All is lost, or: the old man and the sea

ALL IS LOST. Finally, a look at this very compelling film about a lone sailor battling the elements, and the only person in it is Robert Redford. I saw this just after the great 1975 thriller THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR on Sky TV, when RR was in his '70s prime, quite a contrast to the the craggy older Redford on screen here (Spencer Tracy was 58 when he made his old man and the sea film back in 1958: THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, from Hemingway, Redford is 77 here). Reading the IMDB comments on ALL IS LOST it seems a very divisive film with lots of interpretations ....

Deep into a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed man (Redford) wakes to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water after a collision with a shipping container left floating on the high seas. With his navigation equipment and radio disabled, the man sails unknowingly into the path of a violent storm. Despite his success in patching the breached hull, his mariner's intuition and a strength that belies his age, the man barely survives the tempest. Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the face.

SPOILERS AHEAD: Is the ending left deliberately oblique so the viewer can make up their own mind? The question is does he die? Those big container cargo ships do not see him, and finally he has to set his rubber dinghy alight to attract attention. When that too fails he is left with nothing - and slowly sinks into the ocean - too deep to to be rescued perhaps, then he sees a white light, he swims to the light and a hand reaches out for him....or maybe a small boat arrives (from where?) and the hand reaches down to him which he suddenly finds the energy to swim towards ...

What I found jarring, was his total silence. Who does not or would not talk to themselves if alone at sea, facing disaster after disaster, from waking to see his boat damaged to its eventual sinking ..... he barely speaks apart from a scream and a radio message and the voiceover of the note he writes. One has to admire Redford, he is splendid tacking all these scenes. Three boats were used in the course of the film, directed by J.C. Chandor, but that ending is still a puzzle. And why does he waste water shaving? We know nothing about him, there is no back story, he does not even seem a good sailor - as per IMDB comments. It all reminded me of another man at sea drama: Kon Ichikawa's ALONE ON THE PACIFIC from 1963 where a resourceful Japanese sailor sails a boat from Japan to San Francisco bay with all the attendant hazards he faces .... (review at Japan label). Then theres the 2003 Australian OPEN WATER with that couple lost at sea ... (2000s label).

Next: Before the London BFI's 2015 LGBT festival, a gay mini-festival here, with PRIDE / CUCUMBER / THE DRESSER / HOCKNEY / LOVE IS STRANGE.
Then: that HOUSE OF CARDS re-boot, Plus dipping into that Shakespeare lot: Olivier's OTHELLO, Orson's FALSTAFF (CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT), Polanski's MACBETH (plus McKellen's and Nicol Williamson's), HAMLETs by Olivier, Branagh, Richardson, Zeffirelli, Kosintsev and the BBC, Olivier's Shylock for the National's MERCHANT OF VENICE and more ...plus some more Trash Classics, and a return to European cinema with more Romy Schneider, Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni ...

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.).

Showpeople: miscellaneous photos

Here are some random photos of various people we like ....

A lovely shot of Romy Schneider, and a nice shot I had not seen before of the young Lee Remick (thanks, Colin); Lilli Palmer and Romy in 1958; Sophia, Romy and Alain Delon at that 1962 Cannes Film Festival; Sophia and Ingrid, also 1958, Sophia and Barbra at the FUNNY GIRL opening night in London in 1966 (I saw it during its run then), and Sophia and Robert Redford this year. We are looking forward to Sophia's new book out next month, with perhaps her final word on her life and career ... 

MIA: The Company You Keep

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, Another missing in action one here, this 2012 film directed by Robert Redford never opened here at all. How on earth could this be? It features Redford, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Shia LeBeouf, Nick Nolte, Stanley Tucci, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Elliott and others in a strong drama that tries to follow in the steps and look of those classic ‘70s political thrillers (like THE PARALLAX VIEW), but is not quite up in that league. 

We follow Redford, a former political activist, going on the run (again, as he did in THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR in‘75) as he realises he is in danger when Sarandon (a terrorist who has been in hiding for decades for anti-Vietnam activities over 40 years ago) is arrested. One could carp that Redford in his 70s is too old here (particularly as he has a 11 year old daughter), but hey he was back this last year sailing single-handed in just as much peril! (in ALL IS LOST). 

