Boris plays a Dr who is trying to find a cure for paralysis. Particularly for a local girl, who has been in a wheelchair for 10 years. At the same time a crazy gorilla escapes from the nearby circus and goes on a killing spree. It keeps hanging around the Dr's house, something to do with the scent of a circus man's jacket in the house. Anyway Ape get caught and shot and Dr's serum works.on the girl. There was.aso a nice.little twist that I won't reveal- just in case anyone.else is daft enough to watch it. This one was a bit better than Black Friday. The story was more interesting, even if the science was skimmed over. The gorilla/suit was possible the most mangey looking things I've seen. The dialogue had a few wise cracks thrown in, I even laugh at some.
Because of the new show GREMLINS: SECRETS OF THE MOGWAI I watched the films again and they're quite fun, I love them both! The first film is scarier, but the second film is more creative with the jokes and Mogwai/Gremlin designs. The new show is a great addition to the franchise btw.
When viewed on release I enjoyed this immensely ... the new JB007 as the smooth no-nonsense hero who stops the evil money-men in their dastardly, lethal, plan.
I'm aware the film is wrapped in a cloak of controversy and perhaps this is why it rarely, if ever, gets broadcast. It can't be simply because it isn't a great film ... there're plenty worse to view every day. My copy was a freebie DVD with decent picture and sound (no surround sound, though) and it was fun to re-visit after several years.
The cast do well, Susannah York being especially good; some of the scenery is fabulous; and Elmer Bernstein's score is superb ... Don Black's lyrics adding detail to the mix (the title song lyric is very good and telling, especially in the album End titles).
But there's little action or suspense and RM's role is limited to being the lothario who is duped ... apart from attending the initial mine disaster he has little to do until the last act. What he does is well done ... but most of the film's story doesn't involve his character. Ray Milland is also very good ... it was easy to believe he was the man in charge.
The mine flooding scenes are well done/filmed (though would it be possible to move that rubber dinghy against the flow?) and it's always amused me that this film, RM's first big movie after taking on the JB007 role, has a similar plot to his last JB007 film ... another flooded mine
When “Barry Kochek” (David Macklin) and his girlfriend “Barbara Keeley” (Lynda Day) are arrested on suspicion of sabotaging the private plane of Barbara’s father—a wealthy man who despised the surf bum Barry—the dead man’s business partner (Charles Aidman) hires attorney “Walter Nichols” (Burl Ives) to defend the pair. But Barry’s sister “Ann” (Collin Wilcox) feels that Barry would be better served by having his own counsel. She contacts “Neil and Brian Darrell” (James Farentino and Guy Stockwell), who agree to take on the case for little money because they don’t believe in the death penalty, which is on the table. When Barry and Barbara are tried together, the two young hot shot lawyers find they have to work with the crafty Nichols, who is convinced that the pair of lovers are guilty.
Michael Richie directed this made-for-television movie, which was put forward as a pilot for a series. But Dick Nelson’s script takes a fairly ordinary crime story and doesn’t do much with it. There isn’t much in the way of courtroom theatrics, and even the bickering between the Darrell brothers and Nichols doesn’t generate many sparks. And although the trial takes place in a small town in a conservative part of California (Orange County becomes “Citrus County” in the script), the story barely makes use of the setting to generate any conflict between the conservative attitudes of the citizens and those of the young accused.
Pete Rugolo provided a melodic score for the picture. The film aired on NBC on 10 December 1968, and at its end, Nichols agrees to the Darrell brothers’ suggestion that they should work together again, thus setting up the premise for the series. But NBC was not convinced, so another pilot was ordered.
THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING (1969) – 7/10
Three months after THE SOUND OF ANGER had aired came this second film. The start of the picture finds the lawyers already ensconced in the firm of Nichols, Darrell & Darrell. This time, however, Guy Stockwell is replaced by Joseph Campanella as “Brian Darrell.”
