People we like: Alan Bates

Where does one begin doing an appreciation on Alan Bates? One only has to read the affectionate tributes on his imdb biography page to see the extent of the regard in which both he and his work is held. Unlike say Laurence Harvey – the man a lot of people loved to hate – or Peter Finch or Stephen Boyd (UK based leading men of roughly the same era) there is very little dross in Bates’ prodigious output on screen or television as he excelled in both while also doing major stage roles in important new plays – his filmography reads like a list of the 60s greatest hits.

Born in Derbyshire in 1934 the young Bates studied at RADA and did some early television work before his first movie THE ENTERTAINER in 1960 where he has a minor part as a son of Archie Rice, the entertainer of the title, one of Laurence Olivier’s greatest achievements. Its still a marvellously satisfying movie now, with all those great players of the time. Bates had already been a success on stage in the original production of John Osborne’s LOOK BACK IN ANGER – throughout his career he returned again and again to the plays of David Storey, Simon Grey and Pinter in leading well-received productions on both sides of the Atlantic.

Alan had entered movies at just the right time in the early 60s so was at the vanguard of the renaissance of British film-making which led to all those international roles. WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND in 1961 was a very well-received Bryan Forbes film about 3 school children on their isolated farm thinking the man on the run in the barn, Bates, is actually Jesus. This would hardly work with today’s children but set in a more innocent time it certainly does and is still engrossing and moving.

A KIND OF LOVING in 1962, by John Schlesinger was Bates’ first big hit, from the novel by Stan Barstow and is the warmest of the realistic school of British movies from the early 1960s. Alan is Vic Brown, an essentially decent guy who falls in lust with Ingrid, a “nice” girl (June Ritchie) of no great depth but when she falls pregnant he has to marry her and move in with her disapproving (and how) mother, the splendid Thora Hird (above). It is the early '60s in aspic. The film charts their progress to final understanding and still works perfectly now.

After Clive Donner’s film of Pinter’s THE CARETAKER which did not receive wide distribution, Bates was back in Carol Reed’s THE RUNNING MAN in 1963, a glossy thriller that certainly did do the rounds. Laurence Harvey fakes his death for the insurance, with wife Lee Remick collecting the money and meeting him in Spain. Alan is the insurance investigator who also turns up. Is he interested in Remick or suspicious? Its worked out with nicely with colourful Spanish locations with Bates and Remick looking good together.

Then in 1964 the big hit that was NOTHING BUT THE BEST, Clive Donner’s acerbic look at the rise and rise of an unscrupulous man on the make at the start of the swinging London era. Denholm Elliott is the uppercrust toff on his uppers, Irish actress Pauline Delaney is amusing as the randy landlady and Millicent Martin the rich girl Bates sets his cap at. (Review at Bates label).

ZORBA THE GREEK in 1965 was as big a hit you could get at the time, a major crossover between arthouse and popular cinema from Greek director Michael Cacoyannis that still resonates today. Anthony Quinn of course does Zorba’s Dance, Bates is the diffident Englishman inheriting a mine, Irene Papas the local widow and Lila Kedrova easily deserved that best supporting actress award for her amusing yet heart-breaking role of the ageing courtesan.

GEORGY GIRL in 1966 was another popular hit, a key English movie of the period. Lynn Redgrave of course has her break-though role as Georgy, the chubby girl left holding the baby that her uberbitch roommate Meredith – Charlotte Rampling at her iciest – does not want. Bates is the father and lover who cannot commit, and James Mason the tycoon who wants and gets Georgy. It captures the free-wheeling mood of the time with those well-rounded characters and is still a satisfying movie now.

KING OF HEARTS is one that escaped – did it ever play in the UK? It does have a good reputation, and as it is directed by Philippe de Broca and co-stars Genevieve Bujold is one I would like to eventually catch up with.

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD in 1967 is of course another popular success by John Schlesinger, photographed by Nicholas Roeg, with Julie Christie as Thomas Hardy’s Bathsheba and Bates, Peter Finch and Terence Stamp as the men: Gabriel Oak, Squire Boldwood and dashing Sergeant Troy. Christie and Stamp may have been the beautiful people of the time, but Bates is not over-shadowed nor is the pastoral scene as the drama unfolds.

