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Beloved Infidel (1959)
Not so Great Scott
Like Dylan's Mr Jones, I've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books and indeed came to this movie having just watched the same director, Henry King's succeeding movie to this, an adaptation of FSF's "Tender is the Night". This one of course puts the real-life F Scott front and centre in a dramatisation of Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham's memoir of their three and a half-year love affair which ended with the writer's sudden death at the age of only 40 when he was halfway through writing his hoped-for comeback novel "The Last Tycoon".
This too then, is a very glossy and it seemed to me highly melodramatic production. It's always tough to see your heroes act like heels, especially when Fitzgerald cracks his lover one across the jaw in a drunken, jealous rage, making it harder, for at least this viewer, much more than Graham herself, to forgive them. It's also somewhat jarring to see her go back to him after this, even if that's what the ever-dutiful woman often did back then in domestic bust-ups.
It being the late 50's and the industry still to fully expiate the stultifying Production Code from the Studio System, it's difficult to show the full extent of the passion which must have ruled such a tempestuous relationship. Instead, stars Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr have to make do with words, lots of them and often using overheated phrases which sound quite old-fashioned and off-putting today. Yes, I concede that was Fitzgerald's writing style to some extent but he was never as florid in print as the words he's given to speak here.
Peck reportedly hated his own performance and it's plain to see why. For a start, he in no way physically resembles the real Fitzgerald and I struggled to feel any heat from him. He also doesn't do a convincing drunk, a definite drawback when the writer's alcoholism drives much of the narrative. Kerr I also think acts rather one-dimensionally in the Graham part although I can concede that she at least looks a bit like her role model.
The sets are lovely, as are the fashions but elsewhere you can't get away from Franz Waxman's omnipresent musical score which adds a few more unnecessary suds to this already rather soapy movie, even if it is based on the lives of two famous, near contemporary celebrities, at least at the time the movie was released.
Graham wrote her book, on which the film was based, to put the record straight on the doomed writer's final years and director King, through a glass brightly, clearly supports that vision but the film jis over-earnest, lacks dramatic tension and stubbornly refused to grab my attention. I hate to think what Fitzgerald would have made of the over-sentimental finish especially when the heavenly choir pipes up with the mawkish title song.
Beautiful to look at it may have been but I'm damned if it moved me much.
Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods (2024)
Harrods Horror Stories
It's so difficult to review a programme like this which has been all over the British news since it was broadcast on BBC2 only a few days ago. What it is, of course, as the title makes clear, is a no-holds barred exposé of the predatory sexual habits of the recently deceased Egyptian billionaire businessman Mohammed Al-Fayed, one-time owner of Harrods of London and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, chairman of Fulham football club and of course the father of Dodi, who died in the same car-crash as his then girl-friend Diana, Princess of Wales.
Even during his life, there were allegations of sexual impropriety against this obviously very powerful man which while they occasionally got hinted about on television, made their way into print or even found their way to official complaints to the police, somehow never resulted in any charges being made against him, far less any criminal conviction. He is of course the latest wealthy and powerful male to be exposed like this, people like Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Cosby and Jimmy Savile (although like the latter, he got to die before his deviant acts came to light) all come to mind plus, as I write, the current accusations directed at Abercrombie and Fitch owner Mike Jeffries are likewise all over the news.
The programme presents several women, obviously now in middle-age, with the platform to finally unburden themselves of their awful experiences at quite literally the hands of Al-Fayed and hopefully to some degree by coming forward with their testimonies, to achieve some degree of closure for themselves. Although he naturally can't now be tried for his crimes, for one thing, the admissions, apologies and financial settlements made subsequently by Harrods' owners as good as confirm the veracity of pretty much all that's stated here. Certainly there's not one person who stands up to defend his character with none of his immediate circle of family, friends or business acquaintances (I presume they were approached) prepared to stand up for him.
Every female victim tells her own similar tale to the camera, some bravely doing so straight to camera, some with their faces partially concealed, some speak off-camera with their voices distorted and others have their parts played and lines spoken by actresses. All their stories have a sordid similarity to them, pretty young girls identified by Al-Fayad usually on the shop floor, invited to his plush apartments in Park Lane where he would attempt to force himself on them. One particularly creepy and grisly aspect revealed was Al Fayed requiring the targeted young women submit themselves to an invasive medical examination obviously to ensure they were "clean" enough for him. Four have stated they were raped by him while many others have come forward to say that they were subject to serious sexual assaults, with really no doubt at all that all have undoubtedly been psychologically scarred by the experience.
Being incredibly rich, Al-Fayed could deflect attention away from any threat of discovery by for one thing employing the similarly disgraced publicist Max Clifford to make the charges go away or by putting himself in the public eye in a positive light, associating himself with Diana or carrying out other publicity stunts like appearing on trashy TV shows acting the fool or squiring Michael Jackson around London. He even recently got a whole episode of "The Crown" named after him which again showed him in a very sympathetic, patrician light.
The plain truth seems to be that like the other members of the Rogues Gallery mentioned above, he too was a sexual deviant, hiding in plain sight under the cloak of respectability, showing once again that if you're rich and powerful enough you can often get away with heinous acts like this.
My only criticism of the programme would be its interviewing past reporters employed at the time with the now discontinued scandal-sheet the "News of the World" newspaper and the participation of a film-maker partner of one of the victims which seemed a little self-serving to me.
Still, this story is one which has rightfully been brought to full public awareness and one can only hope that it helps each and every one of Al Fayed's victims to cope with and ultimately move on from what must have been an awful experience for each and everyone of them.
One wonders what the next major reveal of this type will be although I personally could hazard one or two guesses...
Carrie (1952)
Carrie Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Undoubtedly the lesser-known of the two films bearing the same title, this William Wyler-directed film is based on a Theodore Dreisler novel I haven't read yet but certainly intend to.
A dark, intense period melodrama, the compelling story sees Jennifer Jones in the title role as the pretty smalltown girl who decides to try her luck in the big city of Chicago. To put a roof over her head after first being eased out of her sister's house and then unluckily losing her job, she has to compromise herself by moving in with Eddie Albert's cash-splashing flash-harry Charles Drouet character. When he takes her to the fanciest restaurant in town, the perspective of the film changes as we're introduced to its middle-aged maitre D, Lawrence Olivier's Mr George Hurstwood, on the face of it a solid citizen and trusted employee of the restaurant owner himself. He's attracted to Carrie's winsome beauty and soon falls for her completely to the extent that he wants to take her away with him. But what's that rattling away in his closet? Yes, he too isn't playing the girl straight and has hidden from her his admittedly loveless marriage to Miriam Hopkins as his vindictive possessive wife and their young son.
Desperate to make a life with Carrie and thwarted in his attempt to get a divorce and financial settlement from his cruel wife, George succumbs to temptation and turns thief, although with the ultimate aim of paying back what he's stolen.
So the unlikely couple move out of town but George's past inevitably catches up with him and their fortunes sink as he struggles to find gainful employment. Reduced to living in poverty, their relationship comes under increasing strain down the years, he feeling the guilt of reducing them to penury but she too blaming herself for being the root cause of his troubles.
