richardchatten Reviews

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

"Frankenstein, help me!"

[8/10 · 28 May 2024]

Because Hammer had made the tactical error of ending (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) their original Frankenstein movie with the Baron's creation dissolved in a vat of acid, not surprisingly Christopher Lee was unable to appear in the sequel, with the result that the emphasis thereafter had to be on the Baron himself.

It's unclear exactly as to what the title precisely refers unless it refers to the Baron getting his revenge on the authorities' base ingratitude in failing to genuflect to his genius and submitting him to the indignation of execution. His revenge therefore takes the form of continuing his work unabated in a plot that at that stage in the series continued to employ elements from the Universal films of the thirties in the Karloffian pathos Michael Gwynn brings to the Baron's unfortunate mistake, although Oscar Quitak as the hunchbacked assistant probably bears more resemblance to Donald Calthrop in 'The Man Who Changed His Mind' than to Dwight Frye.

Light Fantastic (1964)

Little White Lies

[8/10 · 27 May 2024]

Although Dolores McDougall receives top billing the central narrative turns upon the moral dilemma experienced by Barry Bartle as the partner in a racket offering dancing lessons to lonely middle-aged women (more than once we hear him informing his partner "You're my favourite pupil, you know...).

Set against the backdrop of a wintry looking New York and with a plaintive flute score by Joseph Liebman, there's lot of talk but most of it reasonably intelligent, the narrative hinging on the tension derived from the crisis of conscience suffered by this inscrutable chancer and his ability to continue stringing his latest mark along, since his affection for her has proved his Achilles heel.

Three Men in a Boat (1956)

Tales from the Riverbank

[5/10 · 27 May 2024]

The Victorian era seemed like the good old days in the 1950s, so the time was right for this glossy exercise in nostalgia. It has an agreeable score by John Addison and is surprisingly lavish with CinemaScope used to good effect when national treasures A. E. Matthews, Earnest Thesiger & Miles Malleson put in an appearance lined up across the screen.

Shirley Eaton, Lisa Gastoni & Jill Ireland are perhaps a bit too modern as the young gentlemen's lady loves and Lawrence Harvey as George seems seriously out of place amidst the general levity; his presence in the cast being accounted for by the influential friend he had in high places at Romulus Films.

A Distant Trumpet (1964)

"Welcome to Fort Delivery"

[8/10 · 27 May 2024]

President Kennedy is said to have requested a screening of Raoul Walsh's penultimate film 'Marines, Let's Go' to decide if he was appropriate to direct Warner Brothers' production 'PT-109' - depicting JFK's wartime experiences in the US navy - and upon seeing it promptly vetoed him.

Fortunately for posterity's sake Walsh's final film was a highly satisfactory return to the the western genre in which he had had half a century's experience, with a memorable score by Max Steiner; while the scene where the cavalrymen engage the Apaches shows that at 76 the old boy hadn't lost the ability to stage widescreen action with the same facility he had demonstrated over thirty years earlier on 'The Big Trail' in 1930.

(A PEDANT WRITES: Much is made of the fact that the Indian chief spoke in his native language with the help of subtitles, but not on any prints that I've ever seen; it must however be one of the earliest Hollywood movies to contain the word "hooker".)

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952)

"You must catch Robin Hood before you can hang him!"

[7/10 · 25 May 2024]

Having recently visited Britain to make a Technicolor version of 'Treasure Island' Uncle Walt returned to make a follow-up which boasted the distinction of being the first screen version of Robin Hood actually shot in the original Sherwood Forest; with interiors shot at Denham and matte work by Peter Ellenshaw, which for him marked the beginning of a long association with Disney.

Inevitably not in the same league as the versions starring Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn, Disney however prided the film on its greater fidelity to the original tales, while Peter Finch supplies his usual class as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Elton Hayes as Alan-a-Dale almost certainly inspired the minstrel in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and the sight of Joan Rice as Maid Marian in tights and pixie boots is alone reason enough to see it.

It Happened to Jane (1959)

That Jane from Maine

[9/10 · 25 May 2024]

Although it failed at the box office and is today largely forgotten, writing about Doris Day the late David Shipman described 'It Happened to Jane' as "a Capraesque comedy that was perhaps the best she made".

Coming between their respective hits 'Some Like It Hot' and 'Pillow Talk', few people are even aware that Jack Lemmon and Doris Day even made a film together, but here's the evidence, and they make a charming team; Lemmon as his usual bewildered guy in a suit, Day in jeans halfway between the earlier girl next door and the career woman she later became.

The result is a charming and mellow character piece shot in attractive Connecticut locations, with a bizarrely made up Ernie Kovacs to add vinegar to the recipe as The Man.

