wrk6539 Reviews

The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000)

Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is entirely non-existent

[13 March 2004]

I must heartily agree with those other learned reviewers who see this movie for what it is: shallow, cliched pandering without a frame of truth or honesty to be found. Geeze this movie really BURNS me up.

I've never known anyone in life who talks the way these characters do. And, while that's not ALWAYS a bad thing (no one in real life talks like Tennessee Williams' characters either, but I sure wish they did) here it borders on the offensive. These actors seem so PROUD of the way they act "gay" (at least a straight actor's perception of what being gay is) that they never stop praising themselves long enough to turn in a decent performance.

The time when gays would respond to movies SIMPLY because they were about us is, thankfully, over. We do NOT need to accept any more movies EXPLAINING us to straight society or BEGGING us to be accepted. We also do not need to respond to self-congratulatory cinema that PRETENDS to be speaking to us, while in reality only serves to convince its makers that they are liberal and "now."

If gays and the gay life were anything like what is pictured here, then I might actually consider joining one of those crazy "you can change" groups. As it is, I'll just avoid trendy "we're so hip cuz we're making a movie about gays" crap like this in the future and I suggest you do the same.

The Greene Murder Case (1929)

Antique murder mystery is creaky but fun

[5 March 2002]

As a life long fan of murder mysteries in general and William Powell in particular, I was thrilled to finally get a chance to see this early sound Philo Vance mystery. A follow-up to Paramount's THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929), this was adapted from "SS Van Dine's" third Philo Vance novel(originally published in 1928 to runaway business) and also stars the wonderful Eugene Pallette as Sergeant Heath and a young Jean Arthur in the ingenue role of Ada Greene.

The intricate plot finds gentleman detective Philo Vance assisting his old friends District Attorney Markham and Sergeant Heath in a case of multiple and attempted murders at the Greene Mansion in New York's Upper East Side. It seems that someone is killing members of the Greene family, ostensibly for a stake in the large inheritance left by the long dead patriarch, Tobias Greene, whose fortune was accumulated (we come to suspect) by less than honorable means.

I'll admit that, although anxious to finally see this film after reading about it for years, I wasn't expecting much. I had heard that the film was talky, creaky, and static, as many early sound productions seem to modern sensibilities. Perhaps it was because of these lowered expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the great stuff found here. The film abounds with wonderfully creepy atmosphere and a real sense of menace, and the climax, set in the rooftop garden of the formidable Greene mansion (a fantastic set, by the way), is thrillingly shot, with trick photography and a last minute-in the nick time-rescue.

The screenplay is a faithful simplification of the Van Dine novel (the book's first two murder victims, for example, are compressed into one and the character of Julia Greene is jettisoned) and Powell's Philo Vance is much more likable than his literary counterpart. The identity of the murderer, while possibly surprising to the relatively innocent audiences of 1929, is fairly easy to spot by the more jaded modern viewer raised on scores of mysteries and taught to always suspect the least likely. This does not detract from the fun.

Playing the part of Philo Vance was a huge boost to Powell's career, and allowed him to move from villainous heels to debonair man-about-town roles. After a parody appearance as the detective in 1930's PARAMOUNT ON PARADE, Powell played Vance twice more [in Paramount's THE BENSON MURDER CASE (1930) and Warner Bros. THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (1933)] before moving to MGM and forever being associated with the role of Nick Charles in THE THIN MAN series (an even BIGGER boost to his career!)

Yes, the film is invariably hampered by the limitations of the early sound era, but once the modern viewer accepts these limitations, there's a lot to enjoy here.

Spider's Web (1982 TV Movie)

A Wonderful night's entertainment

[22 January 2002]

This UK television adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie's 1954 West End hit is a lot of fun and a great way to spend a stormy night. Equal parts mystery and comedy, it tells the story of house-wife Clarissa's trials and tribulations when an unexpected body turns up at exactly the wrong time (as if there's ever a RIGHT time!!)

TV fans will recognize the marvelous Penelope Keith from GOOD NEIGHBORS and TO THE MANOR BORN, and she is as fabulous as ever as the slightly muddled Clarissa.

The producers wisely elected to give the teleplay a cozy period setting and it would make a nice addition to any Christie collection if it were ever released commercially. Here's hoping.....

Witness for the Prosecution (1982 TV Movie)

Not up to the original, but it's got Diana Rigg!!!