On a nearby college campus, a group of radical students protest the school’s administration by taking over the offices of “Chancellor Leonard Graham” (Hal Holbrook). Graham is sympathetic to the student’s demands, but is bucking the hardline Board of Trustees. When the Board calls in the police to remove the students, “Off. Harry Platt” (Steve Ihnat) is killed when he falls from the roof of the building. Protest leader “Gil Bennett” (Rick Ely), who was also on the roof at the time, is accused of pushing Platt to his death. The problem for the defense is that Bennett and his supporters may be more interested in making a statement about their grievances than they are in gaining his acquittal.
Richard A. Colla directed the film, which aired on NBC on 11 March 1969. Pete Rugolo again provided the unreleased score. This time, however, the script—by long-time collaborators William Link and Richard Levinson—set its murder plot in the very “torn-from-today’s-headlines” setting of campus unrest. Even though Hal Holbrook’s character disappears after he resigns in protest of the Trustees’ actions, we still have scenes of the students rallying in support of Bennett under new leader “Ed Shepp” (Dennis Olivieri). We even get a protest song (“The Sum of One”) sung by a Joan Baez-style singer—all while the investigating and legal maneuvering goes on. (Holbrook was Emmy-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, but in an unusual turn of events, no Emmy was presented in that category because the judges felt that none of the nominees were worthy of an award.)
All of this made for a more compelling film than the first pilot. NBC was finally convinced, and the film led to “The Lawyers”—one of the three rotating segments in the fall 1969 series ”The Bold Ones”. (The others were “The Protectors” and “The Doctors.”) “The Lawyers” ran for three seasons, producing 27 one-hour episodes. “The Bold Ones” used a percussive main title by Pete Rugolo for its first season, then switched to a “bolder” theme by Dave Grusin for subsequent seasons.
An exhilarating extravaganza that never slows down, in a universe where infodumps, parasocial dilemmas, and hyperspeed action have made a holy blood oath. There are so many easter eggs abound, a certain holiday bunny should sue. Above all else, this acts as an effectively literal diatribe on the notion and execution of canon itself. Though it serves as an entire first half, the story sets the necessary pieces in place that have made me anxious for the part two of Beyond the Spiderverse. Epileptics need not apply.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Pablum-blamia - 6/10
The more I saw of this, the more it reminded me of a discount remake of TRON Legacy - a decade too late and a plea too shy of advocating the long-cancelled TRON Ascension - from the trapped real world humans inside a microscopic realm to the interfamilial strife between a celebrated father and his brash teen technut offspring, to the star cameo as a nightclub owner working for the bad guy to the equal goal of both heroes and villains wanting out of their own movie. What's new is a flagrant inability to focus obvious blame on a guilty party after the obvious consequence, not divulging important information in a timely manner for the sake of dramatic license, a slathering of last second cavalry-dropping (quickly becoming a Disneyfilm staple at this point), an almost tragic misuse of wonderful design work for the denizens of the Space Between Spaces (minus the Mechanical Organism Designed Onlyfor Kuckolding) simply to have them treated as extras to the "human" denizens who refused to even don otherworldy prosthetics (Goo Guy should've been the rebel leader), and a redundancy of old jokes from this and other franchise films (okay Goo Guy, you're the Goose in this, I get it and you're fired from being the rebel leader). I actually appreciated that the heroes were out of their league in this perfunctory franchise restarter, until they conveniently weren't, but that especially applies to the screenwriters of this tale, which doesn't pass much muster.
This German psychological drama stars Bruno Ganz as “Dr. Berthold Hoffmann,” a bio-geneticist who suspects that his wife “Ann” (Angela Winkler) is having an affair with student radical “Anleitner” (Hans Christian Blech). One evening, while going to the student center to pick up his wife, Hoffmann finds himself in the middle of a police raid conducted by “Volker” (Heinz Hönig). Hoffmann is shot in the head and ends up having emergency brain surgery. He awakens unable to walk, not knowing who he is, nor recognizing his wife.
Thus begins an extensive period of recovery for Hoffmann, both physically and mentally. During this time, both the police and the students try to use Hoffmann to further their own agendas—the police painting him as a terrorist, and the students putting him forward as a martyr to their (unspecified) cause. And Hoffmann is unsure as to who he is or was.
