Stills of the day

Irene Dunne and Cary in THE AWFUL TRUTH, 1937 - I just love them, they also did MY FAVOURTE WIFE and PENNY SERENADE, as per Cary & Irene labels. 

Thanks to Colin for this shot of Antonioni and Vitti during THE RED DESERT in 1964. We love Monica as a blonde but she looks great here too ..... Richard Harris at his most monotonous disliked working with them and walked off the picture. No loss. Lots more at Antonioni, Vitti labels ....

We always like another look at THE BIRDS here, I like this particular scene, where socialite Melanie Daniels meets Mitch's mother for the first time in the cafe, after that gull swoops down to peck her ... See Hitch, Rod & Tippi labels for lots more.

The previous year, 1962, Jessica Tandy had played another controlling mother in HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN, driving son Richard Beymer away and her husband, Arthur Kennedy, to suicide - to get away from her. We will be re-viewing that again soon. 

Amazon Queen of Atlantis

Fun peplums! Here are two cheap and cheerful ones, One I have not seen since I was a kid, and the other a new discovery, and on YouTube yet!

George Pal's ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT for MGM in 1961 is still great fun now, and we get to see clips from other movies too ....

A Greek Fisherman rescues a girl he finds in the ocean - she is a Princess from a strange country and she charms him to take her back .... it is of course Atlantis, where he is enslaved. The King is being manipulated by an evil sorcerer who is bent on using a natural resource of Atlantis to take over the world. The slaves of Atlantis are forced to mine a crystalline material which absorbs the suns rays to create weapons of destruction. Then, the volcano explodes, can our hero save the Princess and flee back to the boat ...

This is a delicious farrago, with two wooden leads: Anthony Hall and Joyce Taylor as Princess Antillia, but solid support is provided by Edward Platt as the high priest, and John Dall chewing the scenery as the evil Zaren, using his deadly rays to vaporise boats out of the sea. It is all well made and imaginative (a mad scientist is even experimenting with turning men into swine!), and on a budget. Nice to see some props - those funny hats - and that marvellous statue of a pagan god which Lana Turner worshipped in THE PRODIGAL - turn up again here - right. Then as Atlantis erupts there is a crowd scene of people fleeing and I recognise it immediately from QUO VADIS! There are also shots from THE NAKED JUNGLE and more from THE PRODIGAL included. MGM were good at recyclying their old moves (a 1959 African adventure WATUSI used extensive footage from their 1951 KING SOLOMON'S MINES). It is all still great fun now, the trailer crams it all into 2 minutes:

COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN. 

Two musclemen take on a tribe of Amazon Women. Rod Taylor made this in 1960 either before or after THE TIME MACHINE - his stint with George Pal, I suppose a peplum made in Italy seemed fun at the time. Ed Fury is the other muscle guy, and he is quite fun too - its a bigger part for him than those walk-ons in American films, or those muscle magazines. The two pals are drugged and taken by sea to the island ruled by the Amazons. I think Rod decided the only way to play this was to camp it up and his Pirro is a bit swishy, as indeed are most of the men here, but in a nice way, as they fuss over their laundry and cleaning. Its the women who are the warriors, and theres a good trio here: Gianna Maria Canale as the Queen, all alone without love, while Daniella Rocca and Dorian Gray are two of her rival officers seeking to out-do each other. Rocca keeps falling down a lot, and Gray (whom I only know from Antonioi's IL GRIDO) is nicely droll too. 

It is all very tongue in cheek.  Between loves and duels, plots and ruses, the pirates will bring together Amazons and Greeks to live in harmony.

IMDB says: Loaded with homo-erotic subtext and dreadful dialog watch this for its camp value and a star on the rise. It does not take itself seriously and pokes fun at the genre. The beatnik-y jazzy lounge music soundtrack is a camp delight too! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auUf-vVGfXM
Rod went on to that rather good swashbuckler SEVEN SEAS TO CALAIS (Rod label) and then the two big ones: one of THE VIPs and then Hitch summoned him to Bodega Bay ...

Sunday in New York + 4 more Jane Fonda flicks

A feast of Fonda, lately - Jane that is. I just got SUNDAY IN NEW YORK, and my pal Jerry passed 4 of hers onto me recently.   Then, KLUTE was on again over the weekend, so we had another look at that too - its a key '70s movie for me, as per my other reports on it here - Fonda label.