[22 January 2002]

While this TV remake of the classic 1957 Billy Wilder film can't hold a candle to the original, it's fun if taken on its own. It's well cast and has a beautiful period feel. And let's face it, any chance to see Diana Rigg is a welcome one!!

Ten Little Indians (1965)

Plays like a Road Company version of the original

[22 January 2002]

Comparisons between this and the 1945 original are inevitable. While this version invariably comes up short, it has some nice moments to balance those that are less so.

On the plus side, we have Wilfred-Hyde White, Stanley Holloway, Daliah Lavi (if one can ignore the incredibly unflattering hairstyle she is forced to sport), and a surprisingly effective Hugh O'Brian. The setting and location work is very good, and it is also nice to see Marianne Hoppe (a popular actress of Nazi era Germany) in the smallish role of Mrs. Groman.

As a whole, though, the film plays (as many remakes often do) like a road company version of the original, with many of the performers seeming to walk through their roles. The less said about Fabian the better, and one only has to look at the wooden and uncomfortable performance of golden girl Shirley Eaton to understand why she never became a star.

SPOILER ALERT****** One of the glaring differences between this and the superior 1945 version is the murders themselves. In Rene Clair's original, the murders occur, for the most part, offscreen. We see bodies and not the act of murder itself. To "juice up" the action in the remake, each of the murders unfolds onscreen, and is usually predicated with the murder mystery cliche of the gloved hand and the victim saying something like "What are YOU doing here?" What this does is exonerate each of these victims, and those familiar with the plot are aware that we, as the audience, must believe that a "certain someone" has been shot through the head. This being just about the only murder that occurs offscreen makes the faked death seem more obvious and less of a surprise.

It's still a fun movie for all of its faults, and is certainly miles better than the wretched remakes. But, to echo most of the previous reviews, search out AND THEN THERE WERE NONE instead.

Mannequin (1937)

Tracy, Crawford and Borzage should add up to more than this

[16 September 2001]

I hate to be a spoil sport, but I must disagree with the other reviewers who are un-restrained in their enthusiasm for the only Joan Crawford/Spencer Tracy co-starring vehicle. The movie often feels as though it had been re-heated and, while it has many admirable moments, just as many ring false. Crawford herself remains remote and aloof for much of the running time and, while Spencer Tracy probably couldn't give a false performance if he tried, his heart doesn't seem to be in it either.

The early scenes, in which Joan plays a poor, restless girl who lives in a tenement with her ne'er do well father and brother, as well as with her overworked, tired mother are so stilted and obvious they are an embarrassment. These scenes play almost like parodies of the previous Crawford vehicles POSSESSED (1931), DANCING LADY (1933) and SADIE McKEE (1934). Crawford has played this "noble girl whose ambitions will lift her out of her miserable station in life" part before, and she has played it better. Here she seems tired, like she's not even believing it herself and, although it may sound un-gallant to mention, she's a little long in the tooth to play this type of role convincingly (God forgive me).

Things brighten considerably when Tracy and Crawford begin to spark and it is the middle section of the movie that is the most enjoyable. A lot of this may stem from the fact that the middle section contains the least amount of screen time for Alan Curtis, who plays Joan's "so bad he's hissable" louse of a husband. Curtis is so one dimensional and so "obviously" rotten that you wonder what Crawford's character could EVER have seen in him.

Complaints aside, there are good and memorable moments to be found in MANNEQUIN. When Tracy and Crawford are alone on-screen, they both seem to be off of their game, but together, they have a haunting chemistry that transcends explanation. They both manage to convey that they truly understand and accept what the other is thinking, a rarity in film. It makes MANNEQUIN all the more frustrating when we get glimpses of what made these two the magnificent stars they were. It disappoints me that they never worked together again in a project more worthy of their combined talents.

Standing in dramatic counterpoint to Crawford's 1938 "box office poison" label, MANNEQUIN was a big hit with audiences early that year. Other, more ambitious (and in my opinion, more interesting) Crawford vehicles such as THE BRIDE WORE RED (1937) and THE SHINING HOUR (1938), however, were not.

The Bride Wore Red (1937)

Underrated and deserves better than it got...

