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waldog2006
Reviews
Exposed (2016)
Underrated and unusual movie
There seems to be very little love for this movie. I'm one of those who's glad I went in knowing nothing about it. I'm neither a fan nor a detractor of Keanu Reeves. I've seen a few of his movies, and I've yet to see him give a bad performance. He's a subtle actor who doesn't ever grandstand. The other lead in this movie, Ana de Armas, is a revelation. But what kept me watching was the superb cinematography by Trevor Forrest. I was expecting to see a B-movie - instead, I saw a polished work of film art. So, it's odd to read that this is the re-edit disowned by the director. Since the end of the movie came as a real surprise to me, if the original cut is ever released, it won't have the same impact, unfortunately. It's easy to ridicule a film like this because it takes so many chances. It's not perfect, by any means, and the story of one character, at least, is rather unresolved. I've seen about four thousand films in the past ten or eleven years, so I'm quite picky because jaded by seeing the same old formulaic dross trotted out again and again. But I live in hope! This is not dross. This is good cinema. See it!
The Hanged Man (1964)
Pointless remake of Ride the Pink Horse
Watching this film on a poor-picture YouTube download is not ideal, admittedly, but it is also bogged down by a near-lethargic performance from Robert Culp, an ineffective location change from Mexico to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, leaden dialogue, funereal pacing, and the writing out of the major Thomas Gomez character from the original to be replaced by a fairly pointless performance by J Carrol Naish. Hard to believe this was directed by Don Siegel but it fails to rise above 1960s TV-movie status. Edmond O'Brien tries to bring some life to the proceedings - his corrupt Hoffa-like character is the most likable player. Norman Fell also shines, and Vera Miles tries her best with the little the script gives her to do. Noir fans should stick to the original, which is a classic. For Don Siegel completists only.
Guilty of Treason (1950)
The Russians have a new weapon: they will bore you to death!
This film aptly portrays how the Russians and Americans tried to bore each other to death during the cold war.Unfortunately, this kind of anti-Russian propaganda is almost impossible to sit through. If you're not fond of Catholic priests, avoid like the plague. Even if you are, Charles Bickford's portrayal of a Hungarian man of God's refusal to toe the Kremlin line is bordering on the catatonic, as if they had already hypnotised him into submission before filming began; you'd have to be hypnotised to agree to filming a script this stodgy, this talky, where almost every dramatic opportunity is botched.Paul Kelly and Bonita Granville try to bring some life into it, but only Roland Winters, as the evil ever-smiling manipulator, seems to be having any fun. Recommend it to people you don't like.
The Liability (2012)
We don't need any more movies like this
There's way too much love for this movie on IMDb though I can't help noticing that most major reviewers haven't bothered writing about it. And they're right not to. This is derivative rubbish with underwritten characters, and plotting that doesn't pass muster even if it tries to get by as a black comedy. Tim Roth's character has to be the least interesting assassin on celluloid (or whatever they're using these days): "I haven't killed a woman since 1983." How endearing. Jack O'Connell's character is a moron with sadistic impulses: "Was 'cos I fancied her, that's why I couldn't do it." Presumably, he can only kill women he doesn't fancy. Another charmer. Peter Mullen gets to act nasty with a Scottish accent and use the c-word a lot. Stephanie Beacham lookalike Kierston Wareing is wasted as Mullen's wife. There are no interesting villains, and the only person to root for is on screen for the least amount of time. Each scene is at least twice as long as it needs to be, and the visuals don't make up for the lack of dialogue. I'd rather be eighty-sixed than sit through these 86 minutes again.