Here the film moves into "A Star is Born" territory, although of course the novel came first, as George completes his downward spiral just as Carrie's star unexpectedly rises when she takes to the stage and becomes a success, but fate isn't finished with the pair yet as the film moves towards its inevitable downbeat ending...
Wyler is very much at home in setting the scene in bustling turn-of-the-century Chicago and in delineating the inherent tragedy in the story, even if the Hays Code dictated a different ending from that in the book, although it is strongly hinted at in the final scene. Olivier is excellent as the lovestruck old man who'll do anything to try to keep his new love, even with everything stacked against him. Albert and Hopkins too offer fine support in their very different roles. At first I felt Jones was miscast as the babe-in-the-woods Carrie but as the film progressed, I believed she grew into the part and in the end convinced me of her character's underlying goodwill and love for her beaten-down husband.
Beautifully filmed throughout in black and white, I particularly favoured the extensive tracking dolly-shot picking out George's one-amongst-many slop-house accommodation and also savoured the pathos depicted in the last ten minutes of the movie which are heartbreakingly sad.
A relative failure at the box office, Wyler himself felt in hindsight that the film's unremitting bleakness wasn't what the more affluent audiences of 50's America wanted to see but as they say, into each life some rain must fall and looked at now, I personally believe it to be one of his most moving and rewarding pictures which is saying a lot.
The Outfit (2022)
Tailor for Sale or Rent
I was attracted to this movie by its synopsis which told me the action was set in mid-1950's Chicago. Well, yes it is but apart from the final shot which pans up to the city skyline you wouldn't know it as instead everything occurs in almost real time within the confines of Mark Rylance's tailor's, sorry, in his own words make that a cutter's shop.
He works there with Mable, his young female assistant (Zoey Deutsch) where they both look out for each other, both obviously standing in for family members missing from their own lives. Well settled in the city, we soon learn that Rylance's character "English", as everyone calls him, has made the acquaintance of an ageing, local gang boss, Irishman Boyle, (Simon Russell-Beale) who as well as favouring English with his custom, also uses his internal mailbox as a drop off point for passing on undercover messages.
English's back story is that he ended up in the Windy City after losing his wife and daughter in a fire in his native London where he learned his trade on Savile Row. He's at pains to keep his nose clean and stay out of trouble and tries to do the same for Mable who has her own ambitions to better herself abroad, although the fact that she appears to have fallen in with the gang boss's son, Dylan O'Brien's Richie presents a complication.
Still, English tries hard to keep his head down but as usual trouble doesn't bother to knock if it's looking for you and sure enough everything kicks off when Richie turns up at English's shop late at night bleeding from a gunshot wound. In tow with him is a fellow gangster, Johnny Flynn's more experienced and much more ruthless Francis. There's a Magoffin of an incriminating tape wanted us much by the rival black-French Lafontaine gang, the FBI and the main gang in town known as the Outfit. What ensues is a long dark night of the soul which will produce some surprising revelations and won't end well for everyone.
From a relatively slow beginning the movie plays out its intricately plotted narrative, knowing just when to introduce a surprise development the audience's way. With the action almost wholly contained within the four walls of the shop, the viewer is forced to sit up, pay attention and listen to every word so as not to lag behind.
I was reminded of the early work of David Mamet with the tight plotting, black humour and concise dialogue and I also detected nods to Hitchcock, particularly "Rope", with its confined set, all-in-one-night action and of course the secret contained in the wooden bureau on which the gang boss's big goon is sitting.
Rylance is excellent as the not-so-simple suit-and-tie man but he's excellently supported by everyone else I've mentioned above in the cast.
A cool, stylised neo-noir a cut above the rest.
The Persuaders!: Take Seven (1971)
Like Sister and Brother
Another easy-going adventure for the debonair and dapper duo of Brett and Danny as the judge prompts them into a case of disputed inheritance, impersonation and of course, a pretty girl, there's always a pretty girl.
A rich young heiress about to inherit her fortune survives a murder attempt from a young man claiming to be her long-lost brother whose existence, if verified would see her lose our on a £7 million fortune.
Written by the prolific television scriptwriter Terry Nation, this wasn't the most enlivening of the Persuaders episodes I've seen, with a twist I called well in advance of its actually occurring. Curtis and Moore are as genial as ever together with neither required to exert themselves much this time. As usual, allowances have to be made for the casual sexism of the time.presented as comedy as Danny makes a play for Brett's Impossibly glamorous cleaning lady who moves to the background music of "The Stripper" and at another point even reprises the old "Walk this way" joke behind a pretty secretary which went out with the Marx Brothers.
Otherwise there are some nice location shots of early 70's London with Brett scooting about in his plush car although his wheels have definitely aged better than his so-called designer clothes, even if they were supposedly dreamed up by Roger himself.
This is one episode however which could have benefitted from a little more dressing-up itself.
The Teacher: Episode #2.4 (2024)
School for Scandal
The second series of "The Teacher" tells a new tale of a teacher in trouble, this time popular art teacher Kara Tointon's Dani. We learn quickly that she's in a loveless marriage so it's no real surprise when on a school outing in the wilds where she's one of the supervising teachers, she hooks up with another teacher Jimmy, coincidentally her husband's best mate and a fellow teacher also along for the trip. As luck would have it, when she sneaks away from the kids to have a romp with him, one of the teenage kids in her charge is killed.
Over four episodes with more twists and turns than a coiled spring, more red herrings are strewn the viewers' way than at an overworked fishmongers, but eventually Dani finds her way to the truth as justice is tied up in a nice big bow just in time for the final credits.
Don't come either here or series one if you're looking for anything even remotely credible, never mind realistic in the characters, relationships, situations or even teacher-pupil relations depicted. The plotting is contrived in the extreme with every episode throwing up new reveals either in the narrative or in the characters' motivations so that by the end, the one person who hasn't been considered a suspect up to that point emerges from the pack like a 100-1 shot in the Grand National to enter the frame.
Despite having to contend with an occasional overload of unlikely and unrealistic dialogue, this drama at least made me sit up and pay attention, unlike most of my own actual days in school and I have to admit that even though I didn't see the resolution coming, I at least appreciated the way that Dani discovered the truth in a time-honoured "Eureka!" moment of which Miss Marple would have been proud.
Overall I'd grade this particular drama as a pass but certainly with no gold stars for excellence.
Tender Is the Night (1962)
Love and Hate me Tender
F Scott Fitzgerald was about the first author I read in my young adulthood and I well remember devouring all his novels and short stories at that time. I also have a strong memory of watching a major BBC TV adaptation of "Tender is the Night" in the early 80's starring Peter Strauss and Mary Steenburgen, so I was keen to watch this 1962 adaptation of what is widely considered to be Fitzgerald's second best novel behind the immortal "Gatsby".
