Lists: Those Trash Classics ....

We have been here before - call them what you will: Bad Movies We Love, Guilty Pleasures, Trash or Utter Trash ... those delirious melodramas and just plain bad movies that are so enjoyable - most of the great ladies did some: Lana and Susan and Joan and Bette specialised in them later in their careers, while other great ladies like Olivia and sister Joan dipped their toes in the muddy waters too. 

I have covered them in more detail in my earlier reviews - click on Trash-A label to read on ...http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/trash-favourites.html

Right now, I list them:

• PORTRAIT IN BLACK - Lana's crowning epic, from 1960 (whereas IMITATION OF LIFE is a cult classic)
• LOVE HAS MANY FACES - Lana does Acapulco, with Ruth Roman and those beach boy bums in speedos in 1966
• WHERE LOVE HAS GONE - Susan and Bette go head to head in this 1964 stinker 
• I THANK A FOOL - Susan and Finch should have been a great team but not in this weird meller shot in Ireland ...
• ADA - Susan in fighting form
  
• BACK STREET - the best of the Susan's ?, 1961
• STOLEN HOURS - love Susan's British remake of Bette' DARK VICTORY, in 1963
• SERENADE - Fontaine is stupendous in this Mario Lansz sudser, 1956
• ISLAND IN THE SUN - Joan 'romances' Harry Belafonte ... 1957
• LADY IN A CAGE - sister Olivia is trapped
• THE SINGING NUN - Debbie's worst in 1966, a travesty of the real Nun's Story
• A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME - Shelley chomps the scenery. 1964.
• SYLVIA - a Carroll Baker epic, its delirious, its delovely 
• SINCERELY YOURS - Liberace's sickly starrer, with Dot Malone and Joanne Dru competing for him ... a 1956 howler.
• MAMBO - a 1954 discovery, torrid saga with Silvana Mangano and Shelley Winters, in Italy.
• FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN - the perfect 1957 Universal-International meller, as is:
  
• THE FEMALE ANIMAL - thats Hedy Lamarr in 1957 with Jan Sterling, splendid as ever.
• GO NAKED IN THE WORLD - Gina ! 1960.
• THE CHAPMAN REPORT - Shelley, Glynis, Claire, young Jane Fonda ... we love Cukor's starry drama, The Higher Trash.
• THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER - Jane Russell ! with Agnes Moorehead as the madam, 1956.
• A GIRL NAMED TAMIKO - one of Laurence Harvey's worst 
• WALK ON THE WILD SIDE - ditto, but with Stanwyck, Capucine, Fonda, Baxter ...
• THE LOVE MACHINE - a scream with gay David Hemmings and Dyan Cannon both wanting John Philip Law
• THE CROWDED SKY - best of the airline disasters?, 1960
• DORIAN GRAY - Helmut ! in 1970s London 
• GOODBYE GEMINI - one of the terrible British flicks of the era, 1970 - as was:
• MY LOVER, MY SON - why Romy. why did you make this terrible film?
• 10.30 PM SUMMER - fake arty 1966 Eurofare, but it does have Melina, Romy and Peter Finch
  
• POPE JOAN - Liv may have been great in those Bergman films but made some stinkers in English, none worse than this in 1972.
• Glenda made some stinkers too, none worse than THE INCREDIBLE SARAH in 1976, where she flounces around as Bernhardt in a Readers Digest travesty. Its a scream. 
• BLUEBEARD - Edward Dmytryk helmed some Trash Classic favourites like THE CARPETBAGGERS, WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, WHERE LOVE HAS GONE, but came a cropper here, aided by Burton's worst performance, in 1972
• THE SQUEEZE - rather good Brit gangster flick, from 1977, with down on their luck Boyd, Hemmings, Carol White ...  BRANNIGAN (John Wayne) and HENNESSEY (Rod Steiger and wasted Lee Remick) were amusing mid-70s British thrillers too ...

We don't bother with the insultingly bad, like THE OSCAR or HARLOW ..... then there are the Troy Donahue and Ann-Margret clunkers, and you know how we love those Bette and Joans: TORCH SONG, HARRIET CRAIG, FEMALE ON THE BEACH, QUEEN BEE, AUTUMN LEAVES, THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, BERSERK! or two Bettes in DEAD RINGER.

