White Hunter Black Heart, 1990

A thinly fictionalized account of a legendary movie director, whose desire to hunt down an elephant turns into a grim situation with his movie crew in Africa.

The blurb states: "For a film of "excitement, wit and intelligence" (Rex Reed) the hunt ends here. As both star and director of WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART, Clint Eastwood plays one of his most colourful roles and crafts one of the most acclaimed movies of his 45-year career.

He plays John Wilson, a brilliant driven film director (loosely based on legendary John Huston) determined to turn his new project in Africa into personal adventure hunting a wild elephant. Jeff Fahey, Marisa Berenson and George Dzundza co-star in this rugged, robust movie from the novel by co-screenwriter Peter Viertel, who accompanied Huston to Africa in 1950 to work on THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Filmed on location in Zimbabwe and London, WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART is a bold trek into the heart of adventure". 

Well they would say that I suppose, but there is no "loosely based" about it. Clint's character is meant to be Huston, and the film they are making is THE AFRICAN QUEEN, with Marisa Berenson a convincing Hepburn character (Bogie and Bacall - also on the location - are not as developed here). 

We were discussing THE AFRICAN QUEEN over at IMDB, which got me interested in this, which I had missed at the time, as indeed I had most of Eastwood's films, I just do not find him or his films interesting (apart from the early stuff like PLAY MISTY FOR ME or DIRTY HARRY). Viertel was a fascinating guy too, writer and Hollywood marverick, who married Deborah Kerr, and knew Huston, Hemingway etc. well, as per his fascinating memoir. (His mother Salka was an intimate of Garbo's). There is a strong British contingent here, with Timothy Spall, Alun Armstrong and Richard Warwick, and Fahey is a pleasing presence. Eastwood gets Huston's speech patterns and mannerisms off pat, so its a fascinating look at movie-making, but really anyone not familar with THE AFRICAN QUEEN or who these people were, would be totally at sea. The climax with the elephants is well handled too. Having seen Berenson recently on the stage, see label, it was interesting to see her again here and she too (like Blanchett) sketches a passable Kate. Hepburn's slim  memoir of making the film is a fascinating read too with great photographs. 
Huston returned to Africa in 1957 for another elephant saga, THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN, about saving elephants, not shooting them. 

Woody's films ranked !

I am indebted to that enterprising movie magazine LITTLE WHITE LIES, as they have ranked all Woody Allen's 46 films, with interesting comments on them, just as his new one CAFE SOCIETY is getting better than usual reviews here (My pal Martin "loved, loved, loved it".). The link is here:   Enjoy!

http://lwlies.com/articles/the-films-of-woody-allen-ranked/

I couldn't top that, Woody (is it really 51 years since he was chasing Romy Schneider in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT?, our favourite 1965 cult movie .... ) has been variable over the years, with some movies I love (ok, the mainly early funny and mid-period ones) and some I just had no interest in seeing. 

My top 10 Woodys would be:      (but check the link and read all about them all). 

• ANNIE HALL
• MANHATTAN
• INTERIORS
• STARDUST MEMORIES
• HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
• CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS
• MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
• EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU
• ANOTHER WOMAN
• RADIO DAYS
• BROADWAY DANNY ROSE
• THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO
• LOVE AND DEATH

I dashed to BLUE JASMINE which seemed his best in years, it was only after we realised the flaws in the script, but it was marvellously done, especially by Cate Blanchett. His London movie YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER worked for us too. 1972's EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX amused at the time - Woody as the Fool, Gene Wilder and the sheep - but that extended sperm sequence may jar now, with that anti-gay jibe (Are there any gays in the Woody universe, apart from Meryl Streep as the lesbian ex-wife in MANHATTAN?) 
Reviews of some of these at Woody label. Lets hope he, in his 80s,  can keep turning out a movie a year for a while longer yet ...  

Ingmar - a round dozen

My friend Mike in San Francisco (my oldest pal, we were penfriends when we were 17 - what people did before the internet and Facebook) and I have been ruminating on Ingmar Bergman films. Hard to believe now but when I was first in London, aged 18 in 1964, we went to a screening of Bergman's THE SILENCE, an arthouse hit then (which we followed by going to see the routine THE CHALK GARDEN). 

