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Reviews
The Mandarin Mystery (1936)
Charming performances in a lightweight tale
Plot: Inspector Queen, helped by his quick-witted son, Ellery, find themselves investigating the murder of an unknown man amidst the world of stamp collecting.
Review: This is a light and humorous affair, with a good set of character actors. It looked interesting from IMDb reviews and I was keen to find out what 'Ellery Queen' was all about.
The Ellery Queen novels were originally written for magazine publication in the 1920s, with the idea of giving the reader all the necessary clues to solve the mystery for themselves, if they had the patience, or just enjoy them as cleverly put-together detective mysteries.
The movie doesn't quite live up to that ideal, but the character acting more than makes up for this. Charlotte Henry and Eddie Quillan play the leads and give enjoyable, easy-going performances. Charlotte Henry disappeared from the screen after the early 1940s, moving to stage work. Eddie Quillan has a certain quality about him, and it wasn't a surprise to discover he was in The Grapes of Wrath playing the moody husband who abandons his pregnant wife when times get hard. Acting from the age of seven, he continued into his early 70s, his last appearance being in 1987 in the TV series Matlock.
The Mandarin Mystery doesn't really merit in depth analysis, other than to say it passes an hour easily. Simply a good fun one-off, with neither the director or stars making any movie shorts in a similar vein.
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Partie de campagne (1946)
Very subtle, very French, very charming
Plot: On a day out in the country, a city girl is pursued by two young men.
Review: This was a pleasant, short piece, with little moments that almost anyone can relate to. The general setting is a city family's outing to a countryside inn. The father tries to make out he's an expert on everything they see, the mother is more concerned about ants climbing into her underwear, the grandmother falls asleep with a kitten on her lap, and the daughter plays on a swing. Two local lads immediately engage in their favourite sport – girl watching, and the girl (Sylvia Bataille) quickly attracts their interest. After vying with each other for her attention, they quieter of the two boys finds himself alone with her and they share a passionate moment.
As the movie rolled by, it did not make an immediate impression as anything very special, but an unexpected bitter-sweet twist at the end helped explain why this short is held in high regard, in spite of being unfinished. Renoir had to abandon the movie because of bad weather and a commitment to another piece of work, but the pieces he'd shot were later put together to make a complete and coherent tale. It may be all the better for it, as I wouldn't have been so interested in sitting through a longer version, as good and more polished as it might have been. Very 'French' in tone, worth a look at if you get the chance.
www.thebestmovieof.com
Great Guy (1936)
Cagney - incapable of making a bad movie - very watchable in this lightweight short
Plot: James Cagney, as a trading standards officer, finds himself treading on just about everybody's toes in his efforts to beat corruption.
Review: Not a particularly polished production, but James Cagney is entertainingly watchable as a 'weights and measures' officer with a penchant for annoying the wrong people and making use of his fists when he can't think of anything better to do.
There are other entertaining characters as well as the generic bad guys. James Burke stands out as a new recruit with the gift of the blarney, managing to effortlessly chat up Cagney's secretary and every other girl he meets. Joe Swayer as an old sparring partner of Cagney's also makes a good impression (and turns up in The Grapes of Wrath). There's not really a lot else to say, as this is ultimately a bit of a throw away movie, but there's a lot worse out there.
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Non-Stop (2014)
Fly Hard
Well, that was forgettable fun. Liam Neeson as a sort of Gaelic-accented Bruce Willis, forced to hunt down a hijacker on a trans-Atlantic flight.
I don't quite buy Neeson as an action hero. He's too a bit too portly these days, looking much more like he rather solve any problems by sitting down and having a good natter over a pint of Guinness, rather than go gallivanting around like a mad thing.
He does put on a good show in this movie though. After boarding a plane, he starts getting text message threatening the lives of various passengers and crew, and has to gradually eliminate various suspects, often in a rather gung-ho fashion. He's not helped by everyone who should be helping thinking he's off his rocker.
The movie switches from psychological drama to much more of an action film as it nears the end, and the final scenes are well handled and wind up events well.
It a reasonably good action flick. Not a lot of depth to it, but then there's not supposed to be.
