Monthly Archives: January 2023

The Woman on the Beach
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Frank Davis and Jean Renoir from a novel by Mitchell Wilson
1947/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Tod: Don’t try to get away. I can sense every move you make. I can sense you like an animal. My eyes don’t see, but I have hands and ears and a nose. I can even smell your hate!

The cast makes this movie watchable. The script and editing not so much.

Scott (Robert Ryan) is a Coast Guard officer. He has been suffering from PTSD since a cruiser he was on was hit by a torpedeo. He is engaged to a sweet young thing and has begged her to get married that very night. She wants to carry on with her wedding plans.

That same day, he meets Peggy (Joan Bennett) who is collecting firewood on a beach. It is definitely lust at first sight and the fiancee is unceremoniously dumped.  Peggy is married to blind painter Tod (Charles Bickford). He was famous in his painting days and has held on to all his unsold paintings which are now quite valuable. Peggy tells Scott she hates her husband. The movie explores how the evil Peggy plays one man off the other.

This was the last film Renoir made in Hollywood. The studio meddled extensively and and it was a big flop. I thought it was watchable but not up to the high standards I expect from Renoir. I would watch this cast in anything and it is quite good. They should have radically simplified the script.

Dust Be My Destiny
Directed by Lewis Seiler
Written by Robert Rossen from a novel by Jerome Odlum
1939/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Joe Bell: [defiantly] You’re sorry? You didn’t serve time. I did. I’m sorry I was chump enough to think the cops would believe a nobody like me when I told them I was only trying to help the guy who was shot. I should have kept my nose out of trouble. Don’t worry, warden. I’m wised up now, ’cause no matter what happens or who gets hurt, from now on, Joe Bell runs the other way.

This is a very solid Depression era story about two young people who simply can’t catch a break.

Joe Bell (Garfield) has been in prison for 16 months for a burglary he did not commit. He is released when the real burglar is found. He starts riding the rails. He is given several breaks by kind people who recognize Joe’s essential decency and talent. But for one reason or another he must keep moving on.

Along the way, he gets a job and falls in love with his foreman’s daughter, Mabel (Priscilla Lane). They have an argument and during it her father drops dead of a heart attack. Joe believes that he will be wrongly convicted again and goes on the run. Mabel insists on joining him and eventually they marry. The law hounds them on every step of their journey.

Garfield is dynamite in one of his early films. I always enjoy Priscilla Lane – she is so wholesome and funny. I enjoyed this and my husband thought it was one of the best films we have watched lately.

There’s Always Tomorrow
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Written by Bernard C. Schoenfeld and Ursula Parrott
1956/US
Universal International Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Ann: [to Vinnie] It’s funny. I’m positive your father hasn’t done a thing to be ashamed of, but, you know something, I wouldn’t blame him if he had.

I really liked this sudsy Sirkian melodrama with its hidden savage indictment of middle-class values and life in suburbia.

Toy manufacturer Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray) has been married for many years to Marion (Joan Bennett). They have two teenagers and one pre-teen. They live in Los Angeles.

The story starts on Marion’s birthday. Clifford goes the extra mile to arrange roses, a dinner in town, and theater tickets. He can’t tell Marion the plan because the children occupy the phone 24/7. Then when he gets home Marion can’t go because the youngest daughter has a dance recital. He can’t even give away the tickets.

Then former employee Norma Miller Vale (Barbara Stanwyck) calls him up. She is now a successful dress designer. He offers to take her to the theater and she takes him up on it. They leave during intermission and he shows her his latest toy. Norma is delighted.

Despite Clifford’s pleading that he must get out of his rut and spend some alone time with his wife, he is disregarded again and again. Marion clearly puts their kids before him. He gets more and more depressed and chummy with Norma. His kids decide they are having an affair and are determined to break it up.

I sympathized so completely with the MacMurray character in this story. While nominally about a love triangle, it is really about the stultifying climate in suburbia and society’s expectations of men and women in a marriage. All the acting is very good. Stanwyck is charming as a lovelorn lass and as a dynamic business woman.

I had never seen or heard of this movie and was very glad to catch up with it as part of the Joan Bennett collection on the Criterion Channel.

Bell, Book and Candle
Directed by Richard Quine
Written by Daniel Taradash from a play by John Van Druten
1958/US
Columbia Pictures Corporation
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Shepherd ‘Shep’ Henderson: What have you been up to? Have you been engaging in un-American activities or something?
Gillian ‘Gil’ Holroyd: No, I’d say very American. Early American.

James Stewart and Kim Novak’s second pairing in 1958 is a cute romantic fantasy.