Meet Mr. Malcolm (1954)
Don't bother meeting Mr Malcolm
While it's commendable of those wonderful people at Odeon Entertainment Group to revive these British B-movies in such pristine editions there should be some critical yardstick to determine that not just any-old-rope gets plonked onto what appears an exciting double bill, at least on the face of it.This is paired with I'm a Stranger, also made at Viking Studios in Kensington before it became a TV studio. Watching these films is akin to listening to the radio, only it happens to be filmed, mainly on the one set - a not very exciting house - and a bit of greenery. Usually reliable actors, such as Nigel Green, are wasted in stock rustic-cop roles. There's a couple who seem to be breaking up but are still in love with each other; the murder of people we don't care about; and lots of talk talk talk but little humour or excitement. It's only 65 minutes but feels like much longer. This is exactly the kind of fodder that gives British cinema of that period a bad name. I'm a Stranger has Greta Gynt playing herself, laughably delaying an important meeting with a Hollywood producer who has offered her £250,000 (in 1952 money) in order to stay in a house to find out who will inherit from a missing will, and has practically nothing to do for two thirds of the film except sit there trying to look interested. James Hayter livens things up in the first twenty minutes, and the 'slithery' Charles Lloyd Pack takes up the slack, if you'll pardon the rhyme, for the rest of the film, but it's still far from rewarding. Even die-hard Brit movie buffs will be hard put to sit through this pair of turkeys.
Out of the Fog (1962)
Under-rated gem
Under-rated, unpretentious B-movie that keeps you guessing till the end. David Sumner's 'surly' and unlikeable lead grows on you once you realise that he never lets up; and the ending doesn't let you down. An uncompromising gem. Made on the cheap, for sure - they even stint on the fog - and Montgomery Tully was a hit-and-miss director at best, but this film is about ten years ahead of its time and still has a kind of individualism that weathers the fifty-or-so years that have elapsed since then rather well. From prison to a halfway house to eventual employment to a tentative relationship with a woman who ditches our 'hero' as soon as she finds out about his criminal past ...and then a trap is set, for he is under constant suspicion. This is one of those stories where much of the 'important' stuff -the killings, the planning of a heist- happens off-screen. And it's all the better for it.
Pit of Darkness (1961)
Fairly inept amnesia noir
Amnesia is a staple of film noir and has been dealt with memorably, if you'll pardon the pun, in dozens of films such as Street of Chance (1942), Somewhere in the Night (1946), Home at Seven (1952) and Spellbound (1945). More recently, Colin Farrell lost his memory in Total Recall (2012) which some will no doubt label as a techno-noir. This film, however, is easily forgotten. Lance Comfort was a prolific director. Looking at the list of films I've seen this year I come across Tomorrow at Ten (1962), Bedelia (1946), Hatter's Castle (1941,) Breaking Point (1961), The Painted Smile (1962), Rag Doll(1962), and Hotel Reserve (1944), all directed by Comfort, and all superior to this absurdly plotted, oddly photographed (there are several pointless, lingering close-ups of William Franklyn, Bruno Barnabe, Nanette Newman et al) and poorly acted (especially by Franklyn, who gives underacting a bad name) programmer that would have been more effective at the 50-60 minutes mark rather the thrill-less 77 I sat through. Still, this time tomorrow I won't remember a thing about this dud.
Ricochet (1963)
Implausibly plotted blackmail thriller
This is one of the Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre films that qualifies as a noir in Michael F Keaney's British FILM NOIR GUIDE. He rates it a generous two-and-a-half stars out of five. It is well-made within its limited budget: James Wilson's cinematography is top-notch, especially making atmospheric use of an ice skating rink and snow-covered landscapes, and all the actors - Maxine Audley as the blackmailed and manipulated wife; Richard Leech as the duplicitous husband; Alex Scott as the partner-in-crime; Dudley Foster as the fly in the husband's ointment; and Patrick Magee as the less-than-sympathetic inspector - give good performances, but the script is a real clinker. How the husband, who is supposed to be a solicitor, could hatch a plan with so many things that could go wrong, and that anybody should go along with it, simply beggars belief. And even if you buy the implausible plotting at the beginning of the film, the end is even more ridiculous. Shame, because this had a lot going for it. Fans of the genre, however, should not be put off by my low rating.
