Review - Broken Arrow (1950 - Dir. Delmer Daves)

I'm not that keen on Westerns. Spaghetti Westerns, yes, but not your usual run of the mill Western. (Perhaps that's why this is my first review of one.) So when Broken Arrow came up as James Stewart's randomly selected entry for the FA Cup of Actors, I was skeptical and thought that maybe Jamel Debbouze was in with a chance of nicking this match.

James Stewart plays Tom Jeffords in his standard Mr Smith Goes to Washington style (and there's nothing wrong with that). In a twist on the average Cowboys and Indians film where the Indians are subjected to genocide by our heroes, Jeffords befriends his Native American chums on the basis that he's sick of all the scrapping, so he wants everyone to kiss and make up and generally get along with each other. Funnily enough, Cochise (Jeff Chandler), the leader of the Apaches, is suspicious of this outsider and his American buddies want to give him a good kicking for knocking about with untrustworthy savages. It doesn't help that he falls in love with Sonseeahray (Debra Paget).

Let's start off by getting rid of the obvious problem of the filmmakers using white actors made up to look like Native Americans. It was made in the unenlightened 1950s so we can forgive them this error. But let's face facts, we're better than that now: it would be completely offensive to peddle that kind of thing in current times, especially if you were a massive family film studio, like Disney perhaps.

The plot made for a welcome change and I found myself enjoying it despite my misgivings. The scenery is stunning on occasions and for once The Native Americans aren't portrayed as scalp pilfering psychos but as a mostly noble, honourable group of people. There are a few wrong 'uns but that's fair enough. The settlers meanwhile are generally big racists. 

James Stewart is a consistently bankable fellow and his performance here is no exception. Obviously I haven't seen all of his films but I'm betting that they're all eminently watchable. Here though, he is matched by Chandler, perfectly cast (apart from the skin colour issue) as a strong leader who is willing to negotiate a peace treaty. Paget meanwhile looks a tad young to be Stewart's love interest. In fact, she was born in 1933, so she's only seventeen at most. All a bit dodgy.

In the final analysis this just pips Jamel's entry sending our plucky underdog out of the competition and despite Broken Arrow never setting the world on fire it is still an above average film deserving an above average...
6/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
Vertigo, Rear Window.

Review - Not of This Earth (1957 - Dir. Roger Corman)

I haven't done very well trying to watch all of the films mentioned in F. Paul Wilson's 'Nightworld' but I'm going to try and rectify that in the coming months. So here we go with Roger Corman's Not of This Earth.

An alien agent from the planet Davana (sounds like a seventies variety act) comes down to Earth and cases the joint. He's after blood you see - aren't they always - and he uses his wily alien ways to kill unfortunates, nick their blood and performs his dastardly experiments. He enlists the help of a petty thief Jeremy and a nurse called Nadine (the saucy old devil). In fact, he pays the nurse to live in his house to "take care of him". 

I decided in true 'Nightworld' fashion to watch this at night and I'm glad that I did, much of the atmosphere would probably have been lost in a bright sunlit room. The film was made on an obviously shoestring budget but it still manages to impart a sense of dread. To turn Paul Birch into an alien, all the special effects fellows did was slap some white contacts into his eyes. Which you don't see for the majority of the film due to his Peters and Lee glasses. He is made even more alien by his Jedi mind tricks where he talks directly into people's minds. Again this is cheaply done by a bit of dubbing in post production. All simple things but, along with his performance it's pretty convincing stuff.

The music helps with the whole atmosphere thing. It is fairly typical of fifties sci-fi B-movies but it does the job very nicely. It all feels distinctly creepy and made me think that I was watching something that actually happened in 1956 and this was just a Crimewatch style reconstruction.

The story plods along in a standard kind of way. It's obvious where it's going from early on and I can't say that there's anything that memorable. Unless you count a doctor being attacked by an umbrella creature as memorable. Mmm, maybe. But the story does its job. 

As you may have guessed the special effects are poor, especially on the umbrella creature, but this also extends to the sets. One sliding door that features prominently doesn't so much slide as judder along a bit as it's pushed by some behind the scenes chain-smoking technician. It all adds to the charm, I suppose.