At the Circus (1939)
Tired slapstick, lame wisecracks and the occasional forgettable song.
Chose this out of an optimistic recollection of the genius of Groucho Marx and company - an acquired taste, perhaps, but once you get the jist of Groucho's sly, risky humour, it becomes addictive. However, this performance was all very lame, and I have to admit skipping the latter parts of the movie hoping to find some good set pieces. I did not.
The whole affair was very laboured. Groucho's manner is always amusing, but it was not enough to save the movie, and even his one-liners all fall pretty much flat in this vehicle.
As part of a 1930s afternoon out, along with a walk in Central Park and meal at a diner, it might have had a place, but I have to suggest that the movie holds no entertainment value today.
Each Dawn I Die (1939)
Very watchable Cagney and Raft flick
The Plot: Wrongfully imprisoned reporter James Cagney and mobster George Raft strike up an unlikely friendship while in jail, and find themselves dependent on each other to win their respective freedoms, both practically and psychologically.
I was initially reluctant to watch this, mainly because of the thought of Raft's droning voice. However, decided it to give it a look.
Raft certainly plays to type, but is young and relatively animated here, and comes over as a sympathetic character (although not one you'd invite to a dinner party). The plot very much depends on the conflict between his priorities as a mobster and the relationship he strikes up with Cagney's integrity-beset reporter. Raft was known for hobnobbing with mobsters in real life, and is even alleged to have prevented a 'hit' on Cagney when the mob had taken a dislike to him because of his union activities, so there are curious parallels on-screen with their off-screen lives.
Cagney is simply excellent. A scene where he suddenly breaks down in front of a parole board is very moving, as are his restrained facial expressions when he is forced to stand back while terrible things are happening around him during a prison riot.
The plot keeps one guessing. One kind of knows that the good guy will win, but not how, or where Raft's surprisingly complicated character will fit in to this. It is also a nicely put-together movie, from screenplay to shot composition to final editing.
Dark Victory (1939)
Memorable, if flawed historical curiosity.
Plot: Davis is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and has to come to terms with it, as well managing amorous advances from various quarters.
A mixed bag, saved by the jittery brilliance of Bette Davis and solid performances from some of the supporting cast. Geraldine Fitzgerald as Davis's best friend stands out, and Humphrey Bogart, in a relatively minor role, steals almost every scene he appears in, in spite of an appalling attempted Irish accent.
Geraldine Fitzgeralds's other big role was opposite Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (also 1939), and she continued appearing in various supporting or minor roles into her eighties. She died in 1991. Like Ronald Regan, who pops up occasionally as a permanently intoxicated barfly, she developed dementia, so this adds an ironic poignancy to the movie.
Aside from that, it's a curious mixture of wooden performances (including Davis's movie and real life beau, George Brent), wobbly backdrops and historical curiosity, with lighted cigarettes everywhere, even in the hospital wards. This was a decade and a half before the founding of the Actors Studio. Mannered, classical acting prevails, making the naturalistic talents of Bogart and Fitzgerald stand out even more. Bette Davis sits somewhere in the middle of these values in this movie, a combination of studio system old hat and raw ability. I initially scored this movie low, but both the performances and themes stayed in my mind – the sign of a good movie, I think – which bumped it up a notch.
The Thin Red Line (1964)
A grim tale with some interesting performances
Plot: Tough company sergeant Jack Warden and maverick infantryman Keir Dullea battle their way – both with the enemy and each other – across the killing fields of Guadalcanal during World War II.
Review: Not quite the classic I expected. Rather uneven at times, especially during the earlier part of the film with some suspect acting and an awful lot of unnecessary explanation. Thankfully it is held together by the two lead performances – Jack Warden (a Hollywood stalwart) and Keir Dullea (better known as the astronaut Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey).
The movie graphically depicts the horror and mercilessness of combat, an experience which gradually sends Dullea round the bend. Warden's character, an unrepentantly hard-nosed company sergeant, never bats an eyelid. The two manage a sort of working relationship as events progress, but Dullea is an incomprehensible dreamer as far as Warden is concerned, while Warden represent everything that is wrong in the world to Dullea.
