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Reviews
Hellzapoppin' (1941)
Extremely Funny . . . For 1941 Audiences, But It's Bones Have Been Too Often Picked Over By Subsequent Vultures
"Hellzapoppin'" is a fast-paced, hilarious movie, for 1941. Unfortunately, the novelty has faded with time as the show's best bits have been repeatedly plagiarized by subsequent movies and TV.
The plot is difficult to explain. Popular Broadway comics Olsen and Johnson are trying to cobble together a movie written by Elisha Cook, Jr. (playing a very different role from his most famous part, the "gunsel" from "The Maltese Falcon" that same year).
The plot concerns a play-within-a-play put on at a fancy house party. It has two major love stories, one quite dull between ordinary people and the more rewarding love story between Martha Raye and Mischa Auer, who has a meaty part of an exiled Russian nobleman on the make pretending he's a con man.
Forget the plot. What makes the movie is the subversive undermining of motion picture conventions. These days it would be called a branch of metafiction but back then it was just funny. Olson and Johnson weren't trying for anything deep or academically nameable, they were trying to be funny, and they succeeded.
But be prepared to find many of the jokes have been recycled over the more than 80 years since the movie's release. There's still lots of craziness to take you by surprise (including a very funny bit on an archery range).
Most of the actors, including Olsen and Johnson themselves (who act more as a Greek chorus than a vital part of the plot, such as it is) have slipped the memory of Time, but look for Shemp Howard in a small but vital role.
The Taming of the Shrew (1980)
The best ever of the shrews
"The Taming of the Shrew" is possibly Shakespeare's least understood play. This is because its framing sequence is almost always left out. With the framing sequence it's a play within a play. Without that vital framing sequence, it can look like a cruel knock about farce.
The story: several suitors vie for the hand of the lovely Bianca, but her father insists his vile-tempered elder daughter, Kate, be married first. They persuase a stranger in town, Petruchio, to marry Kate, and Petruchio tries to soften her temper. But does he go too far?
Director Jonathan Miller brings a lot of understanding to the characters, giving them a depth and compassion not often seen, while remaining true to the text (though he, too, unfortimayely omits the framing sequence). Unlike his "Mikado," which showed a thorough misunderstanding of the piece ("The Mikado" was a satire on Victirian Great Britain in Japanese clothes; by dressing his Japanese in Edwardian clothes, like some cockamamie Oriental Wodehouse yarn, he completely killed the satire), Mr. Miller's reading of "Shrew" showed amazing familiarity with it. It had been a favorite Shakespeare play of mine for years yet Miller's version changed my thinking on it completely.
John Cleese is an amazingly thoughtful Petruchio. Sarah Badel is equally strong (and funny) as Kate. The cast is strong all the way down, including Susan Penhaglion, Jonathan Cecil, Frank Thornton and Joan Hickson.
I'd often thought Shakespeare's comedies ("As You Like It," "Twelfth Night," "Much Ado...") came off best in the Shakespeare Plays series, and this is yet another palpable hit.
Move Over, Darling (1963)
Silly story but good Garner and supporting players
"Move Over Darling" is a remake of "My Favorite Wife" (which starred Cary Grant). Though James Garner is only a knock-off Cary Grant, he's able to bring his own charms and strengths to the role. I'd rather see Garner in an original story tailored for him, like "The Wheeler Dealers." He's not Cary Grant; but, fortunately, they don't try to make him such.
The shocking thing is this movie might never have been. At the time of her death, Marilyn Monroe was remaking "My Favorite Wife" with Dean Martin (!) In the Grant role and Cyd Charise as a much better choice for his new wife than Polly Bergin is for Garner. A compilation of scenes shot for the Monroe version comprising an open-ended "short" (as "Something's Got to Give") is available on YouTube and judging by that version it may have been her best performance (though not her best movie). I love Doris Day but she's not Marilyn.
Overall, in comedies of this period, while the stars carry the romance and sometimes more serious stories, it's the supporting players who shoulder the comedy. Here we have the welcome faces and reliable talents of Edgar Buchanan, Fred Clark and Don Knotts (amongst others). They don't make supporting players like that anymore. Fred Clark, as the hotel manager, is particularly good.
While I prefer the laid-back, con man Garner, he does repressed hysteria about as well as anyone in the business. Nevertheless, the story, in whatever version, about a first wife (Day) declared dead after going missing for years, only to turn up alive the day of her husband's marriage to wife #2, is too silly for words and in this version only the cuteness of the co-stars and the humor of the supporting players saw me through it.