There was a remake of this made in 1988 as a result of a wager. Someone bet the director that he couldn't make it on the same budget (allowing for inflation) and in the same time frame as the original. This sounds quite interesting you may think, until you hear that the director was Jim Wynorski. Oh dear. On the positive side it starred ex adult specialist film starlet Traci Lords. Okay, it still sounds really bad.

Not of This Earth makes a change from the usual alien invasion stories we get nowadays. It's a lot simpler and a lot quieter experience. Yet it's surprisingly chilling at times. A good late Friday night film.
4/10
evlkeith

Review - An Affair to Remember (1957 - Dir. Leo McCarey)

Less than a week to go to the celebration of all things bloody, dirty, greasy and a little bit spurty that is Celluloid Screams, I thought I better watch something pleasant before I get pummelled. An Affair to Remember it is then. (And yes, that is an excessively airbrushed DVD cover.)

Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant) is a renowned gigolo but - much to the distress of ladies across the globe - he's finally settling down and getting married. On a cruise to meet up with his fiancee he meets up with Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) who's not interested in his winking and clicking antics. She's got a partner too, you see, and she's always been very faithful. Once you know that, the title tells you pretty much where this is all going. 

Now, I know I keep banging on about stories in films but the first half is a prime example of good storytelling. It may initially seem to be slow but every scene takes our two main characters a little step closer to falling in love. So even though the editing is laid back and the scenes are quite long, the story driving the film cracks along at a fair old pace. Once they're in love at around the halfway point, the story has to throw a problem at them, a pretty big problem, and it manages that with ease.

Saying that, the second half isn't quite as engaging. There is the small issue of Terry's partner being far too understanding about her indiscretion. But the main problem is how it morphs into a musical at certain points, the most irritating event being when a sugary-sweet band of children appear who overact and oversing their hearts out as if they're on Songs of Praise. My gran would probably have liked these bits. I hated them. Thankfully, they only murder two tunes and the final one is sweetened by a little girl almost tripping up and smashing her face into a bed. Oh come on, everyone's laughed at way worse on You've Been Framed. 

The final scene is another lesson in how to write something that absolutely drips with subtext. It gives Grant and Kerr loads to work with and they positively shine. The two main actors perform admirably throughout. Cary Grant is his usual Cary Grant persona and is as charming and likeable as ever. I'm not as familiar with Deborah Kerr, but based on her performance here - anyone who can match Cary Grant is doing well - I'm going to have a look at some of her other stuff. As a bonus An Affair to Remember does the usual polite thing beloved of old films. It gets to the point, then finishes. No messing about. 

Edit out the musical scenes and this would gain a much higher rating. But for a slice of pleasantness you could do far worse: two great actors, a touching story and one of the most unexpected ways to film a screen kiss that I've seen. Now that I'm all cleansed, I'm ready for some serious horror...
6/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
The Philadelphia Story, From Here to Eternity, Black Narcissus, The Grass is Greener.

Review - Footsteps in the Fog (1955 - Dir. Arthur Lubin)

I was always going to like this film. It's got the the word fog in the title and stars Stewart Granger. Who could resist giving those little grey bits of hair at the side of his head a stroke? I know I couldn't. Well, maybe not now, seeing as though he's dead, but at the time this film was made...

Strangely I can't give much of a plot synopsis apart from it's about a recently widowed fellow called Stephen Lowry (Granger) and his maid Lily Watkins (Jean Simmons). And that's about it. Any more would give away far too many spoilers. 

Footsteps in the Fog has more story content in the first five minutes than the whole of Pacific Rim. There are so many aspects to it: thriller, drama, romance, violence and a little bit of twisted sexuality (sadly no pirates). I was never quite sure where it was all going and what would happen next. It became the film I was expecting at one point, but it happens midway through rather than at the end and it only lasts about five minutes. 