I saw SUNDAY IN NEW YORK at the time, on its general release here in the UK in 1964, when I was 18, and more or less forgot it. But seeing it again now, 50 years later, its a bright, shiny artifact of the early 60s and is one of the better comedies revolving around sex of that time - COME SEPTEMBER, SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL and of course the Rock and Doris comedies. It has extensive New York shooting, and an engaging quartet of players, plus An Apartment To Die For - one of those Apartments We Love, which I will have to return to soon.

Its a sparkling comedy from a Norman Krasna stage play (cue lots of doors opening and people arriving unexpectedly) and its amusing to see what was considered daring on screen 50 years ago. Peter Teskesbury keeps it moving nicely and New York circa 1963 looks great in Metrocolor, yup its another great New York movie, like BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S  — we get to see the city just before the decline that caused filmmakers of the late 1960s and 1970s (cue KLUTE!) to use the city as a symbol of urban crime rather than a terrific place for falling in love. There is also a nice jazz score by Peter Nero (who also makes a cameo appearance in a nightclub scene). 

Jane is the 23 year old virgin who refuses to put out for her fiance, and is visiting her airline pilot brother (Cliff Robertson) who swears to her that he does not sleep with girls and respects them, while a running joke has he and girlfriend Jo Morrow (super here) being continually frustrated while trying to get together. Enter amiable nice guy Rod Taylor whom Jane gets attached to - literally - on a bus. Further complications follow when they are both undressed back at Cliff's place when her fiance Robert Culp walks in and thinks Rod is her brother - then her real brother arrives!  Needless to say it is nicely worked out, and we just love that bachelor apartment with its brick walls, sunken kitchen, and the spiral stairs up to the bedroom area, which can be shuttered off at night. Urban bliss indeed.  Mel Torme sings the engaging theme tune and its classy work all round, capturing that early '60s Manhattan single lifestyle - almost an update on Rock and Doris in PILLOW TALK!  Its the perfect Valentine Day treat. 

Rod was fresh from THE BIRDS and THE VIPs, Jane had done THE CHAPMAN REPORT and WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, those two Trash Classics we love from 1962 and would go on to do more films of Broadway plays like BAREFOOT IN THE PARK and ANY WEDNESDAY, as well as her French films LES FELINS and the Vadim's like LA RONDE, and as well as the heavy stuff like THE CHASE and HURRY SUNDOWN, before her hits BARBARELLA, THEY SHOOT HORSE DONT THEY? and back to KLUTE and JULIA. We never really liked much of her work after that and she has of course re-invented herself several times since and is now a very glamorous late Seventies ...

Now, back to her first film: TALL STORY in 1960, where she is directed by father Henry's pal Joshua Logan, and co-starred with Tony Perkins - very tall and gangly here as the ace basketball player and Jane as the girl who is determined to bag him. Its a so-so comedy, rather boring in parts, with too much of the older professors. 

The most amusing scene has Jane following Tony into the mens' changing room and seeeing naked Van Williams emerging from the shower... It also features young Gary Lockwood and maybe Robert Redford in one shot.

I did not like PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT that much either, Tennessee Williams' first comedy from 1962, which makes for a raucous comedy as we follow newly-weds Fonda and Jim Hutton en route to their honeymoon, as they visit another couple Tony Franciosa and Lois Nettleton  who are having problems of their own.  It all gets very tiresome before too long, or maybe I was just not in the mood for it. 

Ditto with Godard's TOUT VA BIEN, a 1972 political tract which sees Fonda (just after KLUTE) and Yves Montand as a couple in Paris, journalists dealing with a factory strike and the capitalist society we live in. It highlighted everything I dislike about Godard films and I just found what I saw of it unbearably tedious. I do want to re-visit Godard's CONTEMPT though, with Bardot in 1963 - which if I remember right is a fascinating treatise on making movies. 

Nice though to finally see THE GAME IS OVER (LA CUREE) again, after all this time. This Roger Vadim piece of exotic erotica dates from 1966 and is a delicious Trash Classic as Jane enbarks on a doomed love affair with her stepson, Peter McEnery. Husband is mercurial Michel Piccoli, and Jane suffers but wears marvellous costumes for each scene, particularly for her mad scene at the climax!. We like McEnery (the first HAMLET I saw on stage, in 1967). It it all delirious nonsense played out in opulent sets which are a scream. 