Its a sympathetic look at the wrinkled radicals and survivors of the 1960s protest movements. "I grew up," asserts lawyer Jim Grant (Redford), explaining his decision to adopt a new identity, get married, have a kid, and pursue a purposeful career. Admirable, perhaps, but kind of dull; whereas his unrepentant ex-girlfriend (Christie), who's proud to be "running good honest weed" off the coast of California rather than doing something legal and bad like looting pension funds.

Obviously worth watching but it could have been so much better, perhaps that’s the usual problem with actors directing themselves as well as a large cast in a strongly-plotted story. 
It is interesting seeing those '60s icons Redford and Christie together at last - she looks better than he does! It would have been fascinating too if his BUTCH CASSIDY co-star Katharine Ross (Mrs Sam Elliott) had joined them here ...

1966: The Chase, Hurry Sundown, Harper ...

Here's 3 big dramas from that terrific year 1966 - see previous posts below. I didn't see either THE CHASE or HURRY SUNDOWN (filmed in 1966, released here early 1967) at the time, but remember liking HARPER or THE MOVING TARGET as it was called here, with Paul Newman as Ross McDonald's laconic private eye, with 4 terrific dames in tow (Bacall, Janet Leigh, Julie Harris, Shelley Winters). First though, Penn's riveting THE CHASE, a Sam Spiegel production for Columbia, scripted by Lillian Hellman from Horton Foote's story - add in a powerhouse cast and a John Barry score and watch sparks fly ...

The moral foundation of a small Texas town is torn apart in this explosive drama about power and greed. Sheriff Calder isn't the only person chasing Bubber Reeves when he escapes from prison. Oil and cattle baron Val Rogers wants Bubber out of the way to cover up the love affair between his son Jake and Bubber's wife Anna. THE CHASE is on. When bigotry and booze propel the townsfolk into a vigilante mob, Calder's wife tries to convince her husband that he doesn't have to bring Bubber in alive. But the sheriff is fighting for justice and he won't be stopped until the shattering climax. No one escapes untouched in acclaimed director Arthur Penn's action-packed drama. 

That about sums it up .... the stunning cast here comprises Brando in one of his better '60s roles (he was back in the deep south the next year in Huston's REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, in a totally different role and milieu... as we will discover in due course), with Angie Dickinson terrific as ever as his wife. Brando has another great scene where he is beaten up (as in ONE EYED JACKS); the town bullies are a venal mob fuelled by booze and their dissatisfied wives - Martha Hyer is terrific as a drunk, and Janice Rule scores too. Miriam Hopkins has some good moments as Bubber's mother, E.G. Marshall is the local Mr Big with Robert Duvall an employee. At the centre of the film though are a terrific trio: young Robert Redford as blighted golden boy Bubber, Jane Fonda in one of her better roles as his wife, having a long romance with Jake, - James Fox, surprisingly effective in this milieu, after his roles in THE SERVANT and KING RAT (see below). 

The core of the film is the meeting of this trio at the local junkyard before the mob turn up .... the drunken violence that escalates is brilliantly depicted by Penn - who of course went on to BONNIE & CLYDE next. I don't know why I didn't see this at the time, I would have enjoyed it a lot, with that cast - but its certainly worth seeing now. For a 1966 film it also prefigures those political assassinations in 1968 - as one just knows what is going to happen as Bubber is being brought in. The portrayal of small-town bigotry, duplicity, jealousy, betrayal, and infidelity is well-done, with great scope and colour, and the spectacular junkyard climax is a chilling finale.... the ironic aftermath shows the Sheriff and his wife leaving town, which is certainly a circle of hell as depicted here.  THE CHASE aims for significance and I think achieves it, a key mid-'60s American film, whereas HURRY SUNDOWN falls flat on its face, a hilariously awful cartoon ...

Jane Fonda was back down south in Otto Preminger's production HURRY SUNDOWN, which is a prime slice of southern trash now. This is a much reviled film and finally seeing it one can see why .... as in THE CHASE the 'n' word is used a lot (as of course was 'fag' in those movies like THE LOVE MACHINE). This though is a lurid potboiler with all the usual Preminger finesse, which Horton Foote also had a hand in writing. Otto is a curious case, after his '40s classics like LAURA and his "interesting" '50s films like CARMEN JONES he seemed to hit his peak for me with ANATOMY OF A MURDER and ADVISE AND CONSENT (review at gay interest label) (I missed and never cared for EXODUS) while THE CARDINAL was more tedious histrionics (but at least had Romy Schneider) .... I still have one of his last and reputed worst SKIDOO to see, some rainy day, or snowy night by the fire ...

