Mini-Reviews for Twitter

This week I started to write some mini-reviews of movies for Twitter. If you use Twitter please click the 'Follow Me' link in the top right-hand corner of my blog. If you don't, I will re-print them here next week.

Easy Rider (1969): One of this week's reviews on twitter.com/lincolnsnose

This week's reviewed movies include:

Avatar (2009)
District 9 (2009)
Easy Rider (1969)
Garfield (2004)
The Holiday (2006)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
The Producers (1968)
Remains of the Day (1993)
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sommarlek (Summer Interlude) (1950)
South Pacific (1958)

Avatar: the new 'Star Wars' or the new 'Titanic'?

Avatar (2009) ***

Titanic (1997) ***

Star Wars (1977) *****

Earlier this month, James Cameron’s ecological epic ‘Avatar’ (2009) got its home cinema release and, predictably for the most hyped movie of the last ten years, the DVD and Blu-Ray sales have been the fastest in history, going against the sharp decline in physical disc sales that has accompanied the age of the download. Whilst this boost will be a temporary one, the more lasting consequence will be how ‘Avatar’s widely publicised ‘immersive experience’ will translate into people’s living rooms. Some movies were made for the big screen and their shortcomings become very obvious on a smaller screen without surround sound. Others can be downsized with their entertainment value and reputation intact. Is ‘Avatar’ another ‘Star Wars’ (1977) or another ‘Titanic’ (1997)?

James Cameron gets to work on the script for the Avatar sequel.

The presence in the queues outside the DVD stores of blue-painted people would appear to hint that science-fiction fans have room in their locker for fanaticism over another movie (and by 2014 its sequel). The almost religious fervour that surrounds 'Star Trek' in all its incarnations, ‘Star Wars’ and fantasy movies such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) is a thing of ridicule for most of us but it is also the reason these films make so much money and hang around forever in the multiplexes. There is a famous story that George Lucas knew he would at the very least break even with ‘Star Wars’ as the title alone would attract every sci-fi fan in America into the cinemas. Will ‘Avatar’ inspire the same lasting devotion as Lucas’ movies? Unfortunately for James Cameron even with HD technology and bigger TV screens, ‘Avatar’s multiple messages (treatment of the planet, western powers invading countries with no idea of their indigenous culture, the plight of the native American) are so sober, almost po-faced, that it doesn’t have the same sense of fun as ‘Star Wars’ and its deficiencies in not being rip-roaring entertainment are exposed on the small screen where the films technical brilliance is diminished.

Remember ‘Titanic’? It was huge. It was everywhere. It made money by the boat load and had people queuing around the block for repeat viewings when it hit cinemas back in 1997. The sheer scale of the movie had to be admired as a brilliant technical achievement – the sort of spectacle made for a giant cinema screen. If you missed it at the multiplex then you missed the experience of seeing the film as it was intended to be viewed. The effects weren’t as impressive when seen on a television and by dulling the film’s big impact moments you noticed that the script wasn’t very impressive and some of the performances were dreadful – Billy Zane in particular was bad without being bad enough to be funny. ‘Avatar’ looks certain to follow the same pattern. I would watch it again if it was re-released in the cinema in, say five years time, but I would find it difficult to whip up any enthusiasm for a small screen repeat.

‘Titanic’ obviously wasn’t the first film made with a view to big-screen spectacle. Since D.W. Griffith got his hands on a camera numerous film-makers have undertaken projects that were specifically designed to use the grand scale of a cinema screen. Where Cameron went wrong with both ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ is that you get the feeling that he believed on both occasions that he was making the greatest movie ever made when he should have been happy to make first class, escapist entertainment, like ‘The Terminator’ (1984) or ‘Aliens’ (1986), that he made his name with in the 1980s. The effects were impressive but they weren’t too big for the home video market whilst the nature of the plot and the movie allowed any script issues to go almost unnoticed. When you went to see ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ (1991) you knew it had nothing to say about the world and it was happy to be a first rate action/ sci-fi movie. ‘True Lies’ (1994) had its tongue firmly in its cheek just like the Bond movies it was clearly influenced by, and was all the better for it in the same way that the humourless Daniel Craig Bond movies seem incredibly dull in comparison to Connery’s or Moore’s. ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ both follow on from many of the huge historical epics of the 1950s and 60s – huge production, superb technical achievements, perfect for the big screen but when you watch them on television the dull stretches become much more apparent. How many of us have sat through the perennial Easter showing of ‘Ben Hur’ (1959) more than once? How about ‘The Ten Commandments’ (1956) or ‘The English Patient’ (1996)? What Cameron needs to remember is that big doesn’t necessarily mean great. For every ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939) there is a ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (1980) and for every Lord of the Rings there is a ‘Hawaii’ (1966).

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Hollywood’s Forgotten Stars: Part 4

In the last of a series of four pieces I will be looking back on five more of Hollywood’s forgotten stars. This week it’s the actors numbered 5 - 1 in my countdown. Can you guess who will come out on top? I hope you enjoy it. As always your comments are more than welcome.

Are these men Hollywood's five most criminally forgotten actors?

N.B.: This list is not intended to be definitive. It is merely intended to highlight the talent of ten largely forgotten actors who played a significant role in Hollywood history, be it as a great box-office star, an Oscar winner, a pioneer or an unfulfilled talent that shone all too briefly. In deciding on my order, I have rated the actors on both their contribution to cinema and how little I perceive them to be remembered by the general public. The biggest star will not necessarily come out on top.

5 – Glenn Ford
In ‘Superman Returns’ (2006), after our hero returns from Krypton to visit his mother, there is a photograph of dear, departed Pa on the mantel piece. The photo is of Glenn Ford, a nod to his role as Jonathon Kent in ‘Superman’ (1978) but also a tribute to a great star and underrated actor who has been largely forgotten. Ford’s career spanned over fifty years, beginning in the late 1930s in a few largely undistinguished roles. The Second World War delayed his crack at stardom but when he was paired with Rita Hayworth in ‘Gilda’ (1946), their on-screen chemistry ensured that Ford became a very hot property. He starred with Hayworth in a further four movies but none of them recaptured ‘Gilda’s spark. Ford specialised in three types of role; weary anti-hero (‘The Secret of Convict Lake’ (1951), ‘The Big Heat’ (1953), ‘The Blackboard Jungle’ (1955)), heroic yet understated cowboy or soldier (‘The Fastest Gun Alive’ (1956), ‘3:10 to Yuma’ (1957), ‘Torpedo Run’ (1958)) and ordinary ‘Joe’ in awkward situation (‘Teahouse of the August Moon’ (1956), ‘Ransom’ (1956), ‘The Gazebo’ (1959)). Usually, though, the film makers would use Ford’s inherent likeability and an extreme situation to get the audience on-side. This is what made Ford a huge star throughout the 1950s and early 60s. Never conventionally good-looking, he was able to move into character parts smoothly but it may be that ‘ordinary guy’ charm that has allowed Ford to be overlooked whilst contemporaries like Humphrey Bogart and James Stewart remain hugely recognisable.
Watch Glenn Ford in: There are a lot to choose from but ‘The Blackboard Jungle’ just has the edge performance-wise over ‘The Big Heat’. It’s the now-clichéd story of a seemingly mild-mannered teacher taking a job in a rough inner-city school but this is the original and the best.

