Marnie

I have finally gone back to MARNIE which I had not re-seen since its release in 1964, when it was rather under-appreciated to say the least. I was 18 then and remember not being too impressed myself then. Now of course Hitchcock has never been more in vogue what with VERTIGO made number one in the "Sight & Sound" poll last year, and re-views (reviews here at Hitchcock label) of the Hitch classics like PSYCHO, THE BIRDS and less-successful but interesting TOPAZ. The BFI also had that Hitchcock summer showing all the 52 features. The Hitch classics are always on view here .... THE BIRDS gets a primetime showing again this weekend, followed by PSYCHO and NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a regular visitor. Now of course we have those 2 films about Hitch - the disappointing THE GIRL on the Tippi Hedren films, and HITCHCOCK which is about the making of PSYCHO and opens here next week .... so, who is the better Hitch? Anthony Hopkins or Toby Jones - neither as far as I can see capture the essence of Hitch at all.  But anyway, MARNIE ...

Marnie Edgar is a habitual liar and a thief who gets jobs as a secretary and after a few months robs the firms in question, usually of several thousand dollars. When she gets a job at Rutland's, she also catches the eye of the handsome owner, Mark Rutland. He prevents her from stealing and running off, as is her usual pattern, but also forces her to marry him. Their honeymoon is a disaster and she cannot stand to have a man touch her and on their return home, Mark has a private detective look into her past. When he has the details of what happened in her childhood to make her what she is, he arranges a confrontation with her mother realizing that reliving the terrible events that occurred in her childhood and bringing out those repressed memories is the only way to save her ....

MARNIE initially seems very clunky in parts and the obvious back projections (the horse-riding, the street in Baltimore where Marnie's mother lives) jar, but IT WORKS - it does get very emotional at the climax as Marnie's mother finally comes clean about what really happened when young Bruce Dern as the sailor turns up that night when Marnie was five years old, and why Marnie cannot bear the colour red ... Connery as Mark Rutland is fascinatingly complex too, and Diane Baker as ever registers strongly - like Suzanne Pleshette in a similar role in THE BIRDS. Martin Gabel as Strutt, one of Marnie's earlier victims, is just right too, describing her to the police after that initial robbery. Not a major Hitchcock then, there is little suspense (apart from that safe robbery) or thrills.

It is though Tippi Hendren's film, she turns in an astounding performance, despite - if reports are true - being harrassed by Hitch at the time. MARNIE has a nice old fashioned look, that early-'60s studiobound look before the New Hollywood took over.  Bernard Hermann's score is again essential; Edith Head dresses Tippi, and script is by Jay Presson Allen from a Winston Graham novel - this was meant to be Grace Kelly's return to cinema, I wonder how Grace would have handled it? MARNIE will always divide critics (there are 166 reviews of it at IMDB), but I definitely want to see it again before another 49 years passes between viewings!  Maybe now I can finally watch Hitch's next one TORN CURTAIN which I never had any desire to see, and also go back to that problematic FRENZY ... meanwhile its TOPAZ and THE BIRDS again, which really does seem to have a life of its own.

Dolores or Bette ?

Dolores Del Rio (1904-1983) was of course one of the great beauties of her time, the first Mexican superstar? I know her best from her early films like FLYING DOWN TO RIO or her later ones, as Elvis's Indian mother in FLAMING STAR, 1960, or Indian again in Ford's CHEYENNE AUTUMN in 1964, where for once he took the side of the Native Americans. So I enjoyed seeing one of Dolores's '40s Mexican films LA OTRA from 1946.

I also liked Bette Davis's DEAD RINGER in 1964, an early camp trash classic favourite. My pal Stan and I used to like saying those lines to each other like "But you haven't seen my cast-offs" as we liked Bette's clipped delivery of lines like "Poor. Father. A. Wino" as bitch sister Margaret (drag queens of the time like Charles Pierce built a career on Bette impersonations in this movie).  What I did not know then was that DEAD RINGER was a new version of LA OTRA (THE OTHER ONE) starring Dolores as the twin sisters, Maria (the poor nice one) and Magdalena (the rich, rotten one). This is a fascinating film too, Dolores is fabulous in both roles and the plot works out nicely as Maria kills Magdalena once she realises how she has been cheated, at the funeral of the man she loved whom Magdalena took for herself. She takes her sister's place at her luxurious mansion and has to cope with how to fake her signature, the dog who knows she is not Magdalena, and that lover who comes out of the woodwork, as it turns out Magdalena and the lover killed her husband ..... then there is the police inspector on the case who loved Maria, will he suspect what is going on? The plot twists and turns nicely to a very satisfying conclusion, and it all looks marvellous too, a terrific '40s noir.