The story here concerns the gradual disintegration of the relationship between the brilliant young psychiatric doctor Dick Diver and his beautiful but troubled heiress wife Nicole. The couple with their two young children lead a peripatetic lifestyle amongst the beautiful people of Continental Europe, flitting between Paris with its expensive hotels and bars and the lovely scenery of Zurich where Dick ends up working and Nicole regularly returns for ongoing treatment of her deteriorating mental health.
The modern phrase "24 Hour Party People" could have been invented for them as no matter the time or place, it's party time with these two and their seemingly traveling entourage of so-called friends. As the story progresses, we see Nicole apparently regaining her equilibrium as Dick, up till now the strong one of the two, starts to unravel in the face of professional and personal disappointment. He turns to the bottle and as usual it's a one-sided battle with the bottle winning. With interference from Nicole's interfering, purse-string-holding sister who bears the irritating name Baby and a smooth as gelatine Italian Romeo in forever pursuit of his wife, can Dick pull himself together to retain her love and keep his family together?
Obviously as a Fitzgerald devotee, I really wanted to like this adaptation but somehow it never really gripped me despite the wonderful sets indicating the louche, luxurious lifestyle of the idle rich after the first World War strolling about palatial mansion-houses, driving vintage classic cars, wearing the sharpest and most glamorous clothing and naturally drinking only the very best alcohol at the time, of course, when Prohibition was still the law back home.
I just didn't feel the connection between Robards and Jones. Robards in particular just doesn't seem dashing or handsome enough to peel off the part of the irresistibly intelligent good doctor well I also just didn't feel that Jones had the capacity to pull off such a complex character as Nicole. The direction I found rather old-fashioned in execution almost as if it had been filmed in the static, unimaginative style of a director still stuck in the actual 20's.
Beautiful to look at but rather vacuous in content with rather flat performances up front, I think I'll try harder to look out that BBC dramatisation which made such an impression on me all those years ago.
Platform 7 (2023)
Sad Lisa
This four-part drama with a supernatural element to it is set almost exclusively around an unnamed train station where a young woman named Lisa apparently committed suicide a year ago. Her restless spirit however can't recall the circumstances of her death and so roams and indeed is trapped within the confines of the station as she struggles to restore her memory. When she witnesses another, this time deliberate suicide at the same station, the tear of the dead man's apparently grieving daughter magically frees her from the station enabling her to now return to her old haunts (no pun intended) to finally piece together the sequence of events which led to her demise.
Before she does that, she has another mystery to clear up as the ghost of the other suicide is also hanging around the station. This is an apparently crotchety middle-aged man who shuns any attempt at friendship with her. It soon becomes clear why he's as cold as he is as we learn the true nature of his relationship with his daughter who returns to the site, not to mourn but instead to rage at him for his sexual abuse of her as a child which has scarred her psychologically.
The main story however focuses on Lisa gradually recovering her lost memories and finally learning exactly how and why she died that fateful night. We see her return to her first meeting with her young doctor boyfriend an encounter which soon blossoms into romance and sees him move into her flat. But why did she fall out with her best friend just before she died and what exactly does the rather shifty young doctor colleague and ex-flatmate of her boyfriend know and seem to want to tell her?
With the help of an eager young transport policeman, the truth is finally revealed but just when you think this ghost has busted the case by the end of episode 3, there's more work for her to do in the next episode to rescue the next victim, ensure justice is done and naturally bring about closure for all including herself.
It has to be said that things really only kick off in the final episode when sad-eyed Lisa, who for three episodes has been padding about in her pyjamas and slippers, finds a way to manifest herself and make things happen without quite becoming visible. It's amusing in the end to watch her toy with her prey in a reversal of roles although some sensitive souls might carp at her ultimate victory in breaking the spirit of her nemesis to the point that they end up in an asylum for the mentally ill.
Still, this ghostly fantasy, far-fetched as it was, managed to happily remind me of some of my favourite ITC shows from my youth when growing up in the 60's although naturally in today's world, it stops along the way to make big points about child abuse and coercive behaviour towards women.
A refreshing change from the more conventional crime shows and police procedurals of the day, while it may not have been absolutely phantasmic, it's certainly worth at least the ghost of a chance.
Arthur the King (2024)
Dogged Persistence
Cards on the table, my critical faculties went out the window with this one. Just over a year ago, we lost our beloved Working Cocker Spaniel called Flip, so there was never really a snowball's chance my wife and I were going to get through this movie without being moved to tears. And so it proved, although to do it fair, there are actually two stories here.
The first concerns Mark Wahlberg's Michael character, a long-time competitor in the annual world championship endurance race, an incredible sport, if you can call it that, taking in climbing, cycling, cross-country hiking, running and kayaking over a five day period with the minimum of rest and only minimal food and drink intake along the way. Humiliated on social media over a failed previous attempt in a race he's never one, he gets the bug again and looks to corral the necessary sponsorship and also garner three teammates to try one more time.
Each teammate comes with some individual personal issues fuelling their initial reluctance but Michael is nothing if not persuasive and so the gang of four turns up in Costa Rica hoping for glory. Soon though the Fab Four becomes the Famous Five, when a stray, badly mistreated dog adopts Michael en route and starts to follow him and his team day and night, up hill and down dale over the tortuous route. Taking risky shortcuts along the way, the team plus Arthur, as they've christened the mutt, gradually force themselves into contention despite one of their number suffering badly from dehydration. Arthur more than pays his way by instinctively alerting a gung-ho team member to a life-threatening peril and shows remarkable fidelity and courage in keeping up with his adopted teammates no matter what the terrain throws at them.
Will the team win the race that individually means so much to them? Will Arthur make it to the race's end with them and more importantly survive his ordeal intact even as we see the poor thing suffering incredible pain along the way?
You'll just have to watch to find out. Obviously the movie makes no pretence about unashamedly tugging at the viewers' heartstrings but if you're crazy about dogs the way we are, I'm sure you'll find this an uplifting, heartwarming feature, well acted by the principals but none of them can capture the charisma of their four-legged friend who will steal your heart the same way he does his scenes throughout the feature.
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased): For the Girl Who Has Everything (1969)
The Ghost is Clear
On hearing of the news earlier this week of the death of the British actor Kenneth Cope, I felt had to go back and watch one of the episodes of the classic late 60's fantasy series in which he starred, "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)". Only a day or so before he passed away, I was chatting to my old mum who reminded me it was my favourite programme as a child and I wouldn't argue with that assessment. It had a great theme tune and even for the times, a highly unusual premise - a dead detective returns as a ghost to help his former partner investigate unusual cases and I couldn't wait for each episode to be broadcast.
This one was well up to the mark, written and directed as it was by ITC regulars ("The Saint","The Avengers", "The Champions" et.al), Ian Broadley and Cyril Frankel respectively. In it, Mike Pratt's Jeff is engaged by a professional ghostbuster to assist him on a case where a wealthy woman is apparently being haunted by a ghost in the castle where she lives. Her new, younger husband, her seventh in fact, is however having an affair with a younger model and is thus set up as the prime suspect in her scarification, especially after the "ghost" pays her a visit and the ghost-hunter inexplicably dies.