4 – Van Johnson
Having red hair has often been a problem for men in the pursuit of movie superstardom. Those who have made it were not normally seen as ginger on screen. Stan Laurel only appeared in colour once in a government information film; with a few exceptions, Spencer Tracy had gone white by the time he made the majority of his colour movies; Danny Kaye and Robert Redford both went blond; and, believe it or not, Harpo Marx’s hair was actually a wig! Van Johnson was the exception. He was unashamedly red and freckly in an era when that look was shunned for men on screen unless you were either 8 years old or you were the hero’s comedy side kick who dies in scene three. Johnson was a dancer on Broadway when MGM came calling. However it wasn’t his twinkle toes they wanted. It was the boy-next-door looks that MGM desired as they were casting plenty of war pictures and wanted all-American guys to play the parts of servicemen. After a couple of supporting parts Johnson got his big break with the second lead in ‘A Guy Named Joe’ (1943) alongside Tracy. More WWII dramas followed but Johnson’s biggest success of this era was ‘The Thrill of Romance’ (1945), a musical which marked the first of four pairings with Esther Williams. The movies success meant that Johnson topped the box-office chart for 1945. From supporting player to Hollywood’s most bankable star in less than three years, Johnson is an example of how the studio system worked. Stage stars, models or extras were spotted and then carefully groomed for stardom in a few well chosen support parts before being given the big launch in films with the studio’s big names. Johnson’s success continued through the 40s with the same mixture of war and musical pictures – 1949 being a particularly good year for both with ‘Battleground’ following ‘In the Good Old Summertime’. Never nominated for an Academy Award despite working in an era where stardom virtually guaranteed recognition, Johnson’s finest performance came in 1954 in the ensemble piece ‘The Caine Mutiny’. More challenging work followed such as his role as the blind man embroiled in a kidnap plot in ’23 Paces to Baker Street’ (1956). His career stalled in the 60s as his marriage break-up descended into a bitter divorce and never picked up again after just one big screen appearance between 1960 and 1967 but Johnson continued to work until the late 1980s. As an example of what the studio system could do and as a beacon for red headed actors everywhere Van Johnson deserves far more recognition then he is afforded.
Watch Van Johnson in: ‘The Caine Mutiny’ may be primarily remembered for Humphrey Bogart’s last great role but Johnson is a stand out in a powerful cast.

3 – Joseph Cotton
When your most prominent movie roles were opposite Orson Welles it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that very little of the limelight was afforded to you. Joseph Cotton would have been unlikely to complain as without roles in ‘Citizen Kane’ (1941) and ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ (1942) he would never have been a Hollywood name. However, purely in terms of acting ability Cotton was easily the equal of Welles as proved by a string of excellent dramatic performances throughout the 1940s. Starting with his appearance as Jedidiah Leland, Kane’s right hand man, Cotton then made ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ and the wartime thriller ‘Journey into Fear’ (1943) with Welles. All three are excellent movies in their own right with ‘Journey into Fear’ surely ranking as one of the great forgotten thrillers. He was stunning as Uncle Charlie in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ (1943) and then supported Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in the remake of ‘Gaslight’ (1944). This was followed by a sympathetic role in another underrated movie ‘Love Letters’ (1945) as a soldier desperate to find some answers after the murder of his friend. Before the decade was out, Cotton had added a classic western (‘Duel in the Sun’ (1946)) and a classic fantasy (‘Portrait of Jeannie’ (1948)) to his CV and he then returned to thrillers with the seminal ‘The Third Man’ (1949). Cotton was the lead but, again, he was overshadowed by Welles as Harry Lime who doesn’t even appear until the movie is half gone. As a decade of work, Cotton’s output was consistently excellent, yet his great performances have fallen foul to either being forgotten or to the presence of a co-star who went on to bigger things. Is that a reflection on Cotton and indicates that maybe he wasn’t that good? Watch the films and see for yourself.
Watch Joseph Cotton in: A straight choice here between ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ and ‘The Third Man’ with Cotton’s performance in the Hitchcock thriller winning out. He is just so damn menacing. You will never invite your relatives to stay again.

2 – Paul Muni
During the 1940s, the cracks in Hollywood’s studio system were starting to show more than ever. One man’s contract dispute was another man’s big break. In 1941 Paul Muni was one of Warner Brothers’ biggest names with four Academy Award nominations (and one win) under his belt. He had made his name with highly popular and critically acclaimed crime dramas before undertaking a series of historical biopics that usually required him to hide his distinctive features beneath make-up and false beards. Given his status and popularity, the studio assigned him to the gangster picture ‘High Sierra’ (1941). Muni wasn’t having it though and, after effectively being put on suspension, the role went to up-and-coming Humphrey Bogart. Muni made fewer and fewer films from that point on and, from being fairly prolific in the 1930s, ended his life with just twenty-five screen credits to his name. A successful stage career brought him to Hollywood’s attention. In the early days of sound, actors with stage experience were sought after as they were used to speaking lines and being understood. His first movie ‘The Valiant’ (1929) was a death-row drama that set the tone for much of Muni’s early output. It was bleak, realistic and, for it’s time, dealt brutally with its themes. His next two movies, after a return to the stage, were ‘Scarface’ and ‘I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang’ (both 1932). More than any James Cagney picture of the period, these were the best examples of Warners’ gangster/crime output. ‘…Chain Gang’ in particular is a terrific piece of movie-making with Muni’s performance at its core. After another couple of dramas in a similar vein, Muni was cast in the title role in ‘The Story of Louis Pasteur’ (1936). This was quite a departure from Muni’s previous films but when he was awarded the Oscar for his performance it ensured that similar roles came his way, most notably in ‘The Life of Emile Zola’ (1937). After leaving Warners, Muni’s roles became far less frequent but that meant that he only picked quality such as ‘Angel on My Shoulder’ (1946) and his last role in ‘The Last Angry Man’ (1959).
Watch Paul Muni in: To convince you that Paul Muni didn’t need heavy accents, false beards or hours of make-up to electrify the screen watch ‘I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang’. Mercifully, they chose to remake ‘Scarface’ and not try to take this on as you cannot improve on perfection.

1 – Fredric March
Due to the era that most of the twenty stars I have written about in these posts worked in, I have again and again referred to Hollywood’s ‘studio system’. Put simply, Hollywood movies in the early sound era through to the 1950s were predominantly made by a handful of powerful studios (MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., Columbia, Universal etc.) that signed up actors, directors, writers and whoever else they needed on long, virtually unbreakable contracts with a regular weekly wage. The omnipotent heads of the studio would then assign the talent on the books to whatever picture they saw fit. In return, the stars got the most efficient publicity machines ever created behind them to enhance and, when misdemeanour required, protect their image. For most actors the system worked well, but for a number it was a stifling environment that meant typecasting. Rebellion was biting the hand that fed you and could mean professional suicide if you were anything less than a huge star. My number one male star, Fredric March, was even rarer. He was almost unique in that he was a hugely successful actor, with the critics as well as the public, despite never signing a long-term studio contract. The sheer force of his star quality and the consistent excellence of his performances was all the publicity March needed to have the studio executives clamoring for this relative rebel to star in their prestige productions.