This then was tailored and adopted for Bette Davis in 1964, after the success of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, directed by her old co-star Paul Henreid, with a score by Andre Previn, and co-starring Karl Malden as the detective and Peter Lawford as the lover. This was the height of classy trash at the time with 2 Bettes for the price of 1. Nice Edie who ran a cocktail lounge on Figueiroa, and nasty Margaret, who tries to buy off Edie by offering her her discarded clothes .... Edie plots her revenge accordingly and Bette has a field day, as per this review from (now defunct) magazine "Films & Filming". John Cutts was a great reviewer for them, specialising in Hollywood's more delirious offerings, those Lana and Susan and Joan and Bette camp classics. Here he is on splendid form here:

"Nobody's as good as Bette when she's bad" proclaimed an oldtime publicity slogan. And, as it was true then, so its most certainly true in DEAD IMAGE (as the film called then in the UK). For here's Bette in full throttle - outrageously dramatic and dramatically outrageous. Here's the real McCoy, the genuine article - a Hollywood queen 100 per cent proof. The last of the great dramatic dinosaurs ("Write a play about a nice normal woman who just shoots her husband") in a specially written part that nobody else could have played - or might have wanted to. A player who only has to enter a scene to dominate it, a trouper who bites off her lines as if they were cigar ends. A star then, and one of the best.

The plot: twin sisters Edith (poor and nice) and Margaret (rich and rotten) meet after a separation of 18 years, at the funeral of Margaret's husband, whom Edith had loved prior to his marriage to her sister. Learning how Margaret tricked him into marrying her on a fake pregnancy claim, Edith decides to kill her sister and adopt her identity. Faking the murder to look like suicide, Edith (now Margaret) is called in to identify Margaret's body as her own (are you following this?). Having now fooled the police plus all of Margaret's in-laws and friends, and having got over one or two nasty hurdles (like trying to fake her sister's signature or having to know the combination of her wall safe) Edith is all set and ready to take a long European vacation, but ....

Wild, eh? The sort of thing that the sillier it gets, the better it seems. A drunken novelette almost. Wildly unreal and madly theatrical. Yes played with such stylised conviction by Miss Davis that one sits there in a drugged state of near-belief, mesmerised and thoroughly charmed by the fullness of theatricality, by her ability to make it seem so outrageously acceptable. Ah, but they don't make them like this anymore.  John Cutts, May 1964.

Yes, that is DEAD RINGER exactly, Bette of course went on to even more outrageous playing in HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, THE NANNY, THE ANNIVERSARY etc, even the awful BUNNY O'HARE, MADAME SIN and others before returning to the fold with DEATH ON THE NILE and others. I must really re-visit Bette's other pair of twins, one of whom replaces the other, in the 1946 A STOLEN LIFE ... here though Bette (both of them) is a dumpy middle-aged woman, but just try looking away ... the Davis version then is a campy black comedy, whereas the Del Rio is an authentic '40s noir with a bitter twist as Maria realises she did not need to kill her sister after all, as the murdered husband remembered Maria in his will so she would have got some money, and the detective confesses to Magdalena how much he loved her sister (whom he thinks has committed suicide), as Maria (now Magdalena) has to go to prison to pay for Magdalena's crimes.

Dolores though could be a new '30s favourite now - she is as stunnng as say Merle Oberon or Hedy Lamarr or any of the other great beauties of the time.

Melodie en sous-sol, 1963

MELODIE EN SOUS SOL is a gleaming black and white casino heist thriller which looks terrific in Scope and has that early '60s vibe to a tee. Its a variation on the old chestnut where an older guy plans a robbery, enlists a cocky young hotshot to carry it off, and then it all goes wrong. Or in this case - it all goes right, but then they lose the money in the most perfectly-judged climax, which must have sent punters out of the cinema with smiles on their faces ...

