MISTERMONSTER DAY!

Damn and Blast! I missed it. One of the great pleasures of blogging or simply being on the internet is that you get to meet some awfully nice people with similar interests. A few years ago on a site called Monster Club I started exchanging e-mails with a couple of nice guys who have remained friends ever since. One was Cerpts, who runs Land of Cerpts and Honey, and the other was mistermonster who is scowling at you in the picture above. I figure he was planning to grab the autographed pic of John Carradine on my wall. Mistermonster and his partner flew into London about a year ago from sunny Florida and we were able to meet in person and despite truly awful weather he braved the trip to my home town. We talked a lot of movies and still do regularly in cyberspace. Recently it was mistermonster's birthday and I forgot it completely. I hope he forgives me and continues to offer me the support he has in the past - both on a personal level and to the blog. He is truly one of the inspirations for this project. Dargoneit! he knows as much about fantasy movies as I do! Hopefully mistermonster will be up and blogging himself soon! A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mr.M!!!!!!!

JULES DASSIN 1911 - 2008

Richard Widmark : NIGHT AND THE CITY

Dassin's early films are, reportedly, unremarkable and with the possible exception of THE CANTERVILLE GHOST rarely seen these days. His reputation was made in the post-war period with three tough crime dramas, BRUTE FORCE(1947), THE NAKED CITY(1948) and THIEVES HIGHWAY(1949), after which the director fell foul of the HUAC investigations and moved to Europe where he continued in the same vein with, first, the classic noir THE NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950) which was filmed in London and then RIFIFI (1954), the Paris filmed template for virtually every "heist" movie since. In later years he had some big commercial successes with NEVER ON A SUNDAY(60) and TOPKAPI(1964), neither of which I have seen. In between these he made the somewhat overwrought but very enjoyable PHAEDRA(1962). These three all starred his wife, the Greek actress Melina Mercouri. His post-war thrillers were, for me, his greatest achievement. R.I.P

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007)

Me and my Shadow : Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck
in
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE
COWARD ROBERT FORD

Jesse James has had a long film career from the first major film biography starring Tyrone Power and directed by Henry King in 1939, In the fifties this was, more or less remade by director Nicholas Ray as THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES starring Robert Wagner. More versions followed, often bewilderingly close to each other, THE NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID, THE LONG RIDERS, FRANK AND JESSE. In between there were films ranging from serials and Roy Rogers B-movies to Samuel Fuller’s offbeat I SHOT JESSE JAMES and a television movie starring Kris Kristofferson. After FRANK AND JESSE in I thought it would be years before anybody would tackle the story of the notorious outlaw brothers. A few years back I read Robert Hansen’s novel THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. It is an amazingly detailed reconstruction of the final days of the Missouri badman. So detailed that it never occurred to me that it might be the basis for a new film, let alone one starring Brad Pitt. Let it be said that Pitt, who had a hand in the production, is an excellent choice as Jesse. Unlike most films based on Western heroes and villains THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES makes no attempt to be an action film. It is a mood piece, a tone poem – exquisitely photographed and superbly acted, perfectly capturing the period. The film concentrates on the relationship between Jesse and his biggest fan – the wannabe outlaw Robert Ford. In an early scene Ford offers his services to Jesse’s brother Frank, and Frank (superbly played by Sam Shepard), sensing Ford’s unhealthy obsession, rejects him and humiliates him (a scene reminiscent of the humiliation of Robert and his brother Charley by Frank and Jesse in the earlier THE LONG RIDERS.) The film, justifiably, treats Jesse James like a modern day celebrity and it is not difficult to think of the murder of John Lennon by a killer looking for fame. Jesse seems to be playing Ford like a fish on a line and there is the suggestion, inevitable in the context of the story being told and perhaps in history itself, that Jesse accepts his own death and even welcomes it. At one point Jesse asks Ford “Do you want to be like me or do you want to be me ?” and taunts Ford by hinting that he (Ford) may have a sexual motivation. The scenes after Jesse’s death, detailing Ford’s life, are fascinating, although rather anti-climatic and the motives of his own killer are somewhat sketchily dealt with in a way that while being dramatically satisfying will send the curious scurrying for a copy of Hansen’s novel. I’ve always rated Brad Pitt as an actor, without being a particular fan of all his films but here he is superb at conveying the unpredictable nature of Jesse’s paranoia – a celebrity killer, feared by his own cohorts; the Ronnie Kray of his day. Casey Affleck is excellent as “the dirty little coward who shot Mr.Howard” , particularly in the scenes leading up to the murder of Jesse – you feel every beat of his heart and sweat every bead of perspiration. For me, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD directed by Andrew Dominik is a major achievement and one of the great American films so far this century. Rating *****

CHARLTON HESTON 1923 - 2008

In a year during which we have lost many great names in the world of entertainment it is, perhaps, the death of Charlton Heston that I feel most personally. For the last six years Charlton Heston has suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that afflicts my own partner. Like Heston, who faced his illness with great bravery, my partner struggles against her own memory loss and confusion. Often, during times of depression I would make her laugh by saying she was in an exclusive club – just her and Charlton Heston! Tonight she watched the announcement of Heston’s death with no comment beyond “What a shame”. She did not remember that she had seen Heston on stage at Salisbury Cathedral with Richard Branagh. My thoughts are with Heston’s family. Charlton Heston was a fine actor. In his early days he may have been somewhat limited in the range of roles he was offered because of his physique – he was, the opposite of Richard Widmark who died recently in that he was, as a workmate once accurately put it “built like a brick shithouse”. As with Widmark I will leave biography for the historians and list here my favourite Heston roles.