The Ghost of Peter Sellers (2018)
Self-serving blame game that is imminently watchable
I have seen the bones of "Ghost in the Noonday Sun" and wonder if a successful movie could ever have been made out of it. Sid Fleishman's book was a curious idea for a movie, anyway.
In this documentary, director Peter Medak (The Ruling Class) diagnoses what went wrong with this troubled production, which Peter Sellers went out of his way to sink.
Sellers was a strange fellow. He wasn't, by all accounts, a team player. Except in rare cases (The Wrong Box springs to mind) he'd rather be the star of a thoroughly rotten movie than take a bit part in a good movie. No one who knew him likes him in retrospect but everyone I've ever heard interviewed about him, whatever else they had to say about him, end up saying he was a genius.
And so he was. And still is. That doesn't excuse him. I'm an artist myself (not an actor and certainly no Sellers) but I side with those who say the "artistic temperament" is a thin cover for bad manners. Like him or hate him, he's still a star, 40 years after his death. Medak himself had to put Sellers' name in the title to rouse any interest in this cathartic film. That speaks volumes.
For anyone interested in behind-the-curtain goings on in the movie business, this documentary is invaluable. It highlights so much that can go wrong in movie making (and the ridiculous power games I have no doubt other stars than Sellers have played) and why anyone who gets involved in it needs to be crazy or at least have good blood pressure.
Suspicion (1941)
Not Hitchcock's Best but Nit Bad
"Suspicion" shows the weakness of the Academy. Just as James Stewart won his Oscar for "The Philadelphia Story" when he should have got it for the previous year's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," while Joan Fontain is excellent here she should have gotten her Oscar for her earlier performance on Hitchcock's "Rebecca."
Never mind. She's nevertheless good as the woman wondering whether her handsome husband (Cary Grant) is trying to kill her.
Grant is good, as usual, with a darker shading to his character suggesting monsters in the depths of his smooth facade.
And Nigel Bruce's Beaky is perfectly wonderful.
"Suspicion" is Hitchcock in his prime. While nowhere nearly as suspenseful as, say, "Strangers on a Train," nor as edgy as "Notorious," it's a tense domestic movie with plenty of humor.
Grant's character here is disgusting but he charms us out of it as he does his wife.
It's not Hitchcock's best but it's fun. And the performances are fine.
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
"Show me a man who can lose his temper and I'll show you a man who can lose his salami"
Gregory Peck heads an all-star cast (in retrospect) in an episodic look at the darker side of World War II. Based on a novel.
Though episodic, the episodes mostly run concurrently.
Peck is Captain Newman, heading a hospital mental ward. Tony Curtis (sharing top billing with Peck) practically steals the movie in the "scrounger" con-man part he does so well (only James Garner, not in this movie, can match him in these roles). In fact, he tends to see parallels in his con-man routines and Newman's gentle psychology.
While helping those who have what they used to call "combat fatigue," Newman uses psychology to manipulate everyone else, including orderlies, nurses and those of higher rank.
Also of note is Eddie Albert's overbearing Colonel. Does he suffer from a split personality or does he have an ulterior motive?
However, the movie's lurches from drama to comedy and occasional suspense make it look like the movie is suffering from a split personality of its own, and the serious nature of the material is often undercut by lapses into outright farce by Curtis (though Larry Storch is fortunately restrained). All the performances are good, for those who watch movies primarily for the acting. But Peck can't hold together the reigns together, given the film's wild mood swings.
The Ruling Class (1972)
Not merely an indictment of the British class systems
As other reviews are at pains to point out, so it's not a spoiler, the phenomenal Peter O'Toole plays a member of the House of Lords who for half the movie thinks he's Christ (he's apparently never read Scripture!) and the other half of the movie thinks he's Jack the Ripper.
His family (for the most part a delightful collection of British comedic actors, many too little known in America) want to get His Lordship married and with an heir so they can slap him in a looney bin.
The film's approach is anarchic. I haven't seen the original play but the movie's philosophy seems to be: if it feels good, do it. So we get the talented cast breaking out into an impromptu song-and-dance of "The Varsity Drag" (a popular 1920s song from "Good News.") and other such weirdness for the sake of being weird.
The first half contains some very funny moments. Though other reviews point out the film gets dark in the second half, it has equally hilarious moments. But that's what they are: moments. And the moments are better than, and don't add up to, the half-congealed whole.
And if you think the last half is dark, what about the scene up front where Harry Andrews accidentally hangs himself in a tutu? It's dark and funny.