Charles (Jean Gabin), a sixtyish career criminal fresh out of jail, rejects his wife's plan for a quiet life of bourgeois respectability. He enlists a former cellmate, Francis (Alain Delon), to assist him in pulling off one final score, a carefully planned assault on the vault of a Cannes casino. Bad luck and Francis's lack of professionalism set the caper maddeningly askew, and the stolen cash resurfaces in an unexpected manner.

We like a good heist movie here at the Projector, whether classics like Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, Dassin's RIFIFI and TOPKAPI, or variations thereof like 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE, reviewed here a while back. The attraction here is the teaming of old hand Gabin, laconic as ever, and Alain Delon - here in his early '60s prime after those Clement, Antonioni and Visconti classics made him a prestige name. Director is old hand Henri Verneuil from a book called "The Big Grab", though the film was titled "The Big Snatch" on its UK release in 1964 ..... cinematography in black and white by Louis Page, musical score by Michael Magne, which is just right for that climax.

Gabin returned to his wife, Viviane Romance, from a prison stretch is plotting a final heist for his old age. He picks hothead young Delon as his help-mate to climb those ramparts and crawl along those heating ducts, and then their daring robbery as the Casino count their takings .... he also has to romance a showgirl to get access to the casino, but the females are on the periphery here. The final act is a delicious pay-off by the swimming pool .... Verneuil teamed Gabin and Delon again in THE SICILIAN CLAN in '68, and did another heist one THE BURGLARS with Belmondo & Sharif in '71, which may bear looking into. We enjoyed this one a lot though ...

Giovani Mariti, 1958

This is a rarity - so rare it exists only in an Italian version. Mauro Bolognini's 1958 comedy drama focuses on a group of 5 young men - not layabout as in his next one LA NOTTA BRAVA from 1959, one of my discoveries of last year, as per Italian label. It is another group of attractive young players having late nights - these here are likeable young men, students, room-mates. The title translates as YOUNG HUSBANDS though we only see 2 getting married. The usual questions arise about settling down .... the lads drive around their deserted city at night, go for late night swims, play tennis ... the girls are nice too: Antonella Lualdi, Isabelle Corey, Sylvia Koscina. 

The boys include French Gerard Blain (here with Lualdi, above right), Franco Ingerlenghi (from Antonioni's I VINTI and also in LA NOTTE BRAVA, in a long career) and Raf Mattioli, who impressed in Dassin's LA LOI (see label) another discovery a year or so ago. He looks fit here in those skimpy (for 1958) shorts, but he died 2 years later in 1960 of a heart attack at 24!  The film looks lovely and crisp with great black and white photography by Armando Nannuzzi, and again was co-scripted by Pier Paolo Pasolini, costumes by Piero Tosi.

Another of those fascinating Bolognini films then like LA NOTTE BRAVA, SENILITA and LA CORRUZIONE capturing that early 60s Italian vibe perfectly, like Lattuada's I DOLCI IGNANNI, Patroni Griffi's IL MARE; Fellini's 1953 I VITELLONI must surely be the prototype for all these (all at Italian label) - the Italian maestros like Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, De Sica and Rossellini were getting all the kudos then, but directors like Bolognini and Monicelli were coming up on the fast track - I like their episodes in compendium films like LE BAMBOLE and LE FATE too, and Bolognini's METELLO, GRAN BOLLITO etc.

Next: off to France in the company of Gabin, Delon, Hossein, Trintignant, Romy Schneider, Deneuve.

Almodovar: Bad Education / All About My Mother

In the early 60s, two boys - Ignacio and Enrique - discover love, movies and fear in a Christian school. Father Manolo, the school principal and Literature teacher, both witnesses and takes part in these discoveries. The three characters come against one another twice again, in the late 70s and in 1980. These meetings are set to change the life and death of some of them.

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.

We had been meaning to get around to Almodovar and his dazzling stylish movies here at the Projector. I have 10 of them here in front of me. He first came to my attention with WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN in the late 80s, and it was great to go back and discover LAW OF DESIRE. These were ground-breaking, vivid, stylish movies. ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER was another huge hit, followed by BAD EDUCATION and TALK TO HER. A box set of 5 also includes LIVE FLESH and TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN. I also have his last 3: VOLVER, another success, BROKEN EMBRACES and his last one THE SKIN I LIVE IN - expect reports on these before too long. Today though lets go back to the complexities of BAD EDUCATION (LA MALA EDUCACION) and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (TODO SOBRE MI MADRE).  We shall be looking forward to his new one: I'M SO EXCITED ...