Witches are active in New York City. They look like anybody else (well, maybe not Kim Novak). Gillian Holroyd (Novak) arranges a meeting with book publisher Shepherd Henderson (Stewart) who lives in her building. She finds out he is set to marry Merle, an old college classmate. Gillian hates Merle and decides to derail the marriage by making Shepherd fall in love with her. And fall he does.

In the meantime, Gillian’s brother Nicky (Jack Lemon), a warlock, threatens to divulge Gillian’s secret. Witches can neither fall in love, cry or blush. When Shepherd finds out he was bewitched, he is very angry. And Gillian will do almost anything to get him back. With Ernie Kovacs as an expert on witchcraft and Elsa Lanchester and Hermione Gingold as fellow witches.

This is a pleasant rom com for some easy viewing. The cast is top drawer. The film was nominated for Oscars in the categories of Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

Straight Time
Directed by Dustin Hoffman and Ulu Grosbard
Written by Alvin Sargent, Edward Bunker and Jeffrey Boam from Boam’s novel
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Jerry Schue: Get me outta here. They’re killing me. I can’t make this scene anymore, get me outta here… You got something, I know you got something…
Max Dembo: Yeah, I got something.
Jerry Schue: Well, let’s do it.
Max Dembo: Don’t you wanna know what it is?
Jerry Schue: I don’t give a damn what it is, let’s just do it… What is it?

Solid action flick and study of life on the outside for ex-convicts.

Dustin Hoffman performs a bit out of his comfort zone as Max Dembo, an ex-con newly out of prison. For a few days he attempts to fullfil the conditions of his parole – living in halfway house, not associating with former friends, no driving and no drugs. The only thing this wins him is a romance with Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell) his employment counselor.

He has a hard-nosed parole officer (M. Emmet Walsh) who is on his back every minute. When the parole officer discovers some drug paraphernalia in Max’s room, Max goes back to prison until his drug test comes back clean.

This makes Max so angry that he assaults the parole officer and begins a crime spree with former cohorts in crime Willy (Gary Busey) and Jerry (Harry Dean Stanton). They go straight for the big money with a highly risky bank robbery and daylight jewelry store robbery. It’s almost like Max wants to get caught.

I enjoyed this movie. Its stellar cast does itself proud and the story is interesting. It is more violent than romantic despite its dreamy poster.

The Five Deadly Venoms
Directed by Che Chang
Written by Kuang Ni and Che Chang
1978/Hong Kong
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Scorpion: [laughs] Let me tell you: once an evil deed is done, then it never ends. It goes on, and it will go on forever.

I surely could have died without seeing this one.

Yang Tieh is the last pupil at the Venom House. His dying master makes him promise to locate five former pupils – Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard and Toad – and destroy any that are using their powers for evil. Since Yang’s training has been cut short he will need to find a good ally among them. But who?

This film is non-stop kung-fu action and is considered a classic of the genre. The version I watched was badly dubbed, not that there is a whole lot of dialogue. I was not in the mood to watch a kung-fu movie so I shall say no more about it.

Heaven Can Wait
Directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry
Written by Elaine May and Warren Beatty from a play by Harry Segall
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Mr. Jordan: Haven’t you learned the rules of probability and outcome? Aren’t you aware that every question of life and death remains a probability until the outcome?

Confusingly this is not a remake of “Heaven Can Wait” (1943) but of “Here Comes Mr. Jordan” (1941). Warren Beatty takes the Robert Montgomery part but is a football player instead of a boxer.

Joe Pendleton (Beatty) is the very talented and committed quarterback of the Los Angeles Rams. He is in a head-on collision and is taken by angel Buck Henry before he is actually dead, thus depriving him of 50 years more life. His body is cremated.

Naturally, Joe is not happy and persuades heaven’s gatekeeper Mr. Jordan (James Mason) to find him another body so he can take the Rams to the Superbowl. The body is that of multi-millionaire Charles Farnsworth. That body is not going to last long if his wife (Dyan Cannon) and her lover (Charles Grodin) have their way. Joe/Farnsworth buys the Ram on the condition he can play quarterback.

Betty Logan (Julie Christie) is an activist who breaks up the Farnsworth company’s board meeting. Turns out she and Joe actually agree on politics and they are soon a couple. With Jack Warden as Joe/Farnsworth’s trainer.

I saw this in the theater back in the day and thought it was just OK. The years have not improved it. The highlights for me were Mason and Cannon, who is hilarious as the greedy wife. This film was up for numerous Oscars so what do I know?

Heaven Can Wait won the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Warden), Best Supporting Actress (Cannon), Best Adapted Screenplay (Elaine May and Beatty); Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.

