Odds & sods

If you saw and liked IN BRUGES then THE GUARD will be for you. This laid-back laconic thriller is brought to us by John Michael McDonagh, the brother of Martin McDonagh, who was writer/director of IN BRUGES (and several other well received plays like THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE). THE GUARD is the first major film directed by John Michael McDonagh and it does not disappoint.

Set in western Ireland, it begins with four drunk/drugged teenagers crashing their car, which is found by our Guard (policeman), Brendan Gleeson (who was Colin Farrell's chum IN BRUGES). After rummaging through the pockets of one of the corpses he finds a bag of drugs, which he keeps for himself. The rest of the movie is comprised of smartass remarks and brilliant dry humor as the Guard has to help an American CIA man Don Cheadle in tracking down some gangsters smuggling drugs into the country. Mark Strong again lays claim to being the cinema's new hardman as the head gangster.

Cheadle is fun as the straight laced, by the books, FBI agent who initally finds Gleeson hard going. Add in the 2 rather too glamorous young hookers Brendan unwinds with, his ill mother, his new assistant (who has an unfortunate meeting with the gangsters on that lonely road) who turns out to be gay but married to an attractive East European girl and the pace soon hots up, climaxing in a blazing shoot out. Does our "hero" survive that burning boat? Well we are shown he is a very good swimmer ...

BEGINNERS, released in 2010, was an interesting view too. Another of Ewan McGregor's recent films I enjoyed (THE GHOST, PHILIP MORRIS I LOVE YOU - must get around to SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE too) this one finds him as cartoonist Oliver, a rather withdrawn guy looking after his widowed father Christopher Plummer who comes out as gay in his 70s and after his wife dies, he is soon disco dancing and finding a much younger partner! It is quite amusing and touching in parts, though Plummer seems to be rather on autopilot, he did though win the Best Supporting Actor statuette.  Melanie Laurent, so good in Quentin's INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, is the actress Oliver slowly gets involved with, and there is a cute dog too. It meanders along with the inevitable happening - the father's illness and death. Pleasant enough then, but not something I would want to re-visit.  Directed and written by Mike Mills.

PERMISSION TO KILL is an oddity from 1975, A Dirk Bogarde film I missed at the time, I don't think it hung around very long. When the exiled leader of a free party decides to return to his own country and attempt to remove the dictator currently in place there, several western governments are determined to stop him. A group is assembled, consisting of old friends, former lovers and hired assassins in order to dissuade him from returning "before his time". This group is appalled at the lengths to which western intelligence will go to stop the man from returning, and they conspire together to allow him to leave. Their plans, however, are anticipated by western intelligence which will stop at nothing to stop him, no matter who gets in the way, as the blurb puts it.

A convoluted thriller then with Bogarde headlining as the icy head of "western intelligence" manipulating everyone, good to see him and Ava Gardner re-teamed (after their 1960 failure THE ANGEL WORE RED), Ava is marvellous here, while Timothy Dalton is the very gay civil servant blackmailed into being of (temporary) use. Set in Austria and directed by Cyril Frankel, it is as cynical and manipulative as one would imagine, interesting to catch up with now though, and oh so '70s.

A FAIRLY COMPLICATED GIRL - Some films annoy one so much one wishes to yank them out of the player and toss them in the garbage bin. Such a one is this 1969 "thriller" by Damiano Damiani (who helmed an interesting little film in 1962: ARTURO'S ISLAND). The leads Jean Sorel and Catherine Spaak were ideal in a 1960 discovery of mine last year - DOLCE IGNANNI (or THE ADOLESCENTS) by Alberto Lattuda (Sorel, Italian labels) which had that nice black and white early 60s Italian look in spades and it was a poignant drama) - this though is late '60s trash with psychedelic touches as our aimless amoral couple - she is often naked, he though is just seen either taking off or putting on his trousers; then there is the sensational Florinda Bolkan in her debut in that amazing bikini, but it is a subsidiary part to our boring leads. Not one of Sorel's better efforts then, the beard suits him though.

Fantasy double bill: Lizard / Ashes

LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN from 1971 is another of those steamy Italian giallo thrillers with heightened drama and piling on the exotica, by stalwart Lucio Fulci. I liked those two I saw a while back: SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS with Jean Sorel and Ingrid Thulin and Barbara Bach, which was stunningly done and involving, and Sorel again with Carroll Baker in one of theirs, A QUIET PLACE FOR A KILL in 1970.

This one is all about Florinda Bolkan - that stunning Brazilian who came to prominence in Visconti's THE DAMNED in '69 and was the lead in De Sica's A BRIEF VACATION, as well as her Lola Montez in Dick Lester's ROYAL FLASH in '75 (see previous post....). Here she is Carol who is having very realistic dreams or nightmares where she is involved with the sex crazed lesbian who lives next door - cue lots of girl on girl action which takes a violent twist when the said neighbour is found stabbed to death, with Carol's fur coat and scarf nearby .... in Carol's nightmares she is the guilty party who then realises after the stabbing that she is being watched by two hippies who are out of their minds on acid.... What is real and what is fantasy or nightmare? Is Carol being set up? Carol dreamed the killing, and there are her prints all over the place. She claims she didn't kill her, but then who? Can Carol's father find out and put the blame? Will the police detectives solve the crime, which could be a set-up. There are several striking sequences such as Carol fighting her way through a crowded train corridor when suddenly all the other people on the train are naked....