After all those Janes, we now want to go back to some more Romy Schneider and Catherine Deneuve ... 

RIP continued ....

The new year kicks off with:

Rod Taylor (1930-2015), aged 84. Rod was a Person We Like, as per my post on him last year - see label. I always liked seeing Rod, an amiable, charming guy - like James Garner who departed last year. For me Rod centres Hitch's THE BIRDS making that flirting banter with Melanie Daniels believable - nice to hear he and Tippi Hedren remained good friends. He was certainly lucky to go from a forgotten swashbuckler (SEVEN SEAS TO CALAIS where he wore the doublets with ease) to being summoned to Bodega Bay for a film that is always on show somewhere (and a perennial favourite here at The Projector). I was trying to get a copy of his 1960 peplum COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN recently, but the supplier couldn't provide it ....  (PS: It is now on You Tube).

 

Its a fascinating career for an Australian: in Hollywood in the mid-50s, with small parts in GIANT and RAINTREE COUNTY, Debbie's beau in THE WEDDING BREAKFAST and the young husband in SEPARATE TABLES, then the perennial TIME MACHINE and stealing THE VIPs from the bigger names, along with Maggie Smith. YOUNG CASSIDY is a particular favourite, with Maggie Smith again, plus Julie Christie and Edith Evans. FATE IS THE HUNTER and 36 HOURS are fascinating thrillers; and also his romcoms like ASK ANY GIRL in 1959, SUNDAY IN NEW YORK in 1963 and those two lesser Doris Day films. He also did some rather good actioners like THE MERCENARIES and NOBODY

RUNS FOREVER. 

I puzzled a movie buff friend recently (the kind of buff who only sees 'important' films) by asking: Which actor has worked for John Ford, Hitchcock, Antonioni and Tarantino - he was stunned to hear it was that "lightweight" Rod Taylor. 
Rod was also in Antonioni's ZABRISKIE POINT and popped up as Churchill in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. We also saw him a few times on shows like MURDER SHE WROTE. 84 years is a good run and I am sure he enjoyed it all. RIP indeed. 

As my friend Daryl says: Certainly, a solid career, with a number of memorable films, and an actor who could go from George Pal to Hitchcock to John Ford to Antonioni to Tarantino. And i must say that, with THE V.I.P.S and YOUNG CASSIDY, he was one of the best partners that Maggie Smith ever had!  Right; YOUNG CASSIDY.

Gerry Fisher (1926-2014), aged 88. Ace cinematographer and director of photography on quite a lot of movies I like. He worked several times with Joseph Losey, on ACCIDENT, DON GIOVANNI, SECRET CEREMONY, THE GO-BETWEEN, A DOLL'S HOUSE and Losey's French films MR KLEIN and ROUTES TO THE SOUTH, plus THE ROMANTIC ENGLISHWOMAN'; Lumet's THE SEA GULL, Richardson's HAMLET, BUTLEY, thrillers JUGGERNAUT and BRANNIGAN, Wilder's FEDORA, and HIGHLANDER among many others.

Lance Percival (1933-2015, aged 81. Lance with that funny face, seems rather a forgotten figure lately but like the recently gone Jeremy Lloyd (RIP below), was also an essential 1960s face, and part of the David Frost set on those satire shows and he also popped up in so many films, including a moment on THE VIPs, TV shows like SHOESTRING, some CARRY-ONs, and Beatles documentaries. 

Its back!: Zabriskie Point, 1970

Even us Michelangelo Antonioni fanatics find his 1970 ZABRSKIE POINT his most difficult film, not widely liked at the time, it seemed that having done Swinging London in BLOW-UP, he now attempted the distill the essence of the U.S, counterculture in his second English-language film, made in America, also for Carlo Ponti and MGM. Its a time capsule full of enigmas and ellipses, student politics of the late hippie era and Pink Floyd songs, cinematic imagination and lots of coupling in the desert. 

Now re-released in a new digital print, at the Curzon Mayfair, who have this to say about it:

Digital reissue of Michelangelo Antonioni's coutercultural classic featuring original music by Pink Floyd. By using special effects, documentary-style footage and unusual camera angles, Antonioni's suburb surreal film succeeds in revealing how societal conflicts lead to violence. 