But all is not as it seems as Jeff and Marty, with a little help from an elderly tea-lady blessed with the gift of second-sight enabling her to see and talk to Marty, much to his amazement, refuse to stand down the investigation. When the boys eventually crack the case and Marty thinks he has someone new to talk to in the old lady, there's one more amusing twist in the tale before the final credits roll.
As ever, it's fun to spot some familiar faces in the cast, most notably this time Lois "Miss Moneypenny" Maxwell and Carol "Monty Python" Cleveland. What really carries the day though is the easy interplay between Jeff and Marty, the former a little severe and tetchy at times with Marty by contrast, appreciably brighter if certainly more cowardly.
Mike Pratt died far too young at age only 45, but at least his old chum Kenneth Cope stayed around far longer before donning the white suit at the grand old age of 93.
A nice episode of a great show.
RIP Mr Cope.
The Persuaders!: Powerswitch (1971)
Switch Off
A rather ho-hum adventure this time for Brett and Danny, the friendly Persuaders. It starts well enough, with our two intrepid heroes on a water skiing excursion presumably on the French Riviera (what a life!) in a sequence which became incorporated into the regular opening titles. The jjolting surprise though is that after Brett falls into the water, he comes up with a dead, bikini-clad young girl in his arms.
Naturally our esteemed duo decide to take on the case especially as the local chief of police seems to demonstrate a distinct indifference to the girl's curious demise. We learn she's a go-go dancer and when her pretty young friend and fellow-dancer Annette Andre, late of "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased") appears on the scene also demanding answers, especially given her maintenance that the dead girl was a champion swimmer, Danny and Brett go their separate ways to solve the mystery. For some inexplicable reason, Laurence Naismith's appears to be in on the Persuaders' involvement, although he's not seen again in the rest of the programme flagging up a continuity hitch somewhere along the line..
Anyway both their paths lead to a wealthy businessman, his wife and right hand man and an elaborately muddled case of substitution designed to cover-up the main-man's unexpected demise. It's all rather confusing with not a lot of action to help it along barring a less-than-riveting sabotaged car careering down a hill near the end.
Curtis and Moore demonstrate their easy bonhomie which was certainly needed to help carry this rather mundane adventure directed by Basil Deardon who by contrast did such a good job on the contemporary Moore feature film "The Man who Haunted Himself". Besides the lovely Miss Andre this one also features well known British TV faces of the time, Terence Alexander and Lionel Blair, whose brief appearance sadly doesn't give us a clue.
Still, it's worth watching to the bitter end to see our Rog dance "The Chicken", although trust me there's nothing even remotely funky about the shapes he cuts!
The Servant (1963)
Master and Servant
The first of three director / writer collaborations between Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter "The Servant" is a dark, unsettling movie dealing with class, control and ultimately, role reversal. In it, James Fox's Tony, at first a cocksure, young man-about-town just about to make a killing in a property speculation in Brazil, moves into a plush city flat and decides he needs a man-servant, as you do, or certainly did in those days. So up pops Dirk Bogarde's super-smooth Hugo Barrett, whose urbane, deferential demeanour immediately wins Tony over and gets him the gig.
But this is no cosy Wooster and Jeeves relationship as Barrett makes himself ever more indispensable to his new boss, despite Tony's posh girlfriend Susan taking an instant dislike to him. Soon enough Barrett sweet-talks Tony into employing his demure-but-dim "sister", Sarah Miles's Vera as the new house-maid. She also moves in to the house where Barrett offers her as bait in a honey-trap to Tony, which he can't resist. When Tony next discovers the two in bed together, his mind immediately goes to incest until Barrett siezes his moment to reveal his true relationship with Vera and so take advantage of his boss's shattered psyche.
From there to the end it gets really weird with Vera banished but Barrett still in situ only now he's assumed mastery of both the house and his erstwhile employer. We see them playing childish games with one another in the now neglected house and having late meals together in the gloom in scenes which have a distinctly homo-erotic element to them. There's just time for return visits from both Susan and Vera but Tony's fate is sealed and there's no doubt in the end who has won their game.
Although, I found the ending to be powerful, I didn't quite connect with its ambiguity. It seems to me that Barrett, whose upper-class manners, appearance and indeed accent slip further towards the gutter with almost every passing moment as he reveals His true nature, bears a Mephistophelean influence, corrupting everyone he meets. Bogarde plays this canker of a character with particular relish, one of the best examples I've seen of being cast against type. He is supported excellently by Fox in one of his earliest roles, a part eerily reminiscent of his immersive participation in Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's remarkable "Performance" a few years later. Craig, best known to me from her future stereotypical TV roles as a befuddled mother in family-friendly sitcoms, is a revelation as the outmaneuvered Susan and Miles completes the gang of four with deserved plaudits as the provocative Vera.
Like I said I think the film got a little bit too art-housey for me towards the end, nonetheless it's unusual and gripping film, tautly and imaginatively directed in stark black and white by Losey, surely stands as one of the best coming from a very productive era for British movie making.
Maxine (2022)
Carr Trade-in
This 3-part drama told the shocking story of the 2002 Soham murders of two young ten-year-old girls from the viewpoint of the evil murderer Ian Huntley's girlfriend Maxine Carr. She it was who, even though she knew and taught the two girls in her job as a classroom assistant, initially gave him the alibi which kept him away from police scrutiny until the growing suspicion against him grew too strong, resulting in them both being convicted at trial, he for the murders and she for covering up for him.
The $64000 question here of course is did she suspect or worse, know all along that he was the perpetrator? Huntley has since claimed that she did and certainly the zeal with which she cleaned the house where he committed his vile misdeeds and covered up for him in other ways certainly casts doubts on her own story that she loved him almost blindly and so completely believed that he was incapable of the killings. She seemed not to know all the details of his criminal past which as we later learn involved a pattern of sexual attacks on very young girls, instead preferring to believe his claims of police victimisation even in the face of his own jealous, possessive behaviour to her, to the point where we see him strike her on the face during one of their many heated arguments.
Eventually, when they're separately incarcerated awaiting trial, the scales fall from her eyes and she turns on him, her testimony no doubt helping to convict him although she was rightly convicted of obstructing justice and herself sentenced to jail for three years, going on to serving half her sentence. On release, the powers-that-be provided her with a change of identity and she is now reportedly living a new life in anonymity somewhere, it's said, with a husband and child.
Personally speaking I was somewhat uneasy with both the title of this programme and its slant on the story as detracting from the heinous crimes committed and her crucial part in withholding valuable evidence which would undoubtedly have led to a quicker resolution and in so doing reduced the families' torment. At least the programme shows discretion over the actual murders, with no attempt at their recreation, a silent camera going up the stairs to the bathroom where Huntley likely killed Holly and Jessica, leaving it to the viewer's imagination as to what happened next. Neither of the two children or their families are shown as being portrayed at any stage, which again could be construed as being disrespectful to their memories by highlightibg instead a wholly undeserving person's part in concealing one of the most notorious crimes in recent British history.