The dramatics on show here play like a demented comedy now as we watch Alfie and Barbarella and her blonde angel with Bonnie Parker ... Michael Caine is the hissable cartoon villain and Jane Fonda is wasted as his wife, apart from that scene with the saxaphone! are the rich folk, while John Philip Law in dungarees and Faye Dunaway in her first main role are the dirt poor relatives on that plot of land which Caine just has to get for the evil company who wants it and the neighbouring plot by poor but honest black folk Robert Hooks and his soon-to-expire mother, Beah Richards, who was Fonda's Mammy. Sassy Diahann Carroll is soon on their side as unscrupulous Caine will stop at nothing, not even that Southern accent of his!
This is comedy drama with broad brushstrokes as the whites are depicted as venal and corrupt and bigoted, and the blacks are all noble salts of the earth .... Burgess Meredith chews scenery as a corrupt judge with Jim Backus on the side of the good folk, while George Kennedy is the sleazy local chief of police, fond of getting down with the coloured folks, and Madeleine Sherwood reprises her Sisterwoman from CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Fonda finally comes to her senses and leaves her snivelling husband who has one more ace up his sleeve in flooding the land .... while Law and Dunaway share their passion on his return from combat overseas - this is all supposed to be 1945 but hardly looks it. HURRY SUNDOWN is a delicious piece of southern fried trash then - one should ask friends around and serve appropriate food and drink and howl along with it .... particularly when Caine is in full panto villain mode ...

HARPER: Lew Harper, a cool private investigator, is hired by a wealthy California matron to locate her kidnapped husband. Jack Smight's 1966 thriller is still a nifty piece of cinema catching Newman in his prime - remember how he retrieves yesterday's coffee grounds from the trashcan to make some more coffee, as the credits unroll?. This time the in-joke is that it is Lauren Bacall as the rich dame who hires him to solve the case (she played the daughter of General Sherwood who hires Bogart in THE BIG SLEEP), Janet Leigh is effective as his ex-wife frying those eggs, Shelley Winters is the ex-child movie star "who got fat", and best of all, Julie Harris as the junkie jazz singer singing that song "Living Alone", words by Dory and music by Andre Previn (they also did "You're Gonna Hear From Me" from that year's INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (Natalie Wood label), another Warner biggie then. 

Add in Robert Wagner, Rober Webber, Strother Martin and sizzling young Pamela Tiffin and the scene is set for a tightly-plotted detective scenario. Smight of course went on to the delicious NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY (Remick label). Newman is in his prime here after HUD and went on to LADY L with Loren, and COOL HAND LUKE, and of course had done TORN CURTAIN with Julie Andrews for Hitch ...the one Hitch movie I had no interest in seeing. Good to see him here with marvellous Julie Harris (see Harris label), he had tested for EAST OF EDEN, as per those tests with James Dean. Nice also to see Jacqueline De Wit again (the fearsome Mona Plash in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Rock Hudson label).
HARPER is still a terrific movie with a great cast in their prime, even for non-Newman devotees like me, and catches that mid-'60s vibe nicely (where Americans were growing Beatle haircuts and dancing the frug) like the next year's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. Photographed by Conrad Hall with a cool score by Johnny Mandel.

Next 60s: SHIP OF FOOLS, THE COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG, and more Deep South shenanigans with REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, TOYS IN THE ATTIC and SUMMER AND SMOKE, and Lumet's THE SEAGULL and THE DEADLY AFFAIR - '60s dramas at their best then.

Natalie - a double feature ...

LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER - Another one not seen since its release here in London in 1964, we liked those Robert Mulligan films then, produced by Alan J Pakula - before he started directing. Another too of those nice black and white movies of that era (like LILITH, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, BAY OF ANGELS), it is also a nice New York film of the period, set in the Italian-American milieu, like BLACK ORCHID or MOONSTRUCK, as nice Italian girl Natalie Wood, a Macys shopgirl, deals with her protective family of Mama and 3 brothers (led by Herschel Bernardi) who want to see her marry nice guy Tom Bosley .... but Angie (Nat) has her own ideas - she is pregnant for starters, from a one-night stand with a jazz musician, Steve McQueen, defining cool again. It starts nicely as musicians turn up to be hired and she has him paged over the tannoy. He barely remembers her, but she just wants the name of a doctor she can go to .... after misunderstandings he takes her for the abortion but of course they don't go through with it; she finally leaves home and get a nice little apartment and he begins to see her in a new light ...