John Frankenheimer’s THE FIXER is one I unaccountably missed in 1968, particularly as it co-starred Dirk Bogarde and a terrific supporting cast, with Bates as the hero of the Malamud novel. It doesn’t appear to have been that well-received and may be due for revaluation when it ever re-appears.

(Dirk, who gave everyone nicknames, referred to Alan as "Alice"! - there are several mentions of Alice Bates in Bogarde's Collected Letters). Like Dirk, Alan must have worked with just about everyone, including again lots of our favourites ...

Then the enormous hit of Ken Russell’s WOMEN IN LOVE in 1970 – Bates as Rupert Birkin, Lawrence’s hero with career-defining roles also for Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson and Jennie Linden. Perfect period detail, Lawrence’s passion, Eleanor Bron and others in supporting roles and of course that naked wrestling match by firelight. One of the best literary adaptations (by Larry Kramer) ever to grace the screen.

After a respectful film of the National Theatre’s THREE SISTERS (Bates is Vershinin) in 1970, came THE GO-BETWEEN another perfect literary adaptation by Harold Pinter from the L P Hartley novel, perfectly directed by Joseph Losey and another critical and popular success (and a Cannes festival winner). Bates is farmer Ted Burgess with Julie Christie as the lady of the manor and Margaret Leighton as her mother who finally explodes with rage at the deception going on caused by the clandestine affair. It remains another perfect film of the era.

A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG in 1972 is a good film of another well-received play with Bates and Janet Suzman as the parents of a severely deformed child and their stratagems for coping with it in this well-judged black comedy.

Alan was still very active in the theatre at this time. I saw his HAMLET in 1970 [and later BUTLEY]. Hamlet was a well regarded production (with Celia Johnson as his Gertrude) and he had an enormous hit in Simon Gray’s play BUTLEY which was wonderful on the stage. The film – directed by Harold Pinter - followed in 1973 (and recently re-released as part of the American Film Theatre series) and is one Alan’s essential roles. Ben Butley is a professor who uses cruel humour to cope with everyday life as he loses in turn his wife, his boyfriend, and possibly his job as he antagonises and verbally fences with everybody around him. The amusing tagline reads: “His wife just left him for another man. And so did his boy friend”. There is great play on words in this very witty script which works as well on film as it did on the stage. It’s a constant pleasure to re-see again now – Alan Bennett’s THE HISTORY BOYS would be a comparable treat today.

1975 brought another film of one of his stage appearances: IN CELEBRATION by David Storey, another writer Bates had an affinity with, and Richard Lester’s film ROYAL FLASH, full of those quirky, humorous Lester touches in this Flashman novel played for comedy mostly and perhaps cramming in too much incident as Malcolm McDowell, Oliver Reed (Bismarck), Bates and a supporting cast including Alistair Sim and Florinda Bolkan as a very spirited Lola Montez re-enact The Prisoner of Zenda. (review at Bates label).

Alan then had a big success in a very popular BBC series of Hardys’s THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, and in 1978 some very popular American films: he was Bette Midler’s manager in THE ROSE and Jill Clayburgh’s lover in AN UNMARRIED WOMAN, a prototype chick-flick perhaps, but more intelligently done than they do these days, well directed by Paul Mazursky. Alan was suddenly the thinking woman’s pinup.

Skolimowski’s THE SHOUT was an interesting, little-seen curio, but Herbert Ross’s ballet film NIJINSKY in 1980 was a misfire on every level. Bates did his best as the impresario Diaghilev but the other leads was below par and the one time Nijinski and Diaghilev kiss is through a handkerchief to avoid catching germs! It was perhaps the wrong time for a gay love story but the costumes, period detail and the ballet excerpts hold the eye.