Man on the Run (1949)
Solid Brit noir
Although I saw this on a very poor DVD transfer it held my attention from beginning to end. Yes, as other reviewers have pointed out, there's nothing new here, but it's expertly done, and it's interesting to know that there were apparently 20,000 deserters on the run in the UK in 1949, and one imagines that many of them were as hard-done-by as our hero, but I won't spoil anything by revealing why he deserted. The film is certainly sympathetic to those 20,000 men who get the blame, by several representative members of the cast, for everything that's wrong with post-war Britain. Derek Farr is excellent in the main role as the deserter who has to raise some money when Kenneth More, who had served in the same outfit, happens into the pub where he's working under an alias and decides to blackmail him. While he's trying to pawn a gun the pawnshop is robbed and a policeman killed making him one of the suspects. Joan Hopkins is the sympathetic woman who helps him. Edward Chapman is the inspector investigating the case with ever-increasing impatience. Laurence Harvey, although billed fourth, has little to do as a sergeant with a soft spot for Hopkins. Plenty of noir atmosphere. Recommended.
No abras nunca esa puerta (1952)
Argentinian noir based on two Cornell Woolrich stories
Eddie Muller, noir novelist (The Distance; Shadow Boxer) and President of the Film Noir Foundation, brought this film to my attention in an interview he gave to Despina Veneti which was republished in Noir City Volume 6, Number 2. He called the film 'a terrific adaptation of two Cornell Woolrich stories'. It's certainly a surprise to see that this kind of noir fare was being made in Argentina in 1952. This film never had a release in the UK, and is not available on DVD here. But it can be seen on YouTube, albeit in Argentinian Spanish without subtitles,(fortunately, I'm bilingual), with terrible sound, and not the best picture. The visuals alone, however, are worth it. This is pure noir cinematography. The second story, in fact, has a blind protagonist who can distinguish night from day because "it's a different kind of shadow". The actors resemble Hollywood players of the era (one of the baddies must have been Argentina's answer to George Raft); the women are beautiful, the men are desperate, and the shadows are waiting...Well-written, well-acted, well-shot, well-paced, well...watch it!
Act of Murder (1964)
British film noir from the Edgar Wallace Mystery Theater
This is one of the 369 films included in Micheal F Keaney's excellent British Film Noir Guide. He gives it three stars out of five. Originally made as theatrical B features, the Edgar Wallace titles, forty-seven in all, were sold as an anthology series to TV. If, like me, you were born in 1961 or thereabouts , they were a familiar late night treat back in pre-video days when there were only three channels. Not all of them, according to Keaney, qualify as noir. This one certainly does. John Carson plays the spurned lover of Justine Lord (who is given many close-ups by James Wilson's excellent camera) while Anthony Bate plays the justifiably wary husband. The plot is unusual, and the tension mounts, as Carson plays a dangerous psychological game. Twenty minutes in (the entire film is 62 minutes) you might think you know where this is going but the plot takes some interesting turns. Fans of British noir will enjoy it.
City Across the River (1949)
By-the-numbers juvenile delinquency
Dreary by-the-numbers juvenile delinquency with opening narration that sets the tone for sledgehammer righteousness. Peter Fernandez is never even remotely likable in the main role, and his cohorts are like overgrown Dead End Kids without the energy. The humour, such as it is, is provided by an over-acting Joshua Shelley who plays a knife-wielding member of the Dukes gang. Tony Curtis completists will be disappointed since he has so little to do. Thelma Ritter also has few lines as the over-worked, ever-suffering mother. The only thing that saves this from total turkeydom is the cinematography, by Maury Gertsman, which is noir-styled in on-location Brooklyn. Imagine a 90-minute episode of Dragnet with the thinnest characterisation for the police. When these twenty-something teenagers cry, you just want to give them a good slap and then lock them up for wasting precious movie time.