A new LUDWIG

I was intrigued to see a new 4-disk Bluray of Luchino Visconti's 1973 opus LUDWIG is about to be released. I already have the 2 disk dvd, but this seemed too good to pass up, so it is on its way to me. We have covered LUDWIG and Visconti, Helmut, Romy, Silvana, Trevor Howard in detail here before, as per the labels - so more on it in due course. It should be a nice companion piece to the new Criterion bluray of Antonioni's BLOW-UP also out next week, and on its way to me from Barnes & Noble in New York. A brace of European classics then, all spruced up for the new era ...

Helmut acquits himself well here, and Romy is sheer perfection as the older, more cynical SISSI, while Trevor Howard and Mangano are ideal as the Wagners. Then there are all those attractive footmen as Ludwig battles his proclivities ... As with all Visconti films costume dramas don't get more opulent, and our perennial favourite Romy is simply stunning as the older Sissi. 
It was great seeing it initially on the large screen at a London Film Festival back then, watching at home it may be too long to see all at once, but ideal in chunks as the opulence washes over one ... its certainly up there with the other Visconti classics like SENSO, THE LEOPARD, L'INNOCENTE ...
Its a terrific package, with a 60 page booklet, a 1999 hour-long documentary on Visconti, when a lot of those who worked with him were still living and interviewed here, a documentary on Mangano and the full version of the film, in two parts, at almost 4 hours (238 minutes) or a 5 part TV version. There's also a new interview with Helmut Berger ..... Essential, then, As one review says: 
Among the scenes you’re most likely to remember – from all the versions – will be Ludwig’s wooing of the young actor Kainz in that glorious underground grotto with the swans and that charming little love boat, and Elizabeth’s visit to Ludwig’s most famous castle in the room with all those mirrors. Visually the film is a near-constant treat, with sets and costumes as gloriously garish and/or stunning as you’ll have seen. And then there’s that hunting lodge scene with all the young men perched atop and around the limbs of the giant tree that grows in the middle of the lodge.

Visconti with Romy & Helmut

Romy & Ludwig

Some lovely new photos of another of our perennial favourites Romy Schneider as Elizabeth of Austria in Visconti's 1973 opus LUDWIG. Romy had began playing Sissi in those German films of the 1950s, but returned to the role for Visconti, creating an older, more cynical Sissi who tries to help Ludwig of Bavaria - Helmut Berger is quite astonishing here too. and we also get Silvana Mangano and Trevor Howard as the Wagners, plus - as per with Visconti - a lot of handsome men. More on it at Visconti, Romy labels. 

SISSI, 1955

LUDWIG did not fare too well at the time, it hardly played in London but I saw it at the Film Festival - the dvd now has a good print and there is a lot to fascinate in it. 

Magazines 1: 'Honey' 1971 hunks calendar

Thanks to Colin for sending me this spread from a vintage magazine - girls' magazine HONEY, popular in the 1970s. I have not seen any of these before, not being a "Honey" kind of guy - I was more TOWN and all those movie magazines.....

Here though is their ad/order form for their calendar for 1971 (click to enlarge) with a hunk a month - its interesting seeing who is on it, and who are still here and still working. 

The surprise here is the inclusion of the young Ian McKellen, who seems an odd choice here, was he on the "Honey" girl's radar then? as in 1970 he had only really done a small part in ALFRED THE GREAT (with my favourites David Hemmings and Michael York, neither chosen here), A TOUCH OF LOVE with Sandy Dennis, and several television roles including a David Copperfield and Hamlet. Not quite in the same league as Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Terence Stamp, or the popular boys of the time like Leonard (ROMEO) Whiting, Martin (FELLINI SATYRICON) Potter, or Helmut Berger (Visconti's THE DAMNED and DORIAN GRAY)! Pop boys Marc Bolan, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones and Elvis also made the cut. 

Well, Sir Ian is probably the busiest name here now, Sir Tom now judges the BBC talent show "The Voice", Sir Mick does his thing, Terence looks great in the new VANITY FAIR Hollywood issue, and a weather-beaten Redford was terrific in ALL IS LOST last year. Leonard, Martin and Helmut are still here too having long shed their pretty boy images.... More hunks at Hunks label.