While the upper classes get a drubbing (one day Hollywood and its British counterpart may learn that "satire" is not just pounding your dormant target with the biggest hammer you can find) the lower classes don't escape their share of venom. After all, the butler (a socialism-spouting nut case) has his own insidious agenda. And I'm sure it's no coincidence the Socialist butler is played by a well-known conservative Tory actor, Arthur Lowe. The director fled the Soviets, after all.
And psychology comes in for its fair share of bruising. I'm sure it's also not insignificant that the psychiatrist and the clergyman get a similar comeuppance.
On a personal note, I first saw this movie in the 1970s, not many years after it came out, when I was in high school and I thought it was one of the greatest movies ever. Now I have lots more water under the bridge I tend to agree with those who call it a self-indulgent mess, a hangover from the 1960s that was made in the wrong decade.
That doesn't mean it's worthless. The acting is uniformly good, especially from O'Toole. His Lordship's entire family is good.
A stand-out, as others have mentioned, is the great Alistair Sim as a clergyman who keeps trying to swallow, and chokes on, his conscience.
The Curious Case of Inspector Clouseau (2002)
A must see for Clouseau fans
Excellent (and amusing) documentary focusing on Peter Sellers' years as Inspector Clouseau.
Some of the people interviewed had experience on at least one, and often more, "Pink Panther" movie: Elke Sommar, Herbert Lom, Bert Kwouk (who also acts as more or less host), Graham Stark. Others are simply famous, opinionated talking heads (Jonathan Miller). And they have a Sellers biographer.
It's a shame that Burt Kwouk, with his fine voice, and really good Hollywood actors like James Shigeta and Philip Ahn, were nearly always relegated by the movie and TV people to shady Oriental characters. Shame on the industry.
Refreshingly, we get a new take on Blake Edwards, who outlived Peter Sellers and so was able to get his story down pat that he was Mr. Nice Guy and Sellers was a kook. After all, he was married to Julie Andrews and neither Maria, with her hatred of discipline, nor Mary Poppins would put up with a monster of a hubby. In fact, this documentary produces evidence both men were ego clear through. When two megalomaniacs rub shoulders, there are bound to be sparks. And, yes, Sellers was a kook, even by Hollywood standards, which sets a rather low bar; but he had genuine talent behind it.
It also proves, first hand, from everyone, the one thing we knew and the one thing that's important, movie-wise: Peter Sellers was FUNNY (watch for the scenes of Dyan Cannon, especially).
For those who knew Sellers was a comedic genius but not much more about him, the documentary provides brief biographical data focusing, very briefly, on his brilliant "Goon Show" years (though Harry Secombe gets short shrift).
It also brings out the vital importance, in many ways, of the often neglected original "Pink Panther" and why it is the beast that it is (I like the first "Pink Panther," btw, though my favorite Clouseau movie is "A Shot in the Dark").
Overall, an enjoyable and nostalgic documentary on the life of Sellers' Clouseau (Alan Arkin and othe wanna-bes need not apply).
When Time Ran Out... (1980)
The bitter end for the once great disaster flicks
Movies go through cycles. The "disaster" cycle that swamped the 1970s ended toward the 1980s. The "Airplane in trouble" arm of the disaster flicks had a stake driven through its heart by "Airplane!" This movie and a few other all-star bombs put the kibosh on the rest, opening the way for quality 1980s movies like "Chariots of Fire" and "Amadeus."
One problem with "When Time Ran Out" is the setting. When the "disaster" cycle started we could imagine ourselves in a troubled airliner or a cruise ship that flips over or in a burning building (one wag said while in the theater watching "The Towering Inferno" he kept wondering if he'd unplugged his iron).
It's difficult for most of us to have much empathy for rich people at an upscale island resort underneath a steaming volcano. It seems like they're asking for trouble in the way folks on the plane in "Airport" weren't. The people celebrating Christmas on the "Poseidon Adventure" weren't being hubristic when they were hit out of the blue by a tidal wave.
And the plot's sort of dumb. Who drills for oil at an active volcano? I know Hollywood hates oil but that's just downright silly.
The acting varies. Sure, Paul Newman might've been replaced by a cardboard cut-out (one thing you can say about British actors, whether Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing or whomever, however goofy their material they give it 100 percent). But James Franciscus, Burgess Meredith and others do about as well as one would expect.
And it does have three (pardon the pun) "hot" women in Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Carerra and Veronica Hamel. Who wouldn't want to be trapped on an island with them? They edge out Ginger and even Mary Ann.