Edie Adams (left) is a delight in the small role of Steve's casual girlfriend, a nightclub gal, particularly amusing when she returns to her apartment and finds he has installed Angie there. McQueen always worked best with a good female lead, as with Natalie here, Lee Remick (in that other nice Mulligan, BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL in '65), or with Dunaway in THOMAS CROWN (Dunaway, McQueen labels). The early '60s was Natalie's best time - she had been a child actress in the 40s, the 50s saw her playing daughter to Margaret Sullavan, Bette Davis and others, then her iconic roles in THE SEARCHERS and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE; she was Warners' mid-50s star, along with Tab Hunter, before the arrival of the new ingenues like Sandra Dee, Carol Lynley and Tuesday Weld. In 1958 she was MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR in the Warners sudser, followed by the love interest in CASH McCALL and one of the ALL THE FINE YOUR CANNIBALS with husband Wagner in 1960 (Wood label). Then the early 60s saw her hits like WEST SIDE STORY, GYPSY (a favourite musical), SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER was another, and INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (Natalie label). SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL and THE GREAT RACE were so-so, but she was certainly a Hollywood veteran. She was only 43 by the time of her mysterious death in 1981. 

THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, was another good drama for her in 1966, her second with the rising Robert Redford, after DAISY CLOVER. (She also pops up for a moment in his THE CANDIDATE).. We are back to Tennessee Williams here, even if minor Williams, as directed by Sydney Pollack, and co-written by Francis Coppola.

Sultry women, sweltering weather, and a handsome new stranger in town ... A railroad official, Owen Legate comes to Dodson, Mississippi to shut down much of the town's railway (town's main income). Owen unexpectedly finds love with Dodson's flirt and main attraction, Alva Starr. Alva and Owen then try to escape Alva's mother's (Hazel) clutches and the town's revenge.

Natalie looks great as Alva, the town beauty with nowhere to go, and the depression period is nicely captured, as the story is told by Mary Badham (from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - another of Mulligan's hits) as Alva's kid sister. Kate Reid is the powerhouse mother, and Charles Bronson is also involved. It has its lyrical moments with the young lovers, and it captures that American Gothic deep south territory that Williams specialised in. Redford was also in that powerhouse all-star drama THE CHASE that year, which we will get around to before too long.  This though is one of Natalie's most powerful performances and she was at the zenith of her beauty. Natalie and Redford make a great movie couple, like McQueen & Dunaway, Clift & Taylor, Clift & Remick, Cary Grant and all his leading ladies (Loren, Kelly, Kerr, Bergman, both Hepburns etc) or Peck with his (Ava, Loren, Simmons), or Delon or Bogarde or Belmondo with so many ...
The story seems to falter when our lovers get to New Orleans, but there is a nice wistful coda at the end, with Badham (so affecting as Scout in MOCKINGBIRD) wearing Natalie's tattered dress, as she wanders off along the railroad track ....

[A flashback: London, 1968 - that summer of love. I am walking along Kings Road, Chelsea with my pal Stan, we are both 22, and someone hands us a flyer for the forthcoming Doors/Jefferson Airplane all-nighter at the Roundhouse in Camden, which I am going to with my hippie friends (Doors label). We enter a clothes boutique and a trim petite dark-haired woman with an American accent who is sitting on a stool, asks me what the flyer in my hand is for, so I show her and she asks if she can have it, so I say sure and give it to her. We leave the shop and are walking along when we both turn and look at each other and say "That was Natalie Wood"!. - it probably was, as it was between her marriages to Wagner when she was married and based in the UK. ..]

More '50s dramas coming up: Monty Clift in De Sica's TERMINAL STATION  and SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, return visits to BONJOUR TRISTESSE and others ..and the '60s HURRY SUNDOWN, THE CHASE, and Paul Newman as HARPER, and for comic relief John Wayne (iconic in the '50s, a toupeed dinosaur in the '70s) as BRANNIGAN unleashed on a trashy '70s London ....its delirious!
PS: I just ordered a compendium of Tennessee Williams stories - we need more Tennessee! - I particularly liked his THREE PLAYERS OF A SUMMER GAME collection, featuring two stunning stories TWO ON A PARTY and THE MALEDICTION, which have stayed with me, it will be great to read them again here. 