Mark (Mark Frechette) is a student radical. Daria (Daria Halprin) is a beautiful, restless young woman. Their meeting sparks a deep passion in this visually stunning fantasia on the 60s counterculture when fate brings Mark and Daria together in Death Valley's desolate yet stunning Zabriskie Point. 

Daria is driving to a meeting with her employer. Mark has been forced to steal an airplane to escape from Los Angeles. The two become entranced both by each other and by the fleeting beauty of the shifting desert sands, but their time together is shattered by a tragedy that will haunt Daria forever.

Sam Shephard and Antonioni regular Tonino Guerra worked on the so-so screenplay. Today, from our perspective, the behaviour of Mark and Daria makes no sense, but back in that hippie era of 40 years ago ... 

It will look great on the big screen, and has that terrific soundtrack, including Patti Page and the Rolling Stones as well as Pink Floyd. What lets the film down is the blankness of the two leads - who had not acted before (Rod Taylor plays Daria's nasty capitalist boss/lover). They both had a few more roles afterwards, but Mark Frechette died in mysterious circumstances, aged 27 in 1975 (in prison after a bank raid) which I have touched on before here, at Antonioni label. 

We liked Antonioni's 1975 THE PASSENGER, his third for Ponti/MGM, a whole lot more and it remains a key '70s movie for me (THE PASSENGER label) but ZABRISKIE POINT has a lot of pluses too - those stunning widescreen landscapes, and that amazing final sequence where Daria imagines that stunning house being blown-up. Writer Mark Peploe who was at the filming, explained how they did it at that Antonioni retrospective at the BFI back in 2005 - with lots of cameras to catch it all from different angles, but they could only do it once .... then there is that orgy or love-in, another druggy fantasy in the desert - which also makes fascinating viewing. 

Its certainly a blast at American consumerism and I imagine not what MGM were expecting, but yes, its a fascinating time capsule now of that fascinating era 40 years ago, and for those who do not know it, one to catch up with. MGM were also exploiting student revolution with their lesser THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT, GETTING STRAIGHT and the like. 

and again, here is that Dick Cavett almost painful non-interview with Frechette and Halprin (who barely speaks) in 1970 (also with Mel Brooks and Rex Reed):

People We Like: Rod Taylor

I got one over on a movie buff friend recently (the kind of rarified movie buff who only sees 'important' films, and who does not bother with the trashy stuff) by asking him to quickly name an actor who has worked with John Ford, Hitchcock, Antonioni and Tarantino. He was stumped, and couldn't believe the answer was that lightweight Rod Taylor.

Rod Taylor is one of those People We Like (the others are at the label...) who always brightens up a movie and has been quietly excellent for a long time. Notice how he anchors Hitch's THE BIRDS with his solid performance, his banter with Tippi being a constant delight (as scripted by Evan Hunter). The movie reference books usually referred to Rod and James Garner and Cliff Robertson as "amiable '60s leading men". 

Australian Rod was in Hollywood by the mid-50s, doing lots of television, popping up in GIANT and RAINTREE COUNTY, he is Debbie's beau in THE CATERED AFFAIR, and is somewhere in THE VIRGIN QUEEN, he is the young husband in SEPARATE TABLES and scored in comedies like ASK ANY GIRL and SUNDAY IN NEW YORK. His first lead was in George Pal's fondly remembered THE TIME MACHINE in 1960, and he did some peplums and costumers like the agreeable SEVEN SEAS TO CALAIS in 1962 (as reviewed at Rod label, it was fun finally catching up with that last year), before Alfred Hitchcock summoned him to Bodega Bay for the lead in his 1963 THE BIRDS. Rod was also one of THE VIPS that year, his scenes with Maggie Smith being the best in the film.

He and Smith were teamed again in the fascinating YOUNG CASSIDY released in 1965 - John Ford had began it but had to withdraw due to illness, it seems he shot the first 20 minutes and veteran Jack Cardiff took over. Its fascinating to see now, with that great cast. Rod with young Julie Christie, plus Maggie, and veterans like Flora Robson as his mother and Dame Edith Evans as Lady Gregory. I will be re-viewing it again shortly, as it is now on official dvd. 

Rod also did parts in FATE IS THE HUNTER, 36 HOURS (reviewed recently), HOTEL, two with Doris Day of course: the silly DO NOT DISTURB and Tashlin's THE GLASS-BOTTOM BOAT, as well as adventures like NOBODY RUNS FOREVER and THE LIQUIDATORS. Antonioni then cast him as Daria's big business boss in ZABRISKIE POINT - above.