Bruno Ganz carries this film with his performance. He is shown struggling to relearn to function with the help of a sympathetic hospital staff, all while fending off accusatory questions from the police. Eventually he confronts the policeman who shot him, but the film suffers from a muddled ending. Reinhard Hauff, who mainly directed in German television, helmed the film.
Grip of the Strangler(1958)7/10 With Boris Karloff
In the pre credit sequence a man named Styles, is hanged for being 'the haymaker strangler'. He protests his innocence, don't they always. Post credits and it's 20 years later. Boris, an author, is fascinate, later obsessed with proving Styles' innocence. He becomes so involved that he seems to become possed by the dead killer and becomes a killer himself. This leads to a nice twist that I'd forgotten all about. So won't spoil it. Suffice to say things end as the should , after a few deaths. Quite enjoyable and it's been a good few.years.since I last watched it. As I alluded I'd forgotten a lot of it. It was well made, the cast were fine. Boris got chance to play a bit of a jekyll & Hyde character and wasn't over done.
Some viewers prefer there to be no loose ends in a film, that by the end all the strands have come together in a satisfying way, all motives are laid bare and you understand what you’ve just invested two hours of your time in.
And then there’s Blow Up.
So much to say about the film just from a single viewing, and so much more after watching it again with the excellent commentary by Peter Brunette. No doubt additional viewings will reveal more. I quite like things wrapped in a bow, but I’m also partial to a bit of mystique and imagery. Most films that I watch fit the former description: Bond films, for instance, which I love, have a linear narrative. Tarantino films play with the timeline but in the end you could, if you had the gear, re-edit them so that John Travolta stays dead for the rest of the story. Many gialli don’t seem to make a lot of sense, but that’s often due to their own wonderful shortcomings rather than any great philosophical plan by the auteur.
Like L’Avventura, my only other Antonioni, you’ll never know any of the answers to the obvious questions: namely, WTF??? You think you get to know the David Hemmings character from what he tells other people about himself but it’s all unreliable. Murder, anarchy, mime tennis, what’s that all about? And how did Peter Bowles look the same age his entire life?!
I understand it was seen as a groundbreaking film on its release, and it’s no less fascinating now. Possibly more so, now that we’re able to judge the photographer’s actions and attitudes from a 2020s perspective. Mike Myers may also be a fan, given that Austin Powers’s photographic techniques clearly lampoon those seen in Blow Up.
Like with Bill’s abstract paintings in the film, you’re invited to put your spin on what it means once it’s done, and nobody can tell you that you’re wrong. I loved this film, and aim to add a few more Antonionis to my watchlist.
I remember seeing Blow-Up in 1967 when I was 16 & now have the Criterion Blu-ray. I feel the same way about it now as I did then; enjoyable & annoying at the same time, only now it's a 60s period film, which gives it an extra bit of gloss (I last viewed it a couple of months ago). It is drag that the good looking Blu-ray has only been released in America region A locked, it's sad fate for this most European of films. I wish Warner Archive had released it (then it would have been region free).
David Hemmings autobiography, Blow Up & Other Exaggerations (out of print, but it's on Kindle) is really good on Blow Up stories, the whole book is a great & funny read.
Fortunately my Panasonic is multi region (I needed a new one but it had to play Fists in the Pocket) but the Criterion Blu-ray is £30, not a casual buy. I picked up the dvd a couple of weeks ago in Greenwich and wouldn’t get rid of it even if (when!) I get the BR, because the commentary hasn’t been kept by the looks of it.
You’re correct about the historical context, Rameau - just seeing the mid-60s cars are worth what I paid for the dvd.
The observer in me enjoyed this, but the interpreter in me is at odds. What's presented are a series of extended slo-mo and hustle-mo (fast motion regarding socitey) sequences that either encapsulate nature's amorphous and grandiose chaos creating order and mankind's ant-like order creating chaos... or it means nothing at all, with the exception of the Hopi coda which came too little and too late to be impactful. Perhaps since this was a first of its kind, and general pop culture has co-opted its visuals in ironic commercialized fashion, I'm used to what I've witnessed in this initial viewing, but I still want to give this feature length music video its due.
