Monthly Archives: April 2017

Flower Drum Song
Directed by Henry Koster
Written by Joseph Fields from a musical play by Fields and Oscar Hammerstein III and a novel by C.Y. Lee
1961/USA
Universal International Pictures/Fields Productions/Hunter-Fields
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Madame ‘Auntie’ Liang: Chop Suey. Chop Suey. / Living here is very much like Chop Suey. / Hula-hoops and nucelar war, Doctor Salk and Zsa Zsa Gabor, / Bobby Darin, Sandra Dee and Dewey, Chop Suey.[/box]

This stood up well to fond memories from my musical-besotted youth.

Mei Li (Myoshi Umeki) and her father arrive in San Francisco, having stowed away on a cargo ship.  They have jumped the immigration queue so that Mei Li will be young enough to still qualify as the photo bride of her intended, Sammy Fong (Jack Soo).  Sammy, a nightclub owner, is in a long-term relationship with dancer-singer Linda Low (Nancy Kwan), is a bit of a rake, and is utterly unsuited to Mei Li.

Mei Li and her father end up boarding with Wang Chi-Yang (Benson Fong) who has been looking for a wife for his son Wang Ta (James Shigeta).  Wang Ta, on the other hand, is infatuated with Linda.  A dressmaker, Helen, is in love with him.  Upon their first meeting, so is Mei Li.  It is all very complicated.

The rest of the story traces the myriad of misunderstandings and mishaps that lead to the correct pairing of the various young characters.  At the same time, it humorously deals with the immigrant experience and the generation gap.  With Juanita Hall as “Auntie”, a citizenship scholar and fan of the New World.

I think I actually saw this in the theater in my childhood when it came out.  I know we had the soundtrack at home.  Anyway, that’s enough to almost guarantee I would still love it and I did.  It’s impossible to add any objective criticism.

This was the first Hollywood production with an all-Asian cast, if you count Nancy Kwan and Juanita Hall who were both mixed race.  The DVD includes a nice commentary with the still delightful Nancy Kwan and a film historian.

Flower Drum Song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color.

Trailer

Clip – Jack Soo and Myoshi Umeki

King of Kings
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Written by Philip Yordan
1961/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Samuel Bronston Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Narrator: And when the tomb was found empty, some days passed, and Christ was seen at Emmaus, and in Jerusalem, and those who saw Him knew He was the Lord God. And then a final time He came among His disciples by the shore of Galilee…[/box]

Apparently my bias against long Biblical epics extends to those directed by Nicholas Ray.

The story of Jesus of Nazareth is well-known and does not need repeating.  This film plays up the portions dealing with the oppression of the Jews by the Romans and the rebellion headed by Barrabas, leading to more than usual amounts of violence by the standards of these things.

Jeffrey Hunter makes a bland Jesus and Robert Ryan is a strange choice for the role of John the Baptist.  My Biblical studies are decades in the past but I couldn’t recall some of the incidents portrayed being included in the Good Book.  Ray is a master of color and the widescreen but the movie lacks the passion that could have made the movie work.

Interesting how my randomized list just happened to stop on this one for Easter Sunday!

Trailer

The Curse of the Werewolf
Directed by Terrence Fisher
Written by Anthony Hinds from a novel by Guy Endore
1961/UK
Hammer Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] “You know,” he said, “every time a vampire says he doesn’t believe in lycanthropes, a werewolf bursts into flames.” ― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam[/box]

Hammer’s take on the 1940 Universal classic is less a remake than a vivid reimagining.

The story has been moved from England to perhaps 18th or 19th Century Spain.  It is a time of all-powerful cruel aristrocrats and sniviling yet corrupted peons.  The moviebegins with a long prelude in which a Marques torments and finally imprisons a beggar.  He is befriended by the jailer’s mute daughter.  Years later when she rejects the Marques’s advances she herself is thrown into prison where she is in turned raped by her supposed friend.

The mute girl escapes and is taken in by a kindly landowner and his housekeeper.  She gives birth on Christmas Day, considered a very bad omen and an insult to Christ at the time.  The mother dies and the landowner raises the boy he names Leon as his own son.  He is a beautiful child but as he grows he is plagued by nightmares and livestock start being savagely attacked in his vicinity…

Somehow, Leon survives to adulthood and grows up to be Oliver Reed.  When he reaches his majority he goes to seek his fortune and finds work with another landowner.  Leon and the landowner’s wealthy daughter fall in love.  But the Christmas curse does not stay dormant for long …

I can’t think of a more perfect part for Oliver Reed than as a werewolf.  He chews the scenery in the most delightful way and at this age is mighty easy on the eyes as well.  It’s an interesting and intricate story which I actually preferred to the Lon Chaney version.  This is a bloody version of the tale and all the gore is lovingly photographed in Technicolor and enhanced by beautiful atmospheric sets and costumes.  Recommended for horror fans.

Trailer – color was much better on Amazon Instant print

The Devil’s Hand
Directed by William J. Hole Jr.
Written by Jo Heims
Rex Carlton Productions
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Rick Turner: You’ve waited all your life for the perfect mate; what’s twenty minutes more?

Donna Trent: You should get over that inferiority complex.[/box]

It’s hard to imagine a more bland movie about voodoo.