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 ...

ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, 1999, is another brilliant one, maybe Pedro's ALL ABOUT EVE, dediced to mothers everywhere (including Bette Davis and Romy Schneider).  This too is marvellously engrossing and entertaining, a deep drama, portraying the female universe with strength and realism, and explaining the importance of a mother.

A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, a wild yet caring transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, but instead finds out she is pregnant by Lola. Manuela becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired, by helping Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover. However, Agrado soon takes over when Manuela must care for Hermana Rosa's risky pregnancy. With echos of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship. 

The whole cast is sublime here, particularly Cecilia Roth as the mourning mother, and Penelope Cruz (who would be so sensational in VOLVER) as the nun infected with HIV, and Marisa Paredes as the actress with her own problems, the story is deeply affecting and it remains a key movie of the '90s. Almodovar, like Fassbinder before him, is a director who certainly puts his gay universe on film, like Francois Ozon and sometimes Andre Techine. Perhaps only Polanski can create such a private universe (along with Antonioni and Fellini, and Douglas Sirk back in the '50s). Reading some of the many reviews for ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER over at IMDB show what a brilliant and loved film it is.

More Almodovar before too long -  I want to go back to the early ones and see his last, and |I simply must get on with those Chabrol and Melville titles...

Westerns, again

Joan/Vienna plays as the posse arrive ...

Jeff & Vera - THE SEARCHERS

We like a good western here at the Projector, as per previous posts on them (Westerns label). THE SEARCHERS turns up frequently on our TCM channel - we always like seeing Martin Pawley and Debbie and Laurie, and Wayne and that very emotional climax
 and then the door closes, its a western poem really with those landscapes and characters ... and they are showing JOHNNY GUITAR (left) again tomorrow, naturally I will have a front row seat, it is after all the first film I ever saw aged 8, and I love every delirious minute of it, as per previous posts.

Now that 1962 behemoth HOW THE WEST WAS WON is getting quite a few screenings and its fun to drop in and watch it for a while now and then. First thing to say is it looks terrific now on HD widescreen television - before it looked cramped and the joins of the 3 screens (used for Cinerama) were obvious and it looked liked it needed restoring. So it looks terrific now as we watch several generations of that family headed by Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead heading west. with the daughters Carroll Baker and Debbie Reynolds. The score is terrific here too as Alfred Newman and Ken Darby's majestic music takes the pioneers through every conceivable encounter in the West, from fighting off river pirates to hazardous rapids on their raft ... 

It is of course a star-studded western taking in great panoramas and sweeping events, as we follow the pioneers in their covered wagons, mountain men, trappers, the railroads and the outlaws and desperadoes who formed the west. Spencer Tracy narrates and the directors include Henry Hathaway and George Marshall, John Ford does the civil war segment, and stars like James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck are well used., the script is rather simplistic though. George Peppard has a central role and Richard Widmark is good value too in the terrific Railroad sequence, with that stampede by bison as the Indians fight back against the iron horse taking over their lands. Thelma Ritter is a pioneer woman and Debbie ages nicely as she ends up out west with Peppard and his family while Eli Wallach has fun as that nasty villain .... Thats just a thumbnail precis of this always entertaining spectacle, perhaps the biggest hit of the Cinerama fad, apart from 2001. Later westerns of course  like McCABE & MRS MILLER, LITTLE BIG MAN and THE WILD BUNCH debunked this version of how the west was won as the new violence took hold in the '70s.

A couple of western treats: the run of the mill GUN FURY in 1953 is a pleasing Raoul Walsh oater with the good teaming of Rock Hudson and Donna Reed (right) fighting badman Phil Carey, and young Lee Marvin excels here as he does in SEVEN MEN FROM NOW, reviewed here recently. Ty Power and Susan Hayward are teamed in Hathaway's tense RAWHIDE for Fox in 1951 more of a thriller than a western as Hugh Marlowe and his gang, including Jack Elam at his most loathsome, hold up a stagecoach station while awaiting a gold consignment to be delivered. Can our warring couple outwit the gang and keep alive?

