THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (1958) movie ***1/2 score ****

H Rocco’s Karamazov comments have prompted me to consult my record books. Though it’s been a while since I have seen this fine movie, many of the images are still fresh in my mind.

Brynner gives his character a likeable intensity, and his obsession with Maria Schell, who is herself intoxicated by the memory of a past dalliance with an army officer, is quite touching…though Schell’s final ‘laying to rest’ of her love for the soldier is rather unconvincingly put across. Brynner and Schell’s first meeting beside a frozen lake adorned with frolicking skaters, is magical. The richly photographed ‘set-bound’ snowy landscape is as from a fairy story….unreal, and indeed unconvincing, yet extremely evocative. A sleigh ride accompanied by Bronislau Kaper’s wonderful music further enhances the fairy-tale mood, and an evening of wine, song and dance at a nearby tavern cements the relationship. Unfortunately, one or two of the Brynner/Schell scenes go on a bit too long…her smiling face is appealing at first, but a little grating after an eleven or twelve minute stretch.

The real interest in this condensed film version of Dostoyevsky’s classic comes from three quarters. Firstly, director Brooks’ script is interesting, intelligent, and full of clever insights into human nature…basically an excellent compression of the book itself. Secondly, the cast. Apart from Brynner and Schell, Lee J Cobb gives another dominating performance as the doomed father of the brothers….here, Cobb’s performance, though wild, is controlled….unlike his completely overblown exhibition in THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (movie *1/2 score **1/2), or his incredibly caricatured Italian-American in 1939’s otherwise excellent GOLDEN BOY (movie ***1/2 score ***)…and yet, when Cobb underplays, as his doctor in SONG OF BERNADETTE (movie ****1/2 score *****), he can be just as effective. Basehart, and the particularly restrained debutante Shatner, are also very good….as is the grotesque Salmi, playing Cobb’s epileptic bastard ‘son’. Only Claire Bloom lets the acting down. Finally, the music. Kaper’s score is both powerful and evocative. Featuring the ‘correct’ amount of authentic sounding ethnic instrumentation, the main themes themselves are universal in their scope, and speak of human nature…not necessarily JUST Russian human nature….just like the story itself.

Plenty of memorable scenes, mostly involving Cobb, but Basehart enjoyed himself too. Any thoughts of his future catalogue of inept cinema and television projects were forgotten as Basehart displayed great skill in portraying the brother whose love for Bloom was never going to be reciprocated. Very effective, particularly in a scene, also involving Schell, where Basehart loses all patience with Bloom….plenty of truisms there. Also, when he is finally arrested, believing his crime to be the murder of a faithful retainer, Brynner experiences uncontrollable relief on hearing that the servant lives, and then abject horror when he is accused of patricide….brilliant stuff.

However, the movie did have its faults, apart from those already mentioned. As the movie wound on it tended to lose its bite, and by the climactic court scene was merely going through the motions, one felt. Some of the peripheral plot strands seemed contrived and extraneous, and the final scene, instead of rounding off a fine movie, seemed laboured and lacked punch….thus, a long movie ended as if in all too much of a hurry.

THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948) movie **** score ****

Almost a masterpiece, this sadly neglected Hollywood movie is interesting for many reasons. Certainly director Joseph Losey’s best film, in my opinion…the American took up residence in British cinema after suffering during the communist witch-hunts, only to make mainly run-of-the-mill movies, punctuated by the occasional more interesting project such as THE SERVANT, and especially TIME WITHOUT PITY.

THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR is a very emotional, and often quite moving, ‘message movie’. However, the message here is overwhelmingly positive and constructive. The parents of a young American boy are killed during the London blitz, and after moving in and out of various aunts and uncles’ homes, the boy ends up with ‘grandpa’. During his time with grandpa, the boy learns the truth about his parents from a mischievous school friend….the boy’s a war orphan, just like the sad and dishevelled kids in the photographs in his school hall. Grandpa and the school are organising the collection of clothes for other war orphans, and one day the boy wakes up and finds his hair has turned green. Any initial excitement quickly evaporates as the boy becomes the object of prejudice and ridicule….even the milkman is losing customers because the locals think his milk made the boy’s hair turn green. Sad, lonely, and victimized, the boy runs away, stumbles and sobs his heart out, only then to hear the plaintive tones of a little girl calling his name. He looks up and sees all of the children from the pictures on the wall of his school. They tell him why his hair has turned green…..they say it’s a message….a message of hope. Green is the colour of spring, and of hope….out of the tragedy and despair of war, the boy with the green hair is a reminder to mankind that all is not lost, and that the deaths of millions of men, women and children should not be in vain. Heartened by this, the boy returns to grandpa and proceeds to tell everyone why his hair has turned green….but no-one listens….

Dean Stockwell plays the boy brilliantly, and narrates the story to friendly child psychologist Robert Ryan. Barbara Hale has a small part as a sympathetic schoolteacher, and Regis Toomey pops up again as the milkman. However, the movie belongs to Pat O’Brien as grandpa. Always one of my favourite movie stars, O’Brien here recaptures the warmth of his Irish priest in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, and the sensitive charm of his Irish-New York cop in THE GREAT O’MALLEY. In THE BOY WITH THE GREEN HAIR, O’Brien is the epitome of Irish charm….he is forever cracking jokes and singing songs of Dublin and the emerald isle.

The music is absolutely great. Composer Harline and supervisor Bakaleinikoff, utilize the tune from the song ‘Nature Boy’, composed for Nat King Cole the year before. The stunningly moving tune is used throughout the movie, and greatly enhances the emotional impact….harmonica, solo violin and full orchestra juggle with the theme…wonderful. Particularly effective scenes involve Stockwell in the local store just after he has learnt of the fate of his parents….image and music combine brilliantly here. Another scene has grandpa proudly walking the boy to his first day at school down main street…..the interaction between the boy and grandpa, and the people in the street, is hilarious.

Great movie for all ages! The score, which I loved before, is even better now. It was great in the movie!
One of the best Disney movies of all time. The score is THE best Disney score of all time, mostly because I can listen to it and not necessarily think of a cartoon.

By the way, the art is even better (way better) than that in Walking with Dinosaurs, which I thought was pretty good.

N.P. Dinosaur <****.5/*****>

Yesterday, BOILER ROOM hit the four-dollar house. I picked it almost lazily, and when I go in with some disinterest, I tend to be BLOWN AWAY when it turns out to be REALLY GOOD. This is a THRILLING debut by writer-director Ben Younger, and while it's probably already too late to catch it in most North American venues, DO keep an eye out for the video.