'70s paranoia: Parallax, Condor, Stepford ...

A head for heights on the Seattle Space Needle ...

THE PARALLAX VIEW, a superb drama about one man's paranoia that turns out to be a total incredible fact, ranks among the best political thrillers. Warren Beatty is a news reporter who, along with seven others, witnesses the assassination of a political candidate. When the other seven die in "accidents" the newsman begins to doubt the official position: that a lone madman was responsible for the crime. He imagines a sophisticated network of highly trained murderers. But his nightmares pale against the bizarre truth he uncovers.

Joe Frady is a determined reporter who often needs to defend his work from colleagues. After the assassination of a prominent U.S. senator, Frady begins to notice that reporters present during the assassination are dying mysteriously. After getting more involved in the case, Frady begins to realize that the assassination was part of a conspiracy somehow involving the Parallax Corporation, an enigmatic training institute. He then decides to enroll for the Parallax training himself to discover the truth. 

So says the blurb of this 1974 thriller - but he does more than "imagine" a crime network - he discovers documents about it including a questionnaire and infiltrates the organisation itself, but does not realise that he .... well, we won't say any more about that part of it ....

The 1970s of course was the great era of conspiracy thrillers following on from those '40s classic noirs and those pulpy juicy '50s thrillers like KISS ME DEADLY, THE BIG COMBO, JOE MACBETH, TOUCH OF EVIL etc, and the 60s ones like Boorman's POINT BLANK (one to re-discover and review), Godard's ALPHAVILLE and others, and I always regarded THE PARALLAX VIEW as KLUTE part 2, as Alan J. Pakula continues in the same vein, with these dark, brooding thrillers full of menace, as lensed by Gordon Willis and scored by Michael Small. You could say its a trilogy really, as Pakula had an even bigger hit with ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN in 1976 with Redford and Hoffman. Warren Beatty is perfect here as Joe Frady gradually realising the web he is getting caught in. The first murder sequence at the Seattle Space Needle is grippingly done, as we realise there are 2 assassins.  The witnesses are being killed off, including Paula Prentiss, an ex-girlfriend of Frady's who does not believe her story and her fear of being next .....

Danger in mid-air!

more tensions follows in redneck country as Frady investigates the death of another witness, and it is not safe on that boat either as a bomb goes off, and then we get that stunning sequence following another bomb in a case being put on a plane, a domestic flight, that Frady boards and then realises the man he is tailing is not on the plane but another senator is, who may be (and indeed is) another target to be eliminated by the Parallax Corporation who are willing to kill everyone on board! How he gets the plane to return to the airport is tense stuff and then we see, off-camera, the result as the bomb indeed goes off ... The Parallax's slide-show is fascinating too contrasting all those images of home and country and perceived enemies of the state, all the factors that contribute to the making of lone gunmen with chips on their shoulders.

THE PARALLAX VIEW is still one of the most intelligent, tense and effective conspiracy thrillers ever made, and the direction by the late Alan J. Pakula is just about flawless. Its one of the '70s great American films, up there with CHINATOWN, NASHVILLE, THE CONVERSATION, DELIVERANCE and THE GODFATHERS.. There are a few holes in the script, but they add to the tension and air of unease: Did Parallax realize that Frady was an investigative reporter, or was he simply hired to be a patsy that would take the fall for a killing? The look of the film too is chilly with all those dark interiors and metallic surfaces.

THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR:  similar dark hues abound in Sydney Pollack's 1975 thriller, which I had not seen since its release. Robert Redford is in his prime here - all that blonde hair and blue jeans - and again the story grips from the start.

A mild mannered CIA researcher, paid to read books, returns from lunch to find all of his co-workers assassinated. "Condor" must find out who did this and get in from the cold before the hitmen get him. 

Redford isn't an "action hero". He stays ahead of the game - just barely - by using his intelligence.  This is fascinating stuff - Redford is not a superhero but an ordindary guy "who just reads books". Seems his department reads everything published looking for plots or stories about the CIA and he discovers an outlandish plot about a "CIA within the CIA" which nobody is supposed to know about - hence the whole department is wiped out by professionals - but Redford had slipped out the back way to run to the deli for lunch ... the moment that stayed with me is when the professional assassin ice-cool Max Von Sydow (ideal casting) asks Janice - Redford's girl - to step away from the window before he shoots her. "I won't scream" she says and he replies "I know" ....  Pollack wisely allows us to share in Redford's horror and confusion upon finding his dead co-workers. We witness his scramble for protection and his shaky call to the CIA Headquarters, as he demands to be brought in. He is on the run, as after a shoot-out in the alley where he is to be picked up he knows the CIA are after him as well. 

