stepfather and her mentally ill mother (Marie Bell) and misses her brother Gianni (Jean Sorel), who is an aspirant writer. When Gianni appears in the house out of the blue, Andrew unravels a shadowy secret from the past of the siblings. It is Greek tragedy really in the shape of Electra and Orestes... it unfolds as if a dream, (or a typical '60s art movie), interesting seeing Visconti tackle a "small" film here, before moving on to those more opulent titles like THE DAMNED, DEATH IN VENICE, LUDWIG and that final L'INNOCENTE. His follow-up to SANDRA, a 1967 adaptation of Camus's THE OUTSIDER with Mastroianni, is also a very lost title, I don't think we even got a chance to see it in London...

"Vaghe Stelle dell'Orsa..." ("Bright star of the Bear", a poem that is referred to in the text) has a plot about a once incestuous brother and sister (though he wants to resume their illicit relationship) which in the hands of another director could have become a melodramatic soap-opera, but Visconti explores the sensuality and beauty of Claudia Cardinale [often in close-up, and that amazing voice of hers] to deliver an intriguing and quite erotic family drama, peopled with beautiful leads in their mid-60s perfection. The set decoration, as usual, is another piece of art, supported by a classical music soundtrack by Cesar Franck. Good to see English actor Michael Craig here too - five years earlier he was the star of a British comedy UPSTAIRS AND DOWNSTAIRS and Cardinale had a small part, her first in English probably, as one of the servants!

To add in the next few days: first looks at Antonioni's IL GRIDO, Bergman's THE MAGICIAN, Truffaut's LE PEAU DEUCE...

Hardly a likeable film or one which one would want to return to right away, Antonioni's IL GRIDO has be one of the bleakest views of the human condition ever, more so than say UMBERTO D or AU HASARD BALTHASAR, as it shows the downward spiral of Aldo, the workman abandoned by the woman he loves. It is though totally compelling to see now, Antonioni's last before L'AVVENTURA and those films showing the ennui of the Italian monied classes. Here we are, comparatively speaking, in the lower depths of society - workmen and women in rundown towns along the muddy banks of the Po river.

Aldo has lived with Irma the woman he loves for 7 years and they have a daughter, he thinks they will get married when news arrives that her husband, working in Australia all these years, is killed - but for Irma (Alida Valli) it is over - she may even have a new man already. Uncomprehending Aldo (Steve Cochran, the playboy and tough guy of American films, ideally cast here) after beating her in public takes to the road with their daughter Rosina in tow, as they wander from town to town. First he returns to Elvira (Betsy Blair) his previous love who would take him back, but not when she discovers he only came back because Irma threw him out ... then he takes up with Virginia (the oddly named Dorian Gray, who it seems was dubbed by Monica Vitti, her first association with Antonioni) who runs a petrol pump station. Aldo and the daughter settle for a while but this too peters out, as he moves on to prostitute Andreina. He sends the daughter home to Irma and is now on his own as he seems to give up on life and has no interest in living. The film comes full circle as he returns to the factory where he used to work, sees the daughter entering a strange house so he looks through the window and sees Irma with a new baby. She sees him and follows as he enters the factory and climbs the tower. The cry of the title IL GRIDO is Irma's scream as Aldo walks towards his destiny .... there are the usual Antonioni touches with landscapes, the spaces and lack of communiation between people (Irma can hardly articulate her feelings why she does not want Aldo any more and he can only resort to violence). Its powerful and affecting and certainly paved the way for the films which followed....

Ingmar Bergman's THE MAGICIAN is a baroque tale of a bizarre troupe of travelling players in the Victorian era led by a mute Max von Sydow who may be a magician, or a hypnotist, or even just a charlatan. This is a Bergman film I had not seen before - my Bergman canon includes THE SEVENTH SEAL, WILD STRAWBERRIES, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, THE SILENCE, PERSONA, CRIES & WHISPERS, AUTUMN SONATA and his wonderful 1975 opera film THE MAGIC FLUTE (we loved that back in the '70s) and FANNY AND ALEXANDER. [I had no interest at the time for his other '70s films like THE TOUCH, SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE or THE SERPENT'S EGG, but I liked his 1970 London production of HEDDA GABLER with Maggie Smith so much that I went to it twice - it was dazzling theatre with the cast clad in black against those red walls...]