Rod continued working, appearing in several episodes of MURDER SHE WROTE, a good one set in Australia THE PICTURE SHOW MAN in 1977, and played Churchill in Quentin's INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.  We trust Rod, now in his 80s, is having a happy retirement back in Australia. THE BIRDS is always on show somewhere, I see it quite a lot.  

Other People We Like here (as per labels) include: Stewart Granger, David Hemmings, Michael York, Michael Craig, Stanley Baker, Alan Bates, David Warner, Peter Finch, James Mason, Jean Sorel, Maurice Ronet, Jeffrey Hunter, Stephen Boyd, Sarah Miles, Anne Baxter, Mary Astor, Lee Remick, Kay Kendall, Joan Greenwood, Gladys Cooper, Claire Bloom, Julie Harris, Ingrid Thulin, Silvana Mangano, Alida Valli, Lilli Palmer, Claudia Cardinale, Eve Arden, Agnes Moorehead, Thelma Ritter, Susan Hayward, Shelley Winters, Belinda Lee, Monica Vitti, and of course Delon and Belmondo, Romy and Anouk and Sophia and Dirk, 

Separate Tables, 1958

Terence Rattigan's 1954 play SEPARATE TABLES is a Fifties time capsule now, capturing as it does that genteel Bournemouth hotel with its residents at their separate tables ... the play is in two acts, with the main two leads playing different characters in each act, the other residents stay the same. In the original production it was Eric Porter and Margaret Leighton. But the Hecht-Hill-Lancaster production team when they made the popular 1958 film in Hollywood, combined them both into one continuous narrative, thus 4 stars were required for the main 4 characters, who are now Burt and Rita Hayworth, and David Niven and Deborah Kerr. This required a lot of dexterous pruning of the original script, which Rattigan himself did with John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. 

In the theatre when played as two acts, the acts are 18 months apart time-wise, but in the film we are in the continuous timeframe of the first act. This means a lot of the young couple (Rod Taylor and Audrey Dalton, below right) has been removed, and new material inserted, like scenes between Sybil and Mrs Shankland (Kerr and Hayworth) (who do not meet in the two separate act orginal).

The young couple stay as we see them in the first act - but in the second act of the play (18 months later) they are now married with a baby, which takes up all the mother's time - she sides with dragon-lady Mrs Railton-Bell to get the bogus Major, who has been exposed as a fake and a pesterer of women at the cinema, expelled from the hotel. Her husband does not agree and sides with the other residents. It makes for more interesting drama, but all that has to go for the film. 

There is a lot more of Miss Cooper, the hotel manageress, too in the play, but Wendy Hiller managed to scoop Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film. Niven of course won the Best Actor, but it seems a blustering fake performance, but then he is playing a blustering fake. Kerr is marvellous as the downtrodden Sybil, who finally stands up to her bully of a mother - Gladys Cooper being very malevolent here, as she was to Bette Davis in NOW VOYAGER. Hayworth and Lancaster add the Hollywood gloss and are perfectly adequate. The film is one of 1958's big enduring ones, up there with I WANT TO LIVE!, THE DEFIANT ONES, THE BIG COUNTRY, THE VIKINGS, SOUTH PACIFIC, AUNTIE MAME etc. 

I have seen a few other productions - John Schlesinger directed that 1983 television film, long unavailable, which goes back to the two act structure, with Julie Christie and Alan Bates (ther fourth teaming) playing both sets of leads, with Claire Bloom perfect as Miss Cooper, and Irene Worth, a monstrous suburban bully, as Mrs Railton Bell. Liz Smith shines too as the racing-mad spinster and Brian Deacon (from THE TRIPLE ECHO) as the young husband. - as per my fuller review, at Rattigan/Bates/Christie labels, which also goes into another version of Rattigan's work ...

I have now seen a BBC 'Play of the Month'  production of the play from 1970 with Porter and Geraldine McEwan in the lead roles. It is perfectly satisfying but a bit low-key. It is part of the BBC Terence Rattigan boxset (a nice companion to the Noel Coward boxset, again with interesting productions which I must return to), which also includes part of another version I saw on stage in the 70s, with John Mills and Jill Bennett. (As we mentioned previously, Rattigan's original text had the major pestering men in the cinema, but that would never have played back in the Fifties... and certainly not in the film, which suggests there is a future for the Major and Sybil).  