Danger - Love at Work (1937)
Overlooked Screwball Comedy
"Tin Man" Jack Hayley headlines here with Ann Sothern with an oddball family that makes "You Can't Take it With You" look like a day in church.
Hayley is a lazy young lawyer sent by his firm to get signatures to sign off on a land deal, who wanders into a regular asylum of eccentrics.
The eccentrics include the always reliable John Carradine as a crazy painter (whose art I actually like), Mary Boland as a woman who is too busy talking to get her facts straight, two older ladies so afraid of burglars they set up death traps and one old codger who claims he's given up society and dresses like a cave man (though he reads Esquire on the sly).
The one disappointment is that Edward Everett Horton plays the villain rather than one of the family. He's a likeable villain, but I'd liked to have seen what sort of eccentric he'd have made.
Warning, this movie can get VERY annoying and Sothern takes a cue from Carole Lombard in "My Man Godfrey" and cries and screams a lot. And there are moments that today would shock people as child abuse that, back then, would have been called "comeuppance." It doesn't bother me but it might trigger some hypersensitive souls.
Love, American Style: Love and the Happy Days/Love and the Newscasters (1972)
The first of the Happy Days
I was just a kid when I saw this episode. I recall nothing about "Love and the Newscasters" but the segment with Ronny Howard and Harold Gould stuck in my little mind.
Actually, I didn't remember much about it, either, except for the sweet and touching ending.
When "Happy Days" took off I recalled this episode but since they recast the dad (I always liked Harold Gould) it took me a while to get into it. Oh, the character playing Chuck was also recast, but what else is new? And for Erin Moran fans, don't look for her, either.
It's difficult to express how much the 1970s was about the 1950s. George Lucas touched an eternal chord with "Star Wars" but made a hit with youth first with "American Graffiti" (also featuring Ronnie Howard). But this came first.
Originally a pilot that got sidetracked into the graveyard of unsold pilots, "Love, American Style" (which was a clever bit of recycling I wish the other networks had copied), this episode looks a bit clunky compared to what followed. Is it "Happy Days"? Hey, if all the collective junk I've seen since 1977 can be called "Star Wars," why not?
Barnaby Jones: Final Burial (1975)
Better than average BJ
This episode begins like a typical "Barnaby Jones" plot, with illicit lovers (Stephen Collins, Jo Ann Harris) caught in the act by her gun-wavong husband, and Collins trapping himself by struggling for the gun and accidentally shooting his attacker. And, this time, hiding the body mote cleverly than usual.
From there it becomes a bumpy road full of genuinely surprising twists and turns. The only person who seems to know what's going on is Jones. Why?
The music in this episode takes on a comic turn, so I don't know if it's meant to be lighthearted. Overall, though, it's a different sort of ride.
Run a Crooked Mile (1969)
Why isn't he a French teacher?
An English school teacher (Louis Jordan!) witnesses what he calls a murder (actually, one man was defending himself from being attacked by a chap with a gun that discharged accidentally in a struggle, so I can't imagine what rational being would call that a murder). Naturally, the police don't believe him, especially when he reaches the place where it happened and it's all changed.
Hiring a sleazebag private detective (Terence Alexander, in a great but small bit) he gets a lead but then gets thunked on the head following it up.
When he wakes up he's living in a palatial villa outside Geneva, married to a young Mary Tyler Moore. I should have such a bump.
So, was his past a delusion caused by a polo playing accident, and has he lost his mind? Or have a lot of people in conspiracy set him up in a wonderful new life? And why is he complaining about it?
But for some reason he's determined to get to the bottom of it all, and that means more danger from the conspirators. If any.
A truly first-rate cast, mostly in small roles, gives the star more than adequate support. One stand-out (as always) is the great Wilfred Hyde-White.
I can't figure out if it's a droll comedy. It's filled with some unexpected laughs. For instance, when he looks at a photo of his new wife, Moore, it looks like a goofy publicity shot left over from "The Dick van Dyke Show." And Jordan's attitude to his new surroundings strikes me as so incongruous as to be funny. A serious-minded teacher is suddenly Gaston from "Gigi."
His quest to find out what happened should satisfy conspiracy buffs. The rest of us can enjoy some fine performances by some of Britain's top supporting actors. It's nice, silly, cozy fun to kill an afternoon.
Cruise Into Terror (1978)
Too short or too long depending on your tolerance for claptrap
A genuine all-star cast (including Oscar winner Ray Milland) tackle a deep-sea treasure hunt. Milland plays an archeologist determined to prove the ancient Egyptians settled in Mexico by opening a tomb on the Gulf floor.