Heston’s performance in DeMille’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is about as big as they come. It’s a monster of a movie and just about as spectacular as you might want. You might just think it is a work of art, a bad taste sideshow, a great camp classic (“Oh Moses, Moses, you stupid irrepressible fool!”) or a wildly enjoyable star spotting exercise but whatever you think it is great entertainment. TOUCH OF EVIL is one of Heston’s very best performances as a Mexican cop caught up in corruption in a border town. Not for the last time in his career Heston went out on a limb to support his director/co-star, Orson Welles. Chuck was back in costume for his famous roll in William Wyler’s BEN HUR, reportedly oblivious to the homo-erotic slant that Wyler was giving to Heston’s scenes with Stephen Boyd and Jack Hawkins. BEN HUR, like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS before it and EL CID after almost defy you not to enjoy them – luckily, they repay attention. One of my very favourite Heston roles was as the Norman knight in Franklin Schaffner’s THE WARLORD. Set in a period usually ignored by the cinema the film featured totally convincing performances by Heston, Richard Boone and Guy Stockwell. Afew years later Heston reteamed with Schaffner for equally memorable sci-fi classic, THE PLANET OF THE APES. My final two choices are both Westerns. Heston showed rather unexpected vulnerability in both films. In Sam Peckinpah’s under-rated MAJOR DUNDEE he played the title role – a strong man who has unexpected weakness due to career disappointments and in Tom Gries’s WILL PENNY he plays an ageing and illiterate cowboy who makes a final grasp for happiness. Heston was superb in both. These then are my favourite Heston films but before finishing I’d like to make honourable mention of his performance as Cardinal Richelieu in Richard Lester’s musketeer films, his television version of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS and his very effective Long John Silver in TREASURE ISLAND which for me eclipsed all earlier versions. Stars didn’t come much bigger than Heston (cinematically and physically) and it will be impossible to fill his sandals. R.I.P Chuck.

LE CLAN DES SICILIANS/The Sicilian Clan (1973)

I have a real weakness for French gangster films, particularly those directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, and this film stars three of the premier icons of the genre – Jean Gabin, Alain Delon and Lino Ventura. Sadly, though, this film is not directed by Melville but, rather, by Turkish/Armenian director Henri Verneuil. Delon plays a career criminal who is arrested after killing two policemen. He is spring from custody (the best sequence in the film) by a Sicilian crime family who, in return use him in a big international caper. Except for the aforesaid break from custody this film is pretty slackly directed and played. Delon, as usual, does little to play for audience empathy – something that can be turned to advantage by the right director. The leader of the Sicilian family is played with quiet authority but little else by the great Jean Gabin who only really seems to be really interested in the proceedings in his two short scenes with Lino Ventura as the cop in pursuit. The final confrontation between Delon and Gabin is well staged and almost worth sitting through the rather dull proceeding scenes. Rating **

GUMSHOE (1971)

Stephen Frears' GUMSHOE is an absolute gem. It was made the same year as that other classic British crime movie, GET CARTER, but unlike that film GUMSHOE seems to have been virtually forgotten. I saw it first at the time of its television premier and quite liked it. It turned up again as part of a season of British films a year or so ago at which time I recorded it and filed it away until now. GUMSHOE is from a very clever script by actor/writer Neville Smith (who has a cameo in the film) and tells of small-time Bingo caller and wannabe stand-up comic Eddie Ginley (Albert Finney) who is addicted to hard-boiled America detective stories by the likes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Eddie puts as advert in the paper offering himself as a Private Investigator (no divorce work) and much to his surprise is called to a hotel where he is met by a mysterious fat man who gives him a packet containing £1000, a gun and a photo of a girl. At first Eddie thinks it is a birthday joke by his friends but he is inexorably drawn into a world of gun smugglers, drugs, kidnapping, hired killers and South African politics. The scene shifts from the mean streets of Liverpool to London and back again as Eddie unravels the mystery which leads him down some dark streets as the corpses begin to pile up. What is clever about Smith's script is that one might expect that Eddie, living in his attic flat with his collection of green Penguin crime novels, would be depicted as a loser, totally out of his depth. Eddie have dreams, live in a crummy flat and have a dead end job but he certainly isn't out of his depth. Eddie is well-read (check out his bookshelf) and the world into which he is plunged may not be the world in which he lives but it is the world of his fantasies and he knows exactly how to cope - he's been reading this stuff foe years! The dialogue fairly crackles as Eddie delivers the hard-boiled one-liners(in a knowingly bad American accent) as if born to it. Along the way he encounters a host of expert players : Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Fulton MacKay, Wendy Richard and Maureen Lipman. Lipman appears in a scene that approximates the famous bookshop scene in THE BIG SLEEP but here is played at in the famous Atlantis Bookshop near The British Museum, which, as here, specialises in occult books and was once frequented by Aleister Crowley (not to mention Dean Stockwell, who went there while researching his role in THE DUNWICH HORROR) - I was there last year with my American friend Dave. Stephen Frears has made some good movies but few, if any, better than GUMSHOE. Seek it out. Rating ****

MADONNA'S NEW BOOBY

What next ? I thought when I read that some joker planned to remake Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS, can it get worse ? Well, this week I read that Madonna wants to remake Michael Curtiz’s CASABLANCA. Of course she has a twist and wants to set it in war torn Iraq! Surely she remembers that one of the reasons behind the story of the 1843 film was that it wasn’t set in a war zone but in a neutral open city. Of course, it is also just possible that the singer who has had a less than spectacular career in the movies doesn’t know that Pammy Anderson has already remade CASABLANCA as BARB WIRE. Let’s hope that Madge’s one trick pony film director husband, Guy Ritchie, manages to talk her out of her plans.