I also saw Rattigan himself at the BFI giving an entertaining talk also in the early 70s. The 1958 film though, directed by Delbert Mann, is the version most people know and like, even though it does not do full justice to the play and Rattigan's plea for tolerance for those who are 'different'. 

Forgotten '60s movies: 36 Hours

36 HOURS, 1965. 1944. US army officer Major Pike (James Garner) attends a vital meeting in Lisbon days before the D-day landings in Normandy, so he is one of the few people who know the plans for the invasion. The Germans who have been following him know he knows and manage to kidnap him .... the drugged Garner eventually wakes up in a US military hospital in Bavaria, Germany, in the company of Anna, his nurse, and he is astounded to find it is 6 years later in 1950, and that the war is over, Germany lost, and he has had amnesia for years with frequent blackouts when he does not remember anything. He is a resident of the base, with his family photos and objects he had with him on display. He stares at himself in the mirror in astonishment, as he indeed looks older. He checks the newspapers provided and listens to the radio, yes indeed it is 1950 and the war is long over. Anna proves helpful and Rod Taylor as Major Gerber the officer in charge of his case also aids his memory along, asking him to remember what he can of his last movements. Garner can remember that meeting he attended and the invasion details at the various Normandy beaches which he recites in detail, but does not mention the date. His new friends do not rush him but will talk again later .....

Then eating his dinner he spills some salt which aggravates that paper cut which nicked his finger at that meeting in Lisbon when he touched the edge of a map ....... that couldn't be still there after 6 years, could it? Suddenly the scales fall from his eyes - he forces Anna to tell him the real date and realises how he has been duped. Taylor masterminds this operation where people with information are led to believe they are in an Amercan hospital, all carefully faked, with everyone speaking perfect English. Anna is a former concentration camp victim who has been chosen on account of her perfect English and she is so desperate not to be returned there that she will do anything to avoid that - this is another perfect role for Eva Marie Saint, while Garner and  Taylor - those amaible '60s leading men - are ideal here too. Taylor is the good German, dedicated to his case records and research methods, exasperated with his superiors, like the hissable villain Werner Peters who is waiting for Gerber's scheme to fail, so he can use his torture methods to get the information on D-day, which the Germans think will be at Calais.,and they only have 36 hours to get the vital information ...

Pike and Anna go on the run, aided by Gerber, now under arrest - will they get to the border in time, however the villain catches up with them but there is a neat resolution, and Anna  is finally able to cry again - her tears had all been used up at the concentration camp. There is no romance as such between Pike and Anna but its a nice conclusion. This is a fascinating little thriller, in black and white widescreen,  from the Perlberg-Seaton production team (like their 1962 THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR)., scripted and directed by /George Seaton from a Roald Dahl story, score by Dimitri Tompkin, starring three people we like. The film though was tossed away here in the UK as a supporting feature, which is where I previously saw it, back in 1965. Its still quite engrossing and entertaining..

Summer fun: Seven seas to Calais

Make ready the topsails! Rod Taylor portrays English seafaring captain Sir Francis Drake in this sword-clanging, swashbuckling adventure told in bold, colorful strokes that include Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, a mutiny at sea, raids that brought England a wealth of Spanish gold, Spain's foiled scheme to supplant Queen Elizabeth (and replace her with Mary of Scotland) and Drake's daring battle at sea that left the mighty Spanish Armada in ruins. Three-time Tony Award winning Broadway legend Irene Worth essays the politically crafty Elizabeth who convinces Spanish ambassadors that she loathes Drake's privateering while secretly financing him. In the same month that SEVEN SEAS TO CALAIS was released in the USA, Taylor would find more onscreen foes - this time not at sea but in the air, when he starred in Hitchcock's memorable THE BIRDS.

SEVEN SEAS TO CALAIS. How I wish I had seen this back in 1962, the 16 year old me would have enjoyed it even more than I did now. Old hand Rudolph Mate directs this MGM-released European swashbuckler about Sir Francis Drake and his adventures in the New World (where they meet some very friendly Natives), as well as destroying that Armada (after his finishes his game of bowls of course), as well as court intrigue involving The Queen (Elizabeth I) and plots against her by Mary Queen of Scots. It romps along like a “Classics Illustrated” comic taking in all those Tudor highpoints. That new vegetable the potato makes its first appearance too and that’s an amusing tale as well. 