He kidnaps Dunaway to hide out at her place but the killers are on his tail - hence that package he has to sign for with the faulty biro. We watch glamorous movie stars playing "ordindary", but Redford and Dunaway draw you in, as their relationship unfolds and she finally believes his story and helps him to contact Cliff Robertson, that mysterious CIA operative, until the final scenes when the killer Joubert (Max) after relentlessly pursuing our hero and killing his friends and lover, helps our hero out, as his contracted services are over! Its complex and gripping all the way through, and although preposterous almost believeable! One of those terrific Pollack '70s films then.  (I saw Redford giving a lecture at the London BFI in 1973, 40 years ago!, and was surprised at how ordinary and not that tall he was in the flesh). Interesting too seeing these '70s stars like Beatty, Redford, Hackman (THE CONVERSATION), Pacino (SERPICO) in their prime displaying their liberal credentials in these paranoia thrillers - and how thrillers operated in that pre-internet, pre-cellphone world with those early cumbersome computers (as in THE CASSANDRA CROSSING) .... even in '60s capers like ARABESQUE they are chasing information on a microdot - which would now be a text message rather than an email! The twin towers are in evidence here too - Cliff Robertson has his office in them, in that '70s New York!

THE STEPFORD WIVES - This 1975 Bryan Forbes thriller has certainly stood the test of time, we all know what a Stepford Wife is .... the silly remake was well just too silly for words. But the original grips nicely as we follow photographer Katharine Ross and her family to the ideal town of Stepford. She and new buddy slapdash wife Paula Prentiss are amazed at the local women, all perfect and docile and only interested in catering to their men's every needs, and what is the mystery of that mens' social club run by the mysterious  Patrick O'Neal, who used to work at Disneyland ...

Stepford Wives is about a small suburb where the women happily go about their housework - cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking gourmet meals - to please their husbands. Unfortunately, Bobbie and Joanna discover that the village's wives have been replaced with robots, and Joanna'a husband wants in on the action.

It all holds up very well as the two girls slowly realise what is going on in their ideal community. When Paula too is finally "changed", Katharine has to go it alone, after that marvellous scene when the stabbed Prentiss robot malfunctions in her perfect kitchen.  As this is a Bryan Forbes film Mrs Forbes is also on hand - Nanette Newman, delicious as ever, as she goes around repeating "I'll just die if I don't get that recipe" as she too malfunctions. Tina Louise is also another perfect wife. Ira Levin's novel (he also wrote ROSEMARY'S BABY, a recent review here) is a delicious feminist spin on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and the final supermarket scene is a satisfying conclusion. William Goldman's screenplay from Levin's novel finds just the right touch from director Forbes. This is one thriller one can enjoy on repeat viewings.

Next week: more Redford in a Natalie Wood double bill: LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER and THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED; and he is in that 1966 star-studded THE CHASE which I have been meaning to re-see, along with the all-star HURRY SUNDOWN, plus Newman and all those dames (Bacall, Harris, Leigh, Winters) in HARPER, also '66. Also 2 more Polanski nerve-shredders THE TENANT and THE PIANIST ... and for some light relief Doris & Rock's SEND ME NO FLOWERS ...

"You're gonna hear from me..."

I had not seen INSIDE DAISY CLOVER since I saw it on release back in early 1966 and again its from a book I loved as a teenager, which became a very flawed film which is fascinating to see now (like that curious Julie Andrews musical STAR!, see post below). Natalie Wood was a huge star then - one of the few child stars who grew up successfully in the movies (she played the daughter of Maureen O'Hara, Bette Davis, Margaret Sullavan, Claudette Colbert and others and she was the perfect 50s teenager with Jimmy Dean in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, and of course so iconic as Debbie in THE SEARCHERS, then Warners teamed her with teen heart-throb Tab Hunter in 2 films, she dated Elvis, married Robert Wagner  ... she was MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR in '58 and then the early '60s saw her in Kazan's SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS with Beatty, GYPSY (one of my favourite musicals) and WEST SIDE STORY.  We liked her a lot in LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER with McQueen in Robert Mulligan's 1963 charmer (another one to re-see soon), and Mulligan also directs INSIDE DAISY CLOVER, where Nat at 27 plays 15 year old Daisy, the foul-mouthed teenager in 1936 Hollywood, living with her mother The Dealer in a rundown shack at Venice beach, and near the Santa Monica pier where Daisy runs a movie star photo stall.