March, like Paul Muni, came to Hollywood in 1929 when established stage actors were in great demand as silent movies took their bow and exited. He had some minor success with his first few films but came to prominence playing Tony Cavendish in ‘The Royal Family of Broadway’ (1930), a play based on the legendary Barrymore family (grandparents and great-grandparents of Drew). The performance garnered an Oscar nomination for March and he went one better the following year with the definitive screen portrayal of ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (1931). Urbane as Jekyll, terrifying as Hyde, March was superb in the dual role and this helped him, as well as his refusal to sign up to a single studio, to avoid being pigeon holed. March was excellent in the melodrama ‘Smilin’ Through’ (1932) and the war movie ‘The Eagle and the Hawk’ (1933) but also showed he could handle comedy with ‘Design for Living’ (1933). His next truly great performance was as Death in ‘Death Takes a Holiday’ (1934), a movie inadvisably remade over sixty years later as ‘Meet Joe Black’ (1998) (Brad Pitt taking on a role played my Fredric March is the cinematic equivalent of The Cheeky Girls covering Ella Fitzgerald). Before the 1930s were out, March had starred in a series of movies based on great novels such as ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Anna Karenina’ (both 1935) as well as pulling out a truly heart-breaking performance as Norman Maine in the original ‘A Star is Born’ (1937). The war years brought still more variety in March’s choice of movies but ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ (1946) brought March his best role of the decade and a second Academy Award. The film’s plot concerns three men trying to piece their lives back together after returning to America after WW2 and March is the cast’s stand-out performer. He concentrated more on stage work in the ensuing years but when he did appear on the big screen he had lost none of his power. ‘Death of a Salesman’ (1951), ‘Executive Suite’ (1954) and ‘The Desperate Hours’ (1955) all contain brilliant, layered performances but if there was one last film performance for the ages left in Fredric March he delivered it in 1960’s ‘Inherit the Wind’. Based on the real-life 'Scopes Monkey Trial' of 1925, March plays a famous and fiercely Christian prosecuting lawyer in the trial of a school teacher who slipped Darwin’s theory of natural selection and evolution into the syllabus. His scenes with defence attorney Spencer Tracy are a tribute to two titanic talents of Hollywood’s golden age. March continued working until his death in 1975 but like so many whose careers were predominantly in black and white movies he seems destined to remain a star on in the minds of a the minority. For March more than anyone that is a tragedy.
Watch Fredric March in: More than any of the nineteen other actors I have written about, this is an impossible choice so I am going to cheat and go for ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ for early March, ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ for the middle of his career and ‘Inherit the Wind’ for March the elder.

Hollywood’s Forgotten Stars: Part 3

Here in the third of a series of four pieces I will be looking back on twenty of Hollywood’s forgotten stars. We have done the actresses with Norma Shearer coming out as number one, so this week it’s all about men and the actors numbered 10 - 6 in my countdown. I hope you enjoy it. As always your comments are more than welcome.

Five forgotten male stars from the 1920s through to the 70s

N.B.: This list is not intended to be definitive. It is merely intended to highlight the talent of ten largely forgotten actors who played a significant role in Hollywood history, be it as a great box-office star, an Oscar winner, a pioneer or an unfulfilled talent that shone all too briefly. In deciding on my order, I have rated the actors on both their contribution to cinema and how little I perceive them to be remembered by the general public. The biggest star will not necessarily come out on top.

10 – John Cazale
No discussion of forgotten talent would be complete without a nod to John Cazale, although the recent surge of interest in his career meant he was by no means an automatic inclusion on my list. Cazale was more of a supporting actor but his early death at 42 from cancer denied him the chance to build on a quite incredible six years of film work. He would have been battling Pacino and De Niro for roles during the 1980s had illness not taken him shortly after completing his work on ‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978). Cazale only made five films but all of them are considered classics and all were nominated for a ‘Best Picture’ Academy Award. His performances as Fredo in ‘The Godfather’ (1972) and ‘The Godfather Part 2’ (1974) showed the depth of emotion that Cazale could bring to a character, even if they weren’t the main focus of the movie. He simply stole the show from Pacino in ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975) despite originally being considered totally unsuitable for the role by the director Sidney Lumet. The cult of Cazale has grown in recent years through books, magazine articles and a documentary film on his life and ironically, whilst he won’t ever become an icon like James Dean, his early death added to the quality of his screen appearances may yet ensure his name remains better remembered than many of the bigger stars on this list.
Watch John Cazale in: Cazale made an impact no matter how small the part but it is his turn as bank robber Sal in ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ that gives a really tantalising glimpse of how good he could be.

9 – Charley Chase
The world of silent comedy was a crowded one. The public liked to see people being kicked up the bum, Model T Fords falling apart and fat dowagers fall into ridiculously deep puddles to such an extent that studios (lots and lots and lots of long forgotten studios like Vim, King Bee, Mutual, etc.) churned them out at a phenomenal rate. This also meant that there were literally hundreds of actors who made these movies, entertained the masses and were promptly forgotten (ever heard of Max Davidson, Louise Fazenda or Ford Sterling?). In the 21st century we are pretty much left with five people who have any sort of reputation: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and that is a real shame. I could have gone for the Chaplin-esque (in ego as well as style) Larry Semon or the sad-faced Keaton-a-like Harry Langdon but the one who deserves more recognition is Charley Chase because the situation comedy in its present form started with him. Chase was more like Harold Lloyd in appearance – nothing outrageous, no silly costumes or the like – but there wasn’t the reliance on physical humour that most of his contemporaries had though as ‘Never the Dames Shall Meet’ (1927) showed he could pratfall with the best of them. He was the king of the comedy of embarrassment which is a type of comedy that has rarely as been as popular as it is today. Ricky Gervais, Mitchell and Webb, and Larry David are all currently flying the flag for a style of comedy that is reliant on putting people in excruciatingly unsuitable situations that will end in their humiliation. Chase was a natural at this; most famously when discovering a naked Viola Richard in the back of his car in ‘Limousine Love’ (1928) and so as most silent comedy is written off as crude slapstick and endless custard pie fights it is odd that one of the least physical of the accomplished silent clowns has been forgotten.
Watch Charley Chase in: The Chase performance that has lasted longest in the public eye is his supporting role in Laurel and Hardy’s ‘Sons of the Desert’ (1933) but the best short he made as the star is ‘Mighty Like a Moose’ (1926), a comedy about plastic surgery fifty-odd years before Jordan was even born.

8 – Clifton Webb
As career boosts go, Clifton Webb being chosen by Otto Preminger to take a part in the film noir ‘Laura’ (1944) must be one of the strangest. Webb was not only in his mid-fifties, he was also a Broadway musical comedy star with virtually no silver screen experience. He was dancer and singer who had worked on shows written by every great ‘Tin Pan Alley’ composer you would care to mention so it was understandable that Daryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, was perturbed by Preminger’s decision to cast Webb as the elegant, evil Waldo Lydecker. As unlikely as the casting was it was truly inspired as Webb gave a fantastically hiss-worthy performance in possibly the greatest example of the genre. The film was a big hit and Webb had an instant following amongst the public. Fox signed him up and cast him in similar roles in ‘The Dark Corner’ and ‘The Razor’s Edge’ (both 1946) and both were successes at the box office. Webb’s brand of classy malevolence only really had a parallel in the great George Sanders but, unlike Sanders, Webb showed that sharp-tongued characters had a place in comedy and as the main attraction, not just a supporting player , when he was cast as male nanny extraordinaire Lynn Belvedere in ‘Sitting Pretty’ (1948). Belvedere was Mary Poppins mixed with Noel Coward and whilst Robert Young and Maureen O’Hara were billed as the stars, this was a one-man show. Webb reprised the role in two less successful (and less accomplished) sequels but Webb’s output during the 1950s continued to be, at the very least, interesting. ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ (1952), ‘Titanic’ (1953) and ‘Three Coins in the Fountain’ (1954) continued this most unlikely of star careers before a series of forgettable ensemble romances brought Webb’s Hollywood career to a close. He did have time to make the British war movie ‘The Man Who Never Was’ (1956) during this period and it is a fascinating curiosity, made cheaply but strangely brilliantly. Webb died in 1966 after never recovering from the death of his elderly mother (Webb himself was 71 when she died). He had left a legacy that was as curious, entertaining and unexpected as it is forgotten.
Watch Clifton Webb in: ‘Laura’ is truly brilliant but Lynn Belvedere is Clifton Webb’s most masterful creation. As such ‘Sitting Pretty’ comes highly recommended.