The cast is headed by two Australians – Rod Taylor, just before Hitchcock summoned him to Bodega Bay – and Keith Michell, that very physical actor who looked good in period clothes, as indeed does Rod here, being his usual charming self. Its Michell though who has the love interest, with the Lady Arabella (Hedy Vessel – one of the lesser Eurobabes). It all looks terrific and the big plum here is renowned stage actress Irene Worth (so good in that 1983 SEPARATE TABLES, as per recent review here) as Elizabeth I – an incisive portrait of the Queen to add to those by Flora Robson, Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson, Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren etc. My only quibble is that it all looked too over-lit, and the models of the Armada fleet were a little too obvious. Jolly good fun. 

 
Rod Taylor was, like James Garner, the definition of "amiable '60s leading man" in those movie reference books, from GIANT and SEPARATE TABLES to THE TIME MACHINE and THE VIPs., we also like him as YOUNG CASSIDY - see label.. There can't be too many actors who have worked with Hitchcock, Antonioni (ZABRISKIE POINT), Ford and Tarantino! 

Keith Michell of course played that great HENRY VIII on tv and film, and I saw him as Henry on the stage in THE KINGS MARE in 1966, with Glynis Johns and Jane Merrow, and I met them all after. He also played in those Rank Organisation costume mellers I like: DANGEROUS EXILE with Belinda Lee in '57 and in Losey's THE GYPSY AND THE GENTLEMAN in '58. I also saw him circa 1970 in the hit play ABELARD & HELOISE with Diana Rigg, and in that BBC production of Wilde's AN IDEAL HUSBAND. 

Summer re-runs: those infernal Birds again

Tippi Hedren, 82, was in town this week for a screening of THE GIRL (that new BBC film to be shown this autumn) which has Sienna Miller playing her during the time Tippi was under contract to Hitchcock and starring in THE BIRDS and MARNIE. Its a well-documented story and advance word has it that it presents the currently revered director in a less than flattering light ... Tippi was also at an outdoor screening of THE BIRDS on Friday night at the Somerset House open air summer screenings. I just watched it again on television.

Our 'Hitchcock Summer' continues with, as per my recent posts here, the BFI showing all the films, they have a new publication out 'The 39 Steps of Alfred Hitchcock' - and television has been running some too - those essential '50s titles like REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO (the new "Sight & Sound" number one, in their latest 10-year poll. see post below), NORTH BY NORTHWEST which is a viewing staple, and PSYCHO - which stunned me again after 20 years or so - see my post below - It is perhaps the most perfectly made film of all time; a disturbing black comedy, though the humour may not be apparent on first viewing. Some see THE BIRDS as a comedy too. Though one has the dvds one simply has to watch them again - they are such rich and complex films one just enjoys them all over again and we continue to find new moments in them.

The Mattel 'Tippi being pecked' doll

I simply revel in THE BIRDS and could watch it every week. I like the opening moments with Tippi in the black outfit crossing the San Francisco street and then once she passes the newsagent kiosk there is a very neat edit and we are at the pet shop set for that first wonderful scene with Mitch Brenner and the very poised Melanie dialling the telephone with her pencil, then its into the famous green suit (with fur coat, bag, gloves) and we head off to Bodega Bay .... even the bit parts are nicely played here and of course Suzanne Pleshette and Jessica Tandy supply two other perfect roles along with Tippi. The set-pieces: the attack on the town and later the Brenner house and Melanie going up the stairs ... are still stunningly done. There has been talk of proposed remakes but why bother ....

The dvd extras are extensive showing her commercials which attracted Hitch initially, and her screen tests - Hitch engaged Martin Balsam to play scenes with her, there is also a deleted scene with Mitch and Melanie (in that nightdress she bought) talking that morning while Lydia drives to see the neighbour, which Hitch felt did not add anything. Fascinating stuff.  I now want to browse a 1976 issue of Canadian film magazine "Take One" devoted to all things Hitch. I forgot I had that! and Camille Paglia's fascinating BFI book on THE BIRDS.  I must get out that triple pack I picked up a while ago with MARNIE (which I have not seen since its release), FRENZY (ditto, with its very mixed reputation) and TORN CURTAIN - the one Hitch I never wanted to see, so maybe its time I did.