The Merchant-Ivory QUARTET in 1981 is one of their best and remains a favourite. What a premise: Alan Bates and Maggie Smith in the Paris of the 1920s, based on the Jean Rhys novel, with Isabelle Adjani as mesmerising as ever, Anthony Higgins and the wonderful Sheila Gish. It’s a glittering jewel. (review at Bates label).
 
THE RETURN OF THE SOLIDER in 1982 didn’t fare that well despite re-teaming Alan with both Julie Christie and Glenda Jackson and Ann-Margret is surprisingly very effective and fits in perfectly in this period piece where Alan is the shell-shocked officer suffering from amnesia. A fascinating piece to see now. (I think at the time we dismissed it as "oh, another Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson period drama" and gave it a miss on its limited release - we didn't appreciate how lucky we were.) Review of this coming up soon.

Some interesting televisions roles followed: John Mortimer’s A VOYAGE AROUND MY FATHER and Rattigan’s SEPARATE TABLES, a fourth teaming with Julie Christie as they play both couples in the play (as it was originally staged) and directed by John Schlesinger, with Claire Bloom (Miss Cooper) and Irene Worth (Mrs Railton Bell) in support, with Liz Smith as Miss Meacham. Luckily I caught its one showing on BBC, its certainly one repeat to be wished for. (I have now managed to source a vhs video-cassette copy from Amazon ... better than nothing!)

Everybody must have signed up for Michael Winner’s THE WICKED LADY for the paycheck, an unnecessary, charmless remake if there ever was one - it was not even popular, despite being spiced up with some gratutious nudity. Faye Dunaway, Bates and John Gielgud went down with all hands. I suppose we should regard it as a camp classic for all the wrong reasons, but its not even that amusing.

Much more worthwhile, also in 1983, was Schlesinger’s television film AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD, Alan Bennett’s marvellous re-telling of Coral Browne (playing herself) and spy Guy Burgess meeting in Moscow. Its an enjoyable tale with Bates and Brown playing perfectly together.

A perfunctory film of another well-regarded play DUET FOR ONE followed in 1986, with Bates as the husband of Julie Andrews who plays the famous violin player in a wheelchair suffering from multiple sclerosis. It seems to have worked better in the theatre and in fact the play is currently revived again in London.

I particularly like WE THINK THE WORLD OF YOU in 1988, an engrossing drama from the novel by J R Ackerley with Bates as the solitary civil servant who falls for the neglected Alsatian dog of his sometimes lover, a spiv well played by Gary Oldman. The marvellous cast includes Liz Smith and Max Wall as Oldman’s malevolent parents and Frances Barber as his opportunistic wife all out to make capital from Bates’ involvement with Oldman. Both Alan and Oldman play it perfectly together and the scenes with Alan and the dog are a joy as is the 50s period detail. Man and dog are happily re-united at the end as Oldman after a spell in jail has to settle for dull, if noisy, domesticity with that screaming infant!

Another interesting little-seen role was as Marcel Proust in an excellent tv production, 102 BOULEVARD HAUSEMANN in 1990, the same year as Franco Zefferelli’s HAMLET, with Mel Gibson as the gloomy Dane. Bates here is Claudius with Glenn Close as Gertrude and it’s a brisk version and of course very visual.

Alan continued busily throughout the 90s but none of the credits listed in his imdb profile seem to have registered with me. I would think his last big hit was part of the ensemble cast in Altman’s very popular GOSFORD PARK in 2001, where he is the butler. He continued working on stage and screen until shortly before his unexpected death just after Christmas on 27 December 2003, aged 69. He had been ill with cancer, and was fondly remembered by all.

The tragedy of his son’s death (one of twins) in 1990 and then his wife Victoria’s death in 2002 are detailed in the recent engrossing biography by Donald Spoto which covers Alan’s life and career in detail, including his bisexuality and many complex relationships. He later had a relationship with Angharad Rees (who died last year) and with Joanna Pettet whom he knew in the '60s and who returned to him until he died in 2003.

It is overall a great career - I have only commented on his work that I know, there is a whole lot more detailed in his imdb profile. Alan is one of the great leading men of the 60s, 70s and 80s at a time when literate, well-produced films were commonplace with directors like Schlesinger, Losey, Ken Russell and others all at their peak. He also combined his films and television roles with excellent stage roles. One cannot praise him highly enough or the regard in which he continues to be held.  Alanbates.com is worth visiting.

More People We Like soon: Peter Finch, David Warner, and a couple of Dames: Edith Evans & Flora Robson!

Hollywood hunks - an occasional series ....

I had to find some place to put these photos of Guy Madison, Fabian, Tab Hunter, and Jimmy Dean and Rock Hudson both with Elizabeth Taylor ..... glamour or what !

European glamour of course comes in the shape of Delon, Belmondo, Jean Sorel, and all those glam Euro ladies we love from Anouk to Vitti ... must find space for Marisa Mell, Scilla Gabel, Senta Berger too ... and John Philip Law as Barbarella's angel and also DANGER DIABOLIK, along with Marie Laforet as MARIE-CHANTAL ! - see below.  We have to include Kerwin Matthews too, a recent discovery ... as label.

Above: Kerwin as GULLIVER.

Fabian in HOUND DOG MAN. He is amusing eye candy in NORTH TO ALASKA too, those scenes with fabulous Capucine ... (as per label).

Right: Tab & Tony out with Nat ....

and one has to include Jeffrey Hunter (below, with Vera Miles) - if not Chandler !

Dean and Julie Harris are still iconic too. 

Right: Dirk Bogarde and Rock, in 1957 ... discussing their respective closets?, as per previous posts on them.

Glamour '60s style: WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT?

More Brando: the Countess & Reflections ...

Two more Brando films from his great era in the '60s. After Penn's marvellous THE CHASE in 1966 (see below), its a return visit to A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG - Charlie Chaplin's last film which opened in January 1967 (I was in the crowd at the London premiere and saw Brando and the Chaplin family arrive, but no Loren ....). Being 20 at the time I did not like this one at all, it seeming hopelessly old-fashioned. Looking at it again now I have mixed feelings, it does not really work as a comedy or a romance, as there is so little chemistry between the two leads ....

Natascha, a White Russian countess, stows away on a luxury liner at Hong Kong, determined to seek a new life in America. Natascha hides in the cabin of Ogden Mears, a millionaire diplomat, thereby causing an endless stream of misunderstandings and complications; particularly when his wife, Martha, joins the trip at Honolulu, necessitating a 'marriage' to Ogden's valet, Hudson, a saronged-dive overboard and more subterfuge on the part of Ogdon and his associate, Harvey.

Loren & Chaplin by Eve Arnold

Brando and Loren did not get on at all, the early scenes are fitfully amusing as we are entranced by the old-fashioned feel of it all. We are obviously on a studio set for the ship's suite with all those doors and endless dashing in and out of rooms. Loren carries it all by herself and certainly worked hard, she apparantly had good rapport with Chaplin and was pleased to work with him. Brando though is the wrong leading man here, he had done comedy before but seems bored and ill at ease here, and looks fed up with it all by the end, but it seems he had to replicate exactly what Charlie wanted as Chaplin used to act out the scenes for them .... so it probably didnt give him any room to improvise. Someone like James Garner would surely have been more ideal

though the whole selling point is that this is Brando in a romantic comedy with Loren, written and directed by Chaplin, who did the music too, including that nice tune "This Is My Song". His script though may have been fine in the '30s and '40s (where there were lots of movie stowaways and runaway heiresses) but in the middle of the Swinging '60s seemed hopelessly old-fashioned. Margaret Rutherford has a delicious scene, English farceur Patrick Cargill has his moments, and our THE BIRDS favourite Tippi Hedren pops in to play Brando's icy wife. Questions remain unanswered: how does our  countess who has no money get the changes of clothes including the Hawaiian outfit to dive overboard in, and the scenes in Hawaii and on the beach are obviously studio too and rather clumsy.
That other older English director Alfred Hitchcock also did a film at that year TORN CURTAIN with another top two '60s stars (Newman and Andrews)  similarly ill at ease.  A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG then is fitfully amusing, but does not really work. Various Chaplin children pop up, including Geraldine, and the venerable Chaplin himself too.Its a pity Loren's mid-'60s two with Brando and Newman (Ustinov's LADY L, also fitfully amusing and good to look at) were not better films or better received. She didn't fare much better with Burton and O'Toole in the early '70s (1972's MAN OF LA MANCHA is certainly worth discovering now, as per review, Loren/O'Toole labels.)

REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE - Southern Fried Gothic!

In 1967 Marlon headed John Huston's drama, replacing Montgomery Clift (who died in 1966) initially cast in what would have been his 4th outing with Taylor .... we are back in that Deep South Gothic universe as created by Tennessee Williams or Carson McCullers or William Inge.  This is a McCullers tale and a very twisted bizarre one it is ...

On a U.S. Army post circa 1948, a major who is an impotent, latent homosexual is married to an infantile wife who never misses an opportunity to ridicule his masculine failings. He displaces his hostility by brutally flogging her horse and she retaliates by humiliating him before a houseful of guests, repeatedly slashing him across the face with her riding crop. She is also committing adultery with the officer next door, who's wife cut off her nipples with garden shears after the death of her baby, and has sought solace in the ministrations of her effeminate houseboy. The sixth character, coveted by the major, is a darkly handsome soldier, a voyeur and lingerie-fondler, given to nightly appearances as a peeping tom in the wife's bedroom and daily sessions of horseback riding in the middle of the woods stark naked.....

 I think that about covers it. Naturally it all climaxes in an outpouring of violence as repressed feelings come to the surface. The cast is the thing here ... Brando acquits himself well as the oddly gay major (Steiger was also playing repressed gay that year in THE SERGEANT, also set on a military base - in France - in contrast to his more flamboyant gay in '68's NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY, Steiger label); Elizabeth Taylor is over-ripe and note perfect in another of her Southern roles as the rather dim, rather coarse insensitive wife (her hilarious party food monologue is a career highlight), and the great Julie Harris is back in McCullers territory (as in THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING) as the other wife, with her houseboy. Seeing Taylor and Harris together inevitably reminds one of Abra in EAST OF EDEN and Leslie Benedict in GIANT and how they both liked James Dean .... Brando shows what a fascinating actor he is when engaged in a role, he has some great moments here, the scene with Firebird the horse and his breakdown, his monologue on the enlisted men's lives and comeraderie "without clutter", and Taylor whipping him in her Alexandre of Paris hair creation! Brian Keith is solid as Harris's baffled husband, and Robert Forster is the naked solider. One can see too Huston's fascinating with the horses ....

Huston's film was originally meant to be shown in washed-out, desaturated golden tones, which certainly did not happen with the prints on general release, but the dvd now has the correct look. Good now to savour this again - it has long been unseen here, and this is in fact a Korean dvd issue I got. Key moments include Brando talking to himself and rubbing cosmetics into his face, and a supposedly naked Taylor (body double obviously) and all Julie Harris's scenes ... its all a weird mix of camp and drama, Southern Fried Gothic! - certainly one of Huston's most intriguing and under-rated, from his great '50s-'60s period (which included HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, THE UNFORGIVEN, THE MISFITS (see label), NIGHT OF THE IGUANA).  Must dig out his equally odd 1969 THE KRELIN LETTER again soon too.

Rita/Gilda + Stamp, York, new Pedro & Ozon ...

The BFI (British Film Institute) next turn their attention to '40s Love Goddess Rita Hayworth (1918-1887), with again, a paltry selection of her films, just 10 and the most obvious titles one could imagine ... I love Hawks' ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, followed by ANGELS OVER BROADWAY, BLOOD AND SAND, YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH, YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER, COVER GIRL, GILDA, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI and just 2 from the '50s: PAL JOEY and SEPARATE TABLES.

Perhaps her '50s output was variable (SALOME, MISS SADIE THOMPSON etc) - compared to her contemporary Lana Turner - and she certainly did nothing much of value during the '60s and later (I endured some of her later ones a while back: I BASTARDI, and THE ROVER and ROAD TO SALINA, where she was certainly diminished).  

Back in her heyday it was of course a different story. She is perfect with Astaire, being a great dancer herself. She is terrific too in PAL JOEY, with her younger rival Kim Novak and as Sinatra sings "The Lady Is  A Tramp" to her....

I particularly liked the older Rita and Gary Cooper, two once beautiful people, showing their frailties in Rossen's THEY CAME TO CORDURA in 1959 ....
We will always though have GILDA .... one to re-view soon. Film historian and archivist John Kobal caught her perfectly in his labour of love "The Time The Place And The Woman".

Those 2 '60s boys we liked: The BFI's Terence Stamp season is now underway, as per my post on that recently (Stamp label).

Michael York has been in the news too, having confirmed he is indeed suffering from a rare blood disease, hence his recent unwell appearances on that dvd interview, and the recent CABARET reunion - as per York label. But despite the illness, which has seen York undergo a stem-cell transplant, he remains positive about his future.“I know this can be deadly, but I never gave up. I am thrilled at this reprieve and want to do as much as I can to make it better.”  We wish him a speedy recovery.

Good news for European movie fans ... the new Almodovar I'M SO EXCITED opens here this week (and seems to be his first out-and-out comedy since 1988's WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (another must re-see soon...), though it does poke fun at Spain's current economic problems, those dancing camp air stewards seem hilarious in the trailer, it is of course set on an airplane. Pedro was great value on the UK Graham Norton show last week .... early reviews though have been negative - seems the movie "is disappointing only in the way bad movies by great directors are"..and not as bitter as his previous SKIN I LIVE IN or BROKEN EMBRACES but for his 19th feature I think Pedro is entitled to have fun and let his hair down .... a good camp tonic is just what we need !

while Francois Ozon's (below) current IN THE HOUSE is currently still playing and doing good business.We are looking forward to these ...

Next up: back to those 60s dramas: 2 more Brando's: Chaplin's comedy A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG with Loren, and Huston's REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE with Taylor and Harris; and 2 Simone Signorets: Kramer's SHIP OF FOOLS and Lumet's THE DEADLY AFFAIR. We also have Lumet's last film: BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, which passed us by completely ...+ Almodovar's THE SKIN I LIVE IN.

Danielle Darrieux, 96

Instead of a RIP, a Happy Birthday notice to legendary French actress Danielle Darrieux, 96 on 1st May, born in 1917 and still working until recently, on stage too.

I am not familiar with the majority of her films (IMDB lists 140 titles!), but remember being impressed as a child by her as Alexander's scheming mother Olympias in Rossen's turgid ALEXANDER THE GREAT (right) in 1956 - there is a great shot of her on the castle ramparts.

From her debut in 1931 she progressed to playing wordly sophisticates (rather like a French Lilli Palmer - they both played Maugham's ADORABLE JULIA in their own languagues, Lilli's was very amusing in 1962; it would be interesting to see Darrieux's in 1988). The 1936 CLUB DE FEMMES was amusing to see recently, and she starred in the first version of MAYERLING with Boyer. FIVE FINGERS and THE GREENGAGE SUMMER are others of her English speaking films. She was one of the victims of Chabrol's LANDRU in 1963 (French label), and also appeared in one of those legendardy missing films, Romain Gary's THE BIRDS COME TO DIE IN PERU with Jean Seberg, one of 1968's oddities.

I have been meaning to re-watch Ophul's '53 THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE..., and of course she also featured in 2 other Ophuls films (LA RONDE and LE PLAISIR) and she played Catherine Deneuve's mother in 5 films, very amusingly in Demy's LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT in '67, and she was also one of Ozon's 8 WOMEN. (I shall be comparing the 2 versions of LA RONDE before too long, Ophuls' and Vadim's 1964 version).

Some actresses like the late Deanna Durbin gave up the cinema early, others like Madame Darrieux just go on and on .... she is certainly to be included in any list of great French stars. Below: the Rochefort line-up, more at French, Demy, Denueuve, Dorleac labels ...

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.