A Girl Must Live (1939)
Stage Door with More Laughs and Less Melodrama
Anyone who has seen Gregory LaCava's 'Stage Door' will be familiar with the 'aspiring-actresses/chorus-girls-living-in-a-boarding-house-and- competing-for-the-attentions-of-rich-men' theme that is also presented here. I came to this because it was a Margaret Lockwood film I hadn't seen, but it was full of welcome surprises: Carol Reed directed at a fast lick that has been compared to Preston Sturges,the musical numbers wouldn't have been out of place in 'The Boyfriend', Lilli Palmer is a comic-erotic revelation, the laughs come thick and fast with perfect timing,racy dialogue that somehow evaded the censor, and plotting that has a neo-Wodehousian symmetry. Of course, you have to like this kind of thing in the first place, but this is one of those unsung British films of the 30s that need to be restored to their full glory and given a commentary to boot. "What's for lunch?" "Well, it was 'ot pot. Now it's just pot."
The St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959)
Worthwhile noir caper
This is like one of Donald Westlake's early Parker novels, without Parker. Steve McQueen plays a young man falling in with a gang of bank robbers through the brother of his ex-girlfriend (David Clarke as Gino -excellent; Molly McCarthy as Ann - adequate). The robbery is planned in detail, which is interesting and has the feel of Asphalt Jungle, while personal resentments seethe as the misogynist gang leader (Crahan Denton as Egan - unforgettable) seeks to replace Willie (James Dukas), his right-hand man/lover who is going to seed, with the young and good-looking McQueen. The film is bleak as can be, and deliberately paced, but Victor Duncan's arresting on-location cinematography is reminiscent of Odds Against Tomorrow, the sound (supervised by Edward Johnson) is naturalistic, and the music moody without resorting to saxophones. What could have been a fine piece of noir art is let down only by McQueen's James Dean histrionics in the final ten minutes. Fans of noir shouldn't miss it.
Crime Spree (2003)
The best Dortmunder movie Westlake never wrote
I picked this up in Poundland expecting very little except that the word 'crime' in the title got my attention, and I'll watch any type of heist film. It was past one in the morning when I saw it, and I considered going to bed instead, then, after watching the first few scenes of the 95m movie (it said 84m on the box) I thought I'd watch half of it today and the other half tomorrow but it kept me watching till the end, occasionally laughing out loud. Comedy caper films nearly always fail. The Italian Job is over-rated. Don't even get me started on public-school- educated Guy Ritchie's films. But any fan of Donald Westlake's Dortmunder books, in which a hapless crime planner is saddled with a team of non-starters and has to extricate himself from increasing complications, will see that this is the best Dortmunder movie the late Westlake never wrote. The only successful Dortmunder adaptation was How to Steal a Diamond in Four Uneasy Lessons (also known as The Hot Rock). All the others failed to a lesser or greater extent. Despite the predominantly French tone, and the minimal characterisation of Depardieu's character (Dortmunder is usually silent, unless complaining, anyway) this is what a Dortmunder adaptation should be, even though it isn't. Not a great movie, by any means, with too many respectful nods to Tarantino (surely the greater influence here, and not Ritchie?) but a very watchable one that keeps you wanting to know what happens next. Wayne Newton's (yes, that's a man singing) 'Danke Schoen' is used to great effect.
L'arnacoeur (2010)
So slick it's sick
I'm a fan of romcoms. I've recently sat through Killers, The Ugly Truth, All About Steve, It's Complicated, Bounty Hunters and Love Happens; none of these films made me squirm; even the most boring didn't have me looking at my watch long before the end. But this one has two leads who should be cast as the annoying couple about to get their comeuppance in the kind of commercial that's so clever you can never remember what they're advertising. Vanessa Paradis looks like death warmed up, and the eponymous 'heartbreaker', Romain Duris, only serves to remind us that they don't make them like Delon or Belmondo any more. If you like early George Michael, and Dirty Dancing, and so-called comedies that don 't make sense but manage to tick all the boxes along the way, you might like this. It's a cynical exercise in audience manipulation that will probably be remade for American audiences before long, though it's already so Americanised and Anglicised, one wonders what the point would be except to draw in those who can't read subtitles. As for the plot, see The Bride Came COD, and add a lot of gadgetry. In fact, see just about anything else.
