Forgotten '60s movies: BB's Two weeks in September

Serge Bourguignon was one of those new French directors in the early '60s - we didn't get to see his work though - the award-winning SUNDAYS AND CYBELE never showed during my London years, and his 1965 modern western THE REWARD (with Max Von Sydow) never played here at all - and his 1967 Bardot film TWO WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER also mysteriously sank without trace. Its one I had been meaning to catch up with, particularly as a lot of it is set in London in that mythical Swinging year - when I was 21 and we had BLOW-UP in the cinemas and The Beatles Sgt Pepper on the record player, and The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" on the radio ... 

Its marvellous seeing TWO WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER now - its another great London movie, with its model girls, (Mike Sarne is the photographer! giving David Hemmings a run for his money), discoteques, the red mini car lanky Laurent Terzieff drives around in,  and BB looking fabulous. I thought VIVA MARIA in '66 was her last great picture, but she is equally joyful and more mature here.

BB is Cecile, married to the rather dull, older Jean Rochefort - she is too animated and in the moment for him, is she a trophy wife, did she marry for security? - it is not explained. She meets a handsome man Laurent Terzieff (my discovery of last year in 1959's LA NOTTE BRAVA, see label) and his adorable dog. He also turns up in London where she has gone on a model assignment. Cecile tries to resist but soon they are getting serious, and then he drives that red mini off to Scotland, where they meet and stay with eccentric laird James Robertson Justice. 
This is the heart of the film as our runaway lovers have their two weeks in September - cue lots of sea walks, gulls, Scottish countryside, as our lovers realise their idyll cannot last forever, as they grapple with passion and its repercussions. There is an amusing scene too where he reads her feet ... It gets rather like UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME here, with even a lilting chorus. 
Bourguignon creates some great images in scope and colour and frames his couple nicely. Back in London, there is a row - a flight to Hong Kong, a mad dash to the airport, and a bittersweet ending .... 

I rather liked it actually, BB looks marvellous (as does Terzieff) and it fits in with her iconography. They do smoke rather a lot though ... 
More BB soon: UNE PARISIENNE from '57, LOVE IS MY PROFESSION with Gabin in '59, and her minute or two in Fox's DEAR BRIGITTE in '65! Interestingly, BB and Loren were both born the same month: September 1934.

Sophia back at work ...

There was a a lot of interest this week on the net and in the papers on Sophia Loren back in Naples on the set of a new film by her son Edoardo Ponti, a new version of THE HUMAN VOICE. Loren, 78 now, is in costume for her role here, but has attracted some unkind comments. 

 
I find there is a touching vulnerability to her here, as though she is suddenly older and in need of support as she walks around the uneven streets. 

We expect those great beauties to be always marvellous and looking sensational, and Sophia had a great run through her 70s, in all those Valentino outfits, but of course she is getting older too, as we are. She still looks terrific and this will be another venture of hers we look forward to. 
Below: Sophia at that Selfridges Department Store book signing, where I saw her in 1979 - I got mine signed, as per previous Loren posts.
 

Here is the link to that feature on her in last year's VANITY FAIR, which may be her last words on all that Cary Grant stuff ....

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2012/03/sophia-loren-201203

I love the photo of her kingsize bed and opulent bedroom, certainly fit for a movie queen. 
I like Edoardo's no-laces-in-his-sneakers look .... is this a new trend?

Summer sounds

High summer at last, Robin Thicke's BLURRED LINES may be the infectious sound of the summer (just how ironic/sexist is that video or lyrics?) - along with Daft Punk's GET LUCKY, Pharrell has certainly been busy, as has Nile Rodgers - his CHIC compilation is a treat, all those great tracks on one album, plus the new Pet Shop Boys on Monday - ELECTRIC, we can't wait. So, lets have a jug of Pimms and get the music going....

I was compiling a playlist of hot summer tracks, and songs from way back that remind one of those summers we used to have. It went something like this:

Groove Is In The Heart - Deee Lite

Summer In The City - Lovin Spoonful (Warm Baby - is their winter song)
Sunglasses At Night - Tiga

On The Road Again - Canned Heat

Night In The City & Chelsea Morning - Joni Mitchell

Hot Summer Nights - Marianne Faithfull

Summertime (I like Nina Simone's version best)

Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks
Running Around Town - Billie Ray Martin (12 minute remix)
Nothing Really Matters - Madonna (13 minute remix) + Don't Tell Me, Impressive Instant.