A nice treat yesterday was TRIBUTE TO A BAD MAN which I vaguely remember going to with my father but I hardly remembered it, its a handsome 1956 western by Robert Wise (just after his HELEN OF TROY - he certainly excelled in all genres). 

Jeremy Rodock is a tough horse rancher who strings up rustlers soon as look at them. Fresh out of Pennsylvania, Steve Miller finds it hard to get used to Rodock's ways, although he takes an immediate shine to his Greek girl Jocasta. 

The interest here is the debut of Greek actress Irene Papas as Jocasta, years before her great Greek roles, playing opposite James Cagney - it should have been Spencer Tracy but he objected to being away on location. Its a handsome production with great landscapes (like that other discovery last year, THE VIOLENT MEN which had Edward G Robinson in a similar role) with a rather predictable storyline and some jarring back projections towards the end, but certainly an enjoyable time out west.

Diva time

I am always pleased to discover a new hip hop diva, and my new favourite is Kelis. OK - Kelis has been around for a decade or so, I liked her "Caught Out There" (the one that goes "I really hate you right now ...") and "Milkshake" was a hit too and Kelis seemed another kooky diva like Macy Gray whom we all went nuts over - but I never really got into Kelis until this week when I saw on MTV a concert of hers from Ibiza, and suddenly I am bananas about Kelis.
This concert brought back all that euphoria about clubbing and having a great time and Kelis is dynamite on stage - like Grace Jones, Adeva, Ultra Nate, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Chaka Khan, Rosie Gaines ("Closer Than Close") and all the others I liked like Joyce Sims ("Come Into My Life", "All in All") or Donna Allen ("Joy and Pain") or Alison Limerick ("Where Love Lives"), Eve Gallagher ("Love Come Down"), Ce Ce Peniston ("Finally"), Gwen Guthrie, Jennifer Holiday ("Hard Time for Lovers") or German diva Billie Ray Martin - all those hits like "Running Around Town", "Your Loving Arms" etc., and listening to and watching Sade or Janet Jackson remains a timeless pleasure, particularly Janet's "Velvet Rope" album and her Joni Mitchell tribute "Got till its gone" ....

Sade's rendering of "Paradise" on her concert dvd is something I can watch over and over too, then there is Angie Stone and D'Angelo ... yes, we are in a neo-soul groove ... old soul too of course, having seen Aretha (twice), and Roberta Flack (I still love "Compared to What" and "Trying Times" on her first album "First Take"),  Nancy Wilson and Otis Redding in their 60s prime.  

Alicia Keys is my other current diva of choice, ever since "Falling" and we also like Jody Watley, Shara Nelson (initially with Massive Attack - that great video for "Unfinished Sympathy", left), Angela Bofill ("Too Tough"), Regina Belle, and now Emile Sande is everywhere ...

I now have Kelis's "Greatest Hits" and most recent album "Flesh Tone" to listen to and put on repeat on the iPod! Groovy ... and now there's Aimee Mann to finally discover ...  Then we have all the club anthems by Groove Armada and A Man Called Adam ("Barefoot in the head", "Duende" album, and their groovy collection from Space, Ibiza), I loved their club nights at Heaven; the deep house Global Underground compilations by disk jockeys like Danny Tenaglia ("Music is the answer"), Ibiza anthems ("Brighter Days" by Dajae, "Sun Rising Up" by Deux) and chillout compilations, and more soul sounds with Soul II Soul and Inner City, 

Dusty & Neil Tennant 1988

and getting "Fired Up" with the Miami Murk/Funky Green Dogs - what a night that was, also at Heaven. Clubland in all its diversity - well from 10 years ago anyway ... Heaven nights in the early '80s is a whole other chapter ...  We don't of course like all divas, some (not naming Mariah, Rihanna, Beyonce and others) leave us cold. Dusty Springfield of course was a diva, and then there is Madonna, well her early to mid-period anyway ... pleased now I got to see Dusty taping one of her 1969 BBC specials at the old Golders Green Theatre, I remember she had to re-do the first song so she was stomping around the stage in a bad mood .... thats a diva!. Her Dusty In Memphis album is essential, as well as her collection of A-sides and B-sides, and her work with the Pet Shop Boys, and I also like that Donna Summer-Quincy Jones album with Donna's dynamic version of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life", a diva anthem indeed. 