It seems inpossible now that teenagers would go and see a sombre black and white Swedish film with sub-titles, but back then arthouse movies were part of the general movie scene, with several crossover hits and every reasonable size city had one or two for the trendy folk to go to. (There was a more exotic or erotic arthouse cinemas for those looking for something more explicit than what the local Odeon or ABC served up..."the dirty mac brigade").  Of course there were less distractions then, just 2 television channels here in the UK, in black and white; no internet or cellphones. Mike was saying his students would not even watch an old Greta Garbo movie now. 
Of course THE SEVENTH SEAL was stunning on a first view, we had seen nothing like it, as it later became an arthouse cliche, and his lovely film of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE is still a perfect opera film. 

Anyway to Bergman, a list of my favourites:

• THE SEVENTH SEAL
• SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
• WILD STRAWBERRIES
• THE MAGICIAN
• THE SILENCE
• PERSONA
• CRIES AND WHISPERS
• AUTUMN SONATA
• THE MAGIC FLUTE
• FANNY & ALEXANDER

Theres also the early SUMMER WITH MONIKA, and THE VIRGIN SPRING, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WINTER LIGHT and those unsparing Liv Ullmann dramas FACE TO FACE and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. I have not seen the 1964 comedy NOW ABOUT THESE WOMEN, or the later THE SERPENT’S EGG.

Bergman (1918-2007) directed a total of 67 films, and died on the same day as Michelangelo Antonioni – which was quite a surprise for us in 2007, but the movies go on and continue to resonate with us. 
We were also fascinated by his troupe of actresses: Thulin, Lindblom, Ullmann, Bibi and Harriet Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck ... and Ingrid having a late career swansong with that SONATA. 
I went twice to his 1970 London theatre production of HEDDA GABLER - a very intense staging with actors in black on a red stage (rather like CRIES & WHISPERS) - with Maggie Smith (right) giving one of her best stage performances. 
I have written more on some of these at Bergman label, but must return to them and review some more over the winter months. (Above, the two Bergmans on AUTUMN SONATA). 

Nina puts a spell on you ...

My pal Martin has been raving (and raving) about that new Nina Simone (1933-2003) documentary WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? so its got me compiling some favourite Nina tracks - we have liked her since the 1960s, I first had an EP (ask your grand-dad) of hers circa 1965, with those great tracks "I Put A Spell On You" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and I think "I Loves You Porgy". I loved that early live album of hers NINA AT TOWN HALL, and of course now there are endless compilations. 

We also got her late sixties stuff like "Ain't Got No, I Got Life" when she was wooing the hippie HAIR crowd, but I really preferred her recordings from a decade earlier. We saw one of her last concerts too, one of the most bizarre I have been to, where she stomped on, played some, ignored the audience, and then stomped off, complete with plastic carrier bag. A difficult life and a difficult woman, obviously, with lots of demons, but she when was on form she was dynamic - that voice ... and that piano playing too (like Aretha Franklin, also able to play with soul). Here's a top dozen Nina's, and seek out the documentary:

• I Put A Spell On You
• Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
• Be My Husband
• Sinnerman
• Fine and Mellow
• The Other Woman
• Seeline Woman
• Four Women
• My Baby Just Cares For Me
• Feeling Good
• Wild Is The Wind
• I Want More and More and Then Some 

Poldark (and handsome) returns ....

We have had to wait 16 months for the second series of POLDARK on the  BBC, Sunday nights will be more tolerable now, as we return to those wild Cornish land and seascapes as our smouldering hero (Aidan Turner) rides his trusty steed and copes with all that drama, topless down the tin mines, or comforting his wife Demelza (or Grizelda, as a friend insists on calling her), and there are some new interesting characters too. Good too to see that veteran character actress Caroline Blakison as the old granny shufflng her tarot cards .... 10 episodes, so better order in some more gin & tonics. (see Poldark label for review of first series.). Aidan is one of these actors who certainly can wear those period costumes.

We will have to check out that horror series BEING HUMAN, looks quite intriguing - with pre-POLDARK Aidan with Russell Tovey ...