(I've been accused of name-dropping - thank you, Martin in Derry - when I mention I have met people, but I was chatting with Ian when out clubbing over a decade ago (at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern pub and Crash club in London); we used to see Terence around town a lot as his then apartment at The Albany in Piccadilly backed onto my office in Regent Street; Marc Bolan guested at one of the early Elton John shows I saw at Croydon in 1973, and Leonard relieved himself next to me at the Gents urinal at the BFI back in 1970, in a blue crushed velvet suit ... it didn't seem appropriate to speak though! - we were both attending a discussion on nudity in the movies (with Billie Whitelaw among others - oops there I go again), a hot topic then as actresses - and actors (as Leonard had to for Zeffirelli) - had to get their kit off for those daring new movies of the era.).

Dorian Gray: just a gigolo ?

Helmut Berger is DORIAN GRAY!    David Bowie is JUST A GIGOLO!

Here is a nice helping of juicy '70s  Eurotrash after all those highbrow items. I had not seen the 1970 DORIAN GRAY since maybe the '70s and its a delightfully kitsch period piece now as we see the petulant Dorian among the Kings Road swinging set of the time. 
I was around the Kings Road myself at that time but thankfully our paths didn't cross (though Roman Polanski passed me in the street once, near the Post Office, and I did meet Joni Mitchell and Elton John there, but those are different tales).   
This DORIAN is billed as "a modern allegory based on Oscar Wilde's work", and in fact Oscar is name-checked in the film. 

Helmut, Todd & that portrait

There's no point of giving a brief synopsis of the story as we all know it's about a man who remains perpetually young while a painting of himself ages in the attic. Dorian, as played by Helmut Berger (or Helmet as he is named on the dvd, above), hot after his sensational debut in Visconti's THE DAMNED in 1969, and the same year as his role in De Sica's FINZI CONTINI film (below) holds all in his sway including painter Basil (Richard Todd) and that witty Lord Henry (Herbert Lom - still with us now in his mid-90s).  A polyglot Euro cast is assembled: Marie Lidjedahl as Sybil Vane, Maria Rohm, Margaret Lee and best of all Isa Miranda and Eleonora Rossi Drago.

Dorian's groovy pad

It follows the usual plot with some screamingly awful 1970 interiors (like Dorian's pad with those zebra pattern curtains) or his zebra coat as he dawdles along Kings Road - and that drag pub at the start is surely the Union Tavern. Some decadent parties are involved and hi-jinks on Lord Henry's boat, where Dorian loses the soap and Lord Henry makes his move. Soon, Dorian is cruising the harbourfront in his fabulous red sports car looking for some action with hunky sailors ... and of course Sybil Vane's brother re-appears but Dorian has remained the same age ... The portrait ages nicely too. (I remember Playboy magazine at the time having some raunchy photos from this, which did not make the cut here, and the dubbing is off-kilter too at times, all part of the eurotrash soft-porn fun... if it had been filmed later in the '70s it may have had that hardcore CALIGULA or Helmut's own SALON KITTY extras ...)

Helmut & Herbert in the sauna

That outfit is groovy for the Kings Road

Dorian's source of income remains a puzzle, but more than a few grateful dowagers write him cheques ... Isa Miranda is deliciously funny here - what is Dorian doing to her in the stables?; quite a bit of money has been spent on this but it still looks deliciously seedy and sleazy. Directed by one  Massimo Dallimano and produced by Harry Allen Towers. It is all luridly decadent and the transposition to the sixties suits the material perfectly.Visconti though showcased Berger perfectly - in other hands he often appears merely petulant.

Helmut & Isa

As Dorians go though its quite nicely raunchy as the era allows for a frank portrayal of Dorian's bisexuality, promiscuity and drug addiction - hinted at so strongly in the novel, but barely glimpsed in Albert Lewin's 1945 film classic with Hurt Hatfield and George Sanders as a splendid Lord Henry. There was also that BBC "play of the month" in the mid-70s with young Peter Firth as a very petulant Dorian with sterling support from Jeremy Brett as Basil and Sir Gielgud as Lord Henry. I did not care for the recent 2009 CGI DORIAN GRAY at all with the blank Ben Barnes and Colin Firth as Wooton, complete with a daughter for Dorian to fall for!