The Long Haul (1957)
Underrated British Noir
I've just seen the 88m version of this film on a 'Hollywood Movie Greats' video and feel compelled to add my opinion because I feel the other reviews don't do this film justice. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia of the Gangster Film (edited by Phil Hardy, 1998) calls it an 'impressive...tough, exciting movie that, for its time, is remarkably full of nasty and sleazy characters...' They go on to mention the uniformly good performances including Diana Dors who is 'excellent'. In fact, if you're a fan of noir, Diana Dors, and Victor Mature, this is a triple whammy. Dors is lovingly lit throughout, weather with gleaming blonde hair giving her an almost angelic allure when Mature first realises he's a goner as he looks at her, or whether weeping in the shadows of a car's backseat; by the final scene only the truly cynical will be left unmoved by her performance. Okay, there's nothing particularly new or genre-bending in the script, but the relationships,whether amatory, or detailing the struggle of a fundamentally honest man trying not to succumb to the corruption of the low-lifes surrounding him, are more than adequately depicted. Perhaps the longer version has some slack; many films are improved by trimming. Well-written, well-shot, well-acted, well - what more do you want?
They Made Me a Killer (1946)
Forgotten Noir Is Memorable
Satisfying noir B-feature that does everything it needs to do in little more than an hour. The screenwriter billed here as Geoffrey Homes (Daniel Mainwaring) was the screenwriter and original novelist of Build My Gallows High/Out of the Past, and also wrote The Big Steal and Baby Face Nelson among others. The dialogue is clipped and menacing ("We'll bump him on the way," one of the heavies says casually) and the often claustrophobic spaces are used to good effect. Robert Lowery, who played Batman in the 1948 movie serial, has the right air of the doomed noir hero initially caught between the hard-bitten gangster's moll and femme fatale, Betty, (portrayed perfectly by Lola Lane,) and the innocent and beautiful schoolteacher, June (Barbara Britton), who eventually decides to help him prove his innocence after he is unwittingly embroiled in a bank robbery which leaves two dead. The cast is uniformly good, and the tension never lets up. The DVD I saw was in very poor condition; I hope someone will set about restoring this film to its full glory. As Lem Dobbs said on the commentary to Double Indemnity: "There's no such thing as a bad film noir." This low-budget gem proves him right.
20.000 dollari sul 7 (1967)
Easy to forgetti this spaghetti western
As a second unit or assistant director, Alberto Cardone (here billed as Albert Cardiff) worked on Ben Hur, Barbarella, Summertime and Carmen among others; as director he is responsible for several 'Dollar' westerns attempting to cash in, if you'll pardon the pun, on Leone's success.The title sounds expensive but it's probably more than was spent on this spaghetti western which spares every expense but achieves a kind of style through its very sparseness; unfortunately, this pared-down approach is also applied to the story which is the most basic of revenge plots. The beautiful Aurora Batista (often in Leone-like close-ups)is wasted since she is given almost no lines to deliver in the few scenes in which she appears. There's a great deal of far-fetched tricksy shooting, and equally unbelievable fistfights. There are, however, a couple of inventive 'guns' on display, and the symbolism of clocks with no hands probably means something, though I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Great music, though, conducted by Cipriani. Recommended only for die-hard fans/completists of Italian westerns.
