UNDER MILK WOOD (1972)

Posted on May 1, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Andrew Sinclair

SCREENWRITER: Andrew Sinclair

FILM STARS: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Toole, Siân Phillips, Glynis Johns, Vivien Merchant, Victor Spinetti, Ryan Davies, Angharad Rees, Ray Smith, Michael Forrest, Ann Beach, Glynn Edwards, Bridget Turner, Talfryn Thomas, Tim Wylton, Bronwen Williams, Meg Wynn Owen, Hubert Rees, Aubrey Richards, Mark Jones, Dillwyn Owen, Richard Davies, David Jason, Davyd Harries, David Davies, Paul Grist, Ruth Madoc, Susan Penhaligon

COUNTRY: England

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Dylan Thomas

TYPE: Play

PUBLISHER: Aldine

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1972

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1954

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS: Dylan Thomas’s “play for voices” Under Milk Wood was a radio play (which grew from ideas, conversations and unfinished or aborted projects) which was given its world premiere in January 1954, a few weeks after his premature death, with Thomas’s friend Richard Burton as narrator. It has since been turned into a record, a stage play, an opera, a ballet, a jazz album and this 1972 film.

The (radio) play is a Welsh classic (though written and spoken in Welsh English). I have not read  the (sort of) play and I’m not sure I will. Thomas writes in Welsh English and his words are thick with description and run almost like a stream of consciousness. I suspect Thomas gets his inspiration from Irishman Joyce who wrote in English in an equally mischievous way, and I’m not sure I would read Joyce either. Who knows.

Having said that I have listened to the (1954) Under Milkwood