It was good to see Dullea in action, knowing him only from 2001. He comes across as a sort of mild Clint Eastwood – quietly spoken, thoughtful, singular, and probably with numerous issues going on behind his curious stare. Warden, a good character actor most familiar as one of the jurors in 12 Angry Men, must have drawn a lot on his own experiences as a sergeant in WWII.
I'm not sure what the movie was trying to say, but it definitely cannot be accused of glamorising war. It is the grim tale of men killing, being killed, and being driven to and beyond their limits for hopefully the greater good.
Charulata (1964)
Really excellent, enjoyable and memorable, even if your not sure why.
Plot: In 1890s India, a wife's relationship with her cousin-in-law disrupts the stability of the whole household.
Review: The first ten minutes of this movie are simply of bored housewife, Charulata (Madhabi Mucherjee), wandering about her apartment. It is mesmerising. Other characters appear one by one, all members of her extended family. A male cousin-in-law is something of a soul mate, and they mutually encourage each other to start writing as a pastime, but when he decided to publish his work relationships subtly change.
Actually, I wasn't always exactly sure what was going on. I think there were some cultural subtexts at play that I am not at privy to. I was afraid that I might have picked up something tedious, but it was nothing of the sort. It is a beautiful movie. There is a humour and lightness of touch that is very refreshing. I particularly liked the contrast between the newspaper editor husband who clearly takes his work very seriously, and the lack of fulfilment or focus in other people's lives around him. Acting, cinematography, lighting, sound, locations, shot composition, all are done so well, and the story is accessible enough to make it enjoyable to any audience. It's the kind of movie that leaves a pleasurable feeling afterwards, knowing that one has watched something of quality, even if one is not exactly sure why.
Goldfinger (1964)
The perfect Bond movie - loop-holes galore, but who cares?
Plot: Secret Agent James Bond has to thwart the plans of gold-loving megalomaniac Auric Goldfinger to cripple the economy of the West.
Review: Had not watched this for a long time, and never on anything larger than an old-fashioned TV, so it was good fun to see it on a large modern plasma screen.
This third outing for Bond, after Dr No (1962) and From Russia With Love (1963), maintains and matures the quality of the brand, and there are some nice touches that disappear later in the franchise. There's a lengthy sequence where the character Felix Leiter (Cec Linder) trails a vehicle, accompanied by magnificent orchestration, to its destination. To have Bond offscreen for so long would be unthinkable in later movies. Also, Gert Fröbe's performance as Goldfinger is masterly, and brings to mind a number of self-obsessed businessman I have met with in real life.
Trying to identify why the movie is so enjoyable is not so easy. On many levels it is ridiculous, with a loophole-ridden plot dependent on multiple coincidences, unbelievable characters, a non-extant backstory, bad science and a casual disregard for avoiding racial or sexual stereotypes. Watch it in the right spirit, however, and it is an excellent Saturday afternoon thriller, with plenty of action, a music score to die for and its leading foot clearly in fantasy. It is movie Marmite. You'll either like it or you will want to push it aside.
Star Trek: The Alternative Factor (1967)
Memorable scenarios, intriguing plot and good performance.
"... and what of Lazarus?"
I had not seen this episode for perhaps thirty years, and probably only saw it one or twice as a child, but it left a strong impression and I was delighted to see it again through the wonders of the internet recently.
Panned in the majority of reviews, I feel it is one of the better episodes of the whole franchise, reflecting Roddenbery's vision of Star Trek as an exploration of the human condition. In this case, living with the knowledge that to preserve the status quo, great sacrifices sometimes have to be made, and the survivors have to live with the knowledge of that.
Kirk and crew are on a routine trip when the whole universe 'winks out' momentarily, as if it had ceased to exist. Simultaneously a raggedly dressed space traveller appears out of nowhere. The two events are clearly connected. Lazarus, as he is called, is actually a being who exists in two universes, yet somehow flits between them. There's a good Lazarus, and a bad, or are it/they really both at the same time? The 'good' Lazarus knows he has to put a stop to this universe-surfing to prevent the annihilation of all space and time, so, yes, there's quite a bit at stake as usual.