Dancing in The City - Marshall Hain

Back To the Night - Joan Armatrading

It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry - Leon Russell

Stranger In a Strange Land - Leon Russell

Riders on the Storm & Waiting For The Sun - The Doors

Sunshine Of Your Love & White Room - Cream

Need Your Love So Bad - Fleetwood Mac

I'd Rather Go Blind - Chicken Shack

Laughed At The Judge - Grease Band

40,000 Headmen & Feeling Alright - Traffic

Rock & Roll Heart - Eric Clapton

Paradise & I Cherish The Day -  Sade

Pure Pleasure Seeker - Moloko

Finally - Ce Ce Peniston

Sun Rising Up - Deux

Brighter Days - Dejae

Where Love Lives - Alison Limerick

Big Fun - Inner City - their whole album still counts

Back To Life & Keep On Moving - Soul II Soul

Say I'm Your Number One - Princess

Gotta Save Your Love For Your Number One - Rene & Angela & Kurtis Blow, 
Thinking About Your Love - Skipworth & Turner (I had a great night out with them in Brighton in 1985)
and I must grab those Hed Kandi 'Back To Love' compilations for tracks like T-empo's Saturday Night, Sunday Morning or Young Disciples' Apparantly Nothing ....

 
Then there's all the Ibiza chillouts, I will be happy with my A Man Called Adam ("Barefoot In The Head", "Duende" and "Space, Ibiza") collections, or the Groove Armada compilations, plus the Global Underground deep funk series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBae0rfqIKE
 

Fond memories of those A Man Called Adam Friday nights at Heaven, chatting to the group's Sally Rodgers; or the Miami funk duo MURK (Funky Green Dogs) also raising the roof at Heaven, what a night that was, and 4 or 5 Pet Shop shows, including that great Savoy residency in '97. 

Summer fun: She

Thats Ayesha, She Who Must Be Obeyed to you. It was great fun to revisit this Hammer film from 1965 which I remember vividly seeing at my local fleapit (The Coliseum, Harlesden) then when I was 19 and new in London.

The late respected film critic  Raymond Durgnat reviewing the film in "Films & Filming" correctly described its star Ursula Andress as being one of cinema's great exotics. How right he was. Her otherworld looks and voice are ideal here as the ageless queen of that tribe lost in deepest Africa, as she waits century after century for her lover to be returned to her. His reincarnation arrives in the manly form of Leo - John Richardson (Barbra Streisand also drooled over him in the Regency flashbacks in ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, 1970). Leo is travelling with Professor Holly (reliable Peter Cushing) and their comic servant Bernard Cribbins when his likeliness to the long departed Killkrates (also Richardson) is spotted and our travellers are soon waylaid. The lovely Ustane (Rosenda Monteros) tries to help them as she loves Leo too - but She will brook no rivals. The natives who eventually revolt against her cruelty are led by the also reliable Andre Morell (who has a great moment when his daughter is returned to him in a jar of ashes), and of course Christopher Lee is the high priest who thinks he has a chance with She .... 

H. Rider Haggard's classic story is well served by this Hammer adaptation, quite plush by their standards (see Horror label), and of course we get the famous scene when She draws Leo into the icy eternal blue flame. This is enjoyable kitch hokum, ideal for a summer re-view, or to discover for the first time. It is a key Hammer too along with their early best Dracula, Mummy and Frankenstein films. We like SHE a lot. Ursula was on a roll then, after being pals with James Dean in the '50s, whether emerging from the sea in DR NO, or parachuting into the frenzy of WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT, with her immortal line to Peter O'Toole: "Come back to bed immediately". 
We will also have to re-watch Joan Fontaine and Kay Walsh in Hammer's 1966 THE WITCHES - its a scream. 

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. 

Italy or Greece? the Quinn report ....

Still undecided on a Greek or Italian holiday? Let Anthony Quinn show us how in 2 trash items:

She was the most famous woman in the world. He was a peasant, a pirate, a shark. THE GREEK TYCOON is the story of their fiery romance. Anthony Quinn portrays Theo Tomasis - the world's richest and most flamboyant shipping magnate. He's a man who seemingly has everything he could want - who reaches out and captures his final prize: lovely, expensive, legendard Liz Cassidy, widow of a president of the United States. This lavishly mounted drama, which focuses on the international jet set's continual struggle for love and power, was filmed in Corfu, Athens, London, New York and Washington, D.C. against backdrops of breathtaking beauty and luxury. 

