LIGHTNING OVER WATER (1980)

Nicholas Ray's films are never less than interesting. Even when not entirely engaged by the project he managed to look at the most commercial subjects from a slightly askew angle and they were never less than entertaining. He was a true Hollywood maverick and therefore had much in common with German director and Ray fan Wim Wenders. The two met when Wenders asked Ray to play a role in his film THE AMERICAN FRIEND and Ray became Wenders American friend. Shortly before Ray's death from cancer Wenders took time of from his own projects to go to New York and stay with Ray and his wife, Sue, in the loft apartment where they lived surrounded by film equipment, books, Mickey Mouse memorabila and a few admirers who seem to have taken up residence in various corners. As film-makers like these often do when they get together it was suggested that they do a film together. This is what there is of that film. Part home movie, part fiction, part documentary there is virtually no structure. We see Ray at a screening of his film THE LUSTY MEN and rehearsing a stage adaption of Kafka's "Report to the Academy" but mostly the film centres on Ray himself - obviously in pain and near to death and relating his philosphy and his fears often in a rambling stream of consciousness. The love of Wenders for his American friend is obvious in the pain on his face and the heart rending honesty of their conversations. Ray himself comes over as likeable and eccentric - a totally bohemian figure at odds with his Hollywood career. I've read that this film is profound - I don't know - but for me its value is that Wenders shares with us that very personal episode of his life and his friend's approaching death and that is extremely moving and valuable to those of us who have admired Nicholas Ray's films. Rating ****

Here's an interesting one.......

Ward Bond as "John Dodge" alongside John Ford

on the set of THE WINGS OF EAGLES.

Sometime ago I ran a series of posts on this blog about real-life people who have been portrayed by actors in films. One of my regular readers - Ray - has come up with a similar themed question : Real life film directors who have been depicted in films. Let me make it clear that I don't mean film directors who have taken character roles in films - although we might get around to that in the future - because actor/directors are fairly common (i.e.Clint Eastwood). What I mean is film directors who have been played by actors. I will accept examples where a director has played himself in a dramatic presentation as in my first example listed below. I've done no research into this yet but have listed a few examples that immeadiatly come to mind.Please feel free to add to this list via the comment facility or e-mail and I'll list them on the blog proper. Here's my initial list :

Cecil B. DeMille as Cecil B.DeMille in SUNSET BOULEVARD

Ward Bond as "John Dodge" (John Ford) in THE WINGS OF EAGLES

John Malkovich as F.W. Murnau in SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE

John Depp as Edward Wood Jr. in ED WOOD

Ian McKellan as James Whale in GODS AND MONSTERS

Clive Revill as Charles Chaplin in THE SCARLETT O'HARA WAR

George Furth as George Cukor in THE SCARLETT O'HARA WAR

Martin Ferrero as George Cukor in GODS AND MONSTERS

Robert Downey Jr. as Charles Chaplin in CHAPLIN

Eddie Izzard as Charles Chaplin in THE CAT'S MEOW

Cary Elwes as Thomas Ince in THE CAT'S MEOW

Colm Feore as D.W.Griffith in AND STARRING PANCHO VILLA AS HIMSELF

Michael McKean as Christy Cabanne in AND STARRING PANCHO VILLA AS HIMSELF

Kyle Chandler as Raoul Walsh in AND STARRING PANCH VILLA AS HIMSELF

LES GRANDE MANOUEVERES (1954)

I was quite prepared to dismiss this as a frothy "romantic comedy" - a minor work directed by the great Rene Clair. While I still feel that it is not one of Clair's best films just as the previously reviewed L'AIR DE PARIS was not one of Carne's best it works in part for more or less the same reasons as the Carne film; it has a genuine gallic charm and is more than carried by the fact that it stars two of the great stars of the French cinema of the period : Michele Morgan and the great Gerard Philipe. I say they are "partly" responsible because quite unexpectedly it has another darker dimension. The scene is France durin La Belle Epoque and in a provincial garrison town a young officer of dragoons with a reputation as a womaniser makes a bet that he can seduce any woman. The woman is picked by the winning number in a charity raffle but things go awry when the soldier actually falls in love with his victim and has to try to conceal the fact that they came together because of a wager among drunken soldiers. So far, so good, it is pure romantic comedy. But, in truth, it is a tragi-comedy and as the film moves towards its climax the desperation of the the soldier to convince the woman of his true love and the confusion anf hurt she experiences make it obvious that it is going to be difficult to avoid tragic consequences. The cliche would be a happy ending but Clair does not let these characters that we have really begun to care about of the hook. The film ends sadly with the woman rejecting the soldier. But Clair went further and there is an alternative ending (included on the DVD as an extra) which, presumably, was considered too harsh for audiences at the time which ends with a suicide. Both endings give the film unexpected depth. The cast also includes a very young and pretty Brigitte Bardot. Rating ****

L'AIR DE PARIS (1954)

