JANUARY 11, 2013

013 IRON SKY (2012) Directed by Timo Vurensolo ***

Towards the end of WW2 the Nazis managed to establish a base on the dark side of the moon (seems some people really believe this!) and are just waiting to reconquer the Earth. Bizarre?  You bet! but then IRON SKY is a pretty bizarre movie. A co-production between Germany, Australia and Finland and made with money largely raised on the internet the film really deserves to be seen if only for the enthusiasm of the people behind the project.  It's not great, mainly I felt because of the rather scattergun approach to the comedy which just throws every joke it can think of at the audience - but, I suppose, if a joke is bad another one will be along within a few seconds. I felt a little more restraint and a bit more straight faced satire would have worked better. There are some good one-liners (especially from the Sarah Palin like U.S.President) and there is a nice self-depreciating joke at the expense of the Finnish co-producers if you are quick enough to catch it. Udo Keir plays the new Fuhrer as if to the job born and the rest of the cast (who I confess are completely unknown to me) are fine.  The big plus in the film's favour is the really excellent CGI and model work which achieves the perfect balance between h-tec sci-fi and appealing steam-punk.

Iron Sky

JANUARY 10, 2013

010 CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON (1934) Directed by Eugene Forde. **

Enjoyable mystery starring Warner Oland as the oriental sleuth. Crime writer Philip MacDonald supplies a good script that actually (unlike some later Chan films) has a genuine who-dun-it plot that allows honourable detective some real deductions. Nothing special but fun. Supporting cast includes a very young Ray Milland

Charlie Chan in London

011 CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD ( 1964 ) Directed by Warren Keifer *

I knew Paul Maslansky, the producer of this film, when he was based at Columbia Pictures office in London and I was friends with one of the film's assistant directors, Mike Reeves who went on to direct WITCHFINDER GENERAL, and spent a pleasant afternoon with him and actor Christopher Lee at Shepperton during the filming of THE OBLONG BOX, so I have three connections with people involved with this film. Sadly it doesn't make the film any better. Reeves directed some of the scenes and seeing the film again after many years it was interesting to note that the opening narration is remarkably similar to the one that Reeves later used to open WITCHFINDER GENERAL.

Castle of the Living Dead

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012 PROMETHEUS (2012) Directed by Ridley Scott ***

Prometheus

JANUARY 8, 2013

007 HARRY BROWN (2009) Directed by Daniel Burton **

Daniel Burton's debut feature is impressive. Harry is a widower living alone on an inner city council estate infested by feral youths and drug dealers. When his only friend is killed Harry, an ex-marine, takes the law into his own hands with dramatic results. So what we have is a vigilante movie closer to Michael Winner's DEATH WISH than Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER although comparing it to Winner's film is doing it a disservice. Burton builds the atmosphere slowly and carefully and never attempts to make Harry any kind of hero - in this he is aided by a superb performance by Michael Caine. While the film's purpose is not to look at the reasons behind the violence  it does acknowledge in passing the exploitation of the young by adults even if these (rightly in my view) offered as Harry's concern or motivation. Unfortunately  when the film switches its emphasis to the police it begins to fall apart.

Harry Brown

008 ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S THE KILLER (1963) Directed by Donald Siegel. ***

In some respects this has dated. The obvious back projection in many scenes is quite noticeable and it has to be said that it drags badly in the middle section. Part of the problem is that the scenes involving the two hired killers, played by Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager, are so good that everything else is a bit of a letdown. The opening when the killers track their prey to a school for the blind and the closing scene are justifiably regarded as classic.  Much as I admired John Cassavetes work I found his performance here a bit too mannered and edgy. The rest of the cast are fine and include Ronald Reagan in his final film role, Angie Dickinson, Claude Akins and Norman Fell. Originally made for television but premiered theatrically.

Ernest Hemingway's The Killers

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009 PSYCHO (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. *****

Psycho

JANUARY 5, 2013

006 DIE ABENTEUER DES WERNER HOLT/The Adventures of Werner Holt (1965) Directed by Joachim Kunert.  ****

A friend with a particular interest in Eastern European cinema showed me this and for the first three-quarters of an hour (it runs two and three quarter hours) I really couldn't get into it. Then suddenly everything clicked and by the end I was convinced I had seen a great film. At the outbreak of the Second World War two students are called up to serve in the German Army and are assigned at first to an ack ack unit but later, as the war progresses, they see front line combat against the advancing Russians. One of the young men is patriotic enough to be drawn along by the propaganda about defending the Fatherland without being totally convinced by the nazis while the other is a fanatical supporter of Hitler. The former boy (the eponymous Werner Holt) becomes more and more disenchanted with the fascist regime as he sees the horrors perpetrated by the SS, the senseless brutality and the concentration camps but although he openly challenges his friend on several occasions he can never quite bring himself to desert him or the German cause. Made in East Germany the film never offers simple answers as it shows a world where basic human decency and morality have been turned topsy turvy. The ensemble cast are excellent by special mention must be made of
Klaus Peter Thiele (who bears a strong resemblance to Ryan Gosling) as Werner. The film also contains some disturbingly black humour.

Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt

JANUARY 4, 2013

004 THE WEB (1947) Directed by Michael Gordon ***

Michael Gordon had quite a diverse career which included Jose Ferrer's CYRANO DE BERGERAC and being a director favoured by Doris Day. In this later capacity he was responsible for the delightfully silly chiller MIDNIGHT LACE which had poor Doris menaced in the London fog by a maniac. With THE WEB he delivers a really enjoyable film noir. Forget the plot as anybody with two brain cells to rub together will figure out what is going on almost before it happens, but it has a terrific cast headed by Edmund O'brien and the lovely Ella Raines. Vincent Price is on top form as the suave villain abetted by John Abbott. Abbott was rarely given a chance to shine although his turns  as a particularly intelligent bloodsucker in THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST and a killer in THE BLACKOUT MURDERS are worth catching. William Bendix is at his best as the tough, no nonsense, cop who has everything figured out right from the beginning, unlike O'Brien who seems very gullible for the smart attorney he is supposed to be.

005 ONE BODY TOO MANY (194 ) Directed by Frank MacDonald  ***

A will is about to be read, a stormy night, a vanishing corpse, secret passages, the beautiful heir in peril and a sinister butler. In terms of originality this old dark house horror/comedy offers no surprises but it stand out as a cracking example of this sub-genre. It has a first class cast led by Jack Haley and Jean Parker who are more than ably backed up by the likes of Bela Lugosi, Lyle Talbot and Douglas Fowley.  Although Bela is used, yet again, as a red herring, he plays his role as the sinister butler with enthusiasm and the running joke about the coffee ("This coffee won't keep you awake") is done nicely and raises a smile if not a laugh. But the real reason this film stands out from others in similar vein is its pace. Graced with a better than average cast and script Frank MacDonald keeps things moving with not a minute wasted.

One Body Too Many

006 THE MAN IN THE ATTIC (1953) Directed by Hugo Fregonese ***

       Fregonese, like Robert Florey and Edgar Ulmer, was one of those foreign born (Brazil in Fregonese's case) directors who occasionally turned in offbeat work which achieves for them a cult reputation. My personal favourites among his films are BLACK TUESDAY and his Argentinian "Western" SAVAGE PAMPAS. If I say that THE MAN IN THE ATTIC is a perfectly good reworking of the oft filmed THE LODGER by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes - twice filmed with Ivor Novello (once with Hitchcock at the helm) and so memorably in the Forties by John Brahm with Laird Cregar - I'd probably be doing it an injustice. Jack Palance is excellent as the mysterious Mr.Slade, achieving a nice balance between the sympathetic and the sinster and once free from the confines of the boarding house Fregonese's direction comes to life with some atmospheric Whitechapel street sets.  There are two musical numbers set in a theatre that, despite being set in 1888 bear all the marks of 1950's Hollywood and jar against the tone of the rest of the film.

There is an interesting little  "mystery" in that the heroine of the piece, played by Constance Smith, is an actress whose dresser/maid is shown to be an Asian lady. It seems odd that this should be in the script with no explanation, especially in Hollywood at the time,  The explanation may lay with the Brahm 1944 version where the actress was played by Merle Oberon.  Oberon really did have an Asian Dresser/maid.  Oberon, although it was not revealed until years later, was of mixed race and her maid was really her mother, although few people knew it. I find it difficult to believe that this was a coincidence.

The Man in the Attic

JANUARY 3, 2013

003 IL BARBIERI DI SIVIGLIA/The Barber of Seville (1974) Directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle ****

This was a real find for me. I am in the process of transferring some VHS recordings of opera productions to DVD. This one had mysteriously (not by me) been labelled as a 1980's Glynbourne production. Instead it turns out to be Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1974 film version of his La Scala production of two years earlier. Being a film it opens out the action a bit more than some other filmed stage productions such as the 1988 version with Cecilia Bartoli as Rosina.  When I say than this is far superior to the Bartoli (which I adore) I am not giving faint praise. Visually it is more interesting for the reasons stated above and vocally it is graced by the German baritone Hermann Prey as Figaro and the beautiful Teresa Berganza as Rosina. Next to Mascagni's CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA this is Rossini probabably my favourite opera. Based, like Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO on a story by Beaumarchais it is hard to imagine that these tales originally ran into censorship problems because they showed servants outwitting and being cleverer than their masters at a time when the French Revolution was very much on peoples minds.

Il Barbieri di Siviglia

JANUARY 2, 2013

002 FIRES WE STARTED (1942) Directed by Humphrey Jennings.  *****

Also known as I WAS A FIREMAN. I have a feeling I've seen this before but I'm possibly confusing it with Basil Dearden's THE BELLS GO DOWN made the same year which I saw when I was about ten. But whatever, this is an authentic masterpiece of British cinema made by Humphrey Jennings whom Lindsay Anderson called "a poet".  A simple story of a fire fighting crew during the London Docks Blitz is truly amazing and I think it effected me emotionally more than any film I saw during 2012.  Acted by a cast of real fire fighters ( one of them went on to have a very long career as a character actor) the film is grimly realistic and the fire scenes very convincing (they were staged for the film). My own step-father was an ambulance driver at London Docks during the blitz so the film has added interest for me.

Fires Were Started (1942)