So it's got a twisty-turny story. What else has it got? Stewart Granger not playing a swashbuckling hero or charging about shooting elephants in a Charlton Heston/Prince Phil type fashion. He hasn't got the range of James Stewart but it's good to see him playing something different. It's also in colour so black-and-white-ists can enjoy something that has the atmosphere and pace of a black and white film, but without all of that pesky greyscaliness.

Yet again in a film from this era our aged hero ends up romantically entangled with a lady half his age. It's those grey bits that does it. So I've got a scheme. When this miracle hair growth cream comes out in a year or so, I'm going to grow some really thick luxuriant hair. Stage two - dye it black. Next, wrap masking tape around the top portion of my hair. And finally, recreate that Granger greyness using some grey car spray paint. It can't fail.

Anyway, back to business. Footsteps in the Fog is a minor gem. It lacks an emotional punch but for sheer story content it's a winner.
7/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
Gaslight, The Spiral Staircase, Rebecca.

Review - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954 - Dir. Stanley Donen)

Imagine the scene: seven ginger brothers, all mountain men, descend from their solitary house to invade a local town and kidnap some lovely ladies in their chariot. They drive them back to their house covered in blankets. The mountain men have a right laugh. You might be forgiven for thinking that this is from the ginger version of Wrong Turn, but no, it's from the next instalment in our musical season, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Image not from film - funnily enough.

It's Oregon in the 1850s and big burly beard-ridden ginger fellow Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) wants a wife. He visits a local town, has a little sing, and chooses the lady for him, Milly (Jane Powell). Amazingly she agrees to marry him. What she doesn't know is that she will have to cook and clean for him and his six other beardy ginger brothers. Lucky woman.

Milly sets up an impromptu romance and dance school. She teaches the brothers how to behave and give it some on the dance floor, with some strikingly effective high knee manouevres. Her school works so well, in such a short length of time, that the fellas are virtually professional dancers/gymnasts by the time they come into contact with their first ladies. 

And so we come to the famous 'log dancing' scene. A veritable smorgasbord of comedy dance moves performed whilst balancing on logs. I'll admit it, it's the only reason why this film is included in the season. These scene is so ingrained in our family's consciousness that when it comes round to the inevitable games of charades, this film can be guessed in two seconds by miming dancing on a log. 

I sat and watched the scene thinking how great it will be when they get on to the logs. It's brilliant. But it never happens. It's more the 'plank dancing' scene. Still, it's really funny but the flatness of a plank is no match for the visual splendour of a cylindrical log. Maybe someone could do a George Lucas on it and CGI some logs in there to match my memory. 

Everything after this peak falls a bit flat and the film never recovers. As you may be aware I don't have a particular fondness for musicals so there's not really that much for me. The aforementioned kidnapping is the best part of the latter half. Sadly the 'log dancing' scene isn't available on YouTube or I would have put it on for you and saved you the bother of watching the rest of it.

The use of grainy old film allows the film-makers to get away with some old school trickery: rear projection, large sets with painted backdrops and models. It is also one of the most colourful films, especially when our ginger hillbillies go into town in their beautiful coloured shirts. It all adds to make some very pleasing visuals.

The trailer is great with some premium quality titling but not a whiff of the 'log dancing' scene. I'll leave the final comment to mother of evlkeith who came round to watch it with me (it's her favourite film): 'Very light-hearted and relaxing.'
4/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
I don't know of any other films that specialise in 'log dancing'. If you do let, me know.

Review - Hans Christian Andersen (1952 - Dir. Charles Vidor)

And so we enter the disturbing, murky depths of musicals. I don't know whether I've mentioned it before, but I hate musicals: all that singing, dancing and being happy malarkey. Eating a family-size pack of razor blades, then drinking a pint of salt water to throw them back up would be preferable to watching a musical. I'd even gargle with TCP afterwards. Then chop off my legs with a blunt, rusty butter knife that's had Jamie Oliver dribblings all over it. And finally cauterise the wounds with an electric cattle prod set to maximum electrical proddage. I hate them.

Hans Christian Andersen kicks off our Musical Season, the lucky little fellow.