She wants to be a singer and records her voice and sends it to the Raymond Swan studio ... so far so good...but the question is:  Where is everybody? The movie looks deserted as there is hardly anybody in it apart from the principals. When Daisy is summoned to the studio the only people there are Swan (Christopher Plummer - his next role after SOUND OF MUSIC) and his glacial wife Melora (Katharine Bard), and that silent assistant Roddy McDowall. There is no real period detail or feel for the 1930s. Daisy looks like a 50s or 60s kid with that haircut.  Suddenly she is a huge star and we hear (and hear, and hear..) her song "Your're Gonna Hear From Me" (music and lyrics by The Previns - Andre and Dory).The '30s clips of Gable & Lombard, Bogart, Power etc at Daisy's premiere do not fit in at all with the look of the rest of the film ...

Her tomboyish Daisy—an overnight singing sensation in mid-thirties Hollywood— soon hates her Hollywood existance and doesn’t seem to understand anything that is said to her, and the pace gets so s-l-o-w than one wants to reach for the fast-forward button - the director Robert Mulligan can’t quite find the rhythm, either. The studio takes over her life as her mother is put in a home and her selfish greedy older sister whom she despises is made her guardian. Then there is the young Robert Redford, playing alcoholic bisexual star Wade Lewis. He looks terrific in that striped top he wears and it is poignant now seeing him and Daisy clamoring onto his yacht and going sailing ... after he sweeps Daisy off and marries her and she wakes up alone the next morning. She soon finds out from Melora, also carrying a crush for Wade, that he "can never resist a pretty boy" and is off with the latest number.

After her breakdown Daisy ends up with a nurse in a house on the beach, as her next film remains uncompleted, to Swan's fury: as he says "You don't cost me money, you make it" and reminds her that there are more out there like her... after a protracted attempt at suicide (which goes on and on...) with the gas oven, Daisy regains her freedom by leaving the gas on to blow up the house as she walks away and the film freezes. It is already over 2 hours long by then ... so there was no way they could continue the story with, as in the novel, Daisy moving to New York and making new friends and reinventing herself as a cabaret lounge singer, with another great song "I wonder what became of me?" - that would have been the really interesting bit.

So the look and period feel of the film seems all wrong, there seems to be nobody at the studios in those peak movie years of the 1930s, Natalie though gives it her all even if maybe too old for the part. It is scripted by Gavin Lambert from his novel, and he became good friends with Natalie (who died aged 43 in 1981), writing a good biography on her, (before he died himself in 2005 aged 80; he also wrote a good book ON CUKOR and other novels and books on Hollywood, as well as the screenplays for THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE and SONS AND LOVERS among others) and editing "Sight & Sound" during the '50s.

Whatever the similarities to Judy Garland (child star, breakdowns, involvements with gay or bi guys, a New York comeback), there are certainly allusions or references to Cukor's A STAR IS BORN: the scene where Wade wipes her makeup off, and she is madeup to look like a kid (just like Judy was), and when they run away to get married, and the malicious hack at the studio - Jack Carson there, McDowell here. Natalie too gets an intense emotional scene as here she breaks down in the recording booth .... Ruth Gordon is perfect as the Dealer (just like she was in ROSEMARY'S BABY and HAROLD AND MAUDE) and 1966 too was Redford's year what with THE CHASE and his other one with Natalie THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, Sidney Pollack's film of a minor Tennessee Williams, which I have been meaning to rescue from the "pending pile".

PS: I have now rescued the original novel by Lambert (from a box in the garage) and was surprised to see that it is set in the 1950s! - Daisy's diary begins in 1951 and continues into 1952 and it is 1957 when she leaves Hollywood for New York - so why on earth did they take it back to the 1930s, Lambert wrote the script so must have gone along with what Pakula/Mulligan wanted, but Natalie had the '50s look in spades, that was her era - they made no attempt to give her a 1930s look or make the film look set in the 1930s.Wade in the novel is surely based on James Dean - Redford makes him look too wholesome!