The Silent Partner
Directed by Daryl Duke and Curtis Hanson
Written by Curtis Hanson from a novel by Anders Bodelsen
1978/Canada
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Harry Reikle: I’m just going to give you a little time… to try to be reasonable. If you decide you’re not going to be reasonable, then one night when you come home, you’ll find me *inside*, waiting for you. And that will be the night you’ll wish you’d never been born.

This prototypical 70’s thriller gets an extra star for the performance of Christopher Plummer.

Elliott Gould plays chief bank teller Miles Cullen. He is outwardly quiet and nerdy with his main interest being aquarium fish. Fellow employee Julie (Susannah York) is dating her married boss. Miles takes an interest in Julie too.

One day Miles finds a deposit slip that has a stick up instructions on it. He figures out that the writing on the slip is the same as that of a Santa Claus in the mall. So he slips $40,000 of the bank’s money into his lunchbox before Santa has a chance to do his robbery. He hasn’t counted on the wrath of the sadistic psychopath bank robber Arthur Reikle (Christopher Plummer) who stalks and terrorizes Miles relentlessly until the explosive climax.

Christopher Plummer is absolutely the best thing about this movie. He is scary, charming, cunning and deadly by turns. Otherwise, I found this to suffer from a bad case of seventy-itis. The whole plot is about sticking it to the man and the bank robbery is treated as just another way of accomplishing this. There is a fair amount of cursing and sex just because they could. The whole story takes place at Christmas time possibly making it a worthy entry in your offbeat Christmas movie list.

Trailer (spoiler)

Sense and Sensibility
Directed by Ang Lee
Written by Emma Thompson from the novel by Jane Austen
1995/US/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Elinor Dashwood: You talk of feeling idle and useless. Imagine how that is compounded when one has no hope and no choice of any occupation whatsoever.
Edward Ferrars: Our circumstances are therefore precisely the same.
Elinor Dashwood: Except that you will inherit your fortune. We cannot even earn ours.

I am rereading the divine Jane Austen’s novel so decided it was time for a rewatch of this excellent adaptation.

The Dashwood family consists of four females: Fanny (Gemma Jones), the ditzy mother; Elinor (Emma Thompson), the sensible eldest sister; Marianne (Kate Winslet), the ultra-romantic middle sister; and young Margaret, about 12 or so. One day their benefactor dies. Archaic inheritance laws prevent females of the line from inheriting. And although the benefactor makes the girls’ half-brother promise to provide for them, his selfish, greedy wife talks him out of it. In the meantime, Elinor falls for her sister-in-law’s shy brother Edward (Hugh Grant). But the sister-in-law has plans for him that do not include marrying an almost penniless partner.

Finally, the women are invited to rent a distant relative’s cottage in the countryside, where they barely make ends meet through Elinor’s economizing.

Marianne is rescued from an ankle sprain by the dashing Willoughby (Greg Wise) and soon her love for him knows no bounds, despite her sister’s advice for restraint. The much older Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) also takes an interest, but Marianne spurns him. I won’t reveal more except to say that the course of true love never did run smooth and I always finish watching this with happy tears.

This is a first rate adaptation, all the actors are charming, and England never looked more beautiful. Recommended.

Emma Thompson won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was nominated in the categories of: Best Picture, Best Actress (Thompson), Best Supporting Actress (Winslet); Best Cinematography; Best Costume Design; and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score.

Superman
Directed by Richard Donner
Written by Mario Puzo et al from a character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Superman: I’m here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.
Lois Lane: [laughs] You’re gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country!

I’m not a fan of modern day comic book movies but I must admit enjoying the hell out of this one mostly for the comedy.

Everyone knows the Superman origin story, right? Anyway, the baby superman was sent to earth by his parents (Marlon Brando and Susannah York) immediately before the planet Krypton was destroyed. When he arrives he is adopted by childless Ma (Phyllis Thaxter) and Pa Kent (Glenn Ford).

The child grows up to be Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) nerdy, clumsy newspaper reporter. But when trouble strikes he becomes Superman. Reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) rejects all of Clark’s advances but falls in love with Superman.

Criminal mastermind Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) figures out a scheme that will allow him to rule the world when he discovers that kryptonite will rob the caped crusader of his powers. Luthor is not as smart as he thinks he is and his assistant Otis (Ned Beatty) is even dumber. Secretary Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) is the voice of sanity in this little group but no one pays any attention to her.

Luthor puts his plan for mass murder into effect. Will Superman save the day? With Jackie Cooper as editor Perry White.

I just love Gene Hackman in this movie. He should have done more comedy. The dialogue in his parts of the film is delicious. I think Brando was massively under-utilized. The special effects seem clunky now but do not detract from the fun. The John Williams score is iconic. If you are looking for a good popcorn watch, look no further.