7 – Tyrone Power
Romantic lead, swashbuckling hero, sleazy womaniser, grizzled cowboy, musical star - Tyrone Power did it all. Unusually for a star of the studio era, Power didn’t seem to suffer from typecasting and portrayed a wide variety of characters during his career which was cut short by a heart attack he suffered whilst filming ‘Solomon and Sheba’ (1958). Power’s early successes included the pioneering disaster movie ‘In Old Chicago’ (1937), the lively musical ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ (1938) and the superb western ‘Jesse James’ (1939). His most famous role was in 1940 when he donned the black mask for ‘The Mark of Zorro’. His fencing ability, honed especially for the role, has gone down in Hollywood history after his co-star Basil Rathbone said “he could fence Errol Flynn into a cocked hat”. Despite a couple more swashbucklers like ‘The Black Swan’ (1942), Power changed direction again in the mid-1940s with forays into film noir. ‘The Razor’s Edge’ (1946) with Gene Tierney and Clifton Webb was a particular success but Power was already limiting his screen appearances so that he could spend time acting in the theatre. His popularity never again reached its peak of 1939 and 1940 but this allowed the versatile actor to play the character parts he always felt his good looks had stopped him from being considered for. The last film he completed before his death, ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ (1957), was a perfect example of this as Power had to hold his own when sharing a screen with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton, two of the screens most memorable personalities. The performance is one of Power’s best but the immortality afforded to his co-stars has never materialised despite being one of the studio systems most popular stars.
Watch Tyrone Power in: It has to be ‘The Mark of Zorro’ - with the exception of ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ (1938) it is probably the best example of its kind.

6 - Robert Donat
Robert Donat’s chronic ill health meant that he only appeared in twenty films in a twenty-six year career that ended with his death at 53 (which, amazingly, meant he reached an older age than Cazale, Chase and Power who all died in their forties). To begin with he was the urbane alternative to Errol Flynn in movies like ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ (1934), ‘The 39 Steps’ (1935) and ‘Knight Without Armour’ (1937) and his style of acting was very much like that of David Niven (whose career undoubtedly benefited from Donat’s misfortune). With ‘The Citadel’ (1938) he made the move into straight drama which made more of his acting talent than his ailing physical prowess. In the following year when ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips’ (1939) was released he won the Academy Award for best actor, sensationally beating Clark Gable for ‘Gone With the Wind’ (1939). The film was Donat’s last for three years as ill-health and his desire to do more work on the stage reduced his movie credits to about one a year in an era where the big stars studio contracts demanded much more. None of his 1940s output was particularly memorable, though 1948’s ‘The Winslow Boy’ was an excellent courtroom drama. As his health further declined in the 1950s, Donat concentrated more than ever on his theatre work. He made only four films in eight years, dying before the release of ‘The Inn of the Sixth Happiness’ in 1958. As long as ‘The 39 Steps’ is revived for film, TV and theatre productions, Donat will never quite vanish from the wider public consciousness but his current reputation doesn’t match what he put on the screen – great performances and great entertainment.
Watch Robert Donat in: His late release ‘Lease of Life’ (1955) was a contender but this is really a straight choice between ‘The 39 Steps’ and ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’, the latter of which I will go for due to Donat’s tear-jerking brilliance in the lead role. Anyone who doesn’t well up just isn’t human.

Hollywood’s Forgotten Stars: Part 2

Here in the second of a series of four pieces I will be looking back on twenty of Hollywood’s forgotten stars. This week it’s the actresses numbered 5 - 1 in my countdown. I hope you enjoy it. As always your comments are more than welcome.

A dancer, a southern belle, a girl next door, a bag of nerves and a Queen

N.B.: This list is not intended to be definitive. It is merely intended to highlight the talent of ten largely forgotten actresses who played a significant role in Hollywood history, be it as a great box-office star, an Oscar winner, a pioneer or an unfulfilled talent that shone all too briefly. In deciding on my order, I have rated the actresses on both their contribution to cinema and how little I perceive them to be remembered by the general public. The biggest star will not necessarily come out on top.

5 – Eleanor Powell
Imagine a world where Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were still as celebrated but no-one remembered Judy Garland. Or one where Clark Gable and Cary Grant were still regarded as great stars but Greta Garbo’s name was only familiar to a small, hardcore group of fans. It wouldn’t seem quite fair, would it? However, when we think of the great dancers of the screen we think of Fred Astaire in his top hat and tails or Gene Kelly splashing about in puddles and we forget the fleet footed brilliance of Eleanor Powell. Powell is best known for the ‘Broadway Melody’ series of films made between 1936 and 1940. They were typical early musicals – a love story set to the backdrop of a young hopeful getting their chance in a big show. There wasn’t much in the way of plot but there was always simply brilliant dancing from Powell. Her tap skills and the music of the great Cole Porter (who scored three of Powell’s movies) was a marriage made in heaven, almost certainly seen to best advantage in the ‘Begin the Beguine’ number from ‘The Broadway Melody of 1940’ (1940) with Powell and Astaire tapping up a storm. Unfortunately for Powell her career in the 1940s began to be that of a guest performer who was included for one or two sequences that were nothing to do with the main plot of the film. For fans of great tap dancing these brief cameos were worth the price of admission alone.
Watch Eleanor Powell in: As with many performers whose careers featured predominantly black-and-white movies, Powell’s films can be hard to get hold of and we are therefore reliant on compilation movies like ‘That’s Entertainment’ to see her in action. However, I have managed to see ‘Rosalie’ (1936) and if you watch it you may forget Astaire and Kelly ever existed… for 90 minutes at least.

4 – Lee Remick
Sometimes perky, sometimes sultry, sometimes perky and sultry, Lee Remick was the most talented of the numerous forgotten cinematic sex symbols of an era dominated by Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Her career got off to a fine start with roles in ‘A Face in the Crowd’ (1957), ‘The Long Hot Summer’ (1958) and ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ (1959) all of which helped to define her as a sexually forward but frustrated southern girl. However, Remick was not present purely for the purposes of decoration. These were great roles for a relatively unknown actress to launch her movie career with and her acting ability was much in evidence in all three roles as well as her physical appeal. She was cast as the bank teller blackmailed into robbery in Blake Edwards’ ‘Experiment in Terror’ (1962) which marked her first departure to a different type of role. The emotional vulnerability was still there but her looks were not as significant in shaping the character. Remick excelled in ‘Experiment in Terror’ and her next film ‘The Days of Wine and Roses’ (1962), again directed by Edwards, and then tried her hand at comedy in films like ‘The Wheeler Dealers’ (1963) and ‘The Hallelujah Trail’ (1965). Remick continued to choose interesting roles well into the 1970s but she never again recaptured the sort of magic we saw in her early years. However, for her to be remembered primarily as Damien’s adoptive mother in ‘The Omen’ (1976) is a terrible injustice to a lively, beautiful and skilled actress.
Watch Lee Remick in: Normally I would take any opportunity to recommend ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ but Remick is just one of a tremendous ensemble cast in that. Her performance opposite Jack Lemmon as a couple battling alcoholism in ‘The Days of Wine and Roses’ is probably Remick’s finest career appearance anyway.