Worryingly, I'm going to start with a positive; this film could feasibly (very feasibly) happen. There are no scenes where people start singing, then suddenly everyone else knows the words and a huge choreographed dance is born. Yes, people sing, but they sing on their own. The only times when there are simultaneous dance manoeuvres are during the ballet sequences. I'll come back to them later. I was amazed at how many of the songs I knew. Admittedly, I have seen this film before but many, many years ago. I can't say that I liked any of the songs, but I knew them. One musical sequence is fairly bizarre, only just following the above rule. During a market scene the traders repeatedly sing what they are selling. My two highlights were: 'Fish. Fresh Fish.' in a lovely low voice and 'Sausages.'. Shame no-one was selling Ginster's pasties, that would have made a nice little tune.

The big, no, huge problem is that times have changed, and I really tried to put my brain into a 1950s mode when watching this film. It's no reflection on Danny Kaye or the film-makers, but it is a sad reflection on society now that when Hans is telling stories and talking to children, he comes across as a bit of a... well, I'll let you decide for yourself. I feel too mean to actually write the one word that sprang to mind. It is a shame that the connotations are so different now.

This is not actually a biography of Hans Christian Andersen but, as the opening scene helpfully describes, a fairy tale about his stories. It is successful in creating this atmosphere; the cinematography, sets and costumes certainly help. 

Now to the ballet. There are some ballet sequences early on. Okay, all well and good, although I can't say that I particularly like ballet (there is a see-through wedding dress in one scene though). In fact, I can't really say that I like dancers. Dancing, is fine. Top fun really. Dancers, with their excessive overacting: not so fine. I better not get into another rant. Back to the ballet. The first scenes are mercifully brief. But then the final ballet version of 'The Little Mermaid' lasts for about seventeen thousand hours, without any cuts to any other action. I completely switched off and the film lost it for me. To add insult to injury the ending of the film contains a medley of the previous songs in a Jive Bunny style. It finished me off.

It wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting, but the final ballet sequence/medley combo definitely lowered the rating by a couple of points. Another four musicals to go; I am going to need so much vodka to get through this...
2/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
Court Jester, The Five Pennies, The Inspector General.

Review - The Admirable Crichton (Alternative title - Paradise Lagoon) (1957 - Dir. Lewis Gilbert)

As I started watching The Admirable Crichton I had an unusual feeling of deja vu. It's got Kenneth More in it. It involves the sinking of a ship. Mr More has to jump overboard and swim to a lifeboat. All the posh people whinge about not having their fancy clothes (cumberbunds, perhaps) and their accoutrements during a crisis. Yes, it's A Night to Remember except loads of people don't die horribly and it's pretty funny too.

Kenneth More plays the titular Cricthton, a butler in a well posh house. He plays the role completely straight and this makes the comedy work brilliantly. I chuckled. I chortled. I even had a little guffaw. Most of the jokes are at the expense of the silver spoon lickers or they are comments on the class system. It's always a treat to have a good laugh at rich people's misfortunes.

After their ordeal at sea, Crichton and the Lord's family end up on a desert island. Amazingly enough, the Lord has no idea how to survive and neither have any of his cronies. But Crichton does. When the rest of society is removed, what happens to the traditional roles? And what will happen if they manage to return to Blighty? Can one Butler beat the natural order of all things British? You'll have to watch it to find out.

Crichton, being a bit of a ladies man, has two on the go at once: the Tweeny (a servant played by the shockingly accented Diane Cilento, almost up there with Dick Van Dyke and Brion James) and the Lord's daughter, Mary (Sally Ann Howes). You're never quite sure which way he's going to go. Will he stick within his class or go for a bit of upper-class jiggery pokery? Choices, choices...

Unlike other films based on plays, (J.M.Barrie wrote the original) you don't really feel that you are watching a play that's been filmed. All in all, an enjoyable experience then. A timely reminder to respect and look after one's servants; one day they could save your life. Now Jeeves, bring my smoking jacket and my best pipe, after you've done that you can remove these blasted dangleberries.
7/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could try:
A Night to Remember, Reach for the Sky, Hobson's Choice, Sailor Beware.