Last summer re-view: La Isla Del Sol

As summer ebbs away here and autumn sets in, our final summer re-view is, appropriately, ISLAND IN THE SUN (or as my Spanish dvd calls it LA ISLA DEL SOL), that sun-drenched trashfest/engrossing drama from 20th Century Fox in 1957, with fascinating casting and it all looks gorgeous, as per my earlier review.  To recap:

ISLAND IN THE SUN. “Scandal, political intrigue and inter-racial romance on a steamy Caribbean island” – well, that’s what the blurb says, and continues: “Its 1957 on the tropical island of Santa Mara (so no, its not Jamaica) where a charismatic new black leader threatens to unseat British rule.” The result though is an engrossing two hours as several plotlines converge around the leading players. Joan Fontaine has a chaste romance with Harry Belafonte (despite the posed still above they do not touch in the film) Which Cannot Be, so they have to give each other up, but it gives her a chance to wear some nice summer outfits and halter tops, with white gloves of course. 
Joan Collins also gets to wear some nifty outfits as she romances a stolid Stephen Boyd (an English lord !); James Mason gets into a murderous rage over his wife’s relationship with Michael Rennie; Dorothy Dandridge (CARMEN JONES) is lovely but rather wasted, and Diana Wynyard is good support, along with John Williams as the police chief tracking down the murderer. 

It was a best-selling novel by Alec Waugh  (a brother of Evelyn) and Darryl F Zanuck produces and gives it that 20th Century Fox plush Cinemascope look mixing in contract players like Boyd, Collins, Patricia Owens, with the more established stars, so another 20th Century Fox literary potboiler like their PEYTON PLACE, THE SUN ALSO RISES, THE WAYWARD BUS, SANCTUARY, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN. The island here could be a mix of Barbados and Grenada and is a set-designer’s dream. The title song is one of the first pop hits I remember ... A star-studded entertaining chunk of trash then from director Robert Rossen, for a damp afternoon, and so very 1957. 
PS on Fontaine & Belafonte - it caused a furore in America in the '60s when Petula Clark touched him when they were singing on one of her tv shows .... so imagine the fuss in 1957 ! Poor Joan received hate mail! On location, it was the other Joan - La Collins - who got to first base with Harry.

Summer re-views: Pedro's Bad Education

Pedro Almodovar's latest JULIETA is getting good reviews, after the underwhelming I'M SO EXCITED a few years ago. So we are having another look at one of his most complex, exhilirating works, BAD EDUCATION, from 2004. I was also stunned by THE SKIN I LIVE IN (see review, Almodovar label) and of course we love ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, LAW OF DESIRE, VOLVER etc. Spain's greatest film-maker scores again .... London's BFI is also having a current retrospective on him. This is my 2013 review of BAD EDUCATION:

Pedro Almodovar takes a look at his own adolescence as well as confronting the issue of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church in this stylish thriller, which was chosen to open the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. 
In 1980s Madrid two young men, filmmaker Enrique and aspiring actor Ignacio, now calling himself Angel, open up dark secrets as they revisit their earlier years together at a Catholic school. As they try to uncover the truth about themselves, each other and the diverse characters in their story, they realise that things and people are not as they first seem ...
Well, that's what the dvd blurb says, though it mixes up the two leads' characters, but then it is a very confusing narrative .... Gael Garcia Bernal is at different times Ignacio/Angel, his brother Juan and Ignacio's alter ego the sensational drag queen Zahara - who does that sizzling musical tribute to Spanish star Sara Montiel, and also gets it on with another Enrique - a hilarious and sexy scene where she/he is aided and abetted by his ditzy pal Paquito. Then the first version we see of Father Manolo is soon replaced by another .... and then there is another Ignacio - confused? you could be, but one can hardly spell out the plot in more detail without giving too much away.

I had not seen BAD EDUCATION since 2004 and it played like I was seeing it for the first time, mesmerised by the crazy plot's twists and turns. It looks marvellous too of course, very Spanish in design, lots of vivid reds, with some stunning setpieces: the whole Zahara sequence, the two boys hiding from Fr Manolo - which played brilliantly in the cinema; someone falling face first into a typewriter ... Gael Garcia Bernal is stunning here, and joins those great performers in Almodovar movies: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Rossy de Palma, Marisa Paredes and Penelope Cruz.  
The marvellous script consists of three stories which have been interwoven in a brilliant way. Story one: film director Enrique (Fele Martinez) is being paid a visit by a long lost friend. who has written a script about their schooldays and the priest who abused them. This is the story we see as the director imagines it, with the two boys and the drag queen Zahara and her Enrique. 
Then the reality is the third story when everything becomes clear, a story of blackmail and murder. In all, a dazzling experience and one to revisit more than once ... the notes at the end which tell us what happens to the characters says "Enrique Goded is still making films with the same passion". The same applies obviously to Almodovar. The dvd 'deleted scenes' for once are interesting too, continuing what happens when Pequito (Javier Camara) and Zahara's pick-up Enrique (Alberto Ferreira) go to the school with the police, after Zahara unwisely confronted the priests ...