It is also a Trash Classic, maybe the last of the great bad films. Dating from 1978 this has it all in spades - Quinn and Bisset ideal as Onassis and Jackie O, with James Franciscus as the assasssinated president (at least they did not try to duplicate Dallas ...), Edward Albert is the son, Raf Vallone as his brother and rival ship magnate, Marilu Tolo the Callas figure, not given much to do here, and neither are Luciana Paluzzi and Camilla Sparv as the discarded Mrs Onassis. We spend our time mainly on yachts and helicopters (don't these rich people have actual homes they spend time in?), as wily Tomasis (Onassis in all but name) lures the President to his yacht by dangling a British ex-Prime Minister (Ronald Culver, maybe playing Macmillan) as bait, while he gets to know the fabulous Liz - Bisset playing Jacqueline to the manner born. The high life looks rather dull actually but it is all fabulously trashy entertainment, as helmed by the once-interesting J. Lee Thompson. 

Thanks, Poseidon!

The best moment is the end - the rich magnate, alone on some Greek island (it looks like Mykonos) drinks, feeds a dog and dances as the sun goes down, and he relates to the ordinary Greeks around him.  He has everything but has nothing really ... as a Trash classic it is almost as bad as Lana's LOVE HAS MANY FACES or PORTRAIT IN BLACK or Susan and Bette's WHERE LOVE HAS GONE or VALLEY OF THE DOLLS or those HARLOW films or THE CARPETBAGGERS (Trash label),  not in their league but it will do for now.  Back in 1978 of course I was too much the movie buff to bother with trash like this, but remember it playing at my local cinema.

THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA. Bombolini (Anthony Quinn), is the mayor of the hillside village of Santa Vittorio... He is in terrible crisis... Where to hide his precious wine? l,317,000 bottles more or less... as the Germans led by Hardy Kruger advance on their town. Add in Anna Magnani as Bombolini's bitter volatile wife and Virna Lisi as the local Contessa ... and let the heavy hand of Stanley Kramer direct (see SHIP OF FOOLS review below). Was this Hollywood's idea of comedy in 1969 ? More utter trash then as every cliche is dusted down, like the Contessa and the civilised German officer being attracted to each other, her true love is that noble soldier (Sergio Franchi) - it took 2 writers to come up with this from a Robert Crichton novel ?

The wine is hidden in an old Roman cave and has to be hidden so well that the Germans will not find the bottles. When the Germans arrives, it becomes a battle of wits for the possession of the wine. Quinn & Co play Italian by numbers, with lots of local colour - all those 'colorful' Italians and those peasant faces. It is set during the war but there is not even a gunshot here let along anyone killed. The germans just arrive without any local resistance! No wonder Anna looks exasperated making this piece of Hollywood crap.. 1968's BUONA SERA MRS CAMBELL with Lollobrigida, was much more amusing. Quinn had played so many nationalities, Greek on several occasions: ZORBA and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (there is still an 'Anthony Quinn beach' in Rhodes where that war opus was filmed), he had already teamed well with Magnani in Cukor's WILD IS THE WIND in 1957 (Magnani label), and teamed several times with Loren, and Lollo (I loved their 1956 HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME in 1956, when I was a kid.).  This is an overlong way to pass an evening or wet afternoon; not one to keep my copy went straight into the garbage can. Quinn (1915-2001) though was marvellous as that Arab sheik Auda Abu Tayi in Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.

Italy or Greece? The talented Captain Corelli ...

Summer holiday time? Two stunning books - two (three, actually) very different films

Anthony Minghella expanded Patricia Highsmith's novel THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY for his 1999 film, while James Madden's scriptwriter Shawn Slovo filleted Louis de Bernieres' CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN ....

Finally, a look at CAPT CORELLI which I had refused to see so far, as I had heard how the book was changed for the 2001 film. Again, the heavy hand of Miramax (see 54 review, below) is evident - it all looks marvellous on that Greek island of Cephalonia, 
and after the wonderful SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1990s label, mind you thats mainly due to the perfect witty script by Tom Stoppard), John Madden seemed the right man to bring it to the screen. First the casting - the only real Greek among the leads seems to be the venerable Irene Papas, John Hurt though is ideal as the doctor - but Spanish Penelope Cruz is Pelagia (she is also Italian in that recent Woody Allen - is there a worldwide shortage of Greek or Italian actresses so a Spanish actress, terrific in Spanish movies, has to play these nationalities?) and Nicolas Cage has been widely seen as ill-cast here.

The film is set against the backdrop of war between the Germans and Italians on that Greek island; the Italian Captain is billeted with Dr Iannis and his daughter, as we see the initial idyll fall away as the grim realities of war intrude. We also get Christian Bale as Mandras, the fisherman son of Drousula (Papas) who goes to join the resistance - Mandras here though is not as vicious as in the book, and as for Carlo, one of the main voices of the novel, as he tell us his story of his secret love for Corelli.  In the film Carlo (Piero Maggio) is reduced to a minor character whose sole function is to sacrifice himself to save Corelli's life when the Germans retaliate .... his heart-breaking story is gone. Then the ending is fudged too - the Captain and Pelagia meet again when they are old in that marvellous ending in the book - in the movie he just walks back after the war and its no big deal - rather like this forgettable film. After this and THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL which I loathed with a vengance (in that one, as per my review, 2000s label, Madden inserted a gay character not in the book, only to kill him off when no longer needed, as the others continue to live in India), so we be giving Madden films a wide berth from now on.  So the great complex novel has been Miramaxed: been turned into a date movie with added war stuff and no depth at all - its a Greek travelogue like MAMMA MIA!. Pauline Kael talked of "the higher trash" and "the lower trash" - this travesty is lower with a vengance. 


Minghella's glossy adaptation of Highsmith's novel  is an engaging if slightly hollow noir thriller. New York wannabe Tom Ripley's life changes after he is sent to haul an errant playboy home from Italy. Matt Damon is suitably sinister in the lead and Jude Law gives a convincing performance as the wastrel playboy. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Marge, Dickie's girlfriend, who rightly never quite trusts Ripley ... 

So there was less of CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN in the film, but we get a lot more of THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY as Minghella expands on Highsmith's original, a book I first discovered as a teen, setting me up for a lifetime passion for Highsmith books, developing the characters played by Cate Blanchett and Jack Davenport, and creating a whole new ending and making a bigger movie out of it. The '50s locations are terrific, around Capri and the Amalfi coast, and the period feel is laid on with a trowel, as they wear those fussy '50s outfits, hats and gloves. But in the original PLEIN SOLEIL - which I have written about here several times, as per label, filmed in 1959 and released in 1960, they (Delon, Ronet, Laforet) look marvellous in those casual clothes of the time, which still look fashionable now, and the mediterranean feel is perfectly captured as it really was in Henri Decae's stunning colour photography. 

Jude Law of course made his name here as the glamorous Dickie Greenleaf - no wonder needy nerd Matt Damon wants not only him but to be him, as bored Dickie toys with him and then thinks he can get rid of him when he has had enough - that murder on the boat is brilliantly done, and a nice contrast to the Rene Clement version in PLEIN SOLEIL (PURPLE NOON), where Delon, Ronet and Marie Laforet's Marge are effortlessly glamorous. As if Dickie is not enough of a heel, Minghella invents the sub-plot of Dickie making a local girl pregnant, and who drowns herself - presumably so we don't feel too bad about him being killed off halfway through the film. It all gets very convoluted then with the Blanchett and Davenport characters. It was obviously a labour of love for Minghella, as per his published screenplay.

So, two books I like a lot (the Highsmith is very re-readable for a book published initially in the mid-50s) and two very different films. The Madden Miramax CORELLI is disposable Trash, but we like Minghella's as a different addition to the Ripley canon - while the Clement-Delon version is always there, and now on Blu-ray, thats another for the collection then ... 

Newman double: Rally round the sweet bird

After tacking some Brando films recently, here's a brace of Paul Newman ...

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH. Handsome Chance Wayne never found the Hollywood stardom he craved, but he's always been a star with the ladies. Now back in his sleepy, sweaty Gulf Coast hometown, hes involved with two of them: a washed-up, drug-and-vodka-addled movie queen, and the girl he left behind - and in trouble. Paul Newman, Best Actress nominee Geraldine Page, Rip Torn and Madeline Sherwood recreate their stage roles and Ed Begley won Best Supporting Actor as the town's corrupt political boss in a bravura film version of Tennessee Williams' Broadway hit. Sex, money, hypocrisy, financial and emotional blackmail - familiar elements of Williams' literary realm combine powerfully as Chance battles his private demons in a desperate bid to redeem his wasted life and recapture his lost sweet bird of youth.   
That's the dvd blurb ...

