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Magnificent Doll (1946)
Magnificent Movie
The Great director Frank Borzage does it again with this magnificent film. Ginger Rogers not only looks sumptuous in it but what a performance ,especially as the climax of the movie. Definitely one of her best dramatic performances and a revelation, as this movie was a financial flop at the time and what a great shame. Universal obviously pulled out all the stops with this and everything about it is top notch. It was just a pity that they didn't film it in Technicolor which would have been the icing on the cake. Great performance too from David Niven who really at times seems very sinister in his unlikable role which was a very unusual role for him to play. Burgess Meredith is likewise very good and gives very admirable support to the main leads. Interesting to see Peggy Wood in it, as Dolly's mother, and , of course, she played Mother Abbess in the film version of "The Sound of Music". The movie, as always from the director, is beautifully photographed and wonderful direction to the actors obviously bringing out the best in all of them. Costumes, too, created by the great Travis Banton as well as Vera West. All in all great entertainment that one can now appreciate, despite awful reviews at the time as often happened from some of those so-called expert critics, whom one wonders sometimes if they even watched the film.
John Paul Jones (1959)
Turgid Swashbuckler
And so ended Robert Stack's movie career. This turgid thing has to be one of the most boring movies I've ever had the misfortune to watch. John Farrow, the director of this awful movie, should have been ashamed of himself. The actors all look either bored or at a loss as how portray their parts, especially Robert Stack ,whom has never been more wooden in his whole career. The photography, despite the beautiful locations, is totally static and there seemed to be little editing or close-ups in the whole film. The audience of the day must have longed for the heyday of Errol Flynn in movies like "Captain Blood" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" when they watched this turkey. An actual action scene does take place about 95 minutes into the movie, but it's much too little , too late. It's sort of like a bad school history lesson, which I remember so well. Charles Coburn is a welcome participant as is Bette Davis at the end , although the scene she appears in, with the "bring on the dancing girls, if all else fails" routine, is unintentionally funny. Even the usual brilliant Technicolor has a brown cast to it which makes the colour in the film seem annoying for the most part. If you want to spend over two hours being bored, do watch this film.
So This Is College (1929)
Campus Craze
Not to be taken seriously, this college movie is one of many at the time. Made by MGM, it starts off as a campus musical comedy and then becomes very dramatic towards the end, with the usual football game included where the heroes, of course, win the game. The male leads, Elliott Nugent and Robert Montgomery are very likable, but the love interest,Sally Starr, is quite unlikable as the fickle girl they're both in love with and comes across as a cross between Clara Bow and Janet Gaynor without their charm. Her career throughout the thirties seem to be mostly in short films. Nugent, of course, became a famous director and certainly was no great star in movies, although he has a good singing voice. Also featuring Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards, famous for the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the Disney animated film of "Pinocchio" in 1940,seemed to be a stalwart of MGM musicals at this time and sings a few catchy songs. although he and Nugent, at 33, seen a bit old to play college men.Some good little tunes and musical numbers at the beginning of the movie and I love the way that in those early musicals , the numbers were performed live. It wasn't until about 1935 that Hollywood started to prerecord the musical soundtrack.A young Montgomery makes a good impression here in one of his first roles and certainly did become a major star at this studio. Another early talkie that is quite entertaining, despite the overall view from critics that these early sound films were nearly all terrible. I particularly enjoy them. Interesting to see Max Davidson and Polly Moran in small supporting roles, even though they don't have much to do. Also a small, early role for Joel McCrae as the boy Starr eventually falls for. Also, you can glimpse Ann Dvorak among the college girls and Ward Bond as one of the college football players. To sum up, an enjoyable time killer.