Let me read that again. Yep. That's right. I don't know what college hired Milland's character as a professor, but don't send your kids there.
High O'Brian is the square-jawed captain. His "Gilligan" is Dirk Benedict, who kids around so much it's no wonder he can't get a job on a better ship. John Forsythe is the recovering-alcoholic preacher who sets himself up as Milland's antagonist, warning him not to open the tomb because of a "curse." He utters lots of ridiculous, superstitious and anti-Biblical claptrap. I belong to and teach adult Sunday School at a fairly conservative Southern church and if we got hold of a preacher spouting this inanity we'd pitch him out OVER the front steps. The mark of a good actor is to hit his marks and not bump into the furniture, but the mark of a great actor is the ability to recite ridiculous dialogue and make it sound reasonable. Forsythe is a great actor.
Forsythe's jaded wife is an unglamorourized Lee Meriwether. Actually married couple Christopher and Linda Day George play a squabbling couple without much to do. Frank Converse (no, I never heard of him, either) plays a mysterious character with the more mysterious name "Lazarus" who mysteriously arrives without a ticket but whom O'Brien mysteriously lets on board because he said he had one . . . That's the slipshod way this ship is run.
Stella Stevens (leaning forward a lot in low-cut dresses) is the heroine who says she can read minds. And a couple of eye-candy girls are along for the ride, one who is hot and the other who is not (you can tell the latter because she wears glasses, the Hollywood sign of a frump).
Naturally, given the nature of looking for a submerged Egyptian tomb we're handed lots of underwater scenes. I don't like underwater scenes. I never can tell what's going on in them. And either these scenes are particularly murky or I got a poor print. Or both.
Historically, Biblically, sensibly, you name it, the story is garbage. But a talented cast is able to put it across so it makes some sort of sense in some sort of universe. I only wish it had been longer and the more neglected actors (all of whom I like) had more to to. It should have been a miniseries. I've actually witnessed worse. Really.
One caveat: the primary interest these "ancient horror awakes" movies have is in who dies. This movie goes on a long time with no deaths. Too bad. Short as it is, they can afford to cull some of the expensive cast.
Wonder Woman: Who's Afraid of Diana Prince? (1967)
Very funny hint at a potential series, but nothing that could be called finalized
WARNING: this short feature, made to test the waters for another camp comic book show in the wake of Batman's success in the 1960s (with the same narrator) is played broadly for laughs.
So rid your head any visions of Linda Carter or choirs singing "Wonder Woman!" This Wonder Woman, millions of years old, lives in an ordinary suburban house with her mother, Hyppolita (Maudie Prickett doing the demanding mother shtick and who is the best thing in this short feature).
A few things would have to be ironed out had this made it to a series: knowing her amazing beauty Wonder Woman is incredibly self-admiring (one very funny thing I trust was intentional is when she's admiring herself in the mirror her reflection turns the wrong way and uses the wrong hand).
Potential as a series: it might have been good in a "Batman" sort of way. Remember, this isn't any sort of finalized version of a potential series. It's a short feature to entice network executives (not known for their humor or their ability to grasp subtlety) to get a hint of possibilities. Nothing here is set in stone. It's a lot of hints thrown at random against the proverbial wall to see what sticks and wasn't made for public consumption. Once a series was contracted it would have been different (though, I hope, as funny or more so).
Taken for what it is, it's hilarious. I wish it had been longer.
The plot is about Wonder Woman rescuing Steve from an airplane in stormy weather, but don't mind that: they don't get that far. Don't look for any flying effects.
I read tons of comic books as a kid but I never read superhero comics, so I never developed any particular hero worship for these ridiculous figures with superhuman powers. Poking gentle fun at them doesn't bother me. I liked "Batman" (the series) when I was a kid though I knew no more about Batman than the series presented. Later, I liked the show "Wonder Wonan" because I was a post-adolescent high school boy when it aired. 'Nuff said. So I'm open to nonsense like this. I advise anyone watching this to be the same or you'll get in a snit. If you're overprotective of Wonder Woman you'll be foaming at the mouth.
Barnaby Jones: Doomed Alibi (1975)
A fun little BJ
A dual role for pretty boy Monte Markham in this tale of (what else?) duplicity and murder.
I've always had a soft spot for Markham. We attended the same Alma Mater, albeit about 25 years apart.
Markham really shows his range playing a washed up cowboy actor and a lookalike dj. One has a western accent and the other doesn't. That's about it.