More gigolos - a regiment of them - over at JUST A GIGOLO, the fascinatingly awful film David Hemmings directed in 1978, another polyglot Euro-pudding that wastes the likes of Maria Schell and Curt Jurgens, as well as Kim Novak and Sydne Rome. 

After World War I, a war hero returns to Berlin to find that there's no place for him--he has no skills other than what he learned in the army, and can only find menial, low-paying jobs. He decides to become a gigolo to lonely rich women.

It attracted a lot of attention at the time though (like that magazine cover, top, which I still have) as it featured the return of Marlene Dietrich, in her late '70s as the Baroness who recruits David to her regiment of gigolos. David Bowie may have been a perfect alien for Nick Roeg in THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH in '75, and ideal as a vampire with Catherine Deneuve in THE HUNGER, '83,  but he is all wrong here (as he was in MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE) - returning to Berlin after WWI with a pig under his arm to his impoverished mother (Schell) and trying to find work (as he hardly seems to be acting). David Hemmings is on hand too with his sinister army .... and David finally meets the Baroness Von Semering, with her army of gigolos.

This is a fantastic scene to observe now:
David and the gigolos are in Berlin - Marlene and the same gigolos are in a replica set in Paris where she lived; she spent 2 days filming this and also where she sings that title song - I remember buying it as a single. It is fascinating seeing how Hemmings cuts it all together as of course Bowie and Dietrich are never in the same shot. They never even met. Marlene (whom I saw on stage in '73, theatre label) is as magnetic as ever here for her final screen appearance. I prefer David though in his pop videos like "Lets Dance", "Fashion", "Blue Jean" or "Hello Spaceboy".

David & David

This should be fascinating with all that talent involved but somehow it is a fatally dreary mess, ticking every cliche in the book - veering into CABARET territory at the end with the emergence of that sinister new force.... Hemmings does his best but is defeated by the material. But the moments with Marlene are priceless. I love her vocal here: "when the end comes I know, they will say just a gigolo, and life goes on without me..."

The Garden of the Finzi-Contini's

It was certainly good to see Vittorio De Sica back with a popular and highly-regarded film in 1970 - when the likes of Pasolini and soon Fassbinder ruled the arthouse scene. THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINI'S from Giorgio Bassani's novel was a commercial success, and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. [His 1973 A BRIEF VACATION with Florinda Bolkan only ever surfaced on television in the UK and we never saw his last THE VOYAGE, in '74 with Burton and Loren, until only recently - I shall have to get around to reviewing that too].

In the late 1930s, in Ferrara, Italy, the Finzi-Contini are one of the leading families, wealthy, aristocratic, urbane; they are also Jewish. Their adult children, Micol and Alberto, gather a circle of friends for constant rounds of tennis and parties at their villa with its lovely grounds, keeping the rest of the world at bay. Into the circle steps Giorgio, a Jew from the middle class who falls in love with Micol. She seems to toy with him, and even makes love to one of his friends while she knows Giorgio is watching. While his love cannot seem to break through to her to draw her out of her garden idyll, the politic forces close in to end their idyll.

Helmut Berger & Fabio Testi

First the tennis club is off bounds to the Jewish community - so the gilded youth we see at the start have their long tennis afternoons at the gardens of the Finzi-Contini's, safe behind their high walls. Giorgio remains hopelessly in love with Micol but she sees him like a brother.  Her own brother Alberto (Helmut Berger) slowly succumbs to some malady ...

Berger & Sanda

Giorgio's brother gets away to study in France as Giorgio visits him at Grenoble with some family money. We see and share their father's concern at how events are moving, while the Finzi-Contini family seem to ignore what is happening outside their walled estate. They're different from the other Jews due to wealth and privilege. They hardly seem to know, or even care, that their rights are slowly being taken away. De Sica orchestrates events magisterially as the langurous mood at the start changes to darker colours and hues. It is only a 90 minute film but it takes it time setting up the mood and events. 