The Amazing Mr. Williams (1939)
Overlooked screwball comedy
Melvyn Douglas once more gives a polished performance in which, this time, he inhabits the role of a detective who can't place love before duty and adventure, and the warmly beautiful Joan Blondell (who, far from being illiterate, as one reviewer suggested, wrote a novel about her early life) is as enjoyable as ever as his ever-suffering sweetheart.It's almost a screwball comedy, almost a Thin Man-type movie, almost a series, I guess, that didn't quite make it to a sequel. It doesn't quite reach classic status, but it has all the ingredients for a fun 85 minutes with an episodic but pacey script, fine character actors, and direction that keeps it all moving fast enough so that you nearly don't notice that Williams (Douglas) isn't exactly Columbo when it comes to detecting. I wish there were more films like this.
Dead Man Running (2009)
Fast-paced London noir
I didn't know what to expect from this film except that the poster made it look like an honest-to-goodness thriller that could've been made any time in the past 40 years, and that appealed to me. In the event, it's a well-played noir mostly set in London (though you get no real sense of the city, and it's a shame they had to show Big Ben) in which Nick (engagingly played by Tamer Hassan) has 24 hours to find £100,000 or he, and his mother (as always, a superb performance from Brenda Blethyn) will be 'buried in a shallow grave'. Well-paced, with a reasonable twist, it's only a shame that most of the dialogue is quite lame, and everything has a second-hand feel, but that's deliberate, I feel, and we need more movies like this that have a heart of noir while only seeking to entertain. The audience I saw it with, in Wandsworth, were thoroughly entertained.
Un posto ideale per uccidere (1971)
Tedious gialli sexploitation
This is one of those films that plays out exactly as you might expect, almost by-the-numbers. A young couple get arrested for selling 'dirty pictures' (one of the titles for this release) although the pictures sometimes show nothing more than Ornella Muti naked in a photo-me-booth. They end up in the mansion of a rich lady (Irene Pappas giving a performance less lively than some of the furniture and obviously wishing she were elsewhere) because they run out of gasoline, and when she finds them in her garage syphoning off some fuel she realises she has a use for them. Anybody who doesn't realise what she is up to in about five minutes could only have seen ten movies in their lifetime. It plays out like an old episode of the TV show 'Thriller' with some nudity added (though Pappas obviously has a body double) and some hippy/flower-power shtick thrown in replete with cheesy music which is probably the best thing in this predictable yawn of a movie. Only of interest to Ornella Muti fans if they're not above barely-legal leering.
La morte cammina con i tacchi alti (1971)
Second-rate 'gialli' set mainly in London and Scotland
Death walks very slowly in high heels in this badly subtitled ("Have you got something on your head, Inspector?" for "What's on your mind..." etc)'gialli' which makes the odd decision to use heavily Italian-looking actors to play English characters. The music, and the on-location settings, are the most interesting things. Otherwise, this is a souped-up Agatha Christie-style whodunit with stolen jewels, the usual red herrings, a not-very-smart Inspector Plod with an even less smart PC Plod, and a supposedly sexy leading lady who blacks up for one of her stripteases. There is no sense of pacing or directorial flair. I thought it would never end. Plenty of bright red ketchup, though. Nice ice, too (if you make it that far). For die-hard 'gialli' fans only.
The Adventurous Blonde (1937)
Fast-talking murder mystery
This is the Poverty Row take on films like The Front Page/His Girl Friday, one of a series with perky Glenda Farrell playing a reporter called Torchy Blane. In this one she gets herself involved in the solving of a murder mystery: who strangled the matinée idol? Like The Front Page, there's a running gag about a postponed wedding. There are several nifty one-liners, too, and actors run in and out of scenes so fast that it's easy to forgive the implausibility of the plot, and to forget that this is all talk. It's nice to see Barton MacLane in a lead role for a change, and the supporting cast, especially character actors such as Frank Shannon, Jimmy Conlin, George Guhl and Houseley Stevenson, are worth the price of admission alone. Hardly a comedy masterpiece but there are worse ways to while away an hour. This is the second in the Torchy Blane series.