He also has one of those rare moments in TV/movie history where he tries to have himself killed (remember that moment in "The Great Race" where Jack Lemmon throws a pie in his own face? No? Watch it.)
But as they fight, which is which? It takes Barnaby Jones and all his homespun wisdom to sort it out.
Barnaby Jones: Dark Legacy (1974)
David Wayne makes this episode sing
Two older people are bopping younger folk over the head with an iron pipe, but not robbing them. What are they up to? It takes a long time for the plot to unfold, but David Wayne's big bopper is so amusing no one can care.
Quite an old pro, Wayne (who would in a few years be the dad on the "Ellery Queen" show) turns in an amusing performance. It's too bad the whole episode didn't take a comedic route. But on "Barnaby Jones" murder, however played for a smile, is a serious business.
Keep an eye out for Mark Goddard from "Lost in Space." I just added that to get six hundred characters. Oh, Buddy Ebsen Is in it, too, but he's a spoilsport.
Cold Comfort Farm (1995)
Kate Beckinsale shines as the perfect Flora Poste
A civilized young lady from London, Flora Poste, goes to "live off" her relatives on a decaying farm with the unpromising name Cold Comfort Farm. Everyone on the farm has a problem that keeps it from its optimum production, and Flora decides to use common sense (and some skulduggery) to set the place straight and make it clean and orderly. But the Starkadders, who have always lived on Cold Comfort, have other ideas.
COLD COMFORT FARM is one of the great satires in English literature (of doomed rural folk, as in the novels of Thomas Hardy and of Mary Webb, who'd be utterly forgotten except for this satire). It's also one of the funniest novels of the twentieth century. Translating literary humor to the screen us always treacherous (mark how few novels of P G Wodehouse survive the transition) and this movie version is only partly successful. I try to fit COLD COMFORT FARM (the novel) into my reading once a year and since it's one of my most cherished novels I approached this movie with trepidation. However, I'm pleased to report the movie isn't all bad, and it's a step up from the TV version of the 1970s, despite the older version's top-drawer cast.
The excellent: Kate Beckinsale might have been the original model for Flora Poste. Her performance is thoroughly acceptable, with a few tweaks. The judgmental Flora of the book, always sure she's right, might have been objectionable on screen. The writers and Beckinsale worked together to sand down the character's sharper corners (which in the book is a large part of her humor) to leave her smooth and delightful.
The good: the whole cast is game. They don't all quite work to perfection, though stand-outs include Freddie Jones as Adam Lambsbreath; Miriam Margolyes as Mrs. Beetle; and Stephen Fry as the hopeless academic, Mr. Mybug, who is writing a monograph to prove all the Brontes' novels were written by their drunken brother, Bramwell. Why he's doing research in Sussex rather than Yorkshire is one of author Stella Gibbons' great mysteries.
The questionable: naturally, movie folk get Amos, the lay preacher of the Church of the Quivering Brethren (one of Stella Gibbons' greatest creations) all wrong. They naturally miss that it's an anti-Christian group. Gibbons understood Christianity, which is fundamentally about hope and Redemption. The Quivering Brethren have no hope. Especially as led by Amos they are doomed and damned without the option. Of course movie people decline to comprehend the distinction between hope and a lack of it, and fill the "church" with out-of-place Christian symbolism for what is in the book little more than a pagan cult of fear. They just file it away in their "Chriatians: bad" folder without giving Stella Gibbons' satire any real thought. This ruins what migh have been a great moment in the movie, as it is in the novel.
Also questionable: the climax of the novel is both satisfying and hilarious (a word I don't use lightly) as all the problems of the farm are resolved when Flora gets it on its feet. In the movie the farm endd up just a tad too cutesy, as if they're making fun of the source material.
And!--one if the greatest lines in the novel (given by Earl P Neck) is totally blown.
Where the movie tries to be loyal to Stella Gibbons, it works. Where it doesn't, or tries improving on the source material, it falls short and makes a monkey of Gibbons.
Barnaby Jones (1973)
Murder family style
After "The Beverly Hillbillies" got the axe, former dancer Buddy Ebsen, who played the sage Jed Clampett for nine years (the only soul on that show, city or country, who had any sense) was picked up as detective Barnaby Jones for an eight-year run of his second successful TV series.
The 1970s was a bizarre time for detective shows. The sloppy detective (Columbo); the bald detective (Kojak); the disabled detective (Ironside); the obese detective (Cannon) . . . All very humorless and straightforward. Peter Falk made "Columbo" special but until the advent of shows like "Charlie's Angels" (the female detectives) and "The Rockford Files" (the detective who lived in a trailer and never got paid) did these shows evince any sense of fun. Through the 1960s and most of the 1970s comedy shows ran half an hour and dramas (detective shows, doctor shows, "adult" westerns) ran an hour and had to be kept utterly straight.
