Monthly Archives: October 2020

Play Misty for Me
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Jo Heimsc and Dean ReisneR
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Evelyn: I did it because I LOVE YOU!

Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut is a solid thriller with a few real scares.

Dave (Eastwood) is a DJ at a radio station in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a picture-postcard tourist village on the California Coast.  He hosts the late night show, playing mellow jazz and taking requests.  Dave has a wandering eye.  His biggest fan is Evelyn (Jessica Walter).  She calls most nights to request that Dave play Errol Garner’s “Misty” for her and he obliges  Finally she tracks him down to a bar and makes advances leading to a one-night-stand.  After this Evelyn is crazy in love (she was already crazy) and she begins to act like the female half of the most passionate affair of the century.  Dave tries to let her down gently but Evelyn doesn’t have a subtle bone in her psyche.

The situation gets even more complicated when Dave’s sometime-girl friend and true love decides to give him another chance.  This Evelyn is one seriously messed up chick.

For my final film of 1971 I had to chose between The Hired Hand one and this one which I saw before years ago.  I’m glad I picked this one though I will remain curious about the other.  Clint started out as he meant to continue – making workmanlike entertainment as concisely as possible.  This first one has some pretty darn scary jump shots and a dynamite performance by Jessica Walter.  There’s also an awesome jazz score which includes Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” Clint just acted like Clint.  There’s some of those flowery slo-mo romance shots that seem to plague movies of this era but not too many of them.

The Go-Between
Directed by Joseph Losey
Written by Harold Pinter from a novel by L.P. Hartley
1971/UK
First viewing/YouTube rental

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

Pinter meets period piece meets illicit passion in the English countyside.   And it all comes together beautifully.

The plot is told as a long flashback during a meeting between 50-somethings Leo Colston (Michael Redgrave) and Marian (Julie Christie in age make-up).  They discuss the summer of 1900, the eventful season when Leo (Dominic Guard) turned 13.

Leo spent the summer at the grand estate of Mr. (Michael Gough) and Mrs. (Margaret Leighton) Maudsley as a guest of their son Marcus.  But Marcus gets ill and Leo finds himself with time on his hands.  Leo is just starting puberty and develops a massive crush on Marian.  This makes it easy for her to inveigle him into becoming a sort of top-secret messenger between her an hunky tenant farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates).

Then Leo finds out Marian’s parents are about to announce her marriage to aristocrat Hugh Trimmington (Edward Fox).  Marian has no intention of abandoning her double life until her wedding day.  Marcus recovers and Leo begins to feel it wrong to aid and abet the lovers. Ted bribes him with a promise to explain to him the mechanics of sex.  And here I will end my summary.

This is actually as much a coming of age story as it is a romance.  I iked it a lot.  The production and cast are both great and a beautiful score by Michel LeGrande adds to the atmosphere.

Margaret Leighton was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as a gracious matriarch with a heart of stone.

Minnie and Moskowitz
Directed by John Cassavetes
Written by John Cassavetes
1971/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental

Minnie Moore: Seymour likes cars. He’s very happy with cars.

A romantic comedy from John Cassavetes?  Who’d have thought it?  And it’s amusing too!

Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) works as a curator at an art museum.  Her relationship with abusive married man Jim (Cassavetes, uncredited) is not satisfying and ultimately falls completely apart.

After Seymour moves to New York for a new start, he gets work as a parking lot attendant.   He is the epitome of a free spirit with a kind heart.  When Seymour encounters the beautiful Minnie by chance,  it’s love at first sight for him.  It’s not as easy for her to get with the program.  With Timothy Cary as a bum.

Well, another comedy to break up all the soul searching in 1971!  And by John Cassavetes no less.  This is another of the “odd couplings” I’ve watched in 71 and like Harold and Maude and Henry and Henrietta, Minnie and Moscowitz were made for each other.  This was done in Cassavetes customary improvisational style and there were times I wished I had sub-titles but it was really worth sticking with.  Recommended.

Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Written by Luchino Visconti and Nicola Badalucco from the novel by Thomas Mann
1971/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental

Alfred: You have achieved perfect balance: the man and the artist are one. They have touched bottom together.