Devil and the Deep (1932)

Conduct Unbecoming

[9/10 · 24 May 2024]

Dressed to kill in a series of figure-hugging thirties gowns and seldom without a cigarette in her hand Tallulah Bankhead and preCode Paramount were positively made for each other. And while the 'Introducing' credit has long been a joke among viewers not for the first - or last - time this glorious piece of preCode hokum bears such a declaration that really counts for something; giving special billing to a moon-faced young stage actor named Charles Laughton who had just arrived in Hollywood to play the role of a latter-day William Bligh just as Bankhead was on the verge of packing her bags and leaving.

Despite playing Laughton's wife Bankhead omits to wear a wedding ring; a detail Joseph Breen would have been sure to have noticed just a couple of years later. Similarly when two different women both express a desire to spank Tallulah I'm sure she would have happily accommodated them.

Crash of Silence (1952)

"Yes, I'm one of them!"

[10/10 · 23 May 2024]

Remarkably this is only the eleventh review ever posted on the IMDb of this pioneering work on the subject of child psychology, representing both the apex of the Ealing drama and the directorial career of Alexander MacKendrick; which also continues writer Nigel Balchin's exploration of the role of the outsider aided by pellucid photography by Douglas Slocombe.

Once seen Mandy Miller (who you actually got to hear speak in 'The Man in the White Suit') is never forgotten; although the real tensions plainly reside in the tensions between the adults, which is probably in line with Ealing's equivocal view of the role of officialdom in general.

The Green Man (1956)

Hue and Cry at Windyridge

[8/10 · 22 May 2024]

Alistair Sim had one of his most memorable roles in this rollicking farce in which he played a professional man operating in an incongruous everyday milieu; the one fly in his ointment being George Cole, who demonstrates that he can wreak more havoc with a vacuum cleaner than Sims can with multifarious weaponry at his disposal.

Rather at odds with the general tone of levity one does feel sorry for poor Avril Angers, cruelly taken advantage of by Sims in a fashion that recalls Ruby Gates in the 'St Trinians' films; while the seamier side of the newly affluent society is demonstrated by Raymond Huntley as a Tory politician enjoying a dirty weekend.

The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957)

The Ghouls in School

[6/10 · 22 May 2024]

Now that billionaires are becoming increasingly obvious about their desire to live forever the search for the elixir of youth seems as topical now as its ever been.

As screenwriter Bernard Gordon was a casualty of the Hollywood blacklist it might not be too presumptuous to read an allegory into 'The Man Who Turned into Stone' for bloodthirsty capitalists exploiting innocent young working girls and state-sanctioned abuse of psychiatry.

Students may think that a generation gap divides them from their elders, but that Victor Jory and his ghoulish confederates wear wing collars is a bit of a giveaway; while Ann Doran as a bluestocking with her hair tied in a bun is a worthy antecedent of Alida Valli in 'Eyes without a Face'

Lifeforce (1985)

In the Days of the Comet

[7/10 · 21 May 2024]

As part of their master plan to demonstrate themselves a force to be reckoned in the British film business during the eighties one of the up & coming directors Cannon brought under their wing was Tobe Hooper on this deliriously Big Dumb Movie on which they lavished spectacular special effects by John Dykstra, glossy photography by Alan Hume and an energetic score by Henry Mancini. (A slinky-eyed young actress called Elizabeth Morton - who met author Colin Wilson on the set during filming and dismissed him as "a schoolboy" - initially shows promise as one of the astronauts but sadly most of her part was lost in the final cut.)

The story by Dan O'Bannon at first resembles a glossy retread of 'Alien' but as it progresses the Freudian aspect and visceral imagery soon recall David Cronenberg and Nigel Kneale. Occasional slivers of wit include Peter Firth muttering "I know I don't!" when a sentry advises him "You don't want to go in there sir!", while it was probably O'Bannon who had the bright idea of calling the character played by Frank Finlay 'Hans Fallada'.

The Professionals (1966)

"I Need Guns and Bullets, As Usual...!"

[7/10 · 21 May 2024]

Despite its uncharacteristically glossy photography by Conrad Hall, 'The Professionals' is an early manifestation of the trend towards rowdiness that entered them western genre attributable to the influence of Sergio Leone; well exemplified by the initial appearance by Burt Lancaster in long underwear.

Like 'The Wild Bunch' ''The Professionals' is set at a later date than most westerns, both being located in Mexico after the revolution; also like 'The Wild Buch' Robert Ryan is in the cast, and in one of the gruff roles that were characteristic of his later years Ralph Bellamy plays Mr Big as Albert Dekker does in Peckinpah's film.

The presence of Claudia Cardinale also anticipates Leone while it gains a further continental sophistication from the score by Maurice Jarre.