"Barbaby Jones" (the old detective) nestles in nicely into the "straight" category. Unlike "The Rockford Files" it doesn't have laughs. It wasn't until the 1980s and the advent of shows like "Remington Steele," "Moonlighting," and the first season of "Matt Houston" that detective shows became comedies, and were all the better for it.
"Barnaby Jones," typical of the period, follows the "Columbo" mode: viewers watch a murder committed (usually by a guest star) and in the ensuing hour (with commercial breaks) someone hires Barnaby to turn over a few rocks and the cagy old codger winds up in a cat-and-mouse game with the presumed killer. "Columbo," though, ran to longer episodes, so Barnaby has to step lively. The episodes do have some variations on the theme, but bingers beware: the episodes to have a tendency to look a lot alike when watched all at once.
Is "Barnaby Jones" good? It's so representative of its period, it's difficult to say. I went 50 years without seeing a single episode but I'm glad I finally caught them (retirement can have that effect). The episodes are straightforward, without any special camera angles or that weird camera movement they have these days that makes me seasick. Because liberal interest groups were forcing violence off television "Barnaby Jones" is rarely too violent or bloody and Jones himself is not given to fistfights or car chases where he knocks over fruit carts, but prefers using his brain and folksy manner to outsmart his opponents. Fine with me.
The guest stars were mostly TV stars of the time and some then-big names have lost their lustre. Generally, "Barnaby Jones" is a kinder, gentler detective show, the kind of that in the 1970s had the sort of murders the whole family could enjoy together to see that crime doesn't pay.
The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970)
A Dose of Healthy Paranoia
Glen Ford plays a member of a secret college society he thinks is a harmless fraternity with weird secret ceremonies. Until they assign him a task that leads to a death of a friend. From then on, for breaking the code of silence, is "The Brotherhood of the Bell" trying to break him? Or is he losing his marbles? The cockeyed camera angles given Ford as the movie progresses can be seen a either danger or insanity.
Ford is such an ordinary Joe, as actors go, his performance as a typical guy helps get across the paranoia inherent in the story.
When in my 20s I joined the Masons and the first thing my guru told me was, "The Masons never killed anybody," and I thought, "Hot dog!" But I quickly found out it was just a lot of pot-bellied old men who performed silly rites under the pretense of doing something important (though I've kept the code of silence, because that's a code of honor; it's too boring to relate, anyhow).
I suppose most "secret societies" are like that, and when presidential candidates are found to belong to secret societies the tin-foil hat crowd has a collective cow. But they're just as unhappy when "outsiders" run and have worse cows when they win so what are we to do?
Whether you believe the world is run by small, secret cliques (the Trilats, the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, the whomever) or think that's giving way to dangerous mental issues, "The Brotherhood of the Bell" is unsettling entertainment whose eeriness will keep you awake nights. Apart from Ford, good performances all around.
Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
Little Brother of "Support Your Local Sheriff" with Garner and Elam Wonderful
A likeable, if gruff, con man (James Garner) is mistaken for a famous gunslinger by competing mine owners (Harry Morgan, John Dehner) with life-threatening complications.
Most of the cast of "Support Your Local Sheriff" follow Garner to this one, in completely different (if similar) roles.
New additions along with Dehner include Suzanne Pleshette ("The Bob Newhart Show"), Grady Sutton, Dub Taylor and Chuck Connors.
Garner plays a more mean-spirited version of Bret Maverick (he also dresses like him) but retains the Garner charm nevertheless.
The prime scene stealer is Garner's sidekick, played inimitably by Jack Elam.
Other good ideas are the roulette wheel and Colorado McGee. The latter is one of the funniest, yet horrifying, moments in comedy.
Is it as good as "Sheriff"? How can it be? It's not a sequel, though it has a sequel ambiance. Still, if you loved "Support Your Local Sheriff" (it's my favorite western spoof) you're likely to enjoy this one, too. It's like the first movie's little brother.
Krull (1983)
Diverting
The main problem with "Krull" is that it takes itself too seriously. It has some comedy relief, but it's centered on certain guys and it often falls kind of flat.
What's it about? Well, two warring kingdoms make peace through marriage but the bride is stolen and there's an alien invasion . . . It's nicely genre bending.