Rick Turner (Robert Alda) is in a long-term relationship with Donna Trent but has yet to be persuaded to take a trip down the aisle. Lately, his resolve has been further shaken by persistent dreams about a beautiful blonde, Bianca.  He is mysteriously drawn to a shop where he finds dolls with the images of both women. The owner tells him that he ordered the Bianca doll but denies that he ordered the Donna doll.  Eventually voodoo with her doll puts Donna out of commission.  Rick becomes a devotee of both voodoo and Bianca. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

I must admit that I relied heavily on the IMDb plot summary for my own.  I remembered almost nothing about the film less than 24 hours later.  There are zero scares in this middle American cult.  Well worth a miss.

Trailer

A Taste of Honey
Directed by Tony Richardson
Written by Shelagh Delaney and Tony Richardson from a play by Delaney
1960/UK
Woodfall Film Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Geoffrey: You need somebody to love you while you’re looking for somebody to love.[/box]

There is some very fine acting in this kitchen sink drama featuring an Angry Young Woman.

Teenager Jo (Rita Tushingham) is a bit of an odd-ball – not surprisingly considering her upbringing. As the film begins she is living with her self-centered single mother Helen (Dora Bryan).  Helen has had one affair after another and is currently seeing a younger man, Peter, who has marriage on his mind.  Jo and Helen squabble constantly.

Jo meets a kind sailor and embarks on her first romance.  Before he goes off to sea again, they consummate the relationship.

Peter can’t stand having the smart-mouthed Jo around.  She gets a job selling shoes and rents a ramshackle apartment that is clearly too big for her.  She befriends an equally odd-ball customer named Geoff (Murray Melvin) and he moves in with her.  Before long, Jo finds she is pregnant.  Her anxiety level is only raised by the fact that the baby will be black.  But Geoff, who is gay, is more than willing to act as a surrogate father.  This leads to a war of wills between Geoff and Dora.

This film deservedly raised Tushingham to prominence and the performances of Bryan and Melvin rise to her level.  Bryan actually manages to make a basically unlikeable character oddly touching.  The story is interesting and the treatment of the race and gay questions is fresh and non-judgemental.  I was puzzled by the unresolved ending.  I would have liked something a bit tidier.  Still recommended.

Clip

The Explosive Generation
Directed by Buzz Kulik
Written by Joseph Landon
1961/USA
Vega Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Mrs. Katie Sommers: What do you mean “prove” your love?

Janet Sommers: Well if you don’t know, maybe you’d better ask DAD![/box]

I was pleasantly surprised in the variety of ideas explored in what looks suspiciously like a straight exploitation flick from the poster.

English teacher Peter Giffort (William Shatner) “gets” teenagers and has been selected to teach the “Senior Problems” course designed to prepare graduating teens for “real life”. The discussion turns to problems seniors are experiencing in their current lives and Janet (Patty MacCormack) suggests that the number one problem is “sex”.  There is kind of a mixed reaction to discussing this but Giffort invites anyone interested to write a paper explaining their problem.

Janet’s own problem stems from an unauthorized and unchaperoned over-nighter spent by her and a girlfriend with their boyfriends at a beach cottage owned by one of the guy’s fathers.

The boys are none to happy that Janet may have spilled their secrets.  But in the meantime, the parents get wind of Giffort’s intentions, misconstrue and magnify the intent, and end up protesting to the principal.  All the principal wants is peace and he even gets Giffort to apologize.  Then the students take matters into their own hands and a youth movement is born.

I expected nothing from this sex ed movie and it actually kept my interest the whole way through.  This little movie sort of shows the birth of the youth culture that would contribute to the burgeoning civil-rights movement and lead to the anti-war movement and hippie culture by the end of the decade.

Montage of clips (spot an early performance from Beau Bridges!)

The Young Savages
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Written by Edward Anhalt and J.P. Miller from a novel by Evan Hunter
1961/USA
Contemporary Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke, / You gotta understand, / It’s just our bringin’ up-ke / That gets us out of hand./ Our mothers all are junkies, / Our fathers all are drunks./ Golly Moses, natcherly we’re punks! – “Gee, Officer Krupke” from West Side Story, lyrics by Steven Sondheim

This A-list juvenile delinquent drama can’t quite decide what it wants to be.

A turf was has broken out in East Harlem between the Thunderbirds, an Italian gang, and the Horsemen, a Puerto Rican gang.  As the story begins, three Thunderbirds are seen walking purposefully through town en route to brutally killing a blind Puerto Rican teen who had been sitting on his front stoop playing the harmonica with other family members.

DA Dan Cole thinks the aggressive prosecution and conviction of the boys for first degree murder will be a valuable campaign asset.  Assistant DA Hank Bell is enthusiastic about taking the case but must disclose that he had a teenage romance with the Mary, the mother of one of the boys (Shelley Winters).  Bell’s wife (Dina Merrill) sees something sordid in making the case political and in seeking the death penalty for offenders so young.

Mary is certain that her boy could not have participated in the killing and Bell goes out to personally investigate the crime, along with the circumstances of the accused and the victims.  None of it makes a pretty picture.  An eventful trial ensues.

This film ticks all the boxes for an early sixties social drama with its focus on political corruption and misunderstood youth.  I thought the message was muddied, however.  The movie never really decides how it feels about these boys.  The acting is solid, if not spectacular.

Promo