Faraon (1966)
Excellent Atypical Epic
I watched this movie thinking that it would be a poor, low budget ( by Hollywood standards) epic, but was absolutely delighted with it, with little actual graphic or blood-thirsty battle scenes and an excellent story, well told and one that I knew little about, in actual fact. Interesting to see again that the religion and it's leaders of the time are corrupt (has there ever been a time when that hasn't been the case ?) and that even a powerful Pharaoh is no match for them. People have constantly, in these reviews, criticized the wigs, which are actually authentic of the time, unlike Hollywood's version of them, and were actually made of wool at that period of time. The actors were all excellent in their respective roles and I think that anyone who enjoys an epic with the story well told will like this movie. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed it and, not knowing much about Polish cinema, will certainly seek out more of the same from that country. And, best of all, like all the old epics, dating back to the silent era, NO phony looking CGI like the modern cinema has all the time mow. A breath of fresh air, so to speak.
White Gold (1927)
Hilarious Melodrama
I really love silent cinema and was curious to see this movie, made at the time when DeMille had his own production company. Now I know why it wasn't successful. I wasn't sure how to take the film at first, whether it was a drama or comedy, but, after laughing at quite a few things at the beginning, namely the father's constant criticism of his son's new wife (one would have thought she'd landed on her feet, instead of the hovel she lived in ), not to mention the fact that Jetta Goudal, at 36 years of age apparently, and looking much older, was playing the part of a young bride, I began to realise that it was unintentionally funny. Maybe beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but I failed to see what the fuss was all about with Goubal or , for that matter, her acting ability.The highlight of this humour was when George Bancroft sneaked into the house, presumably to have his wicked way with Jetta. It all seemed very cinematic, the raging storm , the lightning flashing and the shutters banging back and forth conveying what was going on inside the house, but the very next scene had the father one end of the table and Jetta, the other end,in half darkness, looking like she was wearing a shroud.When the son goes to the bedroom and presumably finds the dead body of Bancroft, the father says that he killed him and found them in the room "TOGETHER" accusingly at her ! It struck me that maybe she was being raped or something like that, but we never find out, as she stoically walks out of the house after saying maybe she'll have to go to prison or go back from where she came from. I must say that I was in stitches throughout this whole pantomime at the end, mostly with the unforgiving father and the stoic Jetta either end of the table. When she drops the gun outside, we all realise that she shot Bancroft and she then again stoically walks into the sunset. I would think that, even in 1927, this sort of drama went out with Mrs. Fiske. I was also amazed that Goudal made movies until 1932 when she would have been in her forties. I would love to see one of her talkies as it would have to be a scream.Probably the worst silent movie I've ever seen, considering the date when it was made. The two stars are for having a really good belly laugh.
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
Disappointment An Understatement
I watched this film after reading some of the reviews thinking that even a bad Chaplin movie couldn't be all bad but this so-called comedy is a real stinker. I really don't know what Chaplin thought he was doing as nearly everyone seems to act like a lunatic in it. There are some real lows like when Brando buys clothes for Loren that are obviously ten times too big for her or Sydney Chaplin jumping up and down on the beach or Patrick Cargill thrashing around in the single bed which are all just plain silly. It proved one thing, that only Chaplin could do Chaplin and it's a pity that he hadn't been twenty years younger as he could have given a good performance in either the Brando role or the Cargill role. As it is, he is funny in the two brief scenes he appears in as the "Old Steward". Even the great Margaret Rutherford, in one of her last film appearances sadly, seems wasted in the brief scene she's in, which could have been a lot more humorous than it is.The script, apparently written by Chaplin, is just banal. The dramatic scenes, near the end of the movie are good, especially with Tippi Hedren, but Brando looks like he's thinking, "How did I get myself into this". He actually does have comic ability, as he proved in "A Bedtime Story" a couple of years earlier, but not in this turkey.Very claustrophobic for the first hour of the movie with the scenes mostly taking place in Brando's luxury cabin, with he and Loren running madly from room to room like idiots. The three stars are for Chaplin's brief appearance, Tippi Hedren's dramatic performance and, of course, the lovely music composed by Chaplin himself. Indeed, Petula Clark had a number one hit with "This is My Song" derived from the love theme in it, even though apparently Petula hated the song. To sum up, viewer beware.