3 – Teresa Wright
Teresa Wright’s film career started with a bang. She was nominated for an Oscar for each of her first three movies (the only actor ever to achieve that feat), winning once for ‘Mrs Miniver’ (1942). Her fourth movie ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ (1943) is one of the best of all Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers and her sixth film ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ (1946) was a multi-award winner and the sixth biggest box-office hit of the 1940s (and if you discount the all-conquering Disney studio of that era it was the biggest film of 1946 and the second most successful of the decade). After that almost anything would be considered a disappointment but Wright continued to make very good films like ‘Pursued’ (1947), ‘The Men’ (1950) and ‘The Actress’ (1953). Like so many stars of the era, her disillusionment with the studio system had a deep effect on her career but, as well as this, her popularity began to fade towards the end of the 40s. It was almost as if Wright was undone by her unprecedented early success and as she got older audiences didn’t accept her as anything but ‘the girl next door’. Her roles were far more layered than that and those ‘girls next door’ always had many more facets to their character than the lazy pigeon-hole normally allows. No-one since Wright has played those roles in anything like her style or with her ability.
Watch Teresa Wright in: ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ is a tense and unnerving thriller where Wright plays a girl who idolises her Uncle Charlie until she suspects he is hiding a terrible secret. Absolute magic.

2 – Jean Arthur
Once described as the quintessential comedic leading lady, Jean Arthur had a dazzling screen career despite suffering from such terrible nerves that she was violently sick before takes and left a number of stage plays early in their run due to stage fright. Those nerves actually contributed to what is felt to be Arthur’s trademark, her high pitched, slightly shaky voice. After a number of supporting roles in serials and B-features she scored her break opposite Edward G. Robinson in ‘The Whole Town’s Talking’ (1935). Over the next nine years she made a series of films of a quality that was almost certainly unmatched by any other star working at that time. She was the great Frank Capra’s favourite actress and worked with him on ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’ (1936), ‘You Can’t Take it With You’ (1938) and ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ (1939), three of the director’s most acclaimed and best-loved works. She was also a favourite of George Stevens’ and he directed her in two further classics ‘The Talk of the Town’ (1942) and ‘The More the Merrier’ (1943). All of these movies were made at Columbia Studios along with here other notable films (‘The Plainsman’ (1936), ‘Easy Living’ (1937), ‘Only Angels Have Wings’ (1939) and ‘The Devil and Miss Jones’ (1941)). When her contract expired she ran through the lot shouting “I’m free!” and then retired, only appearing on the big screen again twice in Billy Wilder’s ‘A Foreign Affair’ (1948) and Stevens’ ‘Shane’ (1953). Easily one of the greatest stars of the so-called ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’, the only thing more remarkable that Arthur battling her crippling nerves to make so many top-drawer films is the sad fact that her name is now so little known.
Watch Jean Arthur in: With so many great performances to choose from it seems almost silly to single out one but I will go for ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’. It’s one of the greatest comedies ever filmed and alongside Gary Cooper she shines.

1 – Norma Shearer
In compiling this list I tried to consider as many actresses as I could and then measure their contribution to the history of cinema, their star power, their ability to act and how little they are recognised or known today. I will not deny that some of the choices have had a more personal touch to them but, as I state at the top, a list of this kind can never be definitive. Many came close to inclusion – Joan Fontaine, Luise Rainer, Kathryn Grayson – but no matter whom you thought deserved inclusion, I don’t think many will argue with my number one choice once they know why I think Norma Shearer is the biggest forgotten star in Hollywood history.

During the 1930s, Norma Shearer was the female equivalent of Clark Gable. Clark was ‘King’, Norma was ‘Queen’. She made movies for the biggest studio, MGM, and she was their biggest female star. Yes, she was married to Irving Thalberg (MGM's legendary ‘boy-wonder’ Vice-President) but no matter how she became a star there were few bigger than Shearer. She started in ‘girl next door’ roles in silent movies though her dual role in ‘Lady of the Night’ (1925) showed her versatility. From the beginning of her career she scored 19 successive box office smashes before she made ‘The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg’ (1927) for Ernst Lubitsch. Even though the film lost money, it was one of MGM’s ‘marquee’ pictures of the year – in other words a film that was made primarily for artistic and critical praise, not for financial gain. When talkies came in Shearer’s clear, medium pitched voice ensured her continued popularity whilst others fell by the wayside due to unsuitably high or foreign accented voices. Shearer, though, didn’t stop at reinventing herself as a talking star. She employed a photographer to take a set of sexy studio portraits in an effort to shed her good girl image. It worked and Shearer scored her biggest successes yet in a series of racy romantic comedies including ‘The Divorcee’ (1930) for which she won an Academy Award. For the rest of the 1930s Shearer continued to alternate between highly successful box-office hits (‘Strange Interlude’ (1932), ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ (1934)) with prestigious productions (‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1936), ‘Marie Antoinette’ (1938)). Shearer retired from the screen in 1942 and her career was always plagued by suggestions that her relationship with Thalberg was the only reason for her prominence. However, she was already MGM’s biggest star before she started dating him and her popularity continued after his early death in 1936. And besides any one who has seen Shearer in action, be it silent or sound, can feel that appeal radiating from the screen that only certain stars had. Shearer was a golden presence in a golden age and whilst time seems to have forgotten her, it hasn’t diminished her lustre.
Watch Norma Shearer in: Like so many silent movies, a lot of Shearer’s output pre-1929 is lost so maybe it isn’t fair to judge. From the sound era you can’t go wrong with her role as Elizabeth Barrett Browning in ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street'.

Hollywood’s Forgotten Stars: Part 1

Here in the first of a series of four pieces I will be looking back on twenty of Hollywood’s forgotten stars. This week it’s the actresses numbered 10 – 6 in my countdown. I hope you enjoy it. As always your comments are more than welcome.

Five actresses, five stars - but how many do you recognise?

N.B.: This list is not intended to be definitive. It is merely intended to highlight the talent of ten largely forgotten actresses who played a significant role in Hollywood history, be it as a great box-office star, an Oscar winner, a pioneer or an unfulfilled talent that shone all too briefly. In deciding on my order, I have rated the actresses on both their contribution to cinema and how little I perceive them to be remembered by the general public. The biggest star will not necessarily come out on top.

10 – Betty Hutton
If you were to look up the word ‘energetic’ in the dictionary you may well come across a picture of Betty Hutton. Her performances were delivered with total gusto and her obvious enthusiasm is a delight to watch on screen. Her major breakthrough came as the wonderfully named Trudy Kockenlocker in Preston Sturges’ ‘The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek’ (1944) but she hit her peak in movies like ‘The Perils of Pauline’ (1947) and ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ (1950). These roles allowed Hutton to show off her boisterous personality with tomboy personas but the studios knew she was also pretty enough to carry of the romantic sub-plots that sometimes came with on-screen adventure, most notably in ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ (1952). Her screen career was cut short due to contract disagreements and a reputation for being difficult to work with. Be that as it may, Betty Hutton’s sheer strength of personality should have made her a well remembered and much-loved star but the unavailability of her movies, certainly in the UK, seems to have ensured she will continue to be over looked.
Watch Betty Hutton in: It has to be ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. A whirlwind of a performance in a film that seems to have been largely forgotten despite the wealth of talent involved.