As ever with productions like this the drama requires the creation and insertion of fictitious characters and scenes to "bolster" the narrative as we witness the different approaches of two competing journalists on the case, one a local reporter shown as the rather obvious caring, sympathetic father of a young daughter the same age as Holly and Jessica whose sympathetic, matter-of-fact approach is contrasted with that of a national tabloid female reporter out to sensationalise the story.
The lead performances by the actors playing Carr and Huntley are well-drawn with both bearing strong physical resemblances to their real-life counterparts while the direction itself was skilful and relatively subtle in faithfully following the timeline of events as they occurred.
Whether it was the correct aspect from which to tell this horrifying story, I remain to be convinced as I can't help but wonder how firstly the parents and other relatives of the dead children and also the real Carr in her new life would react to what they saw here. I personally suspect the former with dissatisfaction and the latter perhaps with unmerited vindication ...
The Persuaders!: Someone Like Me (1971)
Doubling Down on Murder
This episode of "The Persuaders" focuses on Roger Moore's Lord Brett Sinclair character. Not for the first time, he thinks he's coming to the aid of a pretty young damsel in distress, only to get a knock on the head for his trouble and waken up to find he can't quite remember what's happened to him. He's now in a strange country house, apparently in the care of a doctor and nurse who tell him he's been injured in an accident but as he gradually pulls himself together, he's able to escape when an disorderly orderly trips and falls downstairs, killing himself in the process, coincidentally just when the doctor and nurse have temporarily absented themselves from the scene.
So Brett meets up with an initially sceptical Danny and learns that he's actually been out of commission for a week, then goes to his doctor who can't find any evidence of physical trauma barring the hit on his head and where they've been injecting him in his arm. Some photos he's picked up at the scene lead him to suspect he may have a surgically-adjusted double running about programmed to carry out some evil deed, which emerges as the planned murder of a highly secretive millionaire friend of Brett's who's come to town to do some business and also show off his pretty young bride, shades of Rupert Murdoch. So is a Brett-double or as Danny suspects, merely a programmed Brett running loose out there tasked with assassination? It's all up to Danny as he races across town to save the day, but will he make it on time...
This inventive episode, written by Dalek creator Terry Nation is probably more reminiscent of an episode of "Man in a Suitcase", "Department S" or "The Champions" which is however absolutely fine by me. The plot borrows liberally from the classic movie "The Manchurian Candidate" and also nods to Moore's recent appearance in Basil Deardon's excellent thriller "The Man Who Haunted Himself" as Moore and Curtis continue their easy relationship as competitive friends who always seem to end up in some intrigue or other, whether it's in pursuit of desirable young females or nasty, plotting villains. It's always fun seeing them in a fist-fight with one another as happens here too.
A really good episode and don't fast forward past John Barry's brilliant theme tune which perfectly evokes the class of the whole programme.
King and Country (1964)
Spoils of War
The fourth collaboration between emigré American director Joseph Losey and the distinguished British actor Dirk Bogarde was this unflinching anti-war drama set in World War One.
The setting is the trenches of Passchendaele in 1917, where the British army is encamped in conditions of absolute squalor. The ground is sodden mud, there's so little light it appears to be forever night and the rain is incessant. The group of young squaddies stationed there is isolated, scared and depressed as they struggle to keep mind, body and soul together for the task ahead, likely another pointless ordered advance to try to gain thirty yards of mud which will see many of them either die or get injured, never mind the mental toll exacted on them in the process.
As we join the inaction, Bogarde is the very proper CO Captain Hargreaves,reluctantly assigned to defend a young soldier accused of desertion, Tom Courtenay's Private Gamp. At the height of the fighting, Gamp simply walked off the battlefield with the idea of somehow making his way back home to his wife and mother. Initially condescending to and almost dismissive of his client, Hargreaves starts to understand how an innocent young man's will can be shattered by the trauma of war and tries to make the case at the court-martial against the Private's seemingly inevitable execution.
At a makeshift subterranean court with the rain constantly pattering outside, Hargreaves eloquently puts forward the case for mercy but this of course is in the days before any understanding or allowance is made for PTSD especially when the oafish army doctor on site, played by Leo McKern acts as the main prosecution witness but nevertheless Hargreaves' pleading seems to touch a nerve with the presiding officers giving Gamp hope that he might be spared.
There's an inevitability however about the eventual conclusion but even so, the final action of the movie is still a shocking one, just as it was no doubt meant to be.
I doubt I've seen a bleaker, harsher movie than this. The film is inevitably shot in monochrome with Losey occasionally cutting to actual photographs of the dead and dying from the actual war itself. He brilliantly creates a hell-on-earth of unimaginable filth and desecration where the young soldiers face a daily struggle preserving their sanity as much as keeping themselves physically safe.
Bogarde and Courtenay are both wholly convincing in their roles but are well supported by the ensemble cast. It is possible to see that the piece was originally a play and just once or twice Losey inserts scenes which are contrary to the super-realism exhibited elsewhere, but this must stand as one of the strongest anti-war movies I've seen with its ahead-of-its-time depiction of the physical and mental hardships for which totally unprepared young men either unknowingly volunteered or were forcibly conscripted, for the ragged glory of king and country.
The Fugitive (1993)
Beat the Chasers
Quite the task I'd have thought condensing a 120-episode iconic TV series into a two hour feature but director Andrew Davis pulls it off with aplomb in this accomplished contemporary action thriller starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.
The action is updated to the present and relocated to Chicago where Ford's Grizzly Adams-resembling Dr David Kimble returns home from a plush fund-raiser to find his wife under attack in their home by a man wearing a prosthetic right arm. The perpetrator escapes, leaving Kimble on the scene cradling his slain wife only for him to be charged and convicted of her violent death. Sentenced to death, his outlook is grim with no one outside of his immediate circle of friends and colleagues believing his story about the real killer.
However when the prison bus transporting him crashes after an attempted escape attempt by another convict, Kimble sees his chance and goes on the run which is when the fun really begins. With the single-minded "I don't bargain" US Marshal Sam Gerard and his team right behind him. Kimble shaves off his beard, cuts his hair and changes its colour as he returns to Chicago to track down the real murderer and so we get two chases in one, Kimble's own methodical detection as he gradually uncovers not only the killer but the motive and mastermind behind the attack, all the time staying just one step ahead of the obsessive Gerard and his own instinctive pursuit.
The non-stop action includes some terrific white-knuckle sequences, like Kimble's hairsbreadth escape from an oncoming train or his leap off the top of a dam into a roaring torrent below which are effectively contrasted with the numerous earth-bound occasions when he only just escapes bumping into Gerard, most prominently at the city's annual St Patrick's Day Parade but best of all in a less showy manner when it seems they must meet on a city-building staircase only for Davis to employ some Hitchcockian sleight-of-hand to deftly conclude the scene.
I'm not the biggest supporter of Ford's acting ability but he's capable enough here and certainly throws himself into what must have been a physically demanding part. Jones is much better as his relentless pursuer and fully deserved the Academy's recognition of his laconic performance.