Then there is Debbie Harry of Blondie and of course Eurythmics' Annie Lennox, I practically wore out her first solo album, titled - what else? - "Diva". I have not even mentioned Barbra Streisand ... well I saw her on stage in FUNNY GIRL from the front row, when I was all of 20 in 1966. We liked the early Barbra albums and movies - until her A STAR IS BORN when a diva was suddenly A Star Is Boring. 
The '70s of course was a good time for seeing various divas: Peggy Lee at the Royal Albert Hall in 1971, also Dionne Warwick, Petula Clarke, Cleo Laine several times, Sarah Vaughan, Eartha Kitt, Joan Armatrading and a very bizarre concert by 
Nina Simone. ...whom I always liked, particularly that "Nina At Town Hall" album; Nancy Wilson's live album is enjoyable too, like Nina she also does a killer version of "You Can Have Him" and a hilarious "Ten More Good Years" - as Nina put it: "Give me more and more and then some" ...

Next musical extravaganza: the reissued Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" - the '70s in aspic.

R.I.P.

A 1964 favourite: Reed & Hemmings in Winner's THE SYSTEM

Michael Winner (1935-2013). His later bombastic restaurant critic persona and those "calm down dear" adverts were much derided, but for a while there in the early '60s he (like Schlesigner, Losey, Donner, Lester) had his finger on the pulse with those early films like WEST 11 and THE SYSTEM in 1964, also popular items like I'LL NEVER FORGET WHATS'ISNAME (like WEST 11 reviewed here recently, Oliver Reed label) in 1967, THE JOKERS etc. Maybe now we will be able to get to see his THE GAMES from 1970. He certainly employed the likes of Oliver Reed, Michael Crawford and the young David Hemmings several times. The later films though like the Bronson revenge thrillers and those quite unnescessary remakes of THE BIG SLEEP and THE WICKED LADY are best forgotten, along with disasters like WON TON TON and THE SENTINEL. He was amusing to read on his friendships with the big names he directed like Brando, Welles and Loren. I was in Brighton in 1993 when he was directing DIRTY WEEKEND there, with whole streets cordoned off. He was striding up and down outside the restaurant where we were eating, like a typical movie director from central casting. I will soon be having a look at his 1970 thriller SCORPIO with that good cast of Lancaster, Delon and Scofield ... some of his westerns got good reviews too. Certainly a British original from his early '60s days of low budget pop movies, like Billy Fury and Helen Shapiro in PLAY IT COOL in 1962. 

Dear Abbey.  Abigail Van Buren, who has died aged 94, created the modern advice column that became a staple of post-war newspapers and magazines, dispensing homespun words of wit and wisdom to the lovelorn, sexually confused, troubled, deluded, disturbed, dazed or desperate — anyone, in fact, with enough gumption and courage to sit down and write publicly to “Dear Abby”. Abigail Van Buren’s stock-in-trade was her robust, juicy, pithy and often tart manner with her correspondents - I remember enjoying a paperback of her replies when I was a teenager ...

Lists

The joy of lists! Over at IMDB (The International Movie Database) they have been doing threads on bests of each decade, here - for the record - are my choices .... They have not gone on to the '70s yet, so thats to follow ...

1930s

BRINGING UP BABY / THE SCARLET EMPRESS / ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS / NINOTCHKA / THE AWFUL TRUTH / MATA HARI / BLOND VENUS / THE SIGN OF THE CROSS / THE 39 STEPS / RICH & STRANGE / MIDNIGHT MARY / MAN'S CASTLE  /  LADIES IN LOVE / OF HUMAN BONDAGE / MARKED WOMAN / SWING TIME / THE GAY DIVORCE / THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD / THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH & ESSEX / JEZEBEL / MARIE ANTOINETTE / HOLIDAY / SYLVIA SCARLETT / DARK VICTORY / QUEEN CHRISTINA / SHANGHAI EXRESS / 42ND STREET / LOVE ME TONIGHT / THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN.