9 – Greer Garson
One of the most successful British exports to Hollywood during the Second World War, Greer Garson’s movie career started in a classic (‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’ (1939)) and carried on in the same vain through the 1940s in well received films with Garson playing strong female characters. As is so often the case for Brits in Hollywood, she was MGM’s star of choice for any role that required a touch of gravitas and her record-equalling run of five consecutive ‘Best Actress’ nominations at the Academy Awards demonstrates that Garson was only given prime material by her studio. She won the Oscar for the rousing ‘Mrs. Miniver’ (1942) playing the head of an English family that have to face up to the various trials of life on the home front during the Second World War. The film was a seriously important piece of propaganda that played no small part in raising support for American intervention in the war. Garson received seven Academy Award nominations in all and she is almost certainly the best remembered of my ten. However, her phenomenal screen appearances during those golden years of MGM in the early 1940s still don’t seem to add up to the sum of her reputation today.
Watch Greer Garson in: Despite not being one of her seven Oscar nominations, it is the portrayal of Jane Austen’s greatest heroine Elizabeth Bennett opposite Laurence Olivier’s Mr. Darcy in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1940) that shows Garson in her best light. It also makes you realise what a seriously inept actress Keira Knightly is.

8 – Thelma Todd
A beautiful, blonde-haired actress, best known for allying her looks with excellent comedy timing, becomes a star in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Her talent sees her appear alongside some of the biggest stars of the decade before her life is cut tragically short by her untimely death whilst still in her 20s. All of this is true of Jean Harlow. It is also true of Thelma Todd. At the Hal Roach Studios, she starred opposite the studios biggest names Laurel & Hardy as well as making a series of short films teamed with another long-forgotten actress ZaSu Pitts. She made the odd foray into more serious movies including the 1931 version of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ but her most famous roles came opposite The Marx Brothers in ‘Monkey Business’ (1931) and ‘Horse Feathers’ (1932). In 1936, aged just 29, Todd died in suspicious circumstances, found in her car in a closed garage with the engine running. Some say accident, some say suicide and some say murder. Whatever the truth, Todd’s fans will always be wondering if that really big break was just around the corner or if it would have always remained just out of reach.
Watch Thelma Todd in: ‘Horse Feathers’ is the better movie but ‘Monkey Business’ is a better showcase for Todd’s talent. She’s feisty, funny and ends up being fought over in a barn. How many actresses can say that?

7 – Rosalind Russell
Ask most people who played Gypsy Rose Lee’s mother in the film of the musical ‘Gypsy’ (1962) and they will probably say “Ethel Merman” (or look at you blankly for a few seconds before moving the conversation on to the latest Guy Ritchie movie). Merman played the role on Broadway but the film starred the wonderful Rosalind Russell. This perfectly illustrates Russell’s problem – she always seemed to exist in the shadows of other actresses. No-one would have expected that to happen to Russell’s career in 1939 after she stole the show from virtually every well known actress on MGM’s books in ‘The Women’, the film that established Russell as a comedienne. She followed this up with ‘His Girl Friday’ (1940) where she played Hildy Johnson to Cary Grant’s Walter Burns in Howard Hawks’ reworking of ‘The Front Page’. This is Russell’s best remembered role - fast talking, sassy but ultimately married to the job. Her career during the 1940s was certainly successful. She had a string of box-office hits and three Oscar nominations before the decade was out. However, when stars of that era are discussed these days her name is more often than not missing from the conversation. Overshadowed by Katherine Hepburn, Irene Dunne and Merman who played similar types of characters to Russell at various stages of her career, she seems destined to be remembered as ‘the woman who played Hildy Johnson’ and little else. For someone like Rosalind Russell that is a crying shame.
Watch Rosalind Russell in: Her best roles were behind her when Russell played Patrick Dennis’ ‘Auntie Mame’ in 1958 but she pulled out all the stops for one of the finest performances by an actress ever seen on screen.

6 – Paulette Goddard
Was it her difficult relationship with the press? Was it suspicions over the validity of her marriage to Charlie Chaplin? Or was it just that she simply wasn’t the right actress for the part? Whatever it was, Paulette Goddard would have been a household name forever if she had been cast ahead of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939). How close was she to getting the part? She was, by all accounts, one of four actresses in with a genuine chance of the role. Movie history could have been so different but as it is Goddard, an actress who mixed terrific talent and exceptional beauty, will be best known for her personal and professional association with Chaplin. He spotted her at a Hollywood party and decided that she would be perfect for the ‘gamine’ role in ‘Modern Times’ (1936) and perfect she was. Her career took off from there. Like Rosalind Russell (see above), she was one of the stand-outs of the very strong cast of ‘The Women’. She was the ideal foil for Bob Hope in ‘The Cat and the Canary’ (1939), and in ‘The Great Dictator’ (1940, again opposite Chaplin) her performance was perfectly judged. Before her career petered out in the late 1940s she made ‘So Proudly We Hail’ (1943), ‘Kitty’ (1945) and ‘The Diary of a Chambermaid’ (1946) all of which displayed Goddard’s talent, one that should have brought her greater fame, a lasting legacy and, perhaps, should have landed her that most iconic of female roles.
Watch Paulette Goddard in: I am sorely tempted to go for ‘Modern Times’ as it is rare that one of Charlie Chaplin’s co-stars gives as memorable a performance as he does but I have decided that to see Goddard in all her glory the uninitiated should plump for the ‘Pygmalion’-like romantic drama ‘Kitty’.

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I hope you enjoyed this first part and it may propmt you to check out one or two of the movies mentioned. Next week I will countdown the actresses from 5-1. Anyone who guesses the number one gets a chocolate biscuit.

Let it now! Let it snow! Let it snow!: Januay Reviews Part One

It has been far too long since I last added to this blog. In fact I can say with complete pedantic accuracy that it was last decade. It is January 2010, the beginning of a year where I will regain the complete appreciation of movies I had as the fresh faced 16 year-old who stared out from the front of the Chester Chronicle to mark my appearance on the Radio 4 movie quiz ‘Screen Test’ (I will never watch ‘An American Werewolf in Paris’ because of it). The adverse weather helped me to start the year in fine form to achieve this as the time I spent stuck in my flat was largely spent in front of the television with the DVD player or Sky+ box spewing cinematic offerings of varying quality into my minds IMDb. So in order to play catch up since my Poirot-themed post in October I will indulge myself with a small review of the movies I watched in the first week of January.

We start with something that should have been put away in the attic with the tinsel and that jumper with the massive reindeer face on it. Four Christmases (2008, **) is a movie that you will sit through waiting for the good bits that seem to be permanently around the corner but they never arrive. It stars Vince Vaughan, a man whose charge sheet of cinematic crimes grows year-on-year, and Reese Witherspoon as a clinically practical couple whose Christmas plans are thrown into disarray and they are forced to spend the day trawling around their family’s houses being humiliated, abused and talking over one another in a very irritating manner. About an hour in I suddenly remembered that Witherspoon won an Oscar just a few years back and the names of Halle Berry, Maximillian Schell and Helen Hunt rattled ominously around my brain. That said pre-Oscar Reese Witherspoon made worse films such as Sweet Home Alabama (2002, *) which I will dwell on only long enough to say that it is the only romantic comedy I have ever seen where you hope the two men of the love triangle end up together having been turned off women for life by the nasty, selfish ‘heroine’.

A better romantic comedy of recent times is The Wedding Singer (1998, ***) which amazed me as being quite enjoyable despite the twin turn offs of over-blown nostalgia for the 1980s and the presence of Adam Sandler, a man who normally sends me into a deep depression that only Stan & Ollie can drag me out of. It is the usual tale of unavailable boy meets unavailable girl and their path to mutual availability runs anything but smoothly. To be fair to Adam Sandler his performance actually carries the film though the when you are battling for acting honours against the wooden Drew Barrymore that isn’t hard. Her lack of ability was much in evidence in Grey Gardens (2009, ***), an over long but eerily fascinating dramatisation of the lives of two women related to the Bouviers whose mental and physical decline shocked America when it was captured in the 1970s by documentary film makers. Barrymore wrestles with her New York socialite accent and loses but Jessica Lange is very good and the film gives one the urge to track down the 1975 documentary and see the real ‘Big Edie’ and ‘Little Edie’.