Summer re-views: married folk

Two contrasting studies of tempestuous marriages and infidelity. The very serious THE PUMPKIN EATER from 1964 - not seen that since then; and the 1972 Trashfest that is ZEE & CO, (or X, Y, & ZEE) - ditto.

Upper middle-class life in the black and white early sixties is nicely dissected in Jack Clayton's THE PUMPKIN EATER, from a novel by Penelope Mortimer, scripted by Harold Pinter (so we are in THE SERVANT and ACCIDENT territory). 
Anne Bancroft, after her Oscar win (for THE MIRACLE WORKER, and before she essayed Mrs Robinson in THE GRADUATE), has one of her key roles as the very intense mother of eight children, as she wonders if her current husband, writer Peter Finch, is being unfaithful. He is of course, and with the annoying Philpot (a noteworthy early small role by Maggie Smith). He has also been having an affair with the wife of jealous friend James Mason, who plots his revenge. Jo (Bancroft) has a harrowing breakdown in Harrods store, and is later menaced at the hairdressers by a woman (Yootha Joyce) jealous of Jo's lavish lifestyle and good fortune. 

Her father is Cedric Hardwicke (his final role) and the cast also includes Alan Webb, Richard Johnson as Jo's previous husband,  Eric Porter and more familiar faces.

It is a fascinating drama, often teetering on the brink of pretentiousness and unintentional hilarity, but the cast is the thing here. (A similar movie is the same era's PSYCHE '59, by Alexander Singer, another look at posh London life, here the wife is Patricia Neal, who is blind until she realises what is going on between her husband Curt Jurgens and sexpot Samantha Eggar). 
ZEE & CO is a garish cartoon by comparison ...

Zee and Robert Blakeley are members of swinging London's upper crust whose unique love-hate marriage heads towards destruction when Robert falls in love with a beautiful young widow named Stella, and Zee goes through a series of scheming adventures to break Robert and Stella up.

Thats the plot in a nutshell, but it can hardly do justice to the Trash classic that is ZEE & CO, (or X, Y, AND ZEE) - an unlikely title for action director Brian G Hutton (but he had just directed Burton in WHERE EAGLES DARE) - this time, he puts a wild Elizabeth Tayor and dull Michael Caine through their paces, and a wan Susannah York, plus Margaret Leighton as a kind of aged hippie, and John Standing as the catty gay best friend, and young Michael Cashman (ex-EASTENDERS gay Colin) as the "poncy little fag" shop assistant.

The farrago was scripted by Edna O'Brien - hope she got paid a lot - and the whole thing gets wilder and wilder and funnier and funnier as Liz scheeches and brays as she plots to seduce Susannah herself, to get her away from husband Caine ..... Taylor seems to have a ball letting rip as the over-dressed vulgarian wife of stuffy architect Caine, but really her movie goddess days were coming to an end here in 1972; without a Zeffirelli, Losey or Mike Nichols to direct her she seems to have been encouraged to go way over the top here. This is a Trash Classic up there with the best of the worst - one to relish with THE LOVE MACHINE or THE OSCAR or even HARLOW .... 

Summer re-views: for the RVT boys

The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, one of London's oldest gay pubs, is a Grade II listed entertainment venue, which has been catering to confirmed bachelors and their friends ever since it was a music hall in a previous incarnation. I had a lot of pleasant evenings there myself; it now has a free film club on the 1st of every month, and this evening's choice is - wait for it - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? so I am sure the boys in the band will be singing out the lines along with Bette and Joan. Take it away guys: "Butcha are in that wheelchair, Blanche, you are ... " and that delicious end line: "You mean all these years we could have been friends". Here once again is the BABY JANE cover from my favourite magazine ... (I was 17 when I got that issue in 1963). 

RIP, continued ...