THE MAGICIAN (or THE FACE) is a fascinating puzzle from 1958 with terrific photography like those shots of the carriage emerging from the forest with the light shining through the trees... Vogler (Sydow) and his wife Ingrid Thulin (who dresses as a man, as part of the act), and the old crone who may be his grandmother and their florid manager arrive in a new town and are halted by some petty officials who see an evening's entertainment in making the entertainers do their act to see if they are suitable for the public. They certainly get more than they bargained for, particularly Gunnar Bjornstrand as Dr Vergerus, the officious medical advisor who is fascinated with hypnotism and magic rituals and would dearly love to perform an autopsy on Vogler to examine his brain, eyes etc. There is an old drunk whom they pick up en route, who finally dies. Bjornstrand gets to do his autopsy but surely would have realised which body he was examining? Vogler's face is a mask - once the wig, beard and make-up are removed the real Von Sydow emerges, and is an interesting contrast with the silent brooding Vogler in that this new persona is just a money-seeking actor. Other characters also change: the serving wench Bibi Andersson joins the party as the manager stays behind. The town official and his wife, mourning their lost child, also re-discover each other, and Vergerus gets the biggest surprise of all .... its brilliantly photographed, Sydow and Thulin shine as ever, and the Bergman players are a pleasure as usual. The ending seems rather rushed though - certainly a Bergman worth seeing but maybe not one of his key works - it could almost be marketed as a superior horror film. Next on my list will be THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY...

I Was Happy Here, again

A return to the British cinema of 1966 when I WAS HAPPY HERE was released. British movies of the time were dominated by Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger, Joseph Losey, Richard Lester, Michael Winner, and Ken Russell getting ready to take off with his brilliant BBC productions on the likes of Rossetti and Elgar. Two under-rated talents though who also caught the zeitgeist of the swinging decade were the now under-rated Clive Donner (NOTHING BUT THE BEST, WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT?, HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH and ALFRED THE GREAT) and Desmond Davis with those nice little films capturing the minutae of everyday life and love: THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES and I WAS HAPPY HERE. Both from Edna O'Brien stories GIRL WITH GREEN EYES is more plot-driven with its story and strong Dublin locations of country girl Rita Tushingham and her doomed affair with mature writer Peter Finch, and then there is her pal Baba (Lynn Redgrave). Its a nice look at Ireland back then and is achingly nostalgic for me at the end as the girls head off to England on the Ferry from Dublin - something I used to do myself - and her new life in mid-60s London - Notting Hill Gate actually (just like me!).

More aching nostalgia in I WAS HAPPY HERE (which I have just re-watched for the second time recently). Its a more aimless, melancholic story as Cass (Sarah Miles - a world away from her other Irish romance in that overblown David Lean film) mopes in her London bedsitter (with its nice view of that new symbol of the 60s, The Post Office Tower) as she realises how alone one can be in the big city. She marries the first man who notices her - an over-bearing dentist (Julian Glover) who takes her off to the suburbs in Wimbledon, but now she is fleeing back to her hometown in Ireland in County Clare (it was filmed at Lahinch and Liscannor) and the safety of the hotel she worked in, where owner Cyril Cusack amuses himself during the winter months playing cards. The dentist follows her but Cass thinks she can recapture her happiness there and the boyfriend she left behind (Sean Caffrey) whom she wanted to follow her to London, but he went off to sea instead. Its all very lyrical again achingly nostalgic for anyone who knows the Ireland and London of the time. It also has not been seen since its release (at least GIRL WITH GREEN EYES is on dvd) but I got a copy from Australia! so its been bliss seeing it again. Its one of Sarah's best roles - she went on to Antonioni's BLOW-UP next and then back to Ireland again for that long shoot in Kerry for Lean's RYAN'S DAUGHTER...

Davis also directed a little film THE UNCLE and turned to slapstick with SMASHING TIME in 1967 - another favourite and one I can watch a lot as Tushingham and Redgrave team up again as friends Brenda and Yvonne down to London from the North to find fame and fortune in the swinging city. Its hilarious fun, as scripted by George Melly, in bright colours, with Michael York (a photographer of course) and great turns by Irene Handl and Anna Quayle with her "Too Much" boutique [where Rita's pals from A TASTE OF HONEY hang out]! and again the Post Office Tower features heavily - groovy man! He also directed the original CLASH OF THE TITANS in '81 and a well-received tv version of GIRL WITH GREEN EYES with its original title THE COUNTRY GIRLS in '84 among lots of other credits. Below: my invite to a 1967 screening of Davis' THE UNCLE.

50th birthdays ...

Iconic movies never go out of style - age does not wither them. BREATHLESS is just released in a new 50th anniversary print - like Varda's CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (also re-released recently) it is a poem to early '60s Paris; L'AVVENTURA and PSYCHO were similarly re-released, and I finally discovered THE APARTMENT this year! Also due for re-release (though its never really gone away) should be Delon and Clement's endlessly fascinating stylish PLEIN SOLEIL with its real mediterranean of that iconic year 1960... I have written about them previously here and will probably continue to do so...

Just because ... they look so good

Visconti's THE LEOPARD from 1963 remains as sumptuous as ever, with Lancaster, Delon and Cardinale all mesmerising - and that final ball sequence with the Verdi waltz ... it is one book I love that is perfectly brought to life and, according to the British Film Institute, is "a film one could live in"; it will be having an extended run in London during July and is one film ideal for the big screen... I also love Gina's Sheba in that 1959 opus SOLOMON AND SHEBA - not as good, perhaps, as BEN HUR but rather more fun...

A perfect mid-'60s double bill...

I remember going to see these releases at my local cinema in 1965 - I was 19 and devouring movies every week...we enjoyed going to see big movies like these with lots of names [both of these feature Lilli Palmer and Richard Johnson!]. Ponti's OPERATION CROSSBOW is still good entertainment today, beginning with the German high command trying to perfect their bombs to drop on London as the British boffins and scientists try to infiltrate their operations by recruiting secret agents; nice to see all the British war movie stalwarts [Richard Todd, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms] in supporting roles; we then shift to that hotel in Amsterdam where George Peppard and Tom Courtenay arrive posing as German engineeers, and Sophia Loren - looking every inch the '60s superstar, with no concession to '40s fashions or hairstyles - walks in looking for her husband (ie Peppard) - this naturally causes problems for hotelier/agent Lilli Palmer who is very determined the mission succeeds. The final section then is the standard lets-blow-up-the-bomb-factory heroics as directed by stalwart [THE DAM BUSTERS etc] Michael Anderson.

MOLL FLANDERS was obviously following in TOM JONES' footsteps but is good-humoured fun as Terence Young directs a good cast and practically every British comedian and character actor of the era. There is that terrific star quartet of Angela Lansbury and Vittorio De Sica having fun as impoverished aristocrats, Lilli Palmer as leader of the criminal underworld, and George Sanders as Moll's first husband. Kim was so iconic in the '50s [PICNIC, EDDIE DUCHIN STORY, VERTIGO, BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET etc] but - rather like Carroll Baker - she seems diminished in the '60s as items like BOYS NIGHT OUT, OF HUMAN BONDAGE etc did her no favours. She plays along gamely here ...

'60s ...(2) Trash classics

Pauline Kael wrote of “the higher trash and the lower trash”. Some films which are quite enjoyable but are classics of all that is shoddy and second-rate and cliche-ridden and monumentally banal. But enough high-faluting snobbery, sometimes one needs a good dose of lower trash fun, here are a few choice ones …

LOVE HAS MANY FACES – a deliriously exotic artefact from 1965 and currently my favourite Lana Turner epic. The best thing about it actually is the theme song sung by Nancy Wilson. Lana, looking glazed throughout, is dressed by Edith Head (though that’s no recommendation anymore after the other period films like A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME she dressed in atrocious early 60s styles) and plays a wealthy playgirl in Acapulco married to ex-beach boy gigolo Cliff Robertson. They drink a lot as the police find the body of another beach boy who it seems Lana knew. Hugh O’Brian in skimpy speedos lingers while waiting to get off with Lana, as he trains his room-mate, another bottle blonde beach boy, in how to be a gigolo. Enter Ruth Roman [right, with O'Brian], a dame who knows the score and is willing to pay for her pleasures, with her pal Virginia Grey. Stephanie Powers is the young innocent trying to find what happened to the dead beachboy, and she and Cliff are drawn together. They all go off to a bullfight and ….. but no, I cannot describe how this delirious farrago ends. Its certainly one to cherish though, as directed by Alexander Singer who also did A COLD WIND IN AUGUST and PSYCHE 59. Ruth is terrific, I must see more of her ...

SYLVIA – One of those Joe E Levine [the Mogul of the Mediocre] mid’60s melodramas which the studios were turning out in a desperate attempt to get with it as the Swinging 60s took off, but ended up looking more dated than ever. Thank heavens the like of BONNIE AND CLYDE were just around the corner. Here, old hand Gordon Douglas directs Carroll Baker (in her Harlow phase) as the poetess Sylvia West who is engaged to Peter Lawford (playing a sleazeball as usual) who hires private eye George Maharis to track down the background of the mysterious Sylvia. This is quite enjoyable actually as cue cameos from Edmund O’Brien, Joanne Dru as an ex-hooker who married well, Ann Sothern hilariously overblown, Aldo Ray as Sylvia’s abusive father, Viveca Lindfors as a possibly lesbian librarian, Nancy Kovack as a brassy showgirl and Lola Diamond, a very scary drag queen. Baker is quite nice here as the rose-growing poet untouched by her sordid past, and there is a perfect theme song by Paul Anka. Ok, its trash but in a good way. Its in black and white with that nice mid-60s feel.

HARLOW – The movie I love to hate - only THE OSCAR is worse, and why, pray, is it called HARLOW? We learn nothing about the real Harlow – her first and later marriages are not mentioned, and neither are Gable, Powell, Hughes or any of her films. Carroll Baker is nothing like Harlow, there is no attempt, apart from a few old cars, to re-create the 1930s and Baker looks like a 60s vamp and seems to be doing the twist at one stage, to Neal Hefti’s muzak score. The hair is all wrong too. The men are all over the hill: Mr Sleaze Peter Lawford is the husband who kills himself, Red Buttons the agent who promotes her, and one trusts Angela Lansbury and Raf Vallone got handsome paychecks and enjoyed themselves for appearing as her parents. Poor Jean, frustrated in love, picks up a guy and full of disgust falls drunk into the surf at Malibu, catching pneumonia as the waves wash over her …. And then she dies prettily in hospital. Was that really what happened to Harlow ? Another 1965 release, directed – or should I say assembled – by hack Gordon Douglas, and bizarrely scripted by John Michael Hayes. At least VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is presented as a trash classic, but was this really meant to be taken seriously? It is full of hilarious lines like Carroll's Harlow saying "Oh mother, they only want me for my body" or "A bedroom with only one person in it is the loneliest place in the world". As Pauline Kael said: "No lonelier I hope than cinemas showing HARLOW"!

HARLOW – the OTHER HARLOW film from 1965, a cheapo effect in black and white, but its actually a whole lot better. Carol Lynley is made up more in the 1930s style and looks more like Jean than Baker. Its competently directed by Alex Segal, Ginger Rogers is a barn-storming Momma Jean with Barry Sullivan as her husband, with Hurd Hatfield, Efrem Zimbalist and it does try to recreate the ‘30s with Hermione Baddeley as Marie Dressler and look-alikes for Laurel and Hardy and others. It’s a whole lot of fun actually. Both HARLOWs are essential if you want to run a trash classics all-nighter for your friends’ amusement ….

WHY MUST I DIE? – I wouldn’t bother with rubbish like this normally, but given it as a swop recently (by my IMDB buddy Timshelboy), I had to have a look. It’s a real curiosity now, this 1960 knock-off of I WANT TO LIVE two years earlier, was directed by Roy Del Ruth and produced by and stars Terry Moore in another grim downbeat look at capital punishment. Its hilariously awful in every respect as Terry apes Susan Hayward’s suffering in Robert Wise’s far superior classic. Terry is a good girl gone wrong but decides to leave her sleazy hood of a boyfriend and moves away and becomes a classy chanteuse in an upmarket supper club – but her past catches up with her when Eddy and his new moll – Debra Paget – track her down and force her into helping them rob the joint. Things go wrong when Debra shoots the owner, Terry’s current beau, and Terry gets framed for the murder and sent down. Unrepentant bad girl Debra (who snarls her way through her scenes and wears Capri pants and stilettos) then shoots a helpless blind man while raiding a grocery store and she too end up in the slammer but won’t confess to the murder which Terry, who is now on death row, is condemned for. Will the other inmates break mean Debra down in time before Terry fries in the electric chair? It sets out the rituals of execution, as in the Wise film, and the ending is a surprise. Tawdry cheap noir doesn’t get much cheaper.

SOS PACIFIC – Guy Green’s 1959 thriller is a neat British entry (rather like a superior B-movie) in the “doomed flight” type of movies that were popular back then (Warner’s THE CROWDED SKY though remains the best, but BACK FROM ETERNITY also delivers, I must try and re-see JET STORM, also 1959 where Richard Attenborough has the bomb on the plane, piloted by Stanley Baker, with a great cast of the time). This one features a rackety sea-plane piloted by dependable John Gregson with Pier Angeli as the stewardess, tough guy Eddie Constantine is the anti-hero and Richard Attenborough in one of the sleazy roles he played back then is the con man on the run. Add in Eva Bartok as a playgirl down on her luck and Jean Anderson as the prim older lady. Our motley crew crash land near a deserted Pacific atoll (in shark-infested waters….) and discover its going to be the target for an atomic bomb test in a few hours. Can they disable the signal in time ….. Its nicely worked out – I enjoyed it when I saw it as a kid, fun to see again now.

A GIRL NAMED TAMIKO - In between churning out those action hits like THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and THE GREAT ESCAPE John Sturges also helmed some surprising choices like the Lana Turner sudser BY LOVE POSSESSED and this choice item from 1962: A GIRL NAMED TAMIKO. I can only presume Sturges and the cast signed on for the trip to Japan [probably a rarity back then], as a lot of it does look like it was shot there and not by the second unit.

1962 was one of Laurence Harvey’s busier years what with this, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and WALK ON THE WILD SIDE and that unseen Cinerama Grim(m) film. Here he is, if you please, as a half-Russian and half-Chinese but is still the same Laurence Harvey we know and love, going through the film with a pained expression (maybe to signify the Chinese or Russian part of his character?) as the photographer willing to go to any lengths for that visa to America. Its set in Tokyo among the expat colony, but Miyoski Umeki would seem to be only real Japanese involved. France Nuyen as Tamiko, whom Larry falls for, is actually half-French, half-Vietnamese (and she looked a lot prettier as Liat back in SOUTH PACIFIC). Martha Hyer though sizzles as the girl from the Embassy (a variation on her country club girl roles) with the hots for Larry. Good to see Michael Wilding and Gary Merrill gainfully employed in supporting roles. An interesting curiosity then, courtesy of Hal Wallis. It isn't really that racy even if the poster screams: "He was half oriental, but he used the women of two continents without shame or guilt!"

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE – Harvey again in another lulu from 1962 and one of the best trash classics ever, as directed by Edward Dmytryk with that pounding Elmer Bernstein score and that great credit sequence with the prowling cat. (Jazzman Jimmy Smith also had a hit with this theme). Laurence Harvey, as expressionless as ever, hunts for his lost love Capucine in the bordellos of New Orleans in the 1930s, from the well-known novel by Nelson Algren. The movie is quite tame though but the cast are fascinating: young Jane Fonda as Kitty Twist, on the road with Harvey and later in the cat house owned by Barbara Stanwyck who wants haughty sculptress Capucine for herself. There is something fascinating about Capucine, I just like watching her. Anne Baxter has a supporting role here as Teresina, the Italian café owner, who would like Harvey to stay on with her. It all comes to a steaming climax at Stanwyck’s cathouse … one to savour then.

THE CARPETBAGGERS – I really enjoyed this when re-saw it recently. It’s a trash classic made by experts: again directed by Dmytryk in ‘64, script by John Michael Hayes, dressed by Edith Head and another Bernstein score (which sounds rather like a rehash of Walk On the Wild Side). Its enormous fun as Jason Cord (the man you love to hate, as portrayed by George Peppard) discovers why he is such a heel and tries to destroy everyone. Its of course a variation on the Howard Hughes story as novelised by Harold Robbins, and is much more fun than Scorsese’s attempt on the Hughes story in THE AVIATOR. Alan Ladd turns in his final role as the cowboy Nevada Smith (who Steve McQueen also portrayed), Carroll Baker is rather wasted as the Jean Harlow type star, Martin Balsam and Robert Cummings deliver great characters and Martha Hyer comes in late and is sensational, then there is Elizabeth Ashley as Peppard’s real love interest. It plays like a cartoon strip and is terrific fun, even now.

