MOVIE SNAPSHOTS No.4

Howard Hawks' TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT is one of those gems on the starry crown of 1940's Hollywood. It is memorable for many things, not the least the fun of watching the blossoming on real-life romance between Bogart and future wife, Lauren Bacall. Bacall was only nineteen when she made this but plays with a sophistication beyond her years. It is Betty as "Slim" who provides my fourth Movie Snapshot this time around. At the very end of the movie Bacall is leaving the bar where most of the action takes place. Before leaving she goes to say goodbye to the piano player played by Hoagy Carmichael. As she leaves him she weaves her way through the tables Hoagy plays a little tune and Bacall does a seductive little wiggle of her ass. It is a credit to both Bacall and director Hawks that it looks completely spontaneous. I can't watch the film without replaying that scene three or four times.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A BEAUTIFUL LADY

Don't you just hate it when a friend does something you can never hope to equal ? My good friend, critic Barry Forshaw, once took Sophia Loren to lunch (I think it was the same week that the took Gina Lollobrigida to lunch!) - can you imagine! Anyway, I'm free anyday you are Sophia.

HORROR ISLAND (1941)

I first read about this film in an issue of Mad Monsters (or was it Horror Monsters) back in the mid-60's and have desperately wanted to see it ever since. Why? I have no idea beyond the fact that it was a horror film from Universal that seems to have been virtually forgotten. Now thanks to the wonders of DVD I own a copy of it. Does it stand up to expectations? Well, no...and then again, yes. It certainly isn't the Holy Grail but it is a pretty good example of the low-budget Old Dark House genre. The film is a fast re-teaming of pretty Peggy Moran and likeable Dick Foran who had been a hit team in the previous year's THE MUMMY'S HAND. Direction is by George Waggner (who also helmed the classic THE WOLF MAN) and the film plays as much for laughs as for chills. Foran plays a character not dissimilar to Bogart in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (with Fuzzy Knight standing in for Walter Brennan) who takes a party of tourists to the reputedly haunted Morgan's Island (which he owns) - it's all a bit like THE GHOST BREAKERS and any other haunted house film of the period but none the worse for that. Murder follows murder and there are screams aplenty as the unknown "Phantom" sets about decimating the cast. Any film that features Leo Carillo as a one legged seaman named Owen Clump and has a detective named McGoon certainly has its tongue firlmly in its cheek. HORROR ISLAND is enjoyable entertainment without being anything special but you won't get bored. Rating **

RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943)

One of a pair of Low-budget B-movies made by Columbia in 1943 (the other being CRY OF THE WEREWOLF) this film has always been a bit of a favourite of mine when I'm in one of my less demanding moods. Of course, it stars Bela Lugosi, which is a plus for any horror film, as a vampire named Armand Tesla (didn't David Bowie play his brother Nikola in the recent THE PRESTIGE?) who is Dracula in all but name. Another plus is a nice werewolf played by Matt Willis who is a sort of low-rent Lon Chaney Jr. The hapless victim is Nina Foch (who was the werewolf in CRY OF THE WEREWOLF) and the disbelieving Scotland Yard detective is the ever reliable Miles Mander. All in all it's a nice little programmer with good sets and some atmospheric photography. It's directed by Lew Landers (who had helmed the 1935 THE RAVEN at Universal) based on a story by Kurt Nuemann who would later go on to direct THE FLY. Rating ***

MUSIK I MORKER/Music in Darkness/Night is My Future (1948)

MUSIC IN DARKNESS is, I believe, the great Ingmar Bergman's second film as a director. It is essentially, a lightweight piece (certainly by Ingmar's stands) about a young musician who is blinded due to an accident during his military service. A young girl is hired to be his "eyes" and she falls in love with him. The film is of the boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy meets girl again type of romantic fiction but played out against Bergman's more familiar artistic angst and dark nights of the soul. It is competently done and you can see the budding director's style beginning to form already. Good performances by Birger Malmsten and Mai Zetterling as the lovers and look out for a young Gunnar Bjornstrand as a bitter, angry violinist. Bergman doesn't let me down and includes in the first few minutes of the film a brief dream sequence of pure gothic horror. Rating ***

THE CLOUDED YELLOW (1951)

When it comes to thinking about the best British directors, the name Ralph Thomas does not really spring to mind. He was firmly entrenched at the Rank Organisation directing routine movies such as the DOCTOR series and later such no hopers as the Penis transplant comedies, PERCY and PERCY'S PROGRESS. So it was without a lot of enthusiasm that I tuned into the Sunday afternoon television showing of THE CLOUDED YELLOW. I was very pleasantly surprised by this quite captivating thriller. Trevor Howard plays an ex-secret agent who takes a job cataloging butterflies at a country house. While there a murder is committed and the niece of the owners, whom he as befriended, is accused. Howard goes on the run with the girl and they criss cross England to evade the police and, hopefully, flush out the real killer. Howard uses his expertise as a secret agent to stay one step ahead of the law. The film offers a fascinating snapshot of post-war England from London to Newcastle to the Lake District and Liverpool - from country houses, the West End of London, roadside cafes, boarding houses, dockland to a fascinating sequence in Liverpool's Chinese community. The plot, screenplay by Janet Hill from her own story, is a distillation of ideas from Agatha Christie, Patrick Hamilton, Geoffrey Household and John Buchan. The film it most resembles is the 1959 remake of THE 39 STEPS starring Kenneth More (and directed - surprise, surprise - by Ralph Thomas). Like many enjoyable British films of this period one of its strengths is in its cast. Trevor Howard, of course, was at his peak and Jean Simmons is appealing as the disturbed girl that he befriends and later falls in love with. Excellent support is given by Barry Jones, Sonia Dresdel, Kenneth More (here playing Howard's sympathetic pursuer and later to play Hannay in Thomas' THE 39 STEPS), Geoffrey Keen and Andre Morell. Further down the cast list is a lovely turn by Eric Pohlman as a supplier of fake passorts - Pohlman being one of England's unsung masters of sweaty sleaze. Rating ***

CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (1932)

Discovery is one of the great pleasures of being a film buff, especially if it is not anticipated. A couple of years back I bought a box-set of Lugosi movies and included in this set was THE RETURN OF CHANDU starring Bela Lugosi. The film was pretty routine serial stuff whose only distinction was it starred Bela Lugosi and no film with Lugosi in it is ever a total loss. So, when I heard that the recent box-set of 20th Century Fox horror films included the earlier CHANDU THE MAGICIAN I didn't get that excited. I was very tired the first time I tried to watch it and fell asleep during the first few minutes of the film so it was with a heavy heart that I settled down to watch it again. Wow! was I wrong? CHANDU THE MAGICIAN is a real gem. It is a precurser of such films as the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and Universal's recent remake of THE MUMMY. Unlike its sequel were Lugosi played the hero Chandu, this time around Bela is much more at home as Roxor, a super villain bent on world domination by means of a death ray.

Further more this is prime Lugosi - he's lean and mean, looks sensational and delivers each line with blood curdling relish. Edmund Lowe is a likeable but totally uncharismatic actor who really doesn't stand a chance playing the hero against Lugosi's scenery chewing villainy. The action comes fast and furious and is imaginatively staged by that genius William Cameron Menzies (the dialogue scenes are mainly the work of French director Marcel Varnel) who also designed the movie and supervised the wonderful model work (watch for the amazing tracking shot through a model tomb - I still can't figure how it was done!) which is photographed by the great James Wong Howe. CHANDU THE MAGICIAN is superb and comes with a good commentary, a really informative documentary and, for once, an exceptionally good stills gallery. Rating ****