We jump now from one rich, eccentric American family to another and George Cukor’s 1938 comedy Holiday (1938, ****). It’s a bit of a slow burner this one. I tried to watch it once and switched it off after twenty minutes. However I am now very pleased I gave it a second chance as it proved to be a charming, if very predictable, movie. Cary Grant is all set to marry the daughter of a rich businessman but his free-thinking ideals are more in line with his fiancées sister played by Katharine Hepburn. Lew Ayres gives good support as Hepburn’s permanently tipsy brother and with such talent involved it is difficult not to like ‘Holiday’.

Finally in this first part of my January reviews we come to Remains of the Day (1993, *****). The story concerns a house keeper who comes to work at a country manor before the Second World War and her relationship, one of frustrated love, with the house’s butler. There is a lot to admire about this film, particularly the performances. Hugh Grant has probably never been better even though his role is pretty small. James Fox is also very good as the lord of the manor whose political manoeuvrings eventually destroy his reputation whilst Emma Thompson’s turn as the house keeper who cannot penetrate the reserved Mr. Stevens is a fantastically judged performance. Even Thompson, though, pales in comparison to a stunning display of acting by Anthony Hopkins as Mr. Stevens. Hopkins is the very essence of repressed propriety, a man whose professional pride will not allow an iota or human emotion and feeling to escape to the surface whether he is being teased, insulted or complimented. Even when his father dies he carries on with his duties with barely a flicker of evidence that this event has occurred. His scenes with Emma Thompson are simply brilliant as their relationship turns from one of friction to mutual admiration for each other’s work ethic to something deeper that is never given a hope of developing by Stevens’ incredible reserve. Coming hot on the heels of ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Howard’s End’ this is Hopkins at the peak of his cinematic career and, in movie packed with excellent acting, his performance stands out as not only the pick of the bunch but, I feel, as one of the greatest performances by an actor in cinema history.

Has Hercule Poirot been murdered by the movies?

I think I have just watched one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

To make that statement more incredible ‘The Alphabet Murders’ (1965, *) is based on one of the best loved of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels featuring Hercule Poirot and, as such, must be one of the all-time great examples of how Hollywood can turn good source material into utter horse-shit. The plot, as you may be aware, concerns a series of killings of people whose initials follow the alphabet (AA, BB, CC etc.). Poirot attempts to solve the mystery with help from Captain Hastings, here converted to a Secret Service agent played by Robert Morely, before the killer has worked their way through the whole alphabet. There are various slow-witted policemen and suspects involved along the way as one would expect and the whole thing is all wrapped up as neatly as is possible. You may have seen the ITV version from the long running series starring David Suchet but let me assure you that any similarity between that excellent series and this movie is purely coincidental.

Tony Randall: Hercule D'oh-irot?

I hardly know where to begin as I try to describe exactly what makes ‘The Alphabet Murders’ so poor but if I want you to carry on reading I must... so here it goes. Let’s start with the version of Poirot we are presented with in the film. In a quite incredible bit of casting the American light comedy actor Tony Randall was hired to take the lead. Randall had just appeared in ‘7 Faces of Dr. Lao’ (1964) as the ancient Chinese circus owner of the title. Randall’s transformation thanks to Oscar-winning make-up must have convinced studio heads at MGM that he was the perfect choice for a role that required a wig, a fake nose and a moustache. The result, as illustrated, is that Randall’s Poirot ends up looking like James Finalyson, the temperamental Scot who featured in many a Laurel & Hardy movie (and who used the expression of exasperation ‘d’oh!’ long before Homer Simpson). I suppose the make-up is not Randall’s fault, nor is the decision to relocate the story from the 1930s to 1960s London where, in a particularly awful scene, Poirot shows off his ten-pin bowling skills! What we can lay at Tony Randall’s door is his accent which ranges from the policeman from ‘’Allo ‘Allo’ to a bad impersonation of David Niven. Agatha Christie’s Poirot is totally unrecognisable in the character we see here. He is rude, short-tempered and thoroughly unpleasant. He is also a complete idiot who solves the case by accident as opposed to engaging his “little grey cells”. In fact the script by David Pursall and Jack Seddon attempts to make us laugh at and ridicule him. There is supposed to be something fusty, inflated and pompous about Poirot but he not a figure of fun and is certainly not a buffoon. It is abundantly clear that ‘The Alphabet Murders’ was conceived in the wake of Peter Sellers’ enormously successful turn as Inspector Clouseau in ‘The Pink Panther’ (1963) and its sequel ‘A Shot in the Dark (1964). Sequences such as the aforementioned bowling alley scene, Poirot’s comic visit to a sauna and his lack of manners in polite society are very similar to features of Sellers creation. MGM’s British wing had the popular series of Miss Marple movies starring Margaret Rutherford as an example of how a Christie detective could be tweaked and moulded to fit their will but it just doesn’t work here as the leap from Christie’s vision to Clouseau II is much too large.

The other actors do not fair much better. Anita Ekberg is present as the prime suspect but she doesn’t have a great deal to do which is probably a blessing as I don’t think she is much of an actress. As for poor Robert Morely he is employed to play a complete nincompoop whose presence in the movie seems only to serve the purpose of allowing the scriptwriters to fill their screen play with lots of jokes about his weight. Which brings us back to the films number one problem (even greater than Randall) – the script. It just isn’t funny. In fact it is painful. I wondered to myself as I watched ‘The Alphabet Murders’ whether I would have liked it better if the character’s were not previously familiar to me but in truth the humour is so weak that I doubt it.

If you are a huge fan of all things Poirot, you have a keen interest in cinematic Christie adaptations or if you are a masochist then you may want to catch ‘The Alphabet Murders’ next time it appears on television. Everyone else should switch on ITV3 (the ‘Poirot channel’ as a good friend of mine calls it) and see how it’s done properly.

***

A decade later and Poirot returned to our movie screens in ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (1974, *****) which despite atrocious editing and continuity is a highly entertaining version of another of Poirot’s greatest cases. Poirot is portrayed by the marvellously over-the-top Albert Finney who revels in his slicked down hair, waxed moustache and protruding belly without ever stepping over the line into the ridiculous. He is keenly aware of the old-world eccentricities of the role and the humour present in Agatha Christie’s novels but neither Finney nor the script allows any clowning to take place. Christie herself said he was a good match for her idea of Poirot and there can be no higher recommendation than that.

Finney is supported by a list of famous faces. The ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood is represented by Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Michael York and Jacqueline Bisset were all big stars at the time, and the rest of the cast is made up of supporting players of the calibre of Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, John Gielgud, Richard Widmark and Wendy Hiller. I won’t say every performance is a knockout but I will pick out Gielgud (as the murder victim’s sardonic valet), Jean-Pierre Cassel (as the conductor with a tragic past) and Bacall (as a brash, ear-bashing widow) for special praise. The period look of the film is very good and the score is excellent. All in all it is highly recommended.