It's a lovely movie, often beautifully shot. The special effects guy is swiped from the James Bond movies, which was a good idea (though they don't all work in retrospect). The director of photography was coming off "Star Wars V" and it looks just great most of the time.
The cast is top-drawer. Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis, Lynette Anthony, Alan Armstrong . . . And that's just the icing on the cake.
The weak link is Ed Marshall as Colwyn, who just happens to be the main character. He's not very inspiring.
Also, the script's a bit of a muddle. I don't mind being flung in media res into a sci/fi or fantasy novel, because I have elbow room to figure the place out. In a fantasy movie full of new and strange things, it means lots of talky exposition.
It's one of those fantasies where the hero goes on a quest (this time, to rescue his bride) and collects odd companions the way a snowball collects rubbish. Some are more interesting than others.
It's like the rhyme of the girl with the curl: when it is good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad it's horrid.
Sergeant Dead Head (1965)
Definitely a Product of its Period
Accidentally fired into space, Sergeant Deadhead (Frankie Avalon) returns to Earth with strange personality changes. This upsets the brass, who hoped to make him a press hero.
"Sergeant Deadhead" isn't as funny as the better Avalon beach movies, nor the spy spoof "Doctor Goldfoot and His Bikini Machine."
Part of the problem is the movie's dated theme: the space race, during the era animals were being sent up in rockets (actually, it was made after that, but we'll have to stretch a point).
The cast is first rate. The top brass of the service include Fred Clark, Cesar Romero, Gale Gordon and Reginald Gardiner. Also on hand are Eve Arden, Buster Keaton and Pat Butram as the president. A great comedy cast.
Unfortunately, a comic is only as good as his material. The aim, apparently, was to turn Avalon into a sort of Jerry Lewis. As if we needed two of them.
With so many old pros in the cast, you'd think one might've risked his contract to stand up and say the material isn't working. It has a few laughs, but no more than you'd squeeze out of a so-so Carol Burnett sketch. Not good for a comedy running an hour and a half.
Too bad. I hate to see a talented cast go to waste.
Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
The Pinnacle of Beach Movies
"Beach Blanket Bingo" is the best of the Frankie Avalon and Anette Funicello beach movies.
The surfers want nothing more in life than to kiss, hug, surf and disport themselves half-naked in peace.
This time around their serenity is shattered by sky-divers, a sleazy promoter with a new singer he's peddling (Linda Evans) and a mermaid (Marta Kristen, "Lost in Space").
The songs aren't important but they aren't egregious. The best belongs to Harvey Lembeck's Eric von Zipper and his Rats.
Paul Lynde, as the promoter, is extremely funny as usual. The cross-talk between Lynde and Lembeck, two comic pros, must be heard. Lynde rises far above his material. He's great.
As usual, pretty girls fill the background (such as Patti Chandler and Playboy's 1960s playmate Donna Michelle).
After this one, the beach movies went into a nose-dive. But one day set an afternoon apart to watch "Bikini Beach," "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini," with Dwayne Hickman replacing Avalon (Hickman and Avalon later went on to co-star in the cult classic buddy movie "Doctor Goldfoot and His Bikini Machine" with Vincent Price). A trilogy worthy of Eastwood "Dollars" trilogy. Right.
Oh, the legendary Buster Keaton gets a chuckle or two, but he's mostly wasted. But thirty-seven years after the Silent era he still moves his body wonderfully.
Bikini Beach (1964)
The first notable F&A Beach movie (of three)
"Bikini Beach" is not the first Frankie and Annette Beach movie but it does kick off a trilogy (Bikini Beach, Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini) where the Beachers are beset by men in gray suits.
This time around, it's Keenan Wynn, who wants to prove surfers have the I. Q. of an ape (which they keep referring to as a monkey). No argument from me. But what is his ulterior motive?
Like Alec Guinness or Peter Sellers, Frankie Avalon essays two roles in this one. See if you can guess which.
Is this trilogy up to, say, the original "Star Wars"? Let's not be silly. But it is fun from the days when young people liked having fun. Why did fun die? If you enjoy watching half-naked twenty-somethings playing teenagers disport themselves surfing and making sport of their elders, this is for you.
No bad language, no sex (despite lots of talk) no nudity you wouldn't see at your local beach. It doesn't have 'bikini" in the title for nothing. The songs aren't great, but the plot is thin in the ground.
Then there's chunky, forty-ish Harvey Lembeck, hilariously playing biker "Eric von Zipper." This old pro steals every scene he's in.
And there's a trick ending with a very special guest star whom young people today won't know. What a shame.