All in all, while my eyes did frequently pop at the numerous super-coincidences I was asked to swallow along the way and a feeling that it could have been edited down a little tighter by some 20 minutes or so, this for me was a fine mystery thriller, reminiscent of those classic Hitchcock "wrong-man-on-the-run" movies like "The 39 Steps" and "North by Northwest" to name but two. And comparisons don't get much better than that in my book.
No Way Out (1987)
Face Race
This gripping, fast-paced neo-noir political thriller has more twists and turns than a hula-hoop test factory. Starring Kevin Costner in his big break-out role, he's a highly-decorated U. S naval commander we initially see wounded and being interrogated in a remote house. About what is soon revealed as the viewer is flash-backed six months to the start of a tumultuous sequence of events involving sex, murder and political intrigue.
Costner's Tom Farrell is called in by Gene Hackman's senior government minister David Brice to uncover the killer of a glamorous woman, Sean Young's Susan Atwell, who in fact was Brice's mistress. Things change dramatically for Farrell when he learns that the dead woman was his new lover and when he later recalls seeing Brice enter Susan's flat after him the night she died, he deduces ergo, that Brice was her killer. See what I mean about the twists and turns?
Farrell is required to report to Brice's P. A, coincidentally an old college friend of his, Scott Pritchard played by Will Patton, who to save his boss's skin, concocts a plan to conveniently divert the blame for the murder onto a long-suspected near-mythical Russian sleeper agent called Yuri in an echo of the infamous Profumo Scandal in Britain decades before. Pritchard doesn't suspect that Tom knows the real killer was Brice or that Tom had met up with Susan on her final night alive but when the crime-scene discloses an undeveloped picture she took of Groves that night, he tasks a technical wizard, coincidentally another old chum of Farrell, to bring the picture to life, pixel by agonising pixel.
So the race, or more particularly races are on. First Farrell races to warn Susan's friend Nina, played by Iman, of an impending visit from two Secret Service assassins sent to kill her by Pritchard, necessitating a frantic car and foot chase which ends up with Farrell shaking them off just in the nick by boarding a Subway train in a scene reminiscent of the classic chase between Aldo Rey and Hackman in "The French Connection". But his bigger concern is that developing computer image of what he knows is his face and which will completely blow his cover and implicate him in Susan's murder. Not only that but Pritchard also produces two witnesses to Farrell's trysts with Susan and brings them on site to do a room by room face-check of everyone in the building. Will Farrell contradict the film title and somehow find a way out of his fraught situation...?
Naff 80's musical soundtrack apart, I really enjoyed the movie with strong performances in particular from the three male leads and pulsating direction by Roger Donaldson, right up until the the final exposition which for me was one turnabout too far. Nevertheless this was an excellent contemporary thriller evoking for me a number of the great New Hollywood thrillers of the early 70's starring the likes of Redford, Hoffman and Beatty.
The Claremont Murders (2023)
Justice Finally Prevails
This Australian-made production dramatised the events which led to the conviction of Bradley Edwards, known as the Claremont Killer. Told over two 90-minute episodes, the tragic disappearance in 1996 and 1997 of first one young girl and then soon afterwards the abduction, rape and murder of two other young women in the affluent Claremont area of Western Australia triggered a massive manhunt.
It seemed that the perpetrator waited until the small hours of the morning when the local clubs were emptying to pick up isolated females looking for a taxi home. Two detectives, a male and female partnership, pick up the case determined to solve it and soon arrive at a prime suspect who circumstances more than actual physical evidence put very much in the frame. This was in the early days of DNA and although some such evidence was found on the clothes and under the nails of one of the victims, there just wasn't enough concrete evidence to charge the suspect.
Time goes on, with years passing by, as we see the special unit initially set up to investigate the crimes wound down and eventually reach cold case status. However, advances in DNA and a deeper dig into the original evidence and other crimes in the area material at around the same time threw up a new suspect, Edwards. When he comes to trial, not by jury but by a presiding judge, it's up to the prosecution to build a sufficiently strong case to get the convictions they need after a twenty five year wait.
I found this to be a well-made if stylishly old-fashioned production sympathetically directed and well acted all the way down the cast. I was especially impressed by Aaron Glenane's playing of the sad-eyed, road-weary detective who's never quite givien up the ghost on the case who , his determination rekindled, joins the cold case team some 12 years after the first murder occurred.
Not being personally familiar with the case, I couldn't tell where the licence taken to fictionalise events which always happens in programmes like this begins. I suspect it may have been in needlessly introducing a hint of romance between the two detectives at one point and also in the prominent part given to them asxeell as to a persistent female reporter on the case. I did feel that the production could have been more critical of the initial police handling of the case which saw an innocent man for a time ceaselessly hounded by the police although he does at least get a personal apology when he's finally ruled out as a suspect
Nevertheless, this was a highly competent production which may just have been more easily digested if broken down into four shorter episodes but otherwise made for interesting and entertaining viewing.
Insomnia (2024)
Strife Begins at 40...?
Lucky Vicky McClure! As we join her in this 6-part Paramount psychological drama with vaguely supernatural overtones. She.may be closing in on her 40th birthday but her Emma is no a successful lawyer and about to become partner in a big firm, lives in a big detached house in the country and is happily married to her dependable, easygoing husband and bringing you their two kids an 18 year-old daughter and primary school-age son.
But her luck changes spectacularly when her free-spirited younger sister Phoebe, played by Leanne Best, re-enters her life to tell her their mother is dying in hospital. Mum has suffered for years from mental illness and was separated from her two daughters when they were very young. Seriously troubled, she's prone to writing out a series of seemingly random numbers and sleepwalking like an entranced Lady Macbeth. This culminates in a particular episode when she was stopped in the act of suffocating her youngest in her sleep until the infant Emma stopped her just in time.
As she's put into an institution, the mother tells Emma that she took has her "bad blood" and that it will out in time. Meanwhile, the two young girls are brought up in a care home where Emma too starts to write out the same numbers on the dormitory walls. There's a strange incident where it seems that the young Phoebe tries to drown her which leads to Emma being placed with another couple who have a daughter of their own...
Back in the present day, Emma now finds she's sleepwalking throughout and has returned to her numbers fixation at work. Just for good measure, her daughter Chloe is taking drugs and having her first serious affair and young son is starting to withdraw into himself, exhibiting mood-swings and is obsessively filling his exercise book with drawings of a "bad lady". Distracted, Emma accidentally knocks down a nurse at the hospital where her mum's being kept. Then her mum dies under suspicious circumstances and everything really kicks off from there.
Wildly over the top in construction and conception, you have to suspend disbelief in this crazy drama and try not to think of "Fatal Attraction" or "Single White Female" as you go. The last episode in particular throws every clichéd situation into the pot, including that one where the heroine races back to her family home to save her family having notified the police who of course finally turn up an eternity after she does and long after all the climactic action has played out and the big reveals going all the way back in time are made requiring the viewer to accept plot-jumps and coincidences bigger than a fleet of buses before it calms down at the very end...or does it?
