Festive cheer 2

Two treats lined up for holiday viewing: two Katharine Hepburn movies ideal for this time of year. THE LION IN WINTER, now spruced up in a new edition with lots of features, is an ideal Christmas film and is of course a feast of acting with Hepburn and OToole firing on all cylinders as Henry II and his warring brood celebrate Christmas at Chinon in 1183, and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine is left out of prison for the holidays. Anthony Harvey crafts a solid entertainment from James Goldman's play, and John Barry's faux medieval score is one of his best. It looks great too. I had already met Jane Merrow (label) and seen Timothy Dalton on the stage, so knew how good they were, and John Castle was fresh from BLOW-UP.
It was marvellous seeing it for the first time on the widescreen of the old Odeon Haymarket back in 1968, I still have the souvenir brochure. Hepburn dazzled us then.

DESK SET from 1957 is a more recent discovery, and may be my favourite Tracy-Hepburn, but has that long central act at the office christmas party, where Kate, splendid in red, does a delicious tipsy scene with Joan Blondell, Tracy is fun for a change, and Kate even sings "Night and Day"! (More on DESK SET at Kate label). 

It may also be time to have another look at CAROL, taking us back to that Christmas in 1950s New York, when Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara meet at the department store ......

An Olly double bill: The System / The Triple Echo

Back to 1964 and 1972 for these interesting Oliver Reed films, from that time when the British film industry was thriving ... This is my 2008 IMDB review of THE SYSTEM (now getting screenings on UK tv):

"A blast from the past for those young in the early 60s is the belated DVD release of THE SYSTEM (US Title: THE GIRL-GETTERS) made in 63 and released in 64 - when I saw it aged 18 when it would have played here in the UK for a week on release as part of a double bill and then promptly vanished without trace until I saw the DVD yesterday. It comes with a nice 8 page booklet too setting the film in context which is a model of its kind, if only more DVD re-issues followed suit! (The Best of British Collection: "films that entertained the post-war generation"). Its the kind of movie that talks to you if you are the age of the characters on screen ...

The film directed by Michael Winner with marvellous black and white photography by Nicholas Roeg (and a title song by The Searchers!) is set in one of those English seaside towns (Torbay and Brixham in Devon) following a gang of young men, led by the then very charismatic Oliver Reed, and their amorous pursuits over the summer and is actually a perfect compendium of European cinema trends of the time - there are Antonioniish moments (the tennis game here has a real ball) and it ends like LA DOLCE VITA in a Felliniesque dawn at the beach as the disillusioned characters realise the summer is over. Fellini's I VITELLONI is also a reference here. The script by Peter Draper anticipates elements of DARLING and BLOW-UP (particularly that long scene with Reed and Merrow at his apartment, and yes, her blown-up photos are pinned to the walls too - he too is a photographer becoming disillusioned with it all). 

It sports a great cast of English young players of the time (Barbara Ferris, Julia Foster, Ann Lynn, John Alderton) as well as reliables like Harry Andrews. Of the young cast David Hemmings (rather in the background here) would two years later personify the 60s when chosen by Antonioni for his lead in BLOW-UP. Jane Merrow (Hemmings' girlfriend of the time, and a replacement for Julie Christie who was doing BILLY LIAR) is perfect as Nicola the cool rich girl whom Reed falls for but she plays the game better than he does and is in complete command of any romance, as he realises she was just toying with him for the summer, so its payback time for all the 'birds' he discarded. (I got to meet her myself and had a nice long conversation with her when she was doing a play in 1966, while David was off filming BLOW-UP; she also co-starred in another favourite THE LION N WINTER in '68).

Winner of course may be a figure of fun now [he died in 2013], one forgets that in the '60s before those DEATH WISHES etc his films caught the moment as well as any by Richard Lester (THE SYSTEM could be Winner's THE KNACK), Losey, Schlesinger or the underrated Clive Donner, with titles like THE JOKERS and I'LL NEVER FORGET WHATS'ISNAME where Reed was meant to be his character from THE SYSTEM five years later.

In all its a perfect early '60s movie full of sounds and faces and the mood of that time just as the Swinging Era was taking off. For anyone interested in English cinema or remembers the era, its a real pleasure to see again 50+ years later !"