To me, Marcel Carne rates as one of the greatest of French directors but this is hardly on a par with his great films of the Thirties and Forties. The plot which involves an ex-boxer who owns a rundown boxing gymn who, on the point of retirement, discovers a young boxer of real talent who just as things begin to happen for him is distracted by an affair with a beautiful antique dealer (the gorgeous Corinne) is totally predictable (so much so that one of the characters even comments on the cliche of the situation. But it is atmospheric, never boring and reunites Jean Gabin and Arletty from Carne's JOUR SA LEVE and features Roland Lesaffre (who sticks in the mind as the smiling blackmailer from THERESE RAQUIN), so what's not to like? The boxing scenes are convincing. Rating ***

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE (1958)

Henry Cass's BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE is one of those oddities thrown up in the wake of the success of the early Hammer films. Unlike Regal's duo of Karloffian thrillers - GRIP OF THE STRANGLER and CORRIDORS OF BLOOD - this one was not only in colour but had some legitimate Hammer blood in the form of a script by Jimmy Sangster. Despite the title (and the poster) it is not a genuine supernatural vampire tale but belongs rather to that sub-genre that also includes films as diverse as Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE and Ferroni's THE MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN and, as such is closely allied to the traditions of Paris's infamous Grand Guignol Theatre which has taken on an unhealthy turn in the recent crop of "torture porn" films. A doctor experimenting, none to conventionally, with blood diseases is executed for vampirism and a stake driven through his heart. Luckily a drunken medic is on hand to give him a heart transplant (this is Transylvania in 1873 after all said and done!) and a decade later we find him up to his old experiments while working as the governor of a prison for the criminally insane. Sadistic guards (headed by the later Labour MP Andrew Faulds), beatings, attempted rapes and human experiments are the order of the day until the evil Dr.Callistratus is unmasked and shares the fate of Franju's Dr, Genessier by literally going to the dogs. It's bright and garishly coloured like its Hammer rivals and has a more than interesting cast headed by Sir Donald Wolfit - last of the flamboyant barnstorming actor/managers of British theatre - and scream queen Barbara Shelley. The film's hero is Vincent Ball who is one of those Australian actors who, along with Bud Tingwell and others, made there names in British B-movies and television before returning down under to resume successful careers in their homeland. If you look quickly during the pre-credit sequence you will see Anglo-Indian actor Milton Reid who is fondly remembered as the mulatto mute in Hammer's CAPTAIN CLEGG. Comedy veterans Bernard Bresslaw and John LeMesurier both have small roles and LeMesurier's old friend (and mine) Denis Shaw turns up without any dialogue as a blacksmith. Special mention must be made of actor Victor Maddern, a long time stalwart of English movies, who brings a touch of humanity to the mad doctor's deformed and murderous assistant.Of personal interest to me is an appearance by actor George Murcell who for several years ran a successful theatre in a disused church in a street where I was living in London. Director Cass is best known for his 1949 romantic drama THE GLASS MOUNTAIN. Rating ***

COMPLIMENTARY, MR. HOLMES!

Modernising Sherlock Holmes never seems a good idea although in the past a few film-makers have attempted it without coming completely unstuck. There was a film with Raymond Massey where Holmes had a modern (for the Thirties) office and, of course, the Universal Pictures series of B-movies starring Basil Rathbone set Holmes and Watson down in the dark days of World War Two and provides some first class entertainment for everybody except the most rigid purists. So, modernising is not, in reality, quite as bad as it seems at first. The news that the BBC were producing a new series which relocated Holmes in the London of 2010 did seem a bit worrying but with writers like Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis on hand all has turned out well...very well indeed. The first series consists of three feature length films (more promised for the future) with the first being based on Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet - with a new back story but keeping John Watson's return from Afghanistan (how little things have changed), Holmes and Watson's first meeting, taking the rooms in Baker Street and Mrs.Hudson and Lestrade and the new title A Study in Pink. The second ventured into Sax Rohmer territory but had nods to both The Sign of Four and the Rathbone SPIDER WOMAN. The last of the three episodes pays homage to several Doyle stories including The Bruce Partington Plans and The Five Orange Pips and in a wonderfully creepy scene to Rondo Hatton's Creeper in PEARL OF DEATH. The casting is faultless with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr.Watson , Rupert Graves as Lestrade, Mark Gattiss as Mycroft and Una Stubbs as Mrs,Hudson. Each modernisation is carefully thought out from Dr.Watson being a blogger to Holmes "This is a three nicotine patch problem!" and just incase you are wondering, yes, James Moriarty turns up and.....oh well, just buy the DVD (as an extra you get the 60 minute unaired pilot film)....trust me, I'm a blogger.

SUSPECT/ The Risk (1960)

The Boulting Brothers, Roy and John, were already well into their stride as producers and directors of a string of classic social comedies when they took a diversion to make this almost forgotten and rather tame spy drama centered on a group of scientists who discover that their research can be used for germ warfare. It's all rather lacklustre and the main interest today is in the excellent cast of British character actors. Peter Cushing is excellent as the project boss and Tony Britton and Virgina Maskell are reliable leads. Good support comes from such reliables as Ian Bannen, Donald Pleasence, Thorley Walters and Sam Kydd. Spike Milligan is on hand to do some comedy relief with a chimpanzee which is obviously designed to lift the rather one note tone of the film but it seems overly silly and completely out of place. Watch it for its cast if little else. Rating **