McClure leads the cast through this silly stuff and nonsense where to my mind they all do a great job keeping their faces straight as they engage with every implausible plot-point thrown in front of them. I particularly commend McClure and Best for accomplishing this task as they explain the significance of the numbers to the viewers. It was all I could do to do the same but in the end, I decided to stop nitpicking and just surrender myself to the sheer daftness of it all.
U2: Rattle and Hum (1988)
U2, Me Nil
It's hard to deny that at the time U2 made this concert movie, they were the biggest band on the planet alongside maybe Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. How they chose to follow up their massively successful "The Joshua Tree" album is entirely up to them but they were certainly quick enough to take advantage of their new found celebrity to open doors that would be shut to most other acts. Thus we see them allowed to play one of their own songs in the recreated Sun Studio in Memphis and get a private guided tour of Gracelands itself, in the process even affording a casual viewer like me to see parts of the King's house, including his grave, I thought were off-limits to outsiders.
More than that, they get to write for and play a song with BB King but there are the also the appropriations they make from some of the musical giants in whose footsteps they obviously very much think they're now treading. The film opens with a sloppy version of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter," where Bono even flubs the lyric, later they do a similar job on Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", Himself omitting the important final line and inserting a real dumb, self-serving "Me, my red guitar and the truth" line, there's a brief burst of Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" and just to complete the set of 60's icons, they insert a couple of Rolling Stones songs into one of their own tunes.
The big question is therefore, is this pretension or is it homage? I like some of the band's music and like I said I can't deny their popularity at this stage in their career, but I don't put them in the same pantheon as their antecedents and also like I said, their cover versions are determinedly rockist and add nothing to the originals.
Filmed mostly in black and white just to further play up the iconography, it gets a bit wearing peeking through the gloom at the band. Some muted colour does eventually seep in as the film progresses but this is one film you won't need shades to watch.
Elsewhere off-stage, the band gets followed around in time-honoured fly-on-the-wall style, often backstage and try to respond soberly to their interviewer's questions but as you'd expect it's only Bono who has much to say and can do soeloquently.
He is of course a provocative and to some a divisive figure with as many thinking him a self-important bore as a courageous truth-teller. You see this split sharply delineated in the group's rendition of their controversial "Sunday Bloody Sunday" number which they coincidentally perform on the very day the IRA committed their horrific Remembrance Day bombing at Enniskillen, slaughtering 11 innocent people and injuring many more. He makes an emotive and compelling speech declaiming the IRA to a crowd probably sympathetic to the Republican cause but then throws it away with a cheap piece of showboating audience-participation.
Maybe their ultimate conceit was to fill out the bulk of their set with live renditions of most of the songs from their immediately preceding album - and then make a film and double-album about it. The performances are okay, but again they don't improve on the studio versions and I include in that an over-the-top take of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for" complete with the backing of an overcooked Harlem choir who seem to be under the misapprehension that shouting louder at something will somehow bring it closer to them.
The new songs include probably my favourite single of theirs, the freewheeling Diddley-stomp of "Desire" as well as the well-meaning tributes to BB King and Billie Holliday, before ending with "Pride in the Name of Love" with Bono encouraging the crowd to "Sing for Martin Luther King", which again had me cringing.
Probably for fans only, then and now, ultimately this movie comes across as a vanity project, a sort of what-we-did-on-our-holidays which maybe should have been retained for private viewing only.
The Persuaders!: The Time and the Place (1971)
Wilde about Brett
Just thought I'd pop in on a random episode of one of my favourite TV shows as a boy. Even at 11 years old I remember knowing it was a big deal that two big stars like Curtis and Moore were palling up for a light-hearted adventure series.
The title sequence was brilliant too, almost mirroring the twin achievements of each actor like their characters Lord Brett Sinclair and Danny Wilde, set to a superb John Barry theme tune.
This episode saw the two caught up in of all things a potential right-wing military coup, led by Ian Hednry's power-hungry titled Lord in a part perhaps based on controversial contemplary politician Enoch Powell. There's a pretty girl in there somewhere, (there's always a pretty girl in there somewhere!) but in the main Brett and Denny go through what they usually do, get kidnapped, get into fights and snipe away at each other before inevitably saving the day.
Of course watching a programme like this over 50 years on is a bit like opening a tank capsule, as you click the fashions, behaviours and cars of the day. One interesting aspect of this episode is that it was directed by Roger Moore standing in for the scheduled director Basil Deardon with whom he' ironically worked only recently in an excellent British made thriller "The Man who Haunted Himself". Roger does a modern competent job behind the camera with one or two neat touches hinting at some talent in that field.
Curtis and Moore's rapport seems easy and genuine which was really the making of the show. Yes, it's dated in places, but it's easy to park any mildly offending anachronisms and just be entertained by two good old pro's enjoying themselves.
Jackie Brown (1997)
Federals, Guns and Money
After listening to the interesting movies podcast "The Plot Thickens" season Pam Grier, (and what an interesting life she's led!) this Quentin Tarantino movie seemed the most attractive option for me to witness her work. I haven't watched any of her Blaxploitation heyday movies before, or actually any other of them, barring "Shaft", although I love the musical soundtracks they inspired, so this homage to the genre by QT seemed like the best way in, although I'm not the world's biggest Tarantino fan either and haven't seen many of his movies to date.
But I did enjoy the movie. For me it nailed the era in all its big-car, trash-talking, bad-fashion, randomly violent glory, if that's the right word, and yes it benefits from selecting the cream of the best music from the times as its soundtrack too, the latter avoiding big names of the time like Curtis, Stevie and Marvin to name but three in favour of prominently featured tracks by the likes of The Delfonics and Bloodstone.
Grier stars in the title role as the barely subsisting middle-aged air-stewardess working for a crummy airline, who out of financial need (and past experience obviously) is tempted back into being a mule for Samuel L Jackson's crazy-wigged, crazy-bearded gun-running overlord Ordell Robbie
Most of Robbie's suoer-stash is in Mexico and he wants to now bring it into the country to spend it, which is where Jackie comes in, only the plan goes awry when she's picked up by the Feds at the airport, Michael Keaton and Micheal Bowen. They want to use her to nail Ordell and start to pressurise her this way. Of course she's initially in jail on remand until Ordell uses bail bondsman Robert Forster's Max Cherry to get her out so that he can coerce her into making his big score. We've already seen how ruthless Ordell has been in ruthlessly disposing of one of his minions but now he's running about with Robert De Niro's stoner-goon Louis Gara to whom he introduces his white-trash live-in girlfriend Melanie played by Bridget Fonda. Meantime Jackie and Max click over a Delfonics track and she starts her own scheming to stay safe, avoid joil and cash-in all at once.
It all hinges on a cash-drop by Jackie in the changing room of a plush fashion store, involving Gara and Melanie with Max apparently a coincidental casual observer and the Feds waiting in the wings. Tarantino then does his familiar multi-perspective, time-messing thing before bringing the whole shebang in for a bumpy landing.
Like I said I thoroughly enjoyed the evocation of the era, the larger-than-life characters, their rapid-fire vernacular dialogue, despite the overuse of the "n" word and especially the intricate plotting. Grier is excellent as the resourceful Ms Brown, Forster the same as the road-weary bondsman, Jackson is naturally in his element as the hair-trigger, fashion-disaster Robbie and De Niro as ever chameleons easily into his hash-pipe guzzling lackey role but who also turns out to be borderline psychotic just like his new boss.