1940s

CASABLANCA / BLACK NARCISSUS / I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING / NOTORIOUS / BRIEF ENCOUNTER / THIS HAPPY BREED /  THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS / GREAT EXPECTATIONS / OLIVER TWIST / THE HEIRESS / WHISKEY GALORE / KIND HEARTS & CORONETS / IN WHICH WE SERVE / THE WAY TO THE STARS /
TO BE OR NOT TO BE / SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS / DOUBLE INDEMNITY / THE MORTAL STORM / ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE / CITIZEN KANE / THE FALLEN IDOL / ROADHOUSE / THE BLUE DAHLIA / THE PALM BEACH STORY / MEET ME IN ST LOUIS / THE PIRATE / EASTER PARADE / BICYCLE THIEVES / A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH / LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN / ODD MAN OUT / NOW VOYAGER / THE GREAT LIE / OLD ACQUAINTANCE / MILDRED PIERCE / GILDA / LAURA / LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN / MY FOOLISH HEART / DESERT FURY / LADY FROM SHANGHAI / LA OTRA / LES MAUDITS (THE DAMNED) / IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY.

1950s

ALL ABOUT EVE / SUNSET BOULEVARD / EAST OF EDEN / GIANT / THE BANDWAGON / TOKYO STORY / REAR WINDOW / A STAR IS BORN / SENSO / NORTH BY NORTHWEST / VERTIGO / ANATOMY OF A MURDER /
SOME LIKE IT HOT / LES GIRLS / GENEVIEVE / DESIGNING WOMAN / IN A LONELY PLACE / LA NOTTE BRAVA / I VITELLONI / UMBERTO D / IL GRIDO  / THE SEVENTH SEAL / JOHNNY GUITAR / SEVEN MEN FROM NOW / THE SEARCHERS / THE QUIET MAN /
FRIENDLY PERSUASION / RIFIFI / THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT / KISS ME DEADLY / ON THE WATERFRONT / PATHER PANCHALI / FUNNY FACE / HOUSEBOAT / THE SEA WALL (THIS ANGRY AGE) / KNAVE OF HEARTS / TOUCH OF EVIL / NIGHT OF THE HUNTER / THE VIKINGS / BEN HUR / LAND OF THE PHAROAHS / THE EGPYTIAN / ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS / IMITATION OF LIFE / THE BEST OF EVERYTHING / WOMAN'S WORLD / THE OPPOSITE SEX / QUENTIN DURWARD / THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE / SOLOMON AND SHEBA / THE TEMPEST / THE TEN COMMANDMENTS / THE GOLDEN COACH / PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN / BOY ON A DOLPHIN / SEPARATE TABLES / BONJOUR TRISTESSE / SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER / THE NUN'S STORY / SCREAMING MIMI / LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD / THE 400 BLOWS / JOURNEY TO ITALY / REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE / BLIND DATE / I'M ALRIGHT JACK.

1960s

PSYCHO / L'AVVENTURA / L'ECLISSE / BLOW-UP / PERSONA / 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY / THE BIRDS / PLEIN SOLEIL / THE SERVANT / THE LEOPARD / EL CID / AU HASARD BALTHAZAR / LE SAMOURAI / ACCIDENT / MODESTY BLAISE / MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE /  BILLY LIAR / A KIND OF LOVING / A TASTE OF HONEY / VICTIM / A HARD DAY'S NIGHT / HELP! / THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE / DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES /  THE MISFITS / THAT MAN FROM RIO / THE GROUP / TWO WOMEN / THE SYSTEM / OLIVER / LION IN WINTER
ALL FALL DOWN  / LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT / BAY OF ANGELS / LOLA / LE FEU FOLLET / I WAS HAPPY HERE / TWO FOR THE ROAD / BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS / UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME / THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET / CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT / IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT / THE INNOCENTS / NIGHT OF THE IGUANA  / LAWRENCE OF ARABIA / LA DOLCE VITA / LILITH / WILD RIVER / DARLING / PETULIA
CHARADE / ARABESQUE / FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE / SPARTACUS / CLEOPATRA / HUD / THE APARTMENT / PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE / THE RED DESERT / CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 / MOMENT TO MOMENT / THE PINK PANTHER / THE CHAPMAN REPORT / LOLITA / LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT / THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE and Visconti's OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS (SANDRA) and THE DAMNED ! and I forgot WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT!