lucy-66 Reviews

Venus Beauty Institute (1999)

Love this film

[22 July 2003]

But if you want to learn how to give someone a massage, don't

copy Natalie! Most unprofessional. In fact all the girls seem to do

is apply (and try to sell) products (it's a good running gag).

This film is rather like Victoria Wood's British series

Dinnnerladies, with an ensemble cast of wonderful actresses

including cameos from some grande dames of the theatre/cinema. Can we believe Angele's tales of her past,

though? What really happened to her parents? Did she really

shoot Jacques? Is he really disfigured (he doesn't look too bad)?

Quo Vadis (1951)

If the Romans had had trains, they'd have run on time

[30 June 2003]

That Roman triumph looks familiar - of course, it's a Nuremberg rally! And the architecture, isn't that Milan railway station? And Nero is a whinging carpet-biter with a limp-wristed salute. When I first saw this movie aged about 11 I fell in love with Peter Ustinov. By the way, the studio suggested he was too young for the role. That's when he cabled back that if they waited any longer he'd be too old.

Brighton Rock (1948)

I don't care what you've done, Pinky

[4 June 2003]

"Stick yer minces on that!" Is this language "stilted" and "quaint"?

Get real (as you young people say)! Slang is of its time.

Minces are eyes (rhyming slang from mince pies). "Milky" for cowardly sounds like a Greene coinage. (Perhaps "windy" didn't get past the censor.) "Lakes" means crazy, rhyming slang again, from Lakes of Killarney=barmy.

(Raymond Chandler admitted to making up much of his gangster slang.)

Night and the City (1950)

It's really as good...

[20 May 2003]

...as people have said. One to tape and watch several times. Yes, it is

Dickensian, and not just because it stars the wonderful Francis Sullivan. He

lurks like a spider in a glassed-in office, perfect for peering out at his girls as they persuade the punters to buy expensive 'champagne'. Every shot is a noir

"tableau", like a scene from a painted Victorian morality series. You know, the woman sins, she's cast out, she gazes up at the moon as she crouches in a

doorway - back to Dickens again. The river was always in the background of

those pictures, too. xxxx

The Running Man (1963)

What do you mean, twee?

[16 April 2003]

I couldn't see anything twee about this film.

The script by John Mortimer is excellent (now watch Bunny Lake is

Missing). Lee Remick and Alan Bates are great, Lawrence Harvey

a bit annoying (was he really a sex god?). Sometimes I thought it

would be better as a radio serial as the travelogue background -

typical of the 50s and early 60s - is a distraction. But if you stick

with it, the background and the male characters' drab holiday

clothes add something. Yes, there are gypsies dancing in the

streets, but their music is repetitive and annnoying and they break

off to watch ballroom dancing on the telly. And the dancers are not

curvy senoritas but bent old ladies. Cute urchins are mainly

interested in getting a tip. And the police are as plodding and

shabby as any ordinary coppers.

Twee? In what way?

Nightmare Alley (1947)

Great film

[16 April 2003]

First saw it on TV when I was about 16 and believed in

spiritualism, tarot readings etc. It's dissection of every con under

the sun, including (hurrah!) Freudian psychoanalysis, passed over

my head. The only hint that any of it might have validity are Zeena's

uncannily accurate tarot readings - but even then the skeptical

door is left open. Everyone is good, especially Joan Blondell and

the guy who plays her washed up husband in early scenes. Some

critics say Power's slide into alcoholism is rather abrupt, but

maybe scenes were cut. Other films/books in this dynasty are of course Freaks, a film with

Claude Rains as a mind reader (The Mind Reader?), David

Mamet's The Shawl, Robertson Davies' World of Wonders,

Confessions of a Sword Swallower (which Davies swallowed

about whole) and Gracie Fields' Sing As You Go - ha, surprised

you there but it contains a wonderful Irish fortune teller who

confesses "Bless you, dear, that's what I tell everybody."

xxxxx

Dear Murderer (1947)

In my top ten

[28 March 2003]

Low budget noir with deep shadows. Greta Gynt is great as the nasal-voiced adulteress. Her tacky furnishings (lampshades like skirts and satin sheets) betray her inner rottenness - spot those coiled serpents on the shoulders of her nightdress! Eric Portman is as brilliant and compelling - and sympathetic - as ever. If you like this, see him in A Canterbuy Tale. xxxxx

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

In my top ten (spoilers)

[21 March 2003]

Thomas Colpepper is a complex character who foreshadows P&P's later Peeping Tom. He's a middle aged (about 45) man who lives with his mother. He obviously can't deal with his feelings towards women or young men. He imagines that he is a missionary, enabling his 'flock' to concentrate on more important things by removing the distracting presence of young women. He does this by assaulting young girls in the dark.

Hmmmm!

All four characters find some kind of redemption - what is his? I think he falls for Alison and, once his strange behaviour is found out by the trio, he may start to grow up. He would have ended his life a bitterly disappointed man, though, seeing his beloved Kent mutilated not by foreign invaders but by developers.

By the way, the fictional village is Chillingbourne - Kent is a county. And I never found John Sweet annoying - what's wrong with his accent?

House of Games (1987)

Spoilers!

[18 March 2003]

Yes of course it's a critique of Freudian psychotherapy! Margaret

has learned her 'null' body language and tone of voice during her

(long, expensive) training. Unfortunately the creed she learned

from her charismatic teacher who is motherly to her in the wrong

way (where's Sigi when she needed him?) failed to include a

moral code of any kind. She doesn't end up a 'powerful,

self-realised' woman, she ends up an amoral thief and killer! But

why didn't she take Mike's share of her money from his bag or

jacket? She actually says to her guru early on that she fears her

'treatment' of people isn't doing them any good. Yes, yes, Margaret,

you've achieved insight! Sadly she falls under the old bag's spell

again. I like the tight head shots, the stillness, the careful recital of

whole sentences (all very 40s film noir, when you didn't twitch

Methodically in case you moved out of shot, and you didn't overlap

dialogue in case you had to rerecord it). Both Margaret and Mike

have learned an unspontaneous way of interacting with people as

a means to an end. Great movie. xxx

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

Weird and wonderful

[13 March 2003]

Spoiler alert!!! Starts oddly, with the people we are imagine are going to be the main characters merely sketched in or unseen: two brothers, one prematurely elderly, the other a smoothie, have a younger sister who wants to marry an American airman. Before we get to know the brothers or even meet the airman, weird things start to happen, including murder. The airman is arrested and hence absent for most of the film. The central characters are as usual the wonderful Holmes and Watson.

Weird trappings include a raven that croaks not 'Nevermore' but 'I'm a devil' - a lift from Charles Dickens, who owned and fictionalized such a bird.

The shell-shocked soldiers billeted at Musgrave Manor help in the mystery's solution and are an excellent bunch. Despite nervous stammers, strained smiles and

compulsive knitting, their intelligence is clearly intact. xxxxx

Cactus Flower (1969)

Surprising delight

[11 March 2003]

I missed this movie when it first came out because it sounded

patronising and an affront to Bergman's dignity. I stumbled across

it by chance on cable and was instantly hooked. The three leads

are wonderful, the dialogue is witty, but does the band know any

other number than "I'm a Believer?" It reminds me of those brief

years when the entertainment industry scrambled onto the teen

culture bandwagon and fell off the other side. Some of the

dialogue is hilariously dated, mostly the due to the scriptwriters

attempts to depict "permissiveness" - remember that? I love the

scene where Hawn and Bergman dance together, and Toni's

shabby flat. Igor is adorable too. xxxx

Harold and Maude (1971)

Spoiler alert

[18 February 2003]

Harold may never be a great banjo player, but I could watch him dance for

ever. In fact, I don't think I could be happy with anyone else. These days he might be diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. I mean, why do we have to

have facial expressions? He might also be labelled a Goth for his white

makeup and fondness for driving a hearse to strangers' funerals. But he's

only following a family tradition - his mother dresses in dark colours and their mansion is done up like the Tower of London. Ruth Gordon shows that you

can go on being pretty and feminine as long as you like. I love the way she

plays with her long hair. Yes, the movie is of its time: rescuing trees, poking fun at the establishment and the military. A brief sight of the number tatooed on Maude's arm goes some way to explain her determination to celebrate life.

Love is the answer agrees this old hippy. xxxxxx

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Can anyone explain the plot to me?

[4 February 2003]

Amazing film. But aren't sexy women who come on to the hero a staple of the

genre? None of the girls here are beautiful in a stereotypical way, tho, thank heavens. Lily Carver in particular, who reveals a stunning figure to go with her verging-on plain face, has a totally wacky charm. Dialogue is excellent,

Chandleresque, in a class beyond the pseudopoetica of the ghastly Clash by

Night which they keep screening over here. And KMD's acting is stylised, not

'wooden'. Listen to the sneering interviewer who advises Mike to return to his life's work. The only thing (apart from the incomprehensible plot) I don't like about this film is the many patronising 'ethnic' characters with bad 'I lika da girla' accents. xxx

Performance: Absolute Hell (1991) Season 1, Episode 1

Wonderful

[10 January 2003]

I wish I hadn't missed the beginning when it was screened on UK TV recently.

A great play, and very lifellike if you've ever spent much time in a drinking club in Soho! Francesca Annis and Bill Nighy are as brilliant as ever. Love the old bag who keeps asking "Is anyone going Earlsy Courtsy way?" (Translation - Can anyone give me a lift to Earls Court?) xxxxx

Dial M for Murder (1954)

I know this is nitpicking but

[7 January 2003]

As in many filmed plays, the camera goes in too close. The script

is full of effects that need the audience to see the whole picture -

one character sneaking a key and hiding it, the other oblivious. I

feel sorry for the main couple living in such a dreary flat: one small

living room and bedroom. As in Rear Window, I wonder where they

keep their clothes and books, and where the bathroom is. And

poor Margot leads such a dull life! When her husband goes out,

she is torn between mending stockings, sticking in newspaper

cuttings or going to bed with the radio.

I can't understand others' comments on the brilliance of John

Williams as the inspector. The character is obviously meant to be

droll, forcing the murderer to reveal himself by pretending to be a

mere bumbling cop, but Williams to me doesn't bring this out at

all. He loses opportunities to be funny, eg wrestling with Margot's

lover to get at Tony's bank book, sending his constable off with her

handbag - Not like that, you'll get arrested!

Still worth watching, though. Even lesser Hitchcock is good.

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

When good guys write bad

[12 December 2002]

Actually even bad Chandler is good. He liked the scene where Mrs Morrison just says "uh uh" in response to all remarks. I like it too.

And "Clean sheets every day!" "How often do they change the fleas?" Full of corruption, shabbiness, cheap flash and dubious women. Welcome to Chandler's world.

Arachnophobia (1990)

Don't bother unless you're a horror buff

[10 December 2002]

If you are a horror buff, you can amuse yourself counting the 'references' - or should that be 'thefts'? Yes, it's Jaws on land. It's also that B movie with Michael Caine (Bees! Millions of bees! And they're heading this way!). Julian Sands plays the English insect expert this time, using a weird camp accent never heard outside of Hollywood movies. Spot the shot of the spider entering thru the grille into Daniels' cellar -- remember show the Incredible Shrinking Man escaped out of that same grille after a heroic fight with an arachnoid? Examining corpses for mysterious bite marks is routine when there's a vampire on the loose. The horror is lurking in your own

backyard/cellar/barn/greenhouse - watch out for those alien Bodysnatchers. I

expected Julian Sands to re-emerge from the shadows as a fanged spider king at least. If you want a funny movie about invading insects from South America, watch Meet the Applegates. And yes, Goodman was terrible. xxxx

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

About Mary's hairstyle...

[12 November 2002]

Yes, Mary Astor seems a bit matronly in this film. This version was made under the Hayes Code, meaning that the characters and their behaviour had to be

hinted at. Her character is a serial seducer who masquerades as a perfect

lady, hence her tight girdle, dowdy but 'good' clothes and terribly English

accent. Her style of beauty, though, might be better suited to the 20s and 30s of her film heyday.

Cairo, Guttman and Wilmer are gay in the book and the film is right to drop the hints it does. Look at the way Guttman clutches Spade's arm to him when

they first meet, places a hand on his knee and pours him a stiff whisky. The

swooping soundtrack and Spade's raised eyebrows as he sniffs Cairo's

visiting card is supposed to give the game away. Sorry if I'm offending

anybody, but look up 'gunsel' in a slang dictionary.

A theme of the film is that no one is what they seem. Even Spade isn't as

crooked as he's made out to be, angel. xxxxxxx

Two Small Voices (1997 TV Movie)

Not bad at all

[17 October 2002]

This made for TV, based on real life, issue drama is worth a look. It's a good story with a happy ending and drug companies should watch and be afraid. The two leads are excellent. You root for Sybil Goodrich despite her bulldozing methods. The actress who plays her quite subtly conveys the fear of cancer that underlies much of her rather abrasive behaviour and insistence on eating nothing but "chopped salad" even at a hamburger stand. Both women have textbook conflicts with their men, who feel "neglected" (code for not getting enough sex) and "ignored" (code for worrying that their partner's job is more important and interesting than theirs). This syndrome may be played out in cliches, but it is nonetheless around us every day. xxxxx

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)

Good in parts

[14 October 2002]

Reviews usually say "based on a stage play - and it shows". The

film of TMWCTD should have stayed closer to its origins. Many

gags would work brilliantly on stage but are lost here by being

filmed in close up. You need to see the whole "stage" as penguins

appear from the library, a door opens to reveal a delegation of

bowing Chinese, the children of the house rush downstairs and

out on their way to misguided new lives and ... the curtain falls.

Woolley and Davis do their darndest helped by Mary Wickes and

the woman who plays the host's strange sister. Davis conceals

her glamour behind an unfortunate hairstyle and a tweed skirt she

really shouldn't bend over in. Ann Sheridan looks and sounds

lovely but she talks too fast, especially in her first scene, and totally

lacks comic timing. Like many of the characters, she doesn't seem

to have been told what her lines mean. Watch Davis getting a

double meaning out of a line! "Beverley" is a pathetic imitation of

Noel Coward, and Durante grates. Many references to celebs of

the time now fall very flat. (Celebs of today take note.) The joke

about the Brits having bad teeth was unfunny even back then. (We

think your teeth are too good, so there.) Is it worth watching? Of

course it is. xxxxxxx

The Killing of Sister George (1968)

Lost on film

[3 September 2002]

I never saw Reid on stage, but I saw a production by a local amateur group

which was much, much better than this film version. The director doesn't

understand the timing of the very British irony, wit, bitchiness and waspishness, and consequently the actresses flounder and the camera doesn't frame them

right. Reid and York's flat should look sinister, with its mounds of dolls and grown woman in a babydoll nightie in the daytime, but these details are just

THERE. Imagine what a British noir director (Rober Hamer?) would have done

with them. York is lovely, but her voice is wrong, wrong, wrong. She should

have a whiny, slightly Cockney accent. She sounds like a debutante

complaining that her icecream has gone runny. As for Reid, she is too cuddly

and lovable for the part. It would be fun to make this film again. xxxxx

Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995 TV Movie)

Bad title, good movie

[28 August 2002]

I seem to watch at least bits of this film every time it turns up (which it does surprisingly often). The title is a turnoff, but the film itself is excellent. Forget that it was "made for TV, based on a true story". (Actually those movies are some of the best.) It stars Glenn Close and Judy Davis as the gay lovers and they are both believable and appealing, especially Close, who is just wonderful as the army nurse who fights for her rights. The script and direction are fine. Give it a go.

The Winslow Boy (1999)

9/10

[27 August 2002]

What a brilliant film, just seen it on TV. Trailer in the UK press called it "emotion among the upper classes". Odd, because it's about a not-very-rich MIDDLE

class family's fight against the UPPER class establishment. "Let right be done" - their case about the theft of a few shillings ends up exposing the unfairness of military tribunals and possibly changes the process. Their lack of money to

carry on the fight is essential to the story. Catherine loses her dowry (and

fiancee). Her brother has to quit university for a dull job. Also, though their upper lips remain stiff, their warm affection and loyalty as a family is obvious. Acting and directing are great. And that last line, oh wow! xxx

Quiet Please: Murder (1942)

Complex and dark

[12 August 2002]

The plot is as much of a riddle as the psychology of the two main

villains: George Sanders and the perfect noir woman. They calmly

discuss their need to fail, self-sabotage and love of punishment

and fear, namechecking Freud but in a skeptical aside. The

(blackhaired of course) girl spends most of the action in furs, high

heels and a spiky hat with a veil. (You mean that's not how you

dress to visit your local library?) Her words and actions are always

ambiguous. The library setting is played for all it is worth:

dialogues take place in rooms filled with antique furniture,

classical sculpture or old musical instruments. Sanders, seen

through the 'prison bars' created by the strings of a harp (usually

played by angels), plucks one out to use as a torture instrument.

We last see him deliberately cutting his wrists on the handcuffs

and looking forward to his execution. A routine thriller? I don't think

so. Xxxx.

The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

The bells, the bells!

[24 July 2002]

I don't mind a bit of melodrama, but turn down that wind machine, can't you? The story takes place in a Britain where a storm rages constantly, wafting the din of church bells to guilty ears. Even more excruciating is the sound of American actors trying to sound Scottish or Cockney. Bogart could be quite bad sometimes and this was one of those times.