I can't believe I never saw SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH until today - despite getting that Tennessee Williams boxset in 2006, and liking his texts and short stories, and seeing most of the films, I particuarly like NIGHT OF THE IGUANA and THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE (see Williams label). . I had been meaning to watch it all week, and I am totally stunned by Geraldine Page all over again, her Alexandra Del Lago is on the same level as Leigh's Blanche or Taylor's Maggie the Cat. Ignored for stretches of the movie as Newman's Chance Wayne scenario plays out, he is tired of satisfying rich women in the hope that he can find fame in Hollywood. The film suddenly blazes into life with her astonishing telephone call scene when she realises she is a success and not the failure she imagined after taking refuge in vodka, hashish, oxygen masks and young studs… Chance is her latest, after she promises to get him a movie contract ...

Newman though just isn't that interesting here - maybe I only really like him as HUD - and Chance is quite despicable at first, tape-recording Alexandra's ramblings and trying to impress his old crowd with his Hollywood contacts;   we only really feel for him during his "me, me" reactions while Alexandra is on the phone to Winchell.  What was so touching about this SWEET BIRD was the 2006 documentary with the older Madeline Sherwood (excellent again as Begley's mistress) and Shirley Knight (so perfectly beautiful as Heavenly) talking about the film now, and it fills in how compromised the ending is with Heavenly and Chance driving off together after his face is injured - when of course in the original she has been left barren after a hysterectomy contacted via veneral disease from Chance, who is castrated by her family as their revenge - which certainly ends his career as a stud. Mildred Dunnock is also quietly perfect as ever, and Begley is ideal as the venal corrupt Big Daddy figure, with Rip Torn as his malevolent son.
The screen test with Page and Torn (included on the dvd) was fascinating too as they do the terrific phone scene - they were of course married.  I will now have to go back to Tessessee's SUMMER AND SMOKE with Page as Alma, and of course one could never forget her stunning moments in INTERIORS, and will be catching her role in that HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE soon ... SWEET BIRD may be by Tennessee, but was "written for the screen" and directed by Richard Brooks, (how could he have been happy with this false ending imposed on the play?) and who helmed those other 'important' literary translations like Lewis's ELMER GANTRY, Tennessee's CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF,  Dostoevsky's THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV and went on to Capote's IN COLD BLOOD. I liked his early 1954 THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS when he tacked F Scott Fitzgerald, with the impossibly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, Geraldine Page (1924-1987) here though is a whole fireworks display, and transforms herself into another stunning beauty - like Julie Harris or Kim Stanley she was one of America's greatest stage actresses who was also a movie star. SWEET BIRD may not be the best Williams, but is certainly a compendium of his themes, as like Arthur Miller and William Inge he returns to the same subjects time and time again and creates that recognisable Williams universe.

1962 might have been the best Actress line-up ever - I had Remick as my personal favourite, but now it could well be Page - and with Davis and Hepburn and Bancroft also in the mix, one could almost make it a 5-way win !  SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH was the Williams I did not really know, so its been good to finally see it, it is of course one of the great American dramas, and is currently enjoying a successful revival in London, with Kim Cattrall as 'The Princess'. It might be good to see the play as originally intended ....

RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS. Leo McCarey’s 1958 comedy is another of those Fox movies that never get shown here, so I imagined it would be a treat seeing it again after 50 years or so – I was about 12 when I first saw it.  It’s a moderately amusing affair, not one of the better Newman-Woodward comedies – well, better than A NEW KIND OF LOVE at any rate; its the usual comedy of misunderstandings and poking fun at suburban living. He is a harassed husband trying to get a drink on the crowded commuter train - the men all wear hats - and she is involved in community affairs and leads a protest against a proposed army base in their suburban community, the site of a pilgrims' landing. 

Add in Joan Collins as Angela, the vamp next door who has designs on Newman, Jack Carson as a military man, and the teenage Tuesday Weld who has just discovered boys (Dwane Hickman). Its from a novel by Max Schulman and an uncredited George Axelrod had a hand in the script. Its interesting seeing the serious Newmans trying to do comedy in Rock and Doris or Jack Lemmon style, but much as they try comedy is just not their forte. Luckily Joan and Tuesday have the required light touch. Re-seeing RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS again yesterday after a 50 year gap what seemed funny then was painfully tedious now. Jack Carson has a few funny moments though particularly when he is fired into space in that rocket, but on the whole, it all seems tediously slow.