THE SINGING NUN – this 1966 monstrosity has been kept hidden for the last 40 or so years here in the UK, until TCM UK decided to haul it out of mothballs for our enjoyment. Is there a more enjoyably awful bad movie? Its tragic in a way, considering what happened to the real Singing Nun, whose “Dominique” was one of the first records I bought as an early teen. Here we have Debbie Reynolds in her worst performance as the simpering sister playing her guitar in Belgium. Add in Greer Garson as the condescending Mother Superior, Agnes Moorehead as the crotchety nun and IMITATION OF LIFE’s Juanita Moore is lost as the happy black nun, Chad Everett is Debbie’s ex-beau, and Ricardo Montalban is an unsufferably cheerful priest. Katharine Ross puts in an early appearance. The ending is downright laughable as Sister Debbie gives up her music as it was taking her away from her vocation, and there she is like a Madonna (or Madonna) holding up a naked black baby in Africa as the natives adore her. Old hand Henry Koster makes this one a religious movie to laugh at. The laugh is on MGM if they thought their happy nun film would equal the success of 20th's SOUND OF MUSIC!

THE LOVE MACHINE – Perhaps the trashiest of trash classics? This 1971 potboiler by Jack Haley Jr from Jacqueline Suzann’s novel was an absolute treat to finally see this year! Like THE OSCAR it is just appalling on every level, as impassive Robin Stone (John Philip Law, left with Cannon and Hemmings) schemes to become the head of a televisison station, using everyone in his way, but meet his match in Dyan Cannon as the ruthless wife of tycoon Robert Ryan (who lends dignity to his role). Dyan demands a key to Law’s apartment so she can call in whenever she wants but naturally she is not pleased to drop by and find him having a threesome in the shower with two young nubile lovelies, so of course she douses the bed in petrol and sets the room ablaze. Then there is David Hemmings enjoying himself hugely as the very gay and camp photographer (a twist on his BLOW-UP persona perhaps?) who also has the hots for John – the film comes to a hilarious climax as he, his pink-clad boyfriend, Dyan and Law fight for an incriminating bracelet that will prove Law is a “fag” (the word must have been in common usage then, as Dyan tosses it around all the time) which means Dyan can get him sacked from his tv post! The girl playing Amanda the model is also terrible and comedian Shecky Greene is unbearable [like Tony Bennett in THE OSCAR]. A hooker is brutally beaten up by our ‘hero’ and as for the homophobia … there is though a nice Dionne Warwick theme song!

Perhaps I should also endeavour to catch up with DOCTORS’ WIVES, THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT and ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH ? Though too much trash can make one very queasy …

A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY – an “arty” choice to finish with. This Elio Petri (he also directed INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION) 1969 film reunites lovers Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero from CAMELOT and is a riot of late 60s symbolism – any film that begins with Franco Nero in his underpants tied to a chair with rope, as Vanessa enters casually removing her panties and then proceeds to bite his nipples has to be worth a look. Is it a dream or one of the mad artist’s delusions? It makes one wonder if respected elderly thespians (Franco and Vanessa are married now) look back in amazement at what they were paid to do as the Swinging 60s drew to a close and the counterculture collapsed. If so, they will have a ball watching this one. Vanessa went on to perform that deformed nun in Ken Russell's THE DEVILS while Franco stripped and went Romany in THE VIRGIN AND THE GYPSY. Redgrave and Nero are presumably more staid now as they are reunited in this new rom-com LETTERS TO JULIET...

Here's a link to Franco in a jockstrap from one of those euro movies that never showed up here in London: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-lOPgxDDQc

Next: back to art house: Antonioni's IL GRIDO, Visconti's SANDRA, Bergman's THE MAGICIAN, Truffaut's LE PEAU DEUCE.

Another batch of '50s rarities ...

O HENRY’S FULL HOUSE – This 1952 20th Century Fox compendium of 5 O Henry stories has never surfaced anywhere during my 40 years here in England, so when I saw it on Amazon I just had to get it, and its quite nice if nothing very special. Odd for a film about one writer’s work it is introduced by another: the much better known John Steinbeck (whom I had not seen on film before) who links the stories. It has that early ‘50s Fox look and a lot of those young Fox players of the time, but the most interesting sequence is a practically wordless one of hobo Charles Laughton trying to get back into jail for the winter – Marilyn Monroe appears for maybe a minute as the streetwalker he insults, and its just great seeing them together. Oddly enough the story directed by Howard Hawks works least of all and is rather bizarre - but Fox stalwarts Henry Hathaway, Jean Negulseco, Henrys Koster and King direct the other episodes: cop Dale Robertson having to arrest old school pal Richard Widmark (guying his tough guy image) is a lively diversion; poor newly weds Jeanne Crain and Farley Granger trying to afford Christmas presents is nicely touching; and sisters Anne Baxter and Jean Peters play in an amusing anecdote with Gregory Ratoff.