Gene Wilder, (1933-2016), aged 83 - Gene has been on our radar ever since he was kidnapped by BONNIE AND CLYDE in 1967. Then he was Leopold Bloom, that hysterical accountant conned into helping Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS, filmed that year, but it did not show up in London until 1969, when it became a cult item, and one of the first late night shows at 11pm - my pal Stan roped us into going and we loved it, so we rushed to BLAZING SADDLES, and particularly YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN which he co-wrote with Brooks, we saw it several times - its still a scream now. We also liked SILVER STREAK, the first of four with Richard Pryor, and lots more Gene, including of course, WILLY WONKA ..... he directed and wrote THE WOMAN IN RED.  His personal life had its share of tragedies, his third wife comedienne Gilda Radner dying of cancer in 1989, and his developed Alzheimers. He received an Emmy Award for his appearances in WILL & GRACE, his final acting role in 2003. One always remembers Gene with affection - particularly his sheep obsession in Woody's EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX.

Sonia Rykiel (1930-2016), aged 86 from Parkinson's Disease. Stylish French fashion designer, whose knitwear and clothes, accessories, fragrances and books kept her at the forefront of French haute couture. She appeared in Altman's PRET-A-PORTER (1994), and the character played by Anouk Aimee was based on her. 

Arthur Hiller  (1923-2016), aged 93. American film director whose biggest hit was of course LOVE STORY in 1970 - no, I have never seen it but I liked his MAN OF LA MANCHA in 1972, and he also helmed, among his 33 films, the very funny PLAZA SUITE and THE OUT OF TOWNERS, plus THE HOSPITAL, THE AMERICANISATION OF EMILY, SILVER STREAK and OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE.  1982's MAKING LOVE was an interesting choice for him, one of the first mainstream gay theme movies, which should have been better received at the time. 

Hugh O'Brian (1925 - 2016, aged 91. A good innings for '50s WYATT EARP star Hugh, I never saw those tv series, being too young at the time, but we know Hugh from the many westerns he featured in around that time: SEMINOLE, SASKATCHEWAN, WHITE FEATHER, BROKEN LANCE and he co-stars in THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW-BUSINESS. He also made an impression in those yellow speedos in the Lana Turner classic LOVE HAS MANY FACES in 1965, other films include TEN LITTLE INDIANS, COME FLY WITH ME. Former marine Hugh was one of those boys in the sauna in that Modern Screen photospread which we featured earlier this year ( http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/1950-party-boys.html ). He married at 81 and did a lot of charity work. Another personable cowboy star then, notching up 112 credits.

Gloria DeHaven (1925-2016), aged 91. Actress and singer from The Golden Age with a lot of credits. I know her best as Judy Garland's younger sister in SUMMER STOCK in 1950. Other roles included TWO GIRLS AND A SAILOR and SO THIS IS PARIS, which was fun, with young Tony Curtis. She was a child actress in Chaplin's MODERN TIMES in '36, and she was later under contract to MGM. Her stage work included HELLO DOLLY, THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC in 1964.

Marni Nixon (1930-2016), aged 86. Soprano Marni of course was the singing voice of so many:  Deborah Kerr in THE KING AND I and AN AFFAIR TO REMEMER, Natalie Wood in WEST SIDE STORY and GYPSY, Audrey in MY FAIR LADY, to name a few. She appeared as a nun in the film of THE SOUND OF MUSIC and appeared in opera, and musicals on Broadway and various concerts as she became better known as herself. It seems she even dubbed Marilyn's high notes on "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"!

William Lucas (1925-2016), aged 91. Dependable British actor, which extensive film and television credits ranging from PAYROLL and SONS AND LOVERS (1960), THE BILL, LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE, BLACK BEAUTY, DR WHO, CORONATION STREET, DIXON OF DOCK GREEN, THE AVENGERS, Z CARS, etc. 

Summer re-reads: Jane Austen & the california high life ...