THE TRIPLE ECHO is perfectly 1972 too, though set in wartime England in the early Forties, and Glenda gets that 1940s look perfectly right with her swagger coats and perms. This is from a H E Bates story and is a perfect little British film of its era, as directed by Michael Apted. 
Brian Deacon is good too as the soldier who deserts to stay with Glenda on her remote farm, after fixing her tractor, and who disguises himself as her 'sister' and finds he likes it as he makes the mistake of leading on Olly's brute of an army officer .... as per my review, Glenda/Reed labels. Good to see it on television again too. They tried to jazz it up for America titling it SOLDIER IN SKIRTS with a lurid poster, but it is so much better than that. 

A very 1968 christmas - its only 44 years ago

My last year's Christmas post was about that new version of Dickens' GREAT EXPECTATIONS, there has since been a newer version, but we always return to Lean's classic .....

Back in 1968 when I was 22 [it was my hippie summer of love, left - in my hipster jeans and bell and beads, taking acid with my hippie friends at 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, seeing The Doors and Jefferson Airplane at The Roundhouse, along with The Who, Traffic, Aretha Franklin etc], Carol Reed's film of Lionel Bart's musical OLIVER seemed a curiously old fashioned film then in the year of 2001 and those hip movies of the time, but it has grown in stature over the years and is a genuine Christmas classic too now. There is so much to like in it, it looks terrific of course, marvellous cast, those well-drilled dancing kids and again some terrific musical sequences. Oliver Reed too is a very fearsome Bill Sykes, as directed by his uncle Carol Reed.

 
THE LION IN WINTER, also 1968, was a marvellous treat then, it cemented Katharine Hepburn's return to movies, great period detail with all those dark ages castles. Its a witty script of course from the play, and very well directed by Anthony Harvey. I liked the faux medieval score too by John Barry. O'Toole is in his element and the young cast excel: Jane Merrow whom I liked and had met, Timothy Dalton (I had seen him up close in a stage play at London's Royal Court, where he was one of the most magnetic actors I had seen, plus Hopkins and John Castle.  It was magical seeing it on the big screen at the Odeon Haymarket, particularly when Kate's boat sails down the river and her later in-fighting with husband O'Toole and those unruly sons. If Eleanor of Aquitaine was not really like this then she should have been.
Kate of course is in her element - Pauline Kael though did not like her at all here, as per her caustic review in "Going Steady", where she said Hepburn had become "sweet and lovable ... like Helen Hayes". It remains a great Christmas movie though. 

After Christmas: films of the year, headed by AMOUR. Maggie Smith back in cinemas in QUARTET and on television in the latest DOWNTON ABBEY Christmas Special, but I have 2 other Maggies to review: her other QUARTET for James Ivory in 1981 with Alan Bates and Isabelle Adjani; and a BBC production of MEMENTO MORI directed by Jack Clayton in 1992, which like MISS BRODIE, is from a tale by Muriel Spark. Happy Holidays! 

Perfectly '60s (2): The System: Oliver, David, Jane

Looking at THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN from 1960 again the other day, it was amusing to see Oliver Reed prance in for a minute, acting very swish and camp, into the room where Jack Hawkins and Nigel Patrick etc are planning their robbery. Just one of Olly's many small roles before all those Ken Russell and Michael Winner films.

A key one for me (being 18 and new in London) was Winner's THE SYSTEM from 1964 about a gang of youngs in an English seaside town - Torquay I think [Weymouth was the seaside town where Reed and his gang hung out in, in Losey's THE DAMNED, 1961]. David Hemmings here is quite nondescript as one of the boys - but 2 years later he would be starring one of the key roles of the '60s: the photographer in Antonioni's BLOW-UP - talk about catching the zeitgeist!

Also in THE SYSTEM is Jane Merrow, as the girl who breaks Reed's heart - she was actually Hemmings' girl at the time, and he writes nicely about her in his autobiography which he luckily finished before he died in 2003. I had a nice conversation with Jane myself in 1966 when she was doing a play in London - she went on to co-star in THE LION IN WINTER, another key 60s movie, before doing television in the States. THE SYSTEM though is well worth seeking out ...