In this deceptively simple semi-comedic film, two taxi drivers (“Jo,” played by Wood Moy, and his nephew “Steve,” played by Marc Hayashi) go looking for Chan Hung, a friend to whom they gave $4,000 of their money so that they could get officially licensed as cab drivers, in San Francisco’s Chinatown. But now, Chan is missing. The search for Chan takes the pair all over Chinatown, where they meet many friends and acquaintances of Chan who all have opinions on where Chan might be or what may have happened to him. They also indirectly shed a unique light on the Chinese immigrant experience in America. The cast is entirely composed of Asian-American actors, which allows the film to plop you down inside of an “alien” culture without any outside distractions.
Director Wayne Wang, named after actor John Wayne by his cinephile father, worked as a filmmaker in Hong Kong before settling in San Francisco, where he focused on community activism. After working with immigrants in San Francisco and learning about the problems they faced, Wang was inspired to write CHAN IS MISSING. In late 1978, he submitted a proposal for the film to the American Film Institute and received a grant of just under $10,000 to produce the film. At the time, the story featured three cab drivers, two Chinese and one African American. Wang later removed the African American driver from the story because he felt that he did not “know enough to write him.”
The film was shot on mostly borrowed 16mm equipment over the course of ten weekends. Budgetary constraints forced Wang to refine his techniques, and he took a cue from French director Eric Rohmer, who was known for throwing out scenes that were not working after a single take.
Wang later received a $12,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1981, enabling him to recover the film he had shot from a processing lab where it was being held hostage because Wang had “overextended his credit.” After paying the lab, Wang used remaining funds to finish a sound mix, add titles, and complete the edit, which he worked on over the course of a year, while simultaneously writing bilingual science curricula for San Francisco State University.
Early in the production process, Wang signed an agreement with the principal cast and crew members to equally divide any profits from the film, laughing at the prospect that the film might make money. Following its late 1981 premiere in Berkley, CA, and a well-received three day run in San Francisco, CHAN IS MISSING was rejected by the San Francisco and Chicago Film Festivals.
During seemingly hopeless distribution talks in New York, Wang arranged for the film to be screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). In collaboration with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, MoMA accepted CHAN IS MISSING into their 1982 New Directors/New Films series, to Wang’s surprise. The two screenings at MoMA sold out. After the film received positive reviews in The New York Times as well as Newsweek, it was eventually picked up for distribution by New Yorker Films. A small release was slated for New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The film’s theatrical run in New York City lasted five months.
In the original theatrical version of CHAN IS MISSING, there were no subtitles provided for scenes where characters are either speaking in Mandarin or Cantonese. As he told an interviewer, "I didn’t want subtitles because the audience should experience what those two [cabbies] are experiencing and not have any more information. Yet you could still understand. Sometimes the specifics of a language are not as important as the music of the language and the body language of the language.” Subtitles have been added for the film’s video release, however.
This film was selected to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, in 1995
The Big Country (William Wyler 1958) 10/10 Just about a perfect Western, I love everything about this movie ever since the first time I saw it many years ago. From Jerome Moross' quintessential Western score, excellent performances by everyone involved, including an Academy Award winning performance from Burl Ives, to the beautiful photography, this is just a perfect example of an epic, long western. Wyler never rushes anything and just has confidence in the performances, the story, and the way it is told. I never tire of watching this film, so it gets full points from me.