This is what I said about Jane Austen's PERSUASION, back in 2011, when writing about some favourite books:

I absolutely love Jane Austen's PERSUASION and have re-read it several times and no doubt will again. PRIDE & PREJUDICE is a witty comedy of manners (and there is that great BBC version of it), SENSE & SENSIBILITY was a nice discovery too as we follow the Dashwood girls in and out of love (and we have Ang Lee's perfect film as scripted by Emma Thompson, and the rather nice recent TV version) - I have not felt the urge though to bother with EMMA or NORTHANGER ABBEY, while MANSFIELD PARK was rather a chore. It is PERSUASION though that I want to read and re-read. For one thing it is perfectly romantic as the thwarted lovers slowly begin to rediscover each other, and Anne Elliott is the most charming and wise Austen heroine, compared to her family and the interfering Aunt, Lady Russell. Anne is only 28 but is practically an old maid as she missed her chance with the dashing Captain 8 years previously when she was persuaded to give him up as he had no fortune. Captain Wentworth too is the perfect hero, back from the navy, his fortune made - no wonder those silly Musgrove girls throw themselves at him, as we travel from Uppercross to Lyme Regis and its famous cobb, and high society in Bath. All the 3 adaptations create their own endings. Austen actually wrote two perfectly romantic endings to her book, but neither is cinematic, so in the films we have Anne chasing all over Bath to catch up with the Captain, and the couple kissing! I prefer the 1995 BBC version which is a real film, but the recent one is fine too. The book though is a lasting pleasure. See Austen label for reviews of the films of her books.

It is now another late summer and I am engrossed in PERSUASION once again. Despite like the three television versions going back to the book is a treat with all that perfect prose and Austen's style to savour, as in describing Sir Walter Elliott fear of ageing: "and the rapid increase of the crow's foot about Lady Russell's temples had long been a distress to him". or:

"Anne Elliot, with all her claims of birth, beauty and mind, to throw herself away at nineteen; involve herself in an engagement with a young man, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining affluence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connections to secure even his further rise in that profession; that would indeed be a throwing away, which she  (Lady Russell) grieved to think of! Anne Elliot, so young; known to so few, to be snatched off by a stranger without alliance or fortune; or rather sunk by him into a state of most wearing, anxious, youth-killing dependance! It must not be, if by any interference of friendship, any representations from one who had almost a mother's love, and mother's rights, it would be prevented. "

How Anne and Captain Wentworth overcome such objections is perfectly worked out. Lets look at the blurb again:

PERSUASION, the last competed novel Jane Austen wrote, was published in 1817, a year after her death in 1816. It features a heroine, Anne Elliot, older and wiser than her predecessors in earlier books, and its tone is more intimate and sober as Austen unfolds a simple love story with depth and subtlety. Anne's goodness is not the cloying kind, but an unsentimental quality that, combined with stoicism and integrity, enables her to find happiness in love after seven years when it seemed she had forever put an end to such a prospect. 

The settings of Lyme Regis and Bath are evoked no less vividly than the characters who frequent them, and Jane Austen's achievement is exemplified by Tennyson's famous remark when visiting Lyme in 1867: "Now take me to The Cobb, and show me the steps from which Louisa Musgrove fell".

A total contrast, and almost as delicious, is a 1999 novel by one Doug Guinan, CALIFORNIA DREAMING, which reads like a gay Jackie Collins on acid trashfest. It is witty and complex though telling several stories, as we follow those West Hollywood gym boys Kevin and Leon and their various entangements. Kevin is the uber-gay, who smoulders a lot and manages to land multi-millionaire media and music mogel (think David Geffin) Brad Sherwood and becomes his boy-toy - until a nicely worked out party causes it all to fall apart. Leon meanwhile meets cute personal trainer Kim and their romance dovetails nicely too, as we follow the high life of Brad and his friend Roy with all their assorted hangers-on. We also get the backstory of Kevin's first romance with Anthony, the prince son of a mafia don in New York, and how he had to flee to California when the father finds out.  Kevin has to return to New York but will he also go back to Brad in California, who comes to track him down. This is a delicious fabulous read (particularly where Kevin goes on a shopping spree with Brad's card), ideal for the beach or a plane or a holiday. We like it a lot. As one review said: I haven't read such a fun and involving book like this since Tales of the City. The characters at first seem shallow but this proves, in the long run, their humanity both with their foibles and at times their surprising depth. When I finished the book I felt as though I had lost some new friends. I read it all in one sitting on a plane to LA. Fabulous and fun - a cross between Gordon Merrick & Armisted Maupin.