CARNIVAL STORY – This was a dim childhood memory but I really enjoyed seeing it again now. Anne Baxter is terrific as the poor girl joining a carnival touring Germany and rising from washing dishes to being the headline act with a daring trapeze stunt, as she falls for no-good hunk Steve Cochran and marries trapeze star Lyle Bettger (usually a western heavy, but nicely effective here). George Nader also gets involved and good old Jay C Flippen runs the show. Anne runs the gamut and the stuntwork is effectively done and it all comes to an enjoyable climax. Nice period feel and colour, as directed by a Kurt Neumann for RKO. A perfect programmer for 1954 then. Glynis Johns did a similar trapeze act in a British compendium of Somerset Maugham stories (ENCORE) which may well have influenced this one.

THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER – This was a real delight, a ’56 programmer which I thought would be a cheapo effort but it’s a Scope and color Fox production from producer Buddy Adler and directed by Raoul Walsh and headlines Jane Russell in one of her bad girls trying to go good mode. Mamie is a hard-boiled but good-humoured dame being run out of San Francisco and put on a cargo ship to Hawaii – the only other passenger is writer Richard Egan. They both know the score but get involved anyway. He already has a fiancée waiting for him, and Mamie heads for the local dancehall with hostesses or is it really a brothel? It is run though by no nonsense madam Agnes Moorehead who has had a makeover and is blonde and quite glamorous here, as aided by henchman Michael Pate she keeps the girls in order and maximises the takings. It does not take Mamie long to see how the operation works as she becomes the star attraction and desperate Aggie has to increase her take to 60% to keep her, as Mamie begins to profit from the war buyng up cheap properties. Oh did I mention it is 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbour begins… It has a nicely dry ending and Jane is terrific here and those ‘50s costumes are delirious treats now. Below: blonde madam Agnes Moorehead lines up her gals (Jane on the left) before opening time....

INTERLUDE – another dim childhood memory, also long unseen. It’s a '57 Douglas Sirk from Universal and a Ross Hunter production – but its not even included in that recent Sirk boxset. It is set back in Sirk’s Germany in nice Munich and Salzburg locations and drenched in classical music as library assistant June Allyson at the American Embassy gets involved with broody but handsome conductor Rosanno Brazzi – but of course, he has a mentally ill wife (Marianne Koch) tended by old but wise Francoise Rosay, while doctor Keith Andes wants June to return home with him as his wife. Again its nicely resolved but there is no real chemistry between the leads. June Allyson is a curious case in that she is usually forgotten in any discussions on ‘50s leading ladies but there she was throughout the decade, all ladylike in those buttoned up blouses and white gloves, in those popular James Stewart vehicles, remakes of Carole Lombard and Norma Shearer movies (MY MAN GODFREY, THE OPPOSITE SEX (ie THE WOMEN), right up to ‘59’s Ross Hunter sudser STRANGER IN MY ARMS with Jeff Chandler, Mary Astor and Sandra Dee. Allyson is perfect though in WOMAN'S WORLD and THE OPPOSITE SEX. INTERLUDE has a yuckky theme song by the McGuire Sisters which sets the tone here ...
This was also remade in 1968 with Oscar Werner and should be worth a look.

THE TRUTH ABOUT WOMEN – and yet another childhood memory and one not seen since as again it never surfaced anywhere, until a friend got a copy recently. This is a 1957 Muriel Box film crammed with British thespians, as an aged Laurence Harvey looks back over the women in his life. Cue some of the actresses and starlets of the day: Diane Cilento, Mai Zetterling, Eva Gabor, Jackie Lane, Lisa Gastoni in amusing little playlets and gowned by Cecil Beaton, Christopher Lee is also as effective as ever. The heart of the film though is the episode with Julie Harris playing with her usual total sincerity the nice girl Harvey gets trapped with in the lift who becomes his wife and the mother to their children, but … Its all nicely put together even if Larry seems to be just playing his usual self with grey whiskers, and its certainly a period piece now, but good to see Harvey and Harris re-united after their I AM A CAMERA in ’55. English viewers of a certain vintage will be amused to see the final lady is tv Eurovision presenter Katie Boyle in a mink stole!