Fulci takes the viewer on a convoluted journey through Carol's psyche, with the various endless corridors, winding staircases and labyrinthine buildings through which she finds herself being pursued (whether by actual physical forces or her own subconscious) reflecting her confused and deeply convoluted mental anguish.

The supporting cast is similarly excellent, combining famous British faces - an older Stanley Baker as the investigating policeman and QUO VADIS's Leo Genn (that dependable English actor) as her wealthy father, and as her husband giallo regular Jean Sorel who really has not too much to do here. The sets are opulent and there is that chase through the deserted Alexandra Palace, which features a bat attack clearly influenced by Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. Other London locations are well used too, and there is the usual Morricone score. The ending is quite a revelation....

What I actually enjoyed more was the 1965 British thriller RETURN FROM THE ASHES, a long unseen item, by stalwart J. Lee Thompson, shot in Panavision monochrome by Christopher Challis with a good score by Johnny Darkworth (who also did those scores for THE SERVANT and MODESTY BLAISE among others). This is an involving thriller heading by Ingrid Thulin terrific as ever as the woman returning to Paris from the concentration camps - we first see her on a crowded train unaware of her surroundings as an annoying child falls from the train, her tattoo visible on her arm. She books into a cheap hotel in Paris and even her old work colleague Herbert Lom does not initially recognise her. Before the war she had married an opportunistic chess player Maximilian Schell but is he really carrying on with her tease of a step-daughter Samantha Eggar?

It turns out that Thulin is now a very wealthy woman and Eggar and Max want to get their hands on it. Sam spots Thulin in the street and realises they could use her to pose as her mother, whom they believe died in the camps, to get their hands on the money. Ingrid goes along with this, not telling them who she really is. The plot twists and turns, with a very good bathroom scene, until final retribution. It is actually very enjoyable and the 3 leads excel. Highly recommended - if you can find it!

Fantasy double bill: Royal Flash & Gerard

Richard Lester's films always please. Nice to see his 1975 ROYAL FLASH is available again. This is a pleasing spoof on THE PRISONER OF ZENDA with a who's who of British talent: an early part for Bob Hoskins, the final appearance of an aged Alistair Sim and that trio of Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in their prime, plus Christopher Casenove, Britt Ekland and the spectacular Brazilian Florinda Bolkan as that very spirited adventuress Lola Montez (her motto being "Courage and shuffle the cards") as they love and fight across 19th century Europe.

Flashman of course is the creation of George MacDonald Fraser with that sequence of novels and who scripted this and Lester of course adds those touches which make his films from A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and HELP! on so enjoyable. This, like his ROBIN AND MARIAN and the two MUSKETEERS films are perfectly in period while also being exciting and damned funny, and also puts a great cast through their paces. (one Lester I missed was his '76 thriller JUGGERNAUT, and of course his 1967 San Francisco based PETULIA with Julie Christie is a deservedly cult movie, and those little seen items like THE BED SITTING ROOM and HOW I WON THE WAR). It is one of McDowell's better roles (like his H G Wells in TIME AFTER TIME) [there's a cult movie to discuss!] and he seems to be having great fun here as do all the cast, including Roy Kinnear, and boxer Henry Cooper. (McDowell strips again, Bates stays dressed this time).



Here, we first meet the coward and braggart Flash cavorting with famous courtesan Lola Montez and getting his bottom spanked with her bristly hairbrush, thus interrupting the aria of singer Margaret Courtenay (splendid as ever) leading to the two ladies having a duel at dawn! Reed is the glowering Otto Von Bismarck who also is enraged by Flash at the gaming tables of Victorian London, and then Bates turns up as the dastardly Rupert of Hentzau-like villain with the plan for Flash to impersonate a European prince! There are some splendid set-pieces among the alpine castles involving Tom Bell and others, as our "hero" ends up fighting in Kabul, Afghanistan - also a dangerous war zone back then!



This would make a terrific double bill with Jerzy Skolimowski's 1970 caper THE ADVENTURES OF GERARD, from Conan Doyle about the hussar Gerard and his adventues during the Napoleonic wars, with Peter McEnery in his element as Gerard, with Claudia Cardinale and stalwards Eli Wallach and Jack Hawkins (complete with voice box). This is just a memory though as the film has not been available for ages, one of those lost European films like Schlondorff's MICHAEL KOHLHAAS from '68 with David Warner and Anna Karina, about the horse trader (Warner) seeking justice no matter what cost to himself, or Cacoyannis' bizarre THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT from 1967, already discussed here (1960s label), or Tony Richardson's THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR or ....