The Vagabond Queen (1929)

"Bolony for the Bolonians"

[6/10 · 19 May 2024]

The opening credits of 'The Vagabond Queen' betokens both the slipshod and the accomplished: the former by the misspelling of the director's name (which would be apt for one of the characters), the latter by the name of Oscar-winning Hollywood cameraman Charles Rosher.

This British retread of 'The Prisoner of Zenda' builds its narrative around the tiny but substantial frame of Betty Balfour (adorned at one point by a chic trouser suit), backed by an unusual supporting cast including one of only two film roles for the eminent stage actor Glenn Byam Shaw (the other being as Mary Ure's father in 'Look Back in Anger') as a rather passive leading man (the initial plot device that he's an inventor working on an experimental television transmitter rather surprisingly soon abandoned), Ernest Thesiger wearing at least three top hats - judging from the amount of punishment they take - a wing collar and a frock coat; while Harry Terry as the pretender to the throne provides an ugly face that reached its apogee ten years later in the title role of 'The Face at the Window'.

A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923)

A Drama of Fate

[7/10 · 18 May 2024]

A melodrama rather than the saucy Parisian comedy the title and the name of Charles Chaplin suggests. Promptly withdrawn by its creator, 'A Woman of Paris' was for over half a century one of those films whose reputation was based upon it's unavailability for reappraisal and like many of Chaplin's later films was to prove a disappointment when it was finally revived in the 1970s.

Both the plot and the wardrobe worn by Chaplin's leading lady Edna Purviance evokes the era of Chaplin's fellow United Artist D. W. Griffith rather than the continental sophistication suggested by the title, while the presence of Adolphe Menjou happily anticipates the nascent sophistication of the twenties.

Filth (I) (2013)

"Merry Christmas, Mr Bruce!"

[8/10 · 16 May 2024]

If there were an Oscar awarded for overacting it surely would go to the big hair here sported by Shirley Henderson, although with a supporting cast including John Sessions and Jim Broadbent you hardly expect method acting in this cartoonish successor to Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting' which certainly provides enough to offend everybody, starting with the Edinburgh tourism board.

After only twenty years the racial epithet employed by John Sessions as James McAvoy's would already warrant a disclaimer, while it's depiction of McAvoy as a copper wenching, boozing, snorting cocaine and accepting backhanders doesn't do too much for the image of the upholders of the law.

Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

"Let the other guy die for his country, you stay alive for your's!"

[7/10 · 15 May 2024]

The newspaper editor in the final scene of 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' famously declared 'print the legend'. For many years Hollywood tenaciously repeated the legend that the Second World War had been won by non-combatants Errol Flynn and John Wayne; while neither Audie Murphy or Neville Brand who genuinely came back with chests full of medals really looked the part. So for years afterwards no war film with aspirations to status felt complete without Wayne's presence.

Although the film is pretty conventional Wayne is extremely good and received his first Oscar nomination; but Victor Young's score is as usual too noisy.

Wicked as They Come (1956)

"Girls like me don't get proposals, just propositions..."

[8/10 · 12 May 2024]

This priceless British copy of an American crime film comes to you courtesy of rising young director Ken Hughes with a tongue-in-cheek tone set from the outset by shots of fifties London accompanied by a noisy jazz score provided by Malcolm Arnold, with noirish photography by Basil Emmott.

Set in the days when travel by plane was considered the high of glamour, the presence of Sid James as Arlene Dahl's stepfather serves as a visual reminder of Miss Dahl's humble beginnings (early on she's seen wielding a broken bottle) before she rises in the world while wreaking havoc on all the men in the cast,

Holiday's with Pay (1948)

Frankie Goes to Blackpool

[3/10 · 12 May 2024]

Tessie O'Shea provided Frank Randle with an amply proportioned partner in this postwar outing that demonstrates evidence of ambition on the part of Manchurian Films through its duration and a budget that permitted Randle at least five different hats, including a flying helmet for when he takes the wheel of the family car.

While the subtlety of the gags recalls the silent cinema - complete with a conclusion (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) set in a haunted house - that impression is soon dispelled by the sheer quantity of talk along with the fortifies big hair worn by the women and the enormous shoulders on their coats.

Although the action seldom leaves the studio, archival interest derives from contemporary footage of the actual Blackpool and a rare screen appearance by Irish tenor Joseph Locke. One question remains: how did a grotesque pair like Randle and O'Shea produce two such personable daughters?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

"Have a nice day!"

[8/10 · 11 May 2024]

Fifties and sixties teenage rebellion having by now remorselessly plunged into simple hedonism John Hughes' sequence of films celebrating eighties acquisitiveness continued apace with the latest in his series of exercises in which the excesses of the era are by now synonymous with blatant product placement throughout done in the style of a comic strip in bright dayglo colours.