Stylishly directed with typical panache by Tarantino, he utilises his ensemble cast to fine effect seasoning the pot as ever with dark humour and acts of random violence.
Didn't he blow my mind this time, well maybe not quite, but it's certainly one cool movie.
Constantine (2005)
Johnny Angel or Devil
I've never read any of the DC Constantine comics, my only knowledge of the character being in Welshman. Matt Ryan's representation in a one-and-done DCU TV series I rather enjoyed and later in a comeback of sorts as one of many heroes in the later, fun fantasy series "DC:s Legends of Tomorrow". A mouthy, chain-smoking maverick purveyor of magic, I really like the character and always wondered about his earlier portrayal in this big budget film adaptation starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz with support from Tilda Swinton and a young Shia LaBeouf.
I wanted to like the movie and visually it is very good but I found there were too many moving parts in the narrative which just didn't cohere ultimately leaving me confused by its sheer inscrutability. Reeves is the dark-suited dissolute John Constantine, a troubled loner with a dark past who's literally been to hell and back. We immediately see him dramatically and forcibly exorcising a demon which has manifested itself physically inside the body of its host, a young Latino girl. With his young driver LaBoeuf in tow, Constantine is convinced that more of these what he calls (but probably wouldn't today) "half-breed" demons are trying to break through into our world, threatening the ancient equilibrium between heaven and hell. Constantine also has a nerdy down-at-heel back-up guy who alerts him to the danger but who himself comes a cropper in a well-staged scene at a ten-pin bowling alley.
As he consults a local priest for some insight into the weird happenings, his path crosses with Weisz's troubled LA cop Angela Dodson, who's privately investigating the apparent suicide of her twin sister who spectacularly threw herself off of a high building. JC, note those initials, after initially dissing her, sees a connection and with Angela tries to trace the evil to its source and expunge it once he does so.
Like I said I liked the dark pervading atmosphere and some of the set-piece scenes, besides the bowling alley atrocity, there's a dramatic encounter with a monster out on a darkened street, a walk through Hell and meet-ups with both the Devil, the Angel Gabriel and the Spear of Destiny itself. Reeves broods his way through the movie rarely lightening up while Weisz is perhaps too often the damsel in distress. In the end, it felt like the film was always leading me nowhere and ultimately lacked a knockout punch to really knock me on my back.
I see that as I write, a twenty-year belated sequel is in the works but I really hope they make it just a little lighter and more accessible than this over-dense and over-dark production which in the end I just couldn't get into.
The Dresden Files: Bad Blood (2007)
Bianca the Jagger
In this fourth episode of "The Dresden Files" Harry encounters the dark and dangerous vampiress Bianca who is one of the major characters in the original Jim Butcher novel "Grave Peril', which I'm currently reading in fact. She turns up at Harry's door after a failed assassination attempt on her life, looking to call in a favour due from him going back five years to when she tended to a badly wounded Harry. The.plot line of who did what to Harry back then irritatingly isn't followed through, I'd imagine due to time constraints. Despite Bob trying to warn him off, it seems there was a frisson between the two which neither of them can quite shake, giving him now two good reasons why he agrees to help her.
Soon enough Harry tracks down the lead that Bianca gives him but that doesn't go down well, leading to an earthly visit by Mai Tai, a high priestess of the High Council who has Morgan in tow with her.
There are a few red herrings dropped along the trail until we find out who Bianca's would-be assassin really is, but given the episode was only 42 minutes long there probably wasn't enough time to really conceal their identity too well, which I guessed early on. Harry's new skill this time sees him tapping into a dead person's eye to relive their last moments.
This episode however seemed to have less flesh to really get your teeth into than the preceding ones I've now rewatched but it was helped along the way by some amusingly provocative lines from Bianca although Bob the genie-in-a-skull.really is coming across as something of a sleazeball, which doesn't make for edifying viewing.
Not the episode I'd recommend to someone to try to initiate them to the show. Hopefully Bianca will return later in the series in a stronger story.
Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
A Lovin' Spoonful of Sugar
Earlier this year, I was strongly recommended to watch this 2012 award-winning documentary movie but told nothing more about the film or its subject. Just watch it and you'll see, I was told.
I have just accidentally got around to viewing it and after the first ten minutes I was certain I was watching a hoax. I like to think I know my music as I tend to concentrate on the 60s and 70s plus I like to think of myself as a film buff too, so how could this guy have slipped my radar? I was even more certain that I was being set up when the film almost immediately announced that the reclusive troubadour actually committed suicide live on stage, like a real-life Ziggy Stardust. Not that his style of music was anything like Bowie's. Hailing from Detroit, with a voice which sounded like Donovan and lyrics and melodies reminiscent of Dylan Rodriguez seemed like a major new talent just when the singer-songwriter boom was exploding. He played the bars and clubs with just his guitar for accompaniment, where he was spotted at one of his gigs, signed up and made two albums, with the well-connected producers of each, loudly singing his praises as an artist.
However it's a case of the story old as time of the prophet not being recognised in his own country as both sank without trace. Somehow though, his records found their way into South Africa and were picked up by a largely underground audience there while the artist himself quietly retired into complete obscurity just outside Detroit.
Finally, years later, a few of his super-fans in SA got together and made it their mission to track down the elusive musician, finally doing so over 20 years after Rodriguez himself had quietly retired from the scene and retreated into obscurity. Their sleuthing eventually paid off and they found him living a very modest existence, working as a builder's labourer. They encouraged him to come to South Africa and play concerts there knowing that there was a large audience waiting for him. Sure enough, as soon as he arrived there, he was treated like musical royalty, being interviewed on chat-shows and performing four consecutive sell-out concerts at a 5000 capacity venue.
Even so, right up to the end I was waiting for some reveal that it was all mak- believe and that I'd been extravagantly had, but non-spoiler alert, I was wrong. This was a true story after all and a heart-warmingly human one at that. Rodriguez himself seemed genuinely touched that his often socially conscious music had resonated in South Africa especially at the time when apartheid was still ingrained in its society.
The documentary itself is well shot and put together, cleverly constructing and then deconstructing the myth to finally reveal a talented, modest and humble man happy to step, if cautiously, into the limelight, supported by his three loving daughters (no mention is made of the children's mother or mothers and there doesn't appear to be a woman in his life). He must have made money from the fresh interest in his career, even so far away from home, but appears to have been unaffected by his new-found fame and is reported to have generously passed on much of his new income to his family and friends.
Rodriguez sadly died last year, I see but this gently moving documentary further increased his profile for the rest of his days, although he never changed his way of life or even his lowly address. His down-to-earth demeanour is in refreshing contrast to that of so many of today's attitudinal, multi-billionaire so-called superstars. I can't speak to his music or whether he was a major talent as yet, although the excerpts I heard here I liked.
My friend was right, this was an uplifting story well told and well worth watching.