Summer re-views: Bette's Charlotte Vale

Its on television now, as I write - on the BBC: the 1942 NOW VOYAGER - its so seldom the BBC show a 1940s classic now, that its almost one' duty to watch it, despite having the dvd. Its still a timeless classic and one of Bette's key roles. Here's what I said about it, in a gay context, a mere 6 years ago: 

"I am not one to read gay subtext into movies [well apart from in BEN HUR], but a fascinating piece I read the other day made me stop and think and look at NOW VOYAGER in a new light. Rupert Smith, author of MAN'S WORLD - the best new novel I have read in years [still available at all good bookshops, folks] - writing in ATTITUDE magazine has this to say about it, in a feature on the nature of camp:

"NOW VOYAGER, a 1942 melodrama starring Bette Davis as a downtrodden, mentally unbalanced spinster who has a nervous breakdown, has a dramatic makeover and embarks on an affair with a married man. The movie and the book on which it was based were aimed squarely at women. All the characters and all their relationships are resolutely heterosexual. And yet for all that NOW VOYAGER is textbook camp because it mirrors so precisely - and perhaps so unconsciously - the gay experience.

Ugly, unloved Charlotte with her thick eyebrows and dowdy clothes is like a gay man in his larval stage, stuck in the family, driven crazy by frustration. She then emerges from her chrysalis with fabulous clothes, great hair and plucked eyebrows. She falls in love with an unavailable man and settles, at the end, for whatever scraps of affection she can get, with that famous last line: "Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon; we have the stars". For gay men watching Bette Davis in the '40s - and there were plenty - it was like autobiography, in drag."

Rupert gets it exactly right. Poor frustrated Charlotte is left to look after and put up with her domineering mother, the other family members treat her like a doormat, she is made fun of by visiting relations. Even her mother (Gladys Cooper, excellent as ever) does not love her and bullies her - so of course, after the intervention of psychiatrist Claude Rains, she cannot accept the new svelte, confident Charlotte who returns after being the the most popular woman on the cruise (and what a camp fantasy that is...). What though is the nature of those unsuitable materials which mother found when moving Charlotte's items to a new bedroom she has designated for her? Charlotte however triumphs, with wonderful bon mots along the way: "Dora, I suspect you are a treasure" to the nurse Mary Wilkes; and "let's not linger over it" when breaking off her engagement to the very solid beau that mother approves of, but whom she does not love. She will be happy with those stolen hours with married man Jerry, and looking after his unhappy daughter.

Directed by gay Irving Rapper its certainly a timeless favourite, as good as my other two favourite Bette's: THE GREAT LIE (where we have nice Bette with superbitch Mary Astor) and OLD ACQUAINTANCE with Bette at her most brittle with that fabulous apartment (with devoted housekeeper) in wartime New York, and her on-going rivalry with flouncy Miriam Hopkins. Noble Bette sends away Miriam's husband - the man she loves - and then has a silver streak in her hair for the later third act."

Its another Warner Bros classic of course, with Bette in some marvellous Orry-Kelly creations, Music by Max Steiner, Claude Rains watchable as ever, and directed by gay Irving Rapper. Bliss, utter bliss. 

Summer re-views: Errol and Ty swash and buckle ...

Another look at the 1935 CAPTAIN BLOOD, Errol Flynn's first starrer and he looks spectacular here, not even in his prime yet (that would be ROBIN HOOD, ELIZABETH & ESSEX and THE SEA HAWK); and its Olivia De Havilland's fourth movie .... she was certainly busy throughout the 1930s. Curtiz's actioner is still  joy now, 81 years later - and its 44 years since I saw Olivia in person at London's BFI, back in 1972 - its fantastic she is still here at 100. as per label. 

Falsely convicted of treason, Dr. Peter Blood is banished to the West Indies and sold into slavery. In Jamaica the Governor's daughter Arabella Bishop buys him for £10 to spite her uncle, Col. Bishop who owns a major plantation. Life is hard for the men and for Blood as well. By chance he treats the Governor's gout and is soon part of the medical service. He dreams of freedom and when the opportunity strikes, he and his friends rebel taking over a Spanish ship that has attacked the city. Soon, they are the most feared pirates on the seas, men without a country attacking all ships. When Arabella is prisoner, Blood decides to return her to Port Royal only to find that it is under the control of England's new enemy, France. All of them must decide if they are to fight for their new King.

As with many pictures from the 1930s, the film is chock-filled with corny characters who provide colour. Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill are hissably evil, and Olivia - 19 here - is delightful.
This is a stunning and very likable action film--and head and shoulders above all other Hollywood pirate movies - apart from Errol's THE SEA HAWK in 1941. It also has a rousing Erich Wolfgang Korngold score. 