[16 September 2001]

Well, you can't blame Joan for trying. Always wanting to go beyond that glamorous clothes-horse/shopgirl-makes-good mold in which MGM so successfully cast her throughout the 1930's, she was always attempting to outreach her grasp. When Metro's Austrian star Luise Rainer backed out of making a film of Molnar's THE GIRL FROM TRIESTE, a dark photoplay about a prostitute sent on a masquerade in the Tyrolean Alps, Crawford grabbed it, hoping to get her teeth into a meaty role. Imagine her chagrin when Metro executives "improved" the piece to be more suitable for Crawford's image, taking the meat and guts with it. What emerged was an uncomfortable picture built on compromises in an attempt to graft a typical Crawford/Cinderella plot onto what is basically a nasty, mean little story. Registering far below the Crawford usual at the paybox, THE BRIDE WORE RED started her career to skid.

A closer look, however, reveals that not all of the edge has been softened from the piece. I wholeheartedly agree with the reviewer who calls this Joan's most underrated performance, and there is a reason we do not sympathize with this Cinderella. Crawford's Anni is cold and snappish, and has the potential to do real harm to some nice, decent folk. The film plays like the dark side of all of those rags-to-Adrian gown stories Crawford played in the Metro phase of her career, and CRAWFORD IS FULLY AWARE OF THIS. Although seemingly played straight, there is an irony underneath that tells us Crawford herself isn't crazy about Anni either. It's understandable that 1937 audiences did not warm to a Joan they couldn't root for (even her hair is cut into a severe, but stunning, pageboy), but it deserves real recognition now that we are removed from the era and have seen ALL the phases of Crawford's career. In many ways, it's a harbinger of the darker, icier roles she was to play at Warner Bros. and throughout the 1950's.

The performances are uniformly good, with George Zucco strong as the decadent, evil Machiavelli who sends Anni on her masquerade, but Crawford, for the most part, is the standout. Only in the early scenes of the film, when she attempts to portray Anni as a world-weary honky tonk singer (in what must have been the cleanest, most glamorous "dive" in all of Trieste!!) does she fail to convince.

(Ironically, Crawford's next film, MANNEQUIN, released early in 1938 and co-starring Spencer Tracy, was a strictly paint by the numbers Rags-to-Adrian tale, inferior to this, that found great favor with the movie-going public.)

Victoria the Great (1937)

Some nice moments in dated biography

[10 September 2001]

I had long been anxious to see this famous British biography, and finally found a copy available. Featuring a renowned performance by Anna Neagle, one of Great Britain's most famed golden age actresses, as Queen Victoria, this film was a huge hit when released during Coronation Summer in 1937. Although not made with US audiences in mind, VICTORIA THE GREAT also hit big in the states and resulted in producer/director Herbert Wilcox and future wife Neagle making a lucrative deal to work at RKO studios. The Wilcox/Neagle RKO films never achieved the level of acclaim enjoyed by their pairings in the UK, and they returned home during the war to many years of success.

Telling the story of Victoria's courtship and marriage to Prince Albert, VICTORIA THE GREAT has a very dated and sometimes static feel to it when compared to Hollywood films of the same era. It does, however, contain some very nice moments between Neagle's Victoria and Anton Walbrook's Albert, and Victoria has never, to my knowledge, been portrayed with such humanity and tenderness (at least until MRS. BROWN.) Lavishly produced, and with a Diamond Jubilee finale in TECHNICOLOR (one has to assume the original dye transfer prints were much more impressive than the muddy quality of the videocassette I viewed)it's easy to see why this appealed to 1937 British audiences reeling from the glamor of George VI's coronation that June. So successful was this biopic that Wilcox and Neagle filmed and released a sequel the following year, 60 GLORIOUS YEARS, shot entirely in TECHNICOLOR.

While not nearly as technically slick as such Hollywood biopics as MARIE ANTOINETTE or THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA, this one is definitely worth a look for history lovers and royal watchers. It's also a chance to see Dame Anna Neagle in one of her most famous portrayals.

Becky Sharp (1935)

Glorious Technicolor Restored

[10 September 2001]

BECKY SHARP, historically important as the first feature film in full, three-color TECHNICOLOR, has always fascinated me. It's history, however, is frustrating and disappointing. Made by Pioneer Pictures and released through RKO, BECKY SHARP was sold to a poverty row exhibitor (whose name escapes me at the moment)in the 1940's for re-release. The company chose not to pay the high prices that TECHNICOLOR charged for release prints and had new prints of the film struck in inferior two strip CINECOLOR. More damaging to the future of BECKY was that the company never properly stored the original nitrate negatives. BECKY SHARP was sold to TV only in a shortened B&W print or in CINECOLOR reissue prints.