Lazuras's tiny spacecraft, the size of a bubble car, was immediately recognisable to me - I wonder in which bunch of neurones in my brain that vision is stored - and it's size is at surreal odds with the events going on all around. I'd love to know whether this was intentional, or just a lazy effort on the prop department's part that week - I like the red star on top of the cockpit, looking suspicious like it's been borrowed off one of those children's rides that one finds parked in shopping malls or outside supermarkets. Likewise the anguished cries of Lazarus as Kirk has to propel him towards eternal doom is another image that is stored 'up there' and was immediately recognisable.
Robert Brown gives a bravura performance as Lazarus, suitably intense as someone/something with both heroic and demonic qualities. He does have a penchant for falling off cliff edges with some regularity, but this is TV-land, where something like that has to come along now and then to bracket the commercial breaks (thankfully in the United Kingdom we've only ever had uninterrupted episodes).
On the basis of the strong impressions it gave me as a 10-year-old, the keen performances, and that I've just re-watched it and been entertained again, a high mark.
Chef (2014)
Good, thought-provoking entertainment with some inspirational performances.
I was expecting a light comedy, but found this to be much more and really enjoyed the movie. It can written off as a 'feel-good' affair, but, so what? It really did leave my wife and myself feeling good about what we'd seen afterwards. If the sign of a good movie is that you see the world slightly differently afterwards, then this is a top bracket affair.
Jon Favreau plays Carl Casper, an affable but obsessive chef, whose megalomania brings him into conflict with the owner of the restaurant (Dustin Hoffman) and a scathing food critic (Oliver Platt). Other ingredients in his life are a glamorous ex-wife (Scarlett Johansson) and his 10-year-old son (Emjay Anthony). Ignorant of the world of social media, he vents his fury through Twitter, not realising that this means that the whole world can see the conflict being played out, and his taunts will come back to bite him with a vengeance. The parts where his son is teaching him how to send tweets is great fun, and the observations by various characters on the pleasures and pitfalls of social media ring very true.
(*Friends aficionados will remember Favreau as Monica's computer millionaire boyfriend who decided to become an 'Ultimate Fighting Champion' with disastrous consequences. This movie reprises that role to an extent. He even has an agent that bares a strong resemblance to Joey's agent Stella.)
There are several well-known names in the movie, but there roles are not overplayed, except, perhaps, in the case of Robert Downey Jr. His character as another ex-husband of Scarlett Johansson is a little too oddball and his Howard Hughes-like eccentricities and relationship with Faverau are never really explained. I think this was a sign of Downey and Favreau being friends from other projects, or maybe a producer's insistence on Downey having significant screen time for publicity reasons. He does raise a few smiles, but thankfully disappears from the screen once his part is played. (Sorry, Mr Downey, but you were a character too far for me.)
Great fun are John Leguizamo and Bobby Cannavale as Caspar's long-time work buddies. (Leguizamo is the voice of Sid the sloth in the Ice Age movies, and one sees how much Sid's characteristics fit Leguizamo's personality). I worked as a chef myself many years ago in a high pressure kitchen with a self-obsessed chef, and these characters really hit the mark with their endless crude banter yet perfection-obsessed work ethic. The kitchens one sees in the movie are a little too regimented to be true - just as most hospital dramas omit nurses and care assistants, there is a distinct lack of jobbing chefs and dishwashers in these restaurants - just who is doing the washing up? But it's still close to reality, right down to the restaurant boss having to yell at the head waitress (Sofía Vergara) to get off the phone and back to the bar, and the cuts and scrapes the chefs get from working amongst hot metal, boiling liquids and sharp knives.
The movie has a meandering narrative thread, and I was worried that it was losing its way a few times, but on each occasion the pace picked up again and the themes become clear. There's no great climax, and it wraps up a bit twee perhaps, but the passion conveyed and the way Favreau works through his self-created hell is rewarding to watch and even made me feel like taking up a chef's knife again.
In short, good, thought-provoking entertainment with some inspirational performances.
Keep an eye out for a the out-take at the end of the credits, where Favreau's culinary mentor (Roy Choi, a real chef) is teaching him how to cook a cheese toastie.