Dominique Sanda with her large, soft eyes is mesmerizing as the beautiful, enigmatic, but icy and rather malicious Micol - this role and FIRST LOVE, THE CONFORMIST, 1900 etc made her one of the great European stars of the 70s. Lino Capolicchio is her boyhood friend Giorgio whom she does not see in a romantic light - he almost forces himself on her at one stage .... Fabio Testi is Bruno Malnate that other friend who fares better with Micol, but is then sent to the Russian front ... and Paolo Stoppa plays Giorgio's worried father. The final scenes of the round ups of the Jews is effective, with De Sica's mastery evident as Micol comforts her aged grand-mother.  One wonders once again at these kind of stories why they did not escape in time or resist more forcefully ...

This is as affecting as that great 1966 Czech film Kadar's THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET - another one I must return to...along with Wertmuller's SEVEN BEAUTIES in '75 (one of the great '70s films), and that recent 1961 re-discovery THE LONG NIGHT OF '43 -and Bolognini's GRAN BOLLITO, reviews at Italian label, also about the rise of Fascism in Italy, and of course Visconti's '69 opus THE DAMNED. I have Bassani's novel - I shall now have to include it in my summer reading....

That concludes my summer arthouse revivals - now for some lurid Eurotrash .... and some more recent releases and more People We Like and Movies We Love ....

Visconti

Today, a selection of stills from Visconti films. Luchino Visconti who died in 1976 certainly left a great legacy of films and performances stretching back to the neo-realism of the '40s and LE TERRA TREMA and OBSESSIONE, and with Antonioni and Fellini remains one of that trio of great Italian directors. Performers like Bogarde, Lancaster, Delon, Schneider, Cardinale, Valli blossomed in films like SENSO, THE LEOPARD, SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA), the sensational THE DAMNED. DEATH IN VENICE and his monumental LUDWIG may be his most personal, and that interesting last two: CONVERSATION PIECE and his swansong with L'INNOCENTE in 1976 - one of the most ravishing costume films ever. Did any director do period recreations like Visconti, making films like THE LEOPARD endlessly fascinating and re-watchable. Its a perfect film of a book I love. SENSO from '54 also has a stunning peformance by Alida Valli. Visconti of course was an aristocrat [the Duke of Modrone] and, as per the books on him, certainly lived like one - reports of dining at the Visconti castle recall a lost world of opulence. His theatre and opera productions were also legendary, including several key Maria Callas roles. [He also directed Delon and Schneider in Paris in '59 in a production of Ford's "Tis Pity She's A Whore", a clip of which used to be on YouTube. Michael Craig's memoir recounts how he liked working with Visconti on SANDRA and describes his working methods.]

Romy Schneider has one of her best moments in his episode from BOCCACCIO 70. Claudia is at her zenith in the 1965 drama SANDRA, and Helmut Berger was a sensation in THE DAMNED, ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS launched Alain Delon to prominence. Ingrid Thulin scores in THE DAMNED, Silvana Mangano is almost silent in DEATH IN VENICE but is perfect in LUDWIG and CONVERSATION PIECE, a very mysterious film where reclusive professor (Lancaster) clashes with the noisy Eurotrash family (headed by Mangano and Berger) who move in upstairs. Schneider's mature SISSI is stunning in LUDWIG where Berger is perfectly cast - as are Trevor Howard and Mangano as the Wagners. The whole ensemble in L'INNOCENTE from the Gabriele D'Annunzio story is superb - perhaps only SENSO, THE LEOPARD, DEATH IN VENICE and Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON are more perfectly realised period recreations. The Verdi waltz and that sumptuous long ballroom sequence in THE LEOPARD is something one can experience over and over.

above: Visconti with Schneider and Berger on LUDWIG; Schneider in BOCCACCIO 70, Berger with Thulin in THE DAMNED, which also featured Charlotte Rampling and Florinda Bolkan in eye-catching roles; Berger and Lancaster in CONVERSATION PIECE and Mangano in the same film; right: THE DAMNED. See Visconti label for more on SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA). Visconti's '67 film of Camus' THE STRANGER with Mastroianni seems totally unavailable now, and of course his earlier films like BELLISSIMA with Magnani and WHITE NIGHTS are hard to see now.