Still, the idea of this elusive "lost" treasure haunted me. It was amongst the very first videocassettes that I ever purchased back in the early days of the VCR when I was but a lad (and YES, I got strange looks.) BECKY SHARP was one of those poor, orphaned films whose copyrights have expired and now live in the public domain. The quality of the video cassette and the color was astonishingly bad, and gave no hint of the pleasures the original TECHNICOLOR photography must have contained.

A sad story to be sure, but fortunately UCLA performed a massive restoration effort on the film in the late 1980's, literally scouring the world for available film elements. Unfortunately, the restored BECKY SHARP has never been commercially released in any format. It was shown during AMC's first Film Preservation Festival back in 1993, however, and luckily I recorded it to cherish for all time (or at least until the tape wears out.) It has never aired since.

The restored BECKY SHARP is a revelation!! The film starts with barely any color at all, then pleasant pastels are introduced, followed eventually by the striking red coats of the British military. Full of color and deliciously over-ripe tints, this was primarily an experiment to see how color plays out in a feature film. The cast and drama takes a back-seat to the real star of the show, glorious TECHNICOLOR. The film itself is somewhat plodding and overplayed, but a lot of fun, to be sure!!

I'm not sure what legal red tape is responsible for there being no commercial release of this beautiful restoration, but none has appeared and this is a shame.

The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)

Easily Crawford's Worst "Golden Age" film

[2/10 · 1 September 2001]

Experts tell us that MGM had high hopes for this strange movie pastiche, but it's hard to believe that from the tired on-screen shenanigans. With Sonia Henie making millions for 20th Century Fox in her kitschy skating musicals, Metro imported (at no small cost) the famed International Ice Follies and paired them with Crawford, one of their top-ranked, but skidding, stars.

I still find it hard to fathom WHY Metro executives could ever have thought that this lumbering, tired film could serve any use in reversing Crawford's diminishing box-office drawing power. She, James Stewart, and Lew Ayres, seem to be walking through their roles in a most obvious case of movie-making by the numbers, with a plot that is nothing but insulting to its audience.

This is not to say that certain pleasures can't be found in the film, if you want to take the time to look. Joan is as beautiful as ever and the Ice Follies finale (in which Joan does NOT skate) looks great in Technicolor. Happily and ironically, it was this film's total failure that brought Crawford one of her best screen roles, that of Crystal Allen in George Cukor's THE WOMEN. Reckless and with a feeling of nothing to lose, Crawford went after that unsympathetic part with a vengeance, AGAINST the advice of LB Mayer, who said it would finish her (but then again, what did HE know.....he LIKED the idea of this one!!)Not nearly as interesting as either THE BRIDE WORE RED (1937) or THE SHINING HOUR (1938), Crawford's other box-office flops of the period, this one is strictly for Crawford or Stewart completists.

Queen of Destiny (1938)

Just a bit of trivia

[23 August 2001]

I envy the previous individual who had the opportunity of viewing this in the UK as, to my knowledge, it has never appeared on home video or been broadcast on American television in recent memory. One interesting fact that I found about this film is that, while all reference sources list the USA release title of this British film as QUEEN OF DESTINY, some research I was doing for something else turned up an interesting fact. This film premiered in the US at Radio City Music Hall (December 1938)under its original British title. Subsequent releases may have used the alternate, but it at least played in New York as Sixty Glorious Years.

Double Wedding (1937)

Not up to the stars' usual shine

[20 August 2001]

I have always found this movie more than a little strained and Powell and Loy not up to their usual shine. In fact, Myrna Loy's character seems downright unpleasant!! Much of this may have to do with the death of Powell's fiancee Jean Harlow during production. Myrna Loy, in her autobiography, states that she cannot bear to watch this movie because of the pain they all felt while making it. While the two do their professional best (and the uninformed would never guess that real tragedy was plaguing them) you are much better off watching Powell and Loy in one of their better works...ie The Thin Man Series, Libeled Lady,I Love You Again, etc. FYI: Powell developed colon cancer in the year following Harlow's tragic death and nearly died himself. He recovered and returned to active film work with 1939's Another Thin Man and proceeded to beat the odds and live another 40 years!!!