Afterwards, snuck in next door to catch what turned out to be the last half-hour of PITCH BLACK, starring Vin Diesel, an actor-director who's turning out to be quite versatile (he's also fine in BOILER ROOM, but he's not the lead.) He was also Caparzo in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. I have no idea if he's going to turn into a real star-star or not -- he always struck me as more of a character type -- but in the small section of PITCH BLACK that I did see, he acquits himself as an action star quite well. He sure LOOKS the part, but he also infused his character with an intriguing kind of strangeness missing from his more regular-guy turns that I've already seen. The whole of the ending, however, is too much like ALIENS for comfort.

MOUSE HUNT (1997) movie **1/2 score ****

One or two hilarious scenes, and a number of amusing moments, are somewhat undone by a pretty feeble script. Lane and Evans are likeable and pretty funny as the brothers who inherit an old house that turns out to be worth ten million, and the rest of the cast is fine….but it is the mouse that runs away with the picture.

So the script and ‘plot’ is only so-so, but the effects and visual comedy situations are bright and often very clever.

Alan Silvestri’s score is excellent. Often wittily classical, with some great saxophone thrown in, Silvestri’s approach recalled Steiner to me…not so much the fluidity of scoring and the clarity of the thematic material…but in Silvestri’s adaptability, willingness and incorporation of well known song tunes. A perfect example of 90’s CMS scoring….the movie is unflinchingly served by the composer.

A good-ish ‘family’ film that one WANTS to be funnier than it actually is….for me it’s still a tie between the brilliant AS GOOD AS IT GETS and HIGH SCHOOL HIGH for the funniest and most successfully warm-hearted 90’s ‘family’ comedy.

May 20th 2000

MY WILD IRISH ROSE (1947) movie ***1/2 score ****

You’ll need your sunglasses for this one, I’ve never known such garishly luminous colour….it’s not just the photography, but the décor and costumes that makes one wince. That apart, the movie is very good, though Dennis Morgan is somewhat over-the-hill to be playing the part of a young Chauncey Olcott. Nevertheless, the typically Hollywood-glamorized story of the Irish-American singer is extremely entertaining, with barrel-loads of wonderful Irish songs, a gallery of great Irish-American characters (including Alan Hale and William Frawley (brilliant), to name two of dozens), some wacky and often hilarious humour, a large dose of romantic intrigue, and some brilliantly choreographed minstrel dance routines…one including an hilarious and acrobatic ‘Uncle Remus’ dancer.

An array of top Warners musical talent were involved with MY WILD IRISH ROSE, and once again it is the immensely talented Max Steiner who binds it all together with his ‘bridging’ score, incorporating many well known Irish musical phrases, and some densely orchestrated dramatic score. With each further Steiner movie I see, my respect for the composer increases….Steiner is so versatile and adaptable….indeed, I could imagine him adapting with ease to 90’s scoring requirements such is his apparently instinctive CMS ability.

I must admit I found the opening couple of scenes of MY WILD IRISH ROSE a little stilted. However, I soon warmed to the picture and perhaps the filmmakers got into their stride….and looking back, the movies initially latent properties quickly became apparent.

BLADE (1998) movie *1/2 score ***

Easily the weakest of the sub-BATMAN superhero movies to appear during the 90’s…apart from the lamentable THE SHADOW.

Though particularly puerile and childishly plotted, BLADE even bored the kids, such was its incredibly formulaic and mechanical execution. To talk of BLADE’s plot, is akin to reading the contents of a stick of gum….it’s that interesting.

The 90’s has been notable for the success of the multi-genred movie, in my opinion. BLADE indeed mixes genres…you’ve got action, horror, urban thriller…and so on….but with BLADE each genre element is seen at its weakest, and actively detracts from the picture as a whole.

BLADE’s biggest failing is its inept scripting…only marginally more interesting to that heard in the video game RESIDENT EVIL. The movie is also devoid of any ‘successful’ touches of humour….sure, the filmmakers tried, but the attempts at humour were leaden and extremely self conscious. Even Kristofferson’s casual lighting of a cigarette whilst filling the BLADE-mobile was done with such exaggerated awkwardness as to put one in mind of Dumbo performing a pirouette.

The vampire foes were exceedingly limp. As usual, Dorff was quite pathetic…here, further handicapped by the lumbering and nauseatingly banal script, and having the appearance of a seven year old who had freakishly reached puberty, along with his general inability to enunciate his lines. The vampire ‘establishment’ appeared as one might imagine a conference of chartered accountants. Snipes was pretty useless himself….but mainly because everything else in the movie was so incompetent.

Mark Isham’s score and the movies’ urban settings provided the only, albeit scant, consolation….though I think the filmmakers somewhat overdid the swirling newspapers that bedecked the alleyways every time the BLADE-mobile scurried past. Isham’s successfully CMS and appropriate score deserved to be in a far better movie, but at least his music somewhat improved the onscreen events.

Apart from the score, and the newspaper/paperbag blizzard, the movie failed to entertain in every conceivable way. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t scary, it wasn’t atmospheric, it wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t ironic, it wasn’t clever…but it WAS mind-numbingly dull.

BLADE was SO childish, the only way it could have succeeded was to make it funny also, just like the generally successful parodic nature of such movies as SPAWN and the superior BATMAN movies themselves. The filmmakers DID make some attempts at humour, but as I said earlier, they were woefully clumsy, thus, the movie came across like a CARRY ON film without the jokes. The opening vampire-disco should have been funny…it certainly wasn’t scary, exciting, or even effectively gross…it was as involving and as convincing as a poor video game. There was absolutely no tension as the young man was led to the disco….there was no tension of sense of foreboding in ANY part of the movie for that matter (a remarkable achievement…the filmmakers deserve a great big fat and juicy raspberry)….and Snipes appearance at the disco was eye-rollingly predictable (this was head-in-hands stuff). The ensuing massacre of the vampires was simply risible….almost as obviously choreographed as the Burt Lancaster/Nick Cravat acrobatics in the equally childish CRIMSON PIRATE from 1952. The vampires were killed off with such ease…as one might swat a legless, wingless, and paralysed fly…and their CGI disintegration was as phoney as the rest of the movie.

Best sub movie I've ever seen, and best war movie I've ever seen.

Tonight was "The World Is Not Enough" and "The Mask Of Zorro." Both, IMO, very good films in their own right.

TWINE is better than I remember when I saw it at the cinema last fall. It is stated in one of the features on the disc that "There are certain things that you expect to see in a Bond film" and I had forgotten that last November. Seeing a Bond film is like seeing an old friend after a long absence. It's a pleasure to sit back and take it all in. Some may say that this last movie was "predictable," but it works for me.

Zorro is another movie that, after seeing it in the theater, made me want to have this film in my collection (and not just because of Catherine Zeta-Jones). It's action is almost non-stop, with only a few "quite moments" that do not detract from the film as a whole. Indeed, these moments set you up for what is to come. I certainly hope they can strike gold with a sequel.

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD (1946) movie *** score ***1/2

Life in the Bronx, 1938 – 1946, centred on a young couples’ efforts to get on in the world.

Well acted, particularly Joan Fontaine and Harry Morgan, nicely paced, interestingly scripted….yet somehow TOO gentle. Compare this story of everyday New York folk with some of the British dramas set in the same era….and one tends to see a more ‘warts and all’ depiction of real life in such British movies as WATERLOO ROAD and THE STARS LOOK DOWN. Though many cinema-goers would understandably look to be uplifted when they go to the movies, the ‘grim reality’ of many early British films is often contrasted with many uplifting passages, thus the movie is more emotionally moving because of the extreme contrasts between dark and light, hope and despair, and success and failure. And when the ‘happy’ times do come, because of the tragedy gone before, the viewer is even more uplifted than if the movie had only been happy and bright. Still, that’s a bit of a generalization….some classics of American cinema such as THE GRAPES OF WRATH have just such enormous contrasts. What films like these do is remind one of just how comfortable our lives are these days, and how in the past people appreciated more the little things in life. Anyway, good though it was, FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, could have done with a few more ‘troubled’ moments, just to make the bright bits shine that bit brighter.

DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968) movie * score **

Mind-bogglingly obtuse third addition to the Hammer Dracula saga has priest Rupert Davies up against an apparently camera-shy Christopher Lee, considering that Dracula is rarely seen.

A perfect example of redundant filmmaking…..an incredibly uninteresting plot is padded out to excess, with a script entirely lacking in any interest, and a cast of characters with about as much charisma as a lump of coal. Bernard’s banal scoring didn’t help.

Rupert Davies made for a particularly pompous, colourless and sanctimonious hero….and rarely did a moment go by without his miserable presence on screen.

The seemingly endless scene in which Davies ascends the mountain to Castle Dracula, weighed down with a massive cross, somehow represented all that was wrong with this movie.

With movies as inept as DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE and IF…, amongst many others, coming out in the same year….a cruel and self-injurious blow was dealt the already rapidly declining British film industry.

LASSIE COME HOME (1943) movie **** score ****

Simply enchanting, LASSIE COME HOME was the first, and possibly best, of the Hollywood series of movies featuring everyone’s favourite collie.

California makes a suitable double for the Yorkshire Dales and Scotland, the colour photography is stunning and the music score is absolutely beautiful.

British child stars Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor are supported by a cast of great Hollywood-based British star character actors, including Donald Crisp, Nigel Bruce, Edmund Gwenn, Dame May Whitty, Alan Napier (Alfred, from the Adam West Batman) and Elsa Lanchester….each has an important, and very sympathetic part to play. When times are hard, Crisp, playing McDowall’s stern father, and Lanchester as his loving mother, reluctantly sell Lassie to wealthy land owner Bruce. Lassie spends most of the early part of the movie constantly escaping from Bruce’s cruel dog-handler.

Finally, Bruce takes Lassie a couple of hundred miles north, to Scotland….and still Lassie escapes. The rest of the movie has Lassie journeying south, desperate to return to its original master. The journey is long and arduous, and Lassie faces death on more than one occasion. It is during this journey that Lassie encounters kindly May Whitty, fair-minded Napier, and Edmund Gwenn’s brilliant turn as a travelling tinker.

Gwenn steals the movie as a kindly, but tough, traveller….moving from village to village selling his pots and pans and wowing the kids with his performing dog.

A magical film….even better than 1947’s excellent Edmund Gwenn dog-tale, BOB SON OF BATTLE.

THE GRASSHOPPER (1969) movie ***1/2 score ****

Delightfully sixties tale of a pretty young woman from British Columbia who descends into prostitution in the American south-west.

A tremendous cast led by Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown and Joseph Cotten, flashy direction, and Billy Goldenberg’s fabulously cheesy music, combine to create a very entertaining movie.

Cotten has one of his best latter-day roles, and he sinks his teeth into the part of a wealthy businessman who ‘buys’ Bisset’s sexual favours with gusto. To fit in with the exaggerated nature of the movie, Cotten goes several points over the top.….a long way away from his tremendous underplaying in 1967’s PETULIA, great score from Barry too ….but that's what THE GRASSHOPPER needed, Cotten at his most flamboyant. His initially purely lustful intentions toward Bisset, gradually evolve, until finally he offers marriage. During Bisset’s long term ‘professional’ relationship with Cotten, she has numerous affairs with younger men, including an excellently sympathetic Jim Brown.

And WHAT music. I’ve spent much time bemoaning the death of the musical in recent postings at the message board…but here is a film with ‘musical’ elements that successfully capture the flavour of the time. Goldenberg’s score is a riot of diverse styles and sounds, incorporating some excellent songs. No movies in the history of cinema have dated quite so badly as those made between 1965 and 1975….and THE GRASSHOPPER is no exception…but it’s still a delightful movie.

I can hear it now….

It defininately was a teary-eyed finale. I wish Mr. Fox and his family the best of luck in their search for a cure for Parkinson's Disease. I've always enjoyed his work, and hope to be seeing him for many more years to come, healthy and happy as ever.

YOLANDA AND THE THIEF (1945) movie * score *1/2

Despite being one of the most expensive movies of its time, YOLANDA AND THE THIEF was a resounding dud at the box office….and on viewing the movie it is easy to see why.

Witless, dim and lumbering are the words that best describe this movie, in my opinion. And yet, on paper the movie had everything. Glorious colour and expensive sets are offset by a particularly dull script, and lifeless, and far too few, musical numbers.

A great cast had Mildred Natwick and Leom Ames embarrassing themselves….though Yolanda (Lucille Bremer) herself was wooden and uncharismatic.

The story involves a wealthy South American woman (Yolanda) who believes a petty thief and confidence trickster (Fred Astaire) to be her guardian angel. Astaire is accompanied in his trickstering by his chum Frank Morgan.

Here you have two of Hollywood’s most expert performers, Frank Morgan and Fred Astaire, floundering…completely at a loss…..proving conclusively that you can have the best talent in the world, but it means nothing if the script is poor.

By all accounts, Astaire was so disappointed at this movies’ failure, he actually considered giving up movies for a spell.

Couple days ago: Third viewing of HSING HSING WANG (Hong Kong, 1977). Previously available on bootlegged, reedited video as GOLIATHON; restored and reissued (to theaters!) last year by Quentin Tarantino! So now I have something nice to say about Quentin.

Quentin put it back out under its original international title, MIGHTY PEKING MAN. Based on my limited understanding of the Chinese characters, the real English title should be PRINCE HSING-HSING (he is called Wu-Tan in the English dub, when he is not being called Peking Man -- which makes no sense, as he comes from Tibet, not Peking).

The Shaw Brothers (kid bro Runme produced this one) made PEKING MAN as an intended cash-in on the 1976 KING KONG (hence the title PRINCE HSING-HSING), although the picture it finally most closely resembles is MIGHTY JOE YOUNG.

It also owes piles of debts to various Japanese fantasy epics of the 1950s and 1960s, in particular MAJIN. The Japanese resemblance is no coincidence, either: the Shaw Bros. imported Japanese SFX master Teisho Arikawa to film the effects. He was the principal disciple of "the god of Japanese SFX," Eiji Tsuburaya, who died in January 1970. Arikawa directed the effects of several pictures under Tsuburaya's supervision, but after his first movie as sole director at Toho, he quit -- partly in a rage over the studio's refusal to allow the filmmakers to dedicate the film, released Stateside as YOG, MONSTER FROM SPACE, to Tsuburaya's memory. The studio people despised Tsuburaya, and this was their posthumous revenge.

Arikawa became a freelancer after that, and worked on the Taiwanese PHOENIX as well (often billed as "Sam Arikawa," an English corruption of his nickname Sadamasa Arikawa -- this is too complicated to get into.) The funny thing about his work on MIGHTY PEKING MAN is, however cheap it will look to most people because of the hopeless man-in-suit giant ape thing, it was actually one of the most expensive movies ever made in Hong Kong until then, if not THE most expensive. And it SHOWS -- we have MASSES of extras in both the Thailand and Hong Kong sequences, we got helicopters and tanks all over the place -- and, more strikingly, really EXCELLENT miniature work, BETTER than what was being done in Japan at the time! Only the top-budgeted SUBMERSION OF JAPAN and PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS, from that same period, have miniature work as vast and complicated as that seen in MIGHTY PEKING MAN.

Optical work is also surprisingly competent -- if they'd only been able to articulate the Peking Man himself better, it would have been all the more striking. At the same time, the use of suitmation is no more cheesy than that in the KING KONG remake from the same period.

The story, such as it is, is borderline deranged, cribbing from everything from the aforementioned KONG and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, to MAJIN and even GORGO. But the picture has a sort of sweet naievete to it that I found irresistible. I couldn't stop laughing at it in the press screening last year, but I loved every minute of it. It's not the sort of contemptuous what-the-hell're-they-trying-to-pull laughter I had at BATTLEFIELD EARTH ... it's more the ingenuous craziness that is typical of Hong Kong films in general. ("This is Samantha. She grew up in the jungle, you know.") I roared throughout RETURN OF THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS, for instance, but it has outrageously bold action sequences, as does PEKING MAN. The average Shaw Bros. movie never lets up on you -- something Jackie Chan took to even wilder extremes (DRUNKEN MASTER II is exhausting, merely watching it should be classified as an aerobic exercise) -- but as well, the Hong Kong movies have a certain emotional simplicity to them that is massively appealing. Even something like the dirt-cheap CITY ON FIRE or NAKED KILLER just throws all its emotions in your face, and you go along with it or you don't. The best of the Hong Kong filmmakers refuse to play it cool, and there's something engrossing about that. MIGHTY PEKING MAN, at once as simple and as dense as a child's daydream or nightmare, falls into that category.

Score is credited to some Hong Kong fellow I never heard of (he probably wrote the disco-type stuff), and DeWolfe. We had another thread earlier discussing who/what DeWolfe is -- we decided DeWolfe (billed in TIME BANDITS as "DeWolfe Ready Music) is probably a British music library. Certainly the cues in MIGHTY PEKING MAN are, by and large, spotted to match the general tone of a scene, rather than its specifics (no mickeymousing possible); however, they have an appropriate hugeness and harshness. Again, I wonder WHO is behind the music being contributed to DeWolfe in the first place. The style as heard in MIGHTY PEKING MAN is quite similar to that heard in DeWolfe's MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL -- massive brass clusters, reasonably inventive string writing -- it SOUNDS like the same composer in both cases.

Could it possibly be John Scott? I know he's written library music before ... one of his pieces appeared on the old DALLAS series, for God's sake. The DeWolfe music I'm referring to doesn't sound EXACTLY like John Scott, but of British composers that I'm familiar with, he easily writes the biggest and most impressively aggressive stuff. On the other hand, he's never said he worked for DeWolfe in interviews that I've read, and surely at the time of KING KONG LIVES he would've wanted to mention MIGHTY PEKING MAN ... unless he didn't know his music was used in that ...

I love this movie and can't recommend it enough. It is the perfect anodyne to something like the hideous, cynical, wretchedly crafted GODZILLA (1998). It is a brand-new issue on Miramax Home Video.

I am neither wealthy nor am I retired.

I don’t NEED to work, but I still derive as much satisfaction from emptying dustbins and tidying the streets and sidewalks of Bristol now as I did when I started out on my career as a dustman in 1955 Grimsby. However, if the UK did have a serious unemployment problem, I would probably make way for a younger person….someone who maybe needs the job more than myself. As it is, the reverse is currently true…there is actually a shortage of trained dustmen in Britain at the moment. Many have been lured overseas by lucrative wage-deals……to Cambodia for instance.

To confirm, the date at the top of each of my posts at this thread indicates the day on which I most recently saw the movie….I may have seen the particular movie on one or more occasion in the past….but such has been the number of years since the original viewing, I have been able to watch the film again without being TOO familiar with it. Indeed, I have viewed all of the films I have posted about at this thread within the date range Graham Watt has specified, with the exception of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV that I originally viewed in November 1972. I mentioned it here in response to H Rocco’s comments about the movie…..fortunately much of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV had stuck in my mind for the subsequent 27 years and six months…..it must have been a pretty good film.

I consider myself fortunate in that I only need three or four hours sleep every twenty four hours. It really is amazing how much more you can do in the course of a day when only a little of it is turned over to sleep. When I was younger I needed the usual six or seven hours….these days I really feel as though I’m getting the most out of life……we all should make the most of our time on this planet doing the things we LIKE to do…..

A DOUBLE LIFE (1947) movie **** score ****

Vivid, partly surrealistic, larger-than-life, extraordinary…A DOUBLE LIFE is a unique cinematic experience.

The celebrated Hollywood-based British movie star Ronald Colman (my FAVOURITE actor) has a field-day playing an acclaimed stage actor who is given the golden opportunity to play Shakespeare. The urban settings are magnificently realized, augmented to great effect by Rozsa’s moody score and Cukor’s superb direction. Every scene, including those involving the hard-bitten New York cops, the tragic and tense moments in Shelly Winters’ seedy apartment, and the rarefied atmosphere of Colman’s circle of theatrical friends, is charged with larger-than-life energy. Edmond O’Brien also impresses as a journalist caught up in the bizarre series of events.

Basically, Colman’s character has a serious personality defect, with each stage role he takes on, he begins to live the part in real life too…..gradually the edges between reality and fiction blur.

The problem is, his next role is Othello.

Colman’s playing is perfect. His ‘esteemed actor’ in A DOUBLE LIFE is charming, debonair, urbane, witty and sophisticated, just like the real Ronald Colman. However, when his character in this movie is on stage, he LIVES the role, and such is the depth to which the part sinks into his whole being, the fiction soon spills over into the real world.

In fact, one of the brilliant touches in A DOUBLE LIFE was the way the theatre scenes slotted into the movie itself. Cukor ensured that the action didn’t dwell on the stage performance of Othello for too long, and yet the audience was drawn into this ‘play within a play’…just as Colman himself was sucked into a kind of fantasy world. Colman’s playing here was masterful. His initial performances as Othello are a little stiff and wooden….he is speaking the words, not MEANING them….he is acting the part, not LIVING it. However, as time goes on, and the number of performances mount, a manic fervour sweeps over Colman as he sinks into the part…his playing of Othello becomes utterly convinciing and all-consuming.

THE MUTATIONS (1974) movie 1/2 score **

Jack Cardiff’s THE MUTATIONS and Tod Browning’s 1932 classic FREAKS both had a cast-list made up of real-life circus freaks….and both can be described as exploitation movies. However, whereas Browning’s movie intelligently and compassionately dealt with the plight of the freaks, Cardiff’s circus-bound movie was merely an insult to them.

Browning’s FREAKS was well made and had an excellent story involving a scheming trapeze artist and the much-maligned freaks horrible revenge upon her. It had wit, some humour, and didn’t cruelly ‘make fun’ of the unfortunate circus-freaks. They were portrayed as human beings who had courageously learnt to live with their disabilities and were merely attempting to live ‘normal’ lives. However, FREAKS still told a story, it wasn’t just about the everyday existence of circus performers.

Initially, THE MUTATIONS attempted to give its cast of side-show freaks a chance to show themselves as ‘normal’ human beings….people with the same desires, feelings and thought processes as anyone else. However, it didn’t take long for the film to slip into the run-of-the-mill ‘horror’ flick, complete with mad scientist Donald Pleasence, mad circus-owner Tom Baker, and mad circus-freaks. The freaks in this case were portrayed as monsters….not only did they LOOK like freaks, they behaved as the PREJUDICED would EXPECT them to behave.

Certainly, some of the freak-characterizations were interesting. The filmmakers, just as with 1932’s FREAKS, hired real circus-freaks for THE MUTATIONS. Apart from the usual bearded lady, skeleton man, limbless torso, Siamese twins, lizard-man, and other assorted freaks, the most outlandish of them all was some guy who could stand on stage, thrust his head forward and back in one swift movement, thus his eyes would pop out from their sockets several inches and then, thanks to the elastic qualities of the nerves, would spring back into place. A clever trick.

After a promising start, with SONS AND LOVERS for instance, it was a great shame to see noted cinematographer Jack Cardiff’s directing career descend into such cheap exploitation territory.

Unless you’ve got NOTHING else to do, don’t bother with this one.

THE SILVER FLEET (1943) movie *1/2 score ***

Powell and Pressburger are notorious for the variable quality of their projects, ranging form the absolute heights of creativity – THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943 movie ***** score ****), THE RED SHOES (1948 movie ***** score *****) and THE SMALL BACK ROOM (1948 movie **** score ***1/2), to the depths of crudity and the obvious – THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE (1956 movie * score **) and ONE OF OUR AIRCRAFT IS MISSING (1942 movie *1/2 score **).

To be fair, Powell and Pressburger merely produced THE SILVER FLEET, however, it bears all of the hallmarks of one of their lesser productions. British and American wartime propaganda movies, on the whole, still provide a huge amount of entertainment value even now, sixty years on. Apart from anything else, such movies provide a valuable record of the time….the people, the attitudes, the fashions, and the locations. Of course, many wartime propaganda films were made on both sides of the Atlantic, and the vast majority were entertaining and well-crafted, and indeed, despite their obvious intention to boost morale, were basically accurate reflections of the time and place.

Unfortunately, THE SILVER FLEET is one of those movies that fails to convince on any level. The great stage-knight Sir Ralph Richardson is fine playing a Dutch shipbuilder in German-occupied Holland. His initial instincts on being asked to collaborate with the invading forces (led by a Esmond Knight….a fine actor, but terrible here as a grossly caricatured German officer) are to stick the two fingers up, but upon reflection decides to embark on a clever game of cat and mouse by convincing the German authorities that he is sympathetic to THEIR cause, whilst SECRETLY supplying the Dutch resistance with valuable information.

A fascinating premise, with some very atmospheric photography, is let down by a very childish plot, stilted acting and a silly script. However, Allan Gray’s score is interesting, though maybe not wholly suited to the action….here he provides a very dramatic, symphonic and almost Beethovenian musical accompaniment to a movie that doesn’t warrant such lofty scoring.

HELLRAISER III (1992) movie *** score ***

Enormously fun and entertaining continuation of the Hellraiser saga. From its humble beginnings with the rather ordinary and run-of-the-mill 1987 opener, the series blossomed with 1988’s HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II. The second movie in the series was a tremendous and all-encompassing movie entertainment. Comic situations, liberal doses of humour, plenty of ‘chills’, a fascinating plot, great performances (especially Kenneth Cranham), some superb special effects, and Christopher Young’s wonderful score, combined to great effect.

HELLRAISER III, set this time in urban America, was a rather more modest production. However, this third movie in the series wisely upped the humour-quotient, without being particularly witty and clever however. The humour was broad and sometimes childish…but always welcome…the movie poked fun at itself and the genre in general. This time we learn far more about Pinhead’s origins….his past as a British WWI officer fighting in the trenches, and his subsequent search for ‘thrills’ in British India which led him to his demise (or should I say immortality).

The story basically involves a journalist heroine crossing paths with and then clashing with the rapidly regenerating Pinhead, played once again by the excellent British actor Doug Bradley. The action/mutilation set-pieces are, as always, brilliantly staged. The fabulous disco-massacre here is in sharp contrast with the sanitised, lame and ‘bloodless’ disco-massacre from the infantile and risible BLADE (see above for comments). HELLRAISER III’s disco-massacre is also even better than the entertaining WISHMASTER’s similar climactic ‘social gathering’ blood-bath. The disco bloodbath in HELLRAISER III is as funny as it is brilliantly staged and gruesome….here we have masses of writhing and tentacle-like hooked-chains lashing and lacerating the hapless disco-huddle, and numerous frisby-like compact discs and vinyls zipping from one corner of the dance floor to the other, decapitating and maiming in their wake. A little later, a hapless cameraman colleague (a brilliant ploy by the filmmakers, the character is played by a particularly wooden actor) of ‘our heroine’ stumbles into the aftermath of the bloody massacre and needless to say suffers a fate far, far worse than death.

The disco deathhouse proves only to be the curtain-raiser for a magnificently entertaining and funny, ‘action-movie’ showdown. Legions of new black-garbed, bald-pated ‘pinhead’ types, looking for all the world like rather more comically fearsome versions of Star Trek’s amusingly villainous ‘Borg’, are now roaming the streets, some with cd’s protruding from their mutilated faces and others reflecting the nature of their mortal demise in similarly humorous fashion. The funniest of all was the cameraman, who as one of the ranks of Pinhead’s army, is actually more animated than his human self as he stomps about the streets with his camera inserted into his skull roughly where his right-eye should have been….he REALLY looked like one of Star Trek’s amusing Borg. Anyway, all manner of mayhem ensues….

BENGAL BRIGADE (1955) movie *1/2 score *

19th century British India provides the setting for this unexciting and dull Hollywood adventure. BENGAL BRIGADE is a billion miles away from the many British-India set masterpieces of 30’s Hollywood….CLIVE OF INDIA, GUNGA DIN, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (the ‘charge’ was in the Crimean War, but the movie was primarily set in India) and WEE WILLIE WINKIE for instance.

Here, British Captain Rock Hudson is cashiered through the false-evidence of devious fellow-officer Dan O’Herlihy, and goes undercover to foil the wicked local rajah during the Indian Mutiny. In the midst of this, Hudson’s commanding officer, played by the dominant British character actor Torin Thatcher (best known as the evil sorcerer Pendragon from 1961’s JACK THE GIANT KILLER), has to contend with the Indian Mutiny, or sepoy rebellion (sepoy is the term used to describe a native Indian in the service of the British army).

The mutiny broke out in the Bengal army, and the pretext for revolt was the introduction of the new Enfield Rifle….to load it, the sepoys had to bite off the ends of lubricated cartridges. There appears to be some foundation for the sepoys' belief that the grease used to lubricate the cartridges was a mixture of pigs' and cows' lard, thus, to have oral contact with it was an insult to both Muslims and Hindus. Late in April 1857, sepoy troopers at Meerut refused the cartridges; as punishment, they were given long prison terms, fettered, and put in jail. This punishment incensed their comrades, who rose on May 10, shot their British officers, and marched to Delhi. There, the local sepoy garrison joined the Meerut men, and by nightfall the aged emperor Bahadur Shah II had been nominally restored to power.

The seizure of Delhi provided a focus and set the pattern for the whole mutiny, which then spread throughout northern India (including what is now Pakistan). However, with the exception of the Mughal emperor and his sons and Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the deposed Maratha peshwa, none of the important Indian princes joined the mutineers.

From the time of the mutineers' seizure of Delhi, the British operations to suppress the mutiny were divided into three parts. First came the desperate struggles at Delhi, Cawnpore, and Lucknow during the summer; then the operations around Lucknow in the winter of 1857-58 directed by Sir Colin Campbell; and finally the "mopping up" campaigns of Sir Hugh Rose in early 1858. The British finally suppressed the uprising, and peace was officially declared on July 8, 1858.

Interestingly, it is a little illustrated fact, that over 50,000 British Indian sepoy troops fought in the Eurpean arena alone during WWII….along with soldiers brought in from all corners of the British Empire. Even long-since independent South Africa still had enough British influence within its government to join Britain in opposing German and Japanese global conquest designs. Likewise, the famed Gurkha (Nepalese) regiments of the British army, continue to serve in the British army to this day…even now their numbers can be seen within the British protection force posted to the war-torn West African former British territory of Sierra Leone.

Anyway, BENGAL BRIGADE provided a very lacklustre entertainment. Hudson and Thatcher were fine…..as was Michael Ansara’s pro-British sepoy sergeant….but Arlene Dahl, playing Thatcher’s daughter and Hudson’s love-interest, is very ordinary and O’Herlihy is quite dreadful in the action scenes. Hans Salter’s score is very poor, in my opinion….not only is his interpretation of the unfolding events poorly communicated through his music, but his main themes are particularly ordinary, and his battle music is ponderous and actually quite annoying. Not only that, the movie’s sets are cardboard looking, and there are too many misty/swamp jungle scenes, and too few points of interest in the script.

At a convention years ago, before the picture's release, I saw a brief scene with the star of the original, Ashley Laurence, finally meeting up with Pinhead again. It was cut from the final version (including the unedited one), I have no idea why. I was particularly impressed by Randy Miller's interpolation of Christopher Young's original HELLRAISER theme in this scene -- a soft, whispery flute, the scene was played more for creeps than the laughs we got more and more out of the Cenobites after the first one.

HELLRAISER III was the first Hollywood score ever recorded in Moscow -- during a time of particular political turmoil, they weren't sure they'd get the job finished.

I was favorably impressed by the gravity of Peter Atkins' script for HELLRAISER III -- the picture is far more compelling and coherent than the previous HELLBOUND (although that sports one of Young's VERY best scores). As well, I was impressed that director Anthony Hickox was capable of doing a relatively serious, weighty horror picture, since nearly all his output to date has been pathetic, jokey crap like WAXWORK, WARLOCK 2, SUNDOWN and so on.

It's actually dire, punishing work, being in the suit, and the only reason why these two particular fellows cottoned to it is because they're both CRAZY -- also they DO like smashing stuff, you're right -- and, equally important, have peculiar metabolisms. (Kenpachiro Satsuma, the Godzilla you saw, had to have an operation once, and they couldn't put him under! The narcoleptic didn't take! He horrified the doctor by crying out at the first touch of the knife.)

They kept at the work because of some sort of masochistic love for it -- by the way, you can see the Original Godzilla, Haruo Nakajima, squaring off against Satsuma in two pictures, where the latter plays the Smog Monster, followed by Gigan. They're amazingly tiny in person, neither taller than five-four or five-five, I think. You know how ants can lift many many times their own strength? I wonder if a similar principle does not apply here.

Making GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDRAH in 1991, Satsuma took a horrendous tumble inside the suit, for the sequence in which Godzilla plunges through the road while invading Sapporo. Nonetheless, the director made him do it a second time -- the first one didn't look real enough. (Also, Satsuma and the director in question don't like each other much. Satsuma far preferred his predecessor Teruyoshi Nakano, who cast him as the Smog Monster, Gigan, and finally as Godzilla for GODZILLA 1985.)

It's more grueling work than it is dangerous -- the suit alone does much to pad the actor. Playing Rodan in 1956, a cable snapped during a flying scene, and Nakajima plunged quite a distance -- his fall broken in part by landing in the water, he said. No harm done. Playing Baran in 1958, however, one of the trucks sent to explode under the monster's belly exploded HARD, and he was burned terribly (though not disfiguringly.)

REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE (1967) movie * (**1/2 if, like me, you love bad movies) score ***

Earlier I described ESCAPE TO BURMA as so-bad-it’s-good, REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE was SO-terrible-it’s-HILARIOUS. Yet again, cinema proves, at least to me, that nothing has dated more than a 60’s movie….even the Tod Slaughter barn-stormers of the 30’s have more relevance to TODAY’S society.

Considering the ‘A-list’ talent involved with this production, this has to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious movies ever….on watching this, we were all delirious with laughter. Despite an excruciatingly slow pace, every moment of REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE induced mirth, ranging from a giggle to a roar.

The movie is set at an army base in Georgia, and the story involves a new recruit who rides naked on horseback, played by Robert Forster (in his debut), who is lusted after by Brando’s homosexual army officer, whose wife (Elizabeth Taylor) is having an affair with Brian Keith, whose wife cut off her nipples with garden shears.

It really is as hilarious as it sounds. Only Keith (a good performer until, during the 70’s, he began to resemble Margaret Rutherford) escapes with any vestige of dignity intact, also the photography is stunning.….and Toshiro Mayuzumi’s score is effective.

Brando never fails to amuse me….of all of his films that I have seen, only his Kowalski in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, his excellent characterization in ON THE WATERFRONT and his good work in VIVA ZAPATA! can be taken at all seriously. I mean, the guy looks like a walking blancmange, and when he opens his mouth, out comes that squeaky little Mickey Mouse voice…he either sounds as though he’s been inhaling helium since he was two years old, or he mumbles his lines as if he has a large chunk of insoluble toffee trapped between his teeth. His performance in REFELCTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE is even more amusing than usual. Here, his Georgia accent sounds MORE successfully ‘British-accented’ than his woeful attempts at an English accent in the leaden MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962).

Elizabeth Taylor matches Brando’s incompetence scene for scene and line for line. She looks positively grotesque in her jodhpurs, and for some inexplicable reason, director John Huston insists on fixing the camera on her massive behind at every opportunity.

Julie Harris plays the fey wife of Brian Keith just like she plays virtually every other role I’ve seen her in….and her scenes with her house-boy are an absolute comic delight.

Huston could not have made this film any funnier if he had tried.

A great film that all the family can laugh at.

FOOLS RUSH IN (unedited version) (1997) movie *** score ***

Pleasant, light, unassuming romantic comedy….the sort of thing you’ve seen done a million times before but welcome all the same. So typical of the generally easygoing nature of 90’s cinema, FOOLS RUSH IN gains half a star for the wonderful locations, sound and music….a feature that adds a great deal to most well-produced 90’s movies (the same can even be said of BLADE for instance…a movie of extraordinarily poor quality and impotence, but gaining at least half a star for its locations, music and general production values.

FOOLS RUSH IN tells the tale of New Englander Matthew Perry enjoying a one-night stand with Mexican-American Salma Hayek after a chance meeting in Las Vegas. The resulting pregnancy leads to all manner of romantic and culture-clash situations.

Perhaps the story is a little too ambling to begin with…..a little more pep to the proceedings was maybe called for….but once into the second third of the movie, things move along at a smarter pace….particularly when Perry’s waspish parents arrive on the scene from Connecticut. The meeting of in-laws is a comic highlight of a movie that it must be said is rarely HILARIOUS….but always charming.

Perry, and especially Hayek, are wonderful as the confused lovers….and though most of the action takes place in Nevada, the action switches to New York and Mexico from time to time. As I say, the photography was breathtaking (as usual for a 90’s movie), especially appreciated on widescreen, and one can really appreciate just how beautiful North America is.

Another great feature of the movie was the music….and not just Alan Silvestri’s professional dramatic score. Again, 90’s movies are also characterized by superb sound quality (even when viewed at home…what with digital tv, dolby prologic surround etc)….and another welcome feature these days, especially of romantic comedies, is the inclusion of numerous appropriate songs. Here we had various Presley, Spanish/Mexican, Dean Martin and Peggy Lee favourites adding immeasurably to the entertainment….and that sound quality makes all the difference.

In addition, Silvestri’s scoring was a model of CMS. Very romantic, understated….and though there isn’t THAT much dramatic score (the songs probably outnumber the cues), you never feel as though there is too little dramatic score. Silvestri’s CMS skill is up there with the best exponents of the art of producing the ‘appropriate 90’s score’, and here he incorporates those all important 90’s musical devices (without overdoing it), including the judicious use of solo instruments such as saxophone and acoustic guitar passages….wonderful stuff. It is so good to see ALMOST all 90’s film composers, with only ONE or two notable exceptions, meeting the challenge of the CMS requirements of their movies with such enthusiasm.

FOOLS RUSH IN may be a little TOO gentle at times, but there are too many good things about this movie to let that get in the way of your enjoyment. And again, Salma Hayek is excellent.

THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939) movie **** score ***

One of the last in Warner’s classic gangster movie cycle…..and certainly one of the best. Sparks fly as WWI army chums Bogart and Cagney later become rival racketeers in prohibition New York. All the usual gangster-movie elements are here, including Frank McHugh’s likeable Irish-American chump….but Cagney dominates the proceedings as a crook with a heart, whilst Bogart’s rival crook is just a vicious creep…..who will end up on top?

The movie spans the twenty years following the end of WWI, and those years provide Cagney’s character, and the viewer, with a roller-coaster ride in changing fortunes. Much of the action takes place in a nightclub, so there is plenty of great period music on show. A smashing plot, excellent direction from Raoul Walsh, and great performances from all.

Seemingly effortlessly entertaining.

THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) movie *1/2 score **1/2

Innocuous, featureless and over-extended, THE TRUMAN SHOW merely amounts to an unpersuasive and simplistic time-filler.

Carrey is out of his depth here, and much as I admire Ed Harris, I’m not one who subscribes to the philosophy that just because he is Ed Harris he is good….even good movie actors need a decent movie around them. As for the plot involving Carrey’s unwitting life-long participation in a television show, its soon becomes apparent that it wasn’t the filmmakers intention to convince the audience of the premise….but merely to attempt to satirise the ‘values’ of modern society, and as with Niccol’s earlier GATTACA, provide an allegory of society’s possibly ‘disturbing’ near-future development….the idea is good, but the execution is particularly inept and almost condescending in its childishness. One wonders if the admittedly laudable attempt to point the finger at the voyeur in us all was INTENTIONALLY rendered obsolete by the witless screenplay….maybe ‘The News of the World’ secretly had a hand in the production of the movie, thus the movies’ ostensible satirical aims were cleverly undone by the purposeful missing of easy targets. All in all, this movie added up to nix….and any lingering hopes that something might be salvaged from this celluloid void were finally crushed during the dismal denouement.

Save for the high quality production values, and an interesting, if somewhat fragmented and often inappropriate musical accompaniment, THE TRUMAN SHOW has very little to commend it…..and along with the equally facile and obvious NATURAL BORN KILLERS, both movies similarly fail to SUCCESSFULLY satirise the media (or society) to even the smallest degree….at least NATURAL BORN KILLERS provided plenty of material to ridicule, as well as plenty of easy unintentional laughs….THE TRUMAN SHOW merely enervates.

SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW (1997) movie ** score ****

I thought I’d mention this movie, that I viewed on the above date, since it has been raised on the General Topics message board.

SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW is one of those movies that is captivating, unusual and engrossing for the first two-thirds….before becoming an utterly and disastrously conventional movie in the final third….overall it can best be described as slight, and harmless. The movie itself is the absolute epitome of 90’s political-correctness. The tale involves the suspicious death of an Inuit boy (that’s Eskimo in old money), and the subsequent ‘unofficial’ investigation by the boy’s neighbour, played by Julia Ormond (still reeling after her atrociously vacuous performance in the dire FIRST KNIGHT), a single-minded, head-strong, ‘I’m-an-attractive-woman-so-all-men-must-surely-lust-after-me-which-makes-them-snivelling-weaklings-and-they-know-that-I-know-it’, independent type.

Actually, Ormond is very good, as is a primarily British supporting cast, including the late Bob Peck, and the ubiquitous Tom Wilkinson. Of course, all of the men, including an excellent Gabriel Byrne, are portrayed as being quite inferior to Ormond’s ‘study in feminist supremacy’, and the Eskimos, sorry, Inuits, are proud, noble and righteous in comparison with the lilly-livered ‘Western’ stereo-types on display in this picture.

Anyway, none of that mattered to begin with. The first hour and twenty minutes of the movie is stylish and engrossing…..but the final forty minutes plumbs the depths of crass moviemaking. Every conceivable cliché is unearthed….I couldn’t believe it…it was a great shame.

However, in a movie of diverse and, in the end, poorly-matched genres, the one constant was Zimmer and Gregson-Williams rumbling, subtle, intimate, generally classically-orientated and excellent score. This score provides YET another example of how Media Ventures output adds up to far more than the busy, heroic, fanfare-laden and brilliant scores as heard in such movies as THE PEACEMAKER (movie *1/2 score ****). CMS is all about providing an APPROPRIATE score….Zimmer and Gregson-Williams didn’t disappoint here. However, even for a movie soundtrack, I cannot imagine anyone gaining any satisfaction from this score as a stand-alone experience. SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW provides a perfect example of how a great film score doesn’t necessarily make good ALBUM music.

MARIE ANTOINETTE (1938) movie **** score ****

A necessarily deliberate pace is the only arguably negative aspect to this opulent MGM costume drama. Magnificent sets and costumes, a superb cast in fine form, and an intelligent and engrossing script, are the main attributes of this massively expensive production chronicling the downfall of the corrupt 18th century French court prior to the revolution.

Norma Shearer is simply superb in the title role, and Tyrone Power provides just the right amount of honest charm as the Swedish ambassador to the French court. However, it is the magnificent supporting cast that provides the most interest. John Barrymore (in Lionel Atwill mode) is brilliant as always, here playing Louis XV. Robert Morley, in an Oscar-nominated role, plays his weakling grandson (a far cry from Morley’s mighty Louis XI in 1953’s ADVENTURES OF QUENTIN DURWARD (see above post for details))…yet still manages to appear more manly than Marlon Brando ever did. The large supporting cast also provided excellent parts for a whole raft of other Hollywood-based British character actors…most notable were Henry Stephenson, George Zucco, Henry Daniell, and Reginald Gardiner. But, as so often, the real highlight of the movie was Joseph Schildkraut….magnificent as the French courts’ most eminent ‘eminence grise’.

Herbert Stothart’s musical score was tremendous….here he does what he does best….bases his score on well-known and relevant anthems, and proceeds to develop the thematic material as dramatic score.