Bueller's lack of respect for authority shows in the way he cheerfully ignores the Fourth Wall throughout as he invites us to admire his anarchic activities; while Jeffrey Wright as Bueller's hapless principal is easily the funniest thing in it.

Cowboy (1958)

Saddle Sore Jack

[7/10 · 6 May 2024]

Jack Lemmon's second dramatic role and his only western was this bowdlerised version of Frank Harris' unreliable memoirs 'My Life Out West' which represented a further step in the move by Delmer Daves - a director incapable of making a dull film - from rugged outdoor fare to romantic melodramas when he took Lemmon out of his accustomed urban environment and teamed him with Glenn Ford; who later the same year himself made a memorable venture into comedy with 'The Sheepman'.

As might be expected much of the humour derives from Lemmon looking incongruous in a stetson, while in a supporting role Brian Donlevy is permitted rather more depth than usual.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Straight to Hell

[8/10 · 5 May 2024]

Despite the title the subject is really the impact on Tilda Swindon as a mother obliged to come to terms with (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) the sociopathic depravity of her first-born (chillingly played by Ezra Miller), a problem liable only to increase as we move further into the 21st Century.

Considering that 'We Need to Talk About Nigel' begins with Tilda Swinton dreaming that she's undergoing crucifixion, things at first seem they can only get better, but when she wakes up things get even worse as she experiences every woman's nightmare that she might have spawned a bad seed in this fancifully organised, highly-coloured adaptation of Lionel Shriver's bestselling novel depicting every mother's nightmare.

Invasion (1966)

"They still have prisoners...!"

[7/10 · 4 May 2024]

Described by Denis Gifford as "cheap but intelligent" and quite a departure for Merton Park, which although for a long time considered of interest merely as a promising early film by director Alan Bridges now enjoys a respectable reputation of its own as an atmospheric piece of science fiction in its own right in which James Wilson does a fine job depicting a hospital sweltering through a night shift experiencing an unseasonable heatwave ably assisted by an excellent score by Bernard Ebbinghouse.

Despite such pulp elements as female aliens in beehives & rubber suits (more prominently displayed in the posters than in the film itself), under the stewardship of Jack Greenwood - who had already provided Joseph Losey with the opportunity to demonstrate nascent potential with 'The Criminal' - 'Invasion' demonstrates the contribution that can be made by the influence of a specific producer; you only need compare this with the glossier but trashier 'Konga', also made at Merton Park but with the grubby fingermarks of Herman Cohen all over it.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)

Lara: the Sequel

[6/10 · 1 May 2024]

While not usually given to bothering with sequels, 'Lara Croft: the Cradle of Life' shares with 'Night in the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian' the singular distinction of being more fun than the original.

It mercifully doesn't take itself too seriously and at less than two hours compared with much of its ilk seems a model of brevity. But what places it head and shoulders over the competition is that it bucks the trend by for once providing a substantial role for a woman and represents an extremely rare occasion when the outfit the heroine wears in the movie actually improves upon the original.

Mackenna's Gold (1969)

The Valley of Gold

[8/10 · 30 April 2024]

A strange film on which to find Dimitri Tiomkin's name as producer, especially as the music itself was by Quincey Jones. The credits proudly declare this 'Carl Foreman' MacKenna's Gold'; but it would be more apt to call that a confession since despite frequently spectacular location work by Joseph MacDonald much of the dialogue is plainly staged on studio sets and some of the special effects work is absolutely atrocious.

This star-studded, kill-happy attempt by J. Lee Thompson to emulate a spaghetti western features an extraordinary cast ranging from Gregory Peck to Edward G. Robinson, Omar Shariff and Keenan Wynn as Mexican bandits wearing sombreros as wide as their grins, Telly Savalas strangely cast as a cavalry commander, while Raymond Massey quotes the bible as a religious zealot.

As the heroine Camilla Sparv wears the usual anachronistically tight britches; while Julie Newmar's return to the western genre fifteen years after 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' as an Indian squaw (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) seen skinny-dipping provides some compensation for this film being responsible for her unavailability to appear in Season Three of 'Batman'.

Ride Lonesome (1959)

A Bounty for Billy

[8/10 · 28 April 2024]

A late entry in Budd Boetticher' series of westerns for Ranown that demonstrated the ability to stage an intimate, character-driven drama in the wide open spaces even when shot in widescreen and colour.

Randolph Scott's career as a morally ambiguous hero was nearing its conclusion when his path crossed that of an up & coming Pernell Roberts and James Coburn, bearing their teeth as a pair of leering bad boys.

Karen Steele as the resident female as usual has an unsettling effect on the men, while in retrospect the most quirky piece of casting is probably James Best, best known these days as the trigger happy sheriff in 'The Dukes of Hazzard', but here cast as Scott's bounty.