We also love the 1942 SON OF FURY, a Tyrone Power costumer at 20th Century Fox, with the young Gene Tierney making an impression as that South Seas girl.  I first saw this as a kid, in the late Fifties, at a Sunday afternoon matinee revival and loved it then. George Sanders is marvellous too as the hissable villain (he and Ty duelled again in 1958 when filming SOLOMON AN SHEBA, when Ty had his fatal heart attack, at age 44). 

Cheated out of his estate by his sadistic uncle, young Benjamin Blake goes to the South Seas to make his fortune so he can return to claim his birthright. 

This is simply a great actioner, Ty and Sanders are perfectly cast, as is Elsa Lanchester in that small role as the streetwalker who helps our hero. Directed by John Cromwell, and it looks as lush (even in black and white) as those great Fox movies. 

Summer re-views: 1930s: Garbo, Marlene, Loretta

Another look at Garbo as MATA HARI (we love Greta as Mata, one of her lesser known roles), Marlene on that SHANGHAI EXPRESS (it was either that or BLONDE VENUS or THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN), and Loretta as one of those LADIES IN LOVE .....

The glamour of the 1930s for me means those two exotic European imports to Hollywood, as the talkies got underway - Garbo and Dietrich. A large part of their mystique of course is not just their looks but those fascinating voices.. Our Sky Arts channel repeated a Garbo programme, so one had to watch again - a whole hour of Garbo clips, they focus though on those best known ones: CAMILLE, QUEEN CHRISTINA, ANNA KARENINA, NINOTCHKA - I love them too, particularly CHRISTINA and NINOTCHKA, but they ignored THE PAINTED VEIL, from 1934, 

which I loved a year ago, as per my post here, see Garbo label, and I now think everything about MATA HARI in 1931 is utterly fantastic: the art design, her odd but mesmerising dance with the giant statue, Ramon Novarro, her stunning outfits, and that ending as she faces the execution squad ..... its amazing the number of different posters in various colours that are still around.  Jeanne Moreau's MATA HARI AGENT H21 in 1964 though very different is rather dull by comparison! 

I love that dialogue exchange between Lili and her stuffy officer ex--lover Clive Brook, when they meet again on the SHANGHAI EXPRESS in 1932 amid Von Sternberg's moody interiors, talk about light and shade! This is the one where Marlene delivers one of her most famous lines: "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lili". She is now the "notorious white flower of China", a "coaster" plying her trade on the rail line, along with fellow prostitute, the very slinky Anna May Wong.

"I wish you could tell me there'd been no other men" says Clive reproachfully .. "I wish I could, Doc" replies Marlene, "but five years in China is a long time". She is wearing his hat by this stage as he asks her if she has any regrets, to which she laconically replies "I wish I hadn't bobbed my hair".

The delirium increases as Wong uses a knife to dispose of the bandit chieftain who is holding up the Shanghai Express. Clive proves to be unworthy of Shanghai Lili who is prepared to sacrifice herself ... but you can guess the outcome. Its one of my favourite Von Sternbergs, almost as good as THE SCARLET EMPRESS or BLOND VENUS, or THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN. Marlene is again dressed by Travis Banton in furs and feathers and veils and shot in shadows praying ...
See Dietrich/Theatre labels for when I saw her in her 1973 concert tour in London ... 

Three working girls in Budapest pool their resources to get a better apartment and impress their dates (how  very HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE).

LADIES IN LOVE may not be Pre-Code as such, being 1936, but its one I like a lot now and is a great re-view now Probably the first of the Fox '3- girls-sharing-an-apartment-and-looking-for-love' movies it is set in Budapest and teams up Loretta Young, Constance Bennett and Janet Gaynor, with a young Tyrone Power and Paul Lukas in support, as well as Simone Simon. The others may look dated now, but Loretta is lovely and quite modern here, nicely dressed in black and white outfits, with interesting line readings and just being very appealing. [This was just after Loretta's CALL OF THE WILD with Clark Gable which resulted in her having his baby (on the rebound from her romance with Tracy) which she later adopted; Loretta was later one of Hollywood's most prominent Roman Catholics]. She and Tyrone look perfect here, they did several others together too then. I must dig out that Tyrone boxset ....
We must return to the 1930s for more of Katharine Hepburn, Crawford, Stanwyck, Margaret Sullavan, Irene Dunne, Norma Shearer ...