Laughter in Paradise(1951)6/10 With Alastair Sim, George Cole, John Laurie,, Hugh Griffiths,Fay Compton, Guy Midleton, Ernset Thesiger and more Griffith, a rich , eccentric, lfamous practical joker, dies. In his will he leaves his four cousins a task to complete, in order to inherit £50000. No do, no money. Each person's task puts them at odds with their lifestyle and demeanour. Compton is a stuffy old, wealthy cow. Her task is to get a job for a month,as a maid and not get fired( she treats her maid like shit). Middleto, a known lothario, is tasked with marrying the first woman he speaks to. Cole a put upon bak clerk, is tasked with holding up at ( toy) gunpoint, his own bank. And Sim, a second rate crime writer, is tasked with being sent to jail for 28 days. So it's about their attempts and failed attempts to succeed but its not easy. In the end they all succeed apart fro. Compton. However , in one final practical joke, it is revealed that Griffiths died broke. I've seen this a few times over the years and fancied an easy chuckle. While it isn't hilarious busy any margin it does pack in a few chuckles. Mainly the antics of the cast trying to do something that seems simple but failing miserabley. Laurie( we're dooomed) stands out as Compton's eccentric, hypercondriac employer. Sim as usual is a legend.
This film is a step up from 2018’s INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. For one thing, the animation style, although frenetic, is nothing like the jittery, eye-straining style that prevailed in the earlier film. The animation on this film is bold and lively, but not off-putting. I’ll credit that to the new triumvirate of directors on this film: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson. For another, although this film is nearly 25 minutes longer than its predecessor (reportedly, it’s the longest American animated film to date), it doesn’t seem longer. I’ll credit that to Phil Lord’s new writing partners: Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham.
The plot is just a variation on that of the first film: “Miles Morales” (voice of Shameik Moore), the Spider-Man of Earth-1610, travels from one dimension to another, meeting different Spider-persons along the way in his quest to stop the villain “Spot” (Jason Schwartzman), an entity with black-hole-like blotches all over his body. The concept for the villain is a neat one, allowing for some clever animation.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller told Columbia/Sony that the sequel would be the same size as INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, but it ended up having the largest crew of any animated movie ever with around 1,000 people working on it. The final cost was a budget-busting $150 million. But so far it’s doubled its money, grossing $320 million worldwide.
The fact that this film is the first of a two-part story was not known to many in the audience (including me), thus eliciting some groans when the “To Be Continued” card came up. But this time, at least, I can say that I’m looking forward to the next edition, something I couldn’t say at the end of the first film.
L&H join up with a commando help a woman get her money back off some thugs. I don't recall seeing this one, if I have it was long ago. It's a later effort and not one of their classics. Nothing particularly wrong just, maybe, they are older. Also I found it a bit weird that for a lot of the film they were quite competent and not the usual buffoons. They were still good to watch and the film, overall, was well made. There were a few good gags- donkey pushing a caravan, Ollie covered in coal. Music by Leigh Harline went un noticed.
GOING ATTRACTIONS: THE DEFINITIVE STORY OF THE MOVIE PALACE (2019) – 7/10
This documentary provides an overview of movie exhibition in America, from the days of penny arcades and nickelodeons to the creation of the movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s, on to the decline of free-standing theaters and the rise of the multiplex. But attention is focused on those grand palaces, particularly those few that have been restored, and the remaining survivors that are in need of restoration.
By the time I was able to attend a few of these theaters in my hometown in the 1960s, they had already lost their grandeur (and their staffs). The restored ones that remain today have been repurposed for use as concert halls or performing arts centers. This film uses a lot of still photos to show the exteriors and interiors of some of the country’s biggest movie theaters in their heyday—a real treat for those of us (nearly all of us) too young to have seen them during their best years.
The ten-or-so talking heads in the film include Leonard Maltin and David Strohmaier, the guy who restored all those Cinerama films for video release. The film is available for viewing on Tubi.
TheQuatermass Xperiment(1955) 7/10 With Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth and plenty of English faces. A rocket ship crash lands back on earth. Two of the occupants are dead, the third is not the same. The survivor is taken to hospital but escapes. While on the run he begins to change. I hadn't watched this properly/fully in years. It's still watchable and fairly well done, if a tad dated. I think it benefits from the fact that you don't actually see much of anything. Most of the cast ate fine Words worth does well, looking suitably anguished. Though I feel, watching now, that donlevy is a bit of a week link. He marches into a scene , does him lines in monotone and then marches off. Warner comes.off well, playing and out of his depth copper, who soon fits in. Bernard's music was mostly unnoticed this time.