Mann’s novel of decay and decadence is turned by Visconti into an operatic travelogue with gorgeous costumes

The setting is early 20th Venice. Aging and ailing composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) has arrived at a beach resort for a sort of rest cure.  It seems not only his illness but also his music could use a good shot in the arm.  Gustav spends much of his time musing (in flashbacks) about his artistic frustrations (his best friend is also his worst critic) and happy times at home with his wife and children.  In appearance, Gustav looks shot all to hell.

Then Gustav spots angelic blonde Polish teenager Tadzio (Björn Andresen) who is vacationing with his mother (Silvana Mangano) and two sisters.  Gustav starts stalking the innocent Tadzio from afar.  He is obsessed with the idea of such perfect beauty existing in a debauched world.  They never exchange anything more than glances.  Eventually, Gustav must leave to fetch his luggage.  When he returns to Venice, everything has changed.

I love Dirk Bogarde.  So you will understand when I say his performance is not worth watching the movie for I need not write much more. Bogarde is fine but nothing special in a story that doesn’t particularly require much from him.  Or maybe it’s just the way the story is told.  It seems to be more of an excuse to hang  beautiful scenery, costumes and settings on.

Bananas
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen and Mickey Rose
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Howard Cosell: Sir, you’ve been shot! When did you know it was all over?

Back when Allen was influenced by the Marx Brothers more than Bergman, he made some zany, funny farces like this one.  And it’s funny almost 50 years later.

Nebbish Fielding Melish (Allen) is not exactly setting his profession as an industrial products tester on fire.  One day he meets Nancy (Louise Lasser)  who is collectiong signatures on petitions for radical causes.  Her heros are the rebels against the dictatorship that governs San Marcos, a fictional Latin American country. They date but Nancy finds “something missing”.and eventually dumps Fielding.  Despondent, Fielding heads to San Marcos determined to prove himself to Nancy.

Well, the second half is pretty complicated so let’s just say that Fielding has many misadventures that turn out A-OK.  With Howard Cosell, fantastic as a sports announcer that gives a play by play of the action of certain key scenes of the movie.  If you pay attention you will see Sylvester Stallone, uncreditied, as one of the thugs on the subway.

In an interview with Robert B. Greenfield of Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Woody Allen said: “They say it’s a political film but I don’t really believe much in politics. Groucho Marx has told me that The Marx Brothers’ films were never consciously anti-establishment or political. It’s always got to be a funny movie first”.

This movie has everything going for it — nothing but fun and foolery – and it is short.  It’s nice to look back at Woody’s beginnings.  Here, he will do anything for a laugh.

A Fistful of Dynamite (AKA “Duck, You Sucker”/Giu la testa)
Directed by Sergio Leone
Written by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, and Sergio Donati
1971/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental

John H. Mallory: Where there’s revolution there’s confusion, and when there’s confusion, a man who knows what he wants stands a good chance of getting it.

Sergio Leone has done much better than this, his last Western.

The story takes place in turn of the 20th Century Mexico.  Rod Steiger plays Juan Morales, a rough-hewn, low-life bandido with a large family and many hangers-on.  Imagine Tucco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) with less manners and a lot of mugging.  Juan has long had dreams about robbing a bank in Mesa Verde.  John Mallory (Charles Coburn) is a far more sophisticated ex-IRA operative and explosives expert.  When they meet, Juan thinks he has it made and he can force John to help him rob the bank.  Juan is not too smart.

John has no intention of doing anything with his skills and supplies except aid in the Mexican Revolution.  After much wrangling, Juan begins to see things John’s way, necessitating many explosions over the course of the film.

This is an OK Western but doesn’t hold a candle to Leone’s others. First off, Rod Steiger  was apparently told to let it all hang out and that’s always a mistake. He overdoes it painfully here.  Coburn is very good though his accent sort of meanders around Britain and the USA.  It lacks the grandeur of the previous movies and substitutes explosions and lots of lingering close-ups and slow-mo which got on my nerves eventually. Your mileage may vary.