***

Finney was nominated of an Oscar for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot but the long hours of make-up required for the role dissuaded him from returning when ‘Death on the Nile’ (1978, ***) was planned. We got Peter Ustinov instead and he was very good. Like Finney he knew how far to push the envelope with humour without nullifying the need for te audience to take Poirot seriously when it came to summing up time. The problem Ustinov faced in ‘Death on the Nile’, ‘Evil Under the Sun’ (1982, ***) and the other four Poirot movies he made was that his supporting players were not as strong as the one Finney enjoyed. The producers were keen to replicate the success of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and filled both movies with familiar faces (‘Nile’ had Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, George Kennedy and Maggie Smith whilst ‘Sun’ had James Mason, Diana Rigg, Roddy McDowall and, again, Maggie Smith) but the crop of young actors employed in both movies were pretty but dull and it takes away from the films as wholes. That said both movies are entertaining and Ustinov makes a good Poirot. If you’re bored and they are on the box then why not check them out.

***

A final note to say that ‘Evil under the Sun’ has a soundtrack to die for. It is made up of Cole Porter songs which makes a bit of bad acting well worth sitting through.

My Week: A bear and a mouse in paradise – Children can be so cruel - Tony Curtis' window of excellence

I always worry when I watch one of my favourite films with someone who has never seen it before. Usually I will have built it up before hand but that horrible moment when they say 'yeah I can see why YOU like it but...' always feels like it is just around the corner. I have had this happen with 'It's a Wonderful Life', 'West Side Story', The Bridge on the River Kwai' and ‘Touch of Evil’. It is also a depressingly common reaction to Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, anything silent and, even, anything black & white. So it was with some trepidation that I settled down with my girlfriend last week to watch ‘Cinema Paradiso’ (1989,*****). Thankfully I need not have worried as Giuseppe Tornatore’s celebration of all things cinematic charmed her as it has charmed millions who have watched it. The story is told in flashback, in the memory of a successful Italian film director named Salvatore (or Toto) who grew up in a tiny village. The centre of village life is the cinema where gruff but inherently decent Alfredo works as the projectionist. Toto loves the cinema and begins an unlikely friendship with Alfredo that lasts through his childhood into his teens and early twenties when he leaves the village with strict instructions from Alfredo not to look back but to follow his dreams.

This film has so much going for it. The Italian countryside provides stunning scenery, the score by the legendary Ennio Morricone must be one of the best ever written and the film shows of a host of character actors bringing the ‘Cinema Paradiso’ to life. Technically the film is superb and even the extra running time and story of the longer director’s cut doesn’t lessen the movie’s impact.

There are three things, however, that raise ‘Cinema Paradiso’ to the pantheon of the greats. Firstly is the presence of a child actor so far removed from your typical Hollywood brat as it is possible to get. Anyone who has ever watched ‘Home Alone’ and thought Macaulay Culkin was cute, lovable and talented should watch this movie (and seek psychiatric help) to witness the performance of Salvatore Cascio. He is funny, he’s mischievous and there isn’t a single moment when you stop believing he is a kid growing up in a one-horse town at the end of the Second World War. The second piece of magic is what has become known as the ‘kissing sequence’. I won’t ruin it for those of you who haven’t seen the film but suffice to say it is a wonderful and moving moment. The third and most important reason I love this film is Philippe Noiret. His portrayal of Alfredo is marvellous as the character moves from the grumpy projectionist putting up with young Toto’s relentless attention to the wise and placid figure that begs Salvatore to make something of his life and forget the sleepy town that would destroy his spirit if he stayed. It is a stunning piece of acting.

If you have never seen ‘Cinema Paradiso’ I beg you to watch it at the earliest opportunity, even if you have a natural aversion to subtitles. You will be rewarded with an experience that few films can ever hope to match and one of the finest male screen performances of the post-‘Star Wars’ era.

***

The performances of children are foremost in the two other films on my movie radar this week. ‘The Innocents’ (1961, ***) is a British horror movie that now seems rather tame but has at its core a terrific performance by the always-reliable Deborah Kerr as the governess assigned to take care of two children whose last carer killed herself after the failure of a torrid love affair. The theme of possession has been done more graphically countless times since this movie was released but it has rarely been done better. Kerr’s optimism and desire to help the her charges in the face or repeated warnings not to delve too deeply into the story spun by the children is gradually built up to the point of mania until the dreadful truth is revealed in an unsettling but slightly rushed climax.

‘The Innocents’ would probably have been a more effective movie if certain aspects of the plot had not been required to be skimmed over by out-dated production codes in place at the time. The same is undoubtedly true of ‘The Children’s Hour’ (1961, ****) where a rumour surrounding the precise nature of the relationship between two female school teachers (Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine) threatens to ruin the lives of all concerned including Hepburn’s doctor fiancée, played by James Garner. Karen Balkin plays Mary, the vile bully whose failure to overturn punishments with fake fainting fits and ridiculous tantrums pushes her to twist an overheard conversation so that her Grandmother will withdraw her from school. The acting here is a treat but that id to be expected with two of Hollywood’s most talented stars at the centre of the picture. The limits on what could be discussed are skilfully negotiated by Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of her own play though a bit of freedom may have allowed a different, less bleak ending. Unfortunately, the message that the production code insists on here, as in so many movies that tried to tackle the subject of homosexuality around this time, is that whilst it’s fine to be sympathetic towards gay characters in movie, their actions are essentially wrong. It must have been like having your movie overseen by Jan Moir (only she wouldn’t have bothered with the sympathy as it is not a word she knows the meaning of).

Note: Anyone interested in the portrayal of homosexuals throughout Hollywood history should seek out ‘The Celluloid Closet’ (1992, *****), an excellent and humorous documentary that traces the depiction of gay and lesbian characters from the silent era onwards. You will never watch ‘Calamity Jane’ in the same way again!

***

Reading Tony Curtis’ new autobiography ‘American Prince’ last week made me realise that his output was pretty poor considering he was in movies from the late 1940s through to the ‘80s. Curtis admits his career took a nosedive towards the end of the ‘60s to the point where if he didn’t work outside the United States he didn’t work. There are several explanations put forward for this from anti-Semitism to a reaction against his perceived poor treatment of Janet Leigh during their marriage but the most likely, I feel, is that when Tony Curtis needed another strong presence on the screen to help his star to shine brightly. Anything he made before 1957 has pretty much been forgotten with the exception of ‘Winchester ‘73’ (1950) in which he had a very small role and the entertaining but overlong ‘Trapeze’ (1956, ***). Likewise, his output post-1960 was almost uniformly poor – ‘The Boston Strangler’ (1968, *****) providing a rare gem. However, Curtis is one of those stars who has managed to cement a place in the list of Hollywood greats by virtue of a handful of excellent movies made in a short space of time. Between 1957 and 1960, Curtis starred in ‘The Sweet Smell of Success’, ‘The Defiant Ones’, ‘The Vikings’, ‘Some Like it Hot’ and ‘Spartacus’ which, by anyone standards, are five top-drawer movies. Perhaps we can learn from this that Tony Curtis was at his best when playing opposite another strong male lead (Burt Lancaster in ‘Sweet Smell...’, Sidney Poitier in ‘Defiant Ones’, Kirk Douglas in ‘Vikings’, Jack Lemmon in ‘Some Like it Hot’ and Douglas again, along with Laurence Olivier in ‘Spartacus) and when, after the success of these roles, he was expected to carry a film all by himself, his limitations as an actor were exposed and his star power is what carried him through to be remembered with such affection.

I love Tony Curtis. I think he is a great star and when he made a good movie, they were great and he was great in them, but rather like his good friend Frank Sinatra he couldn’t quite get along without someone of equal stature to play off. He needed someone to challenge him for his best to brought out and we can be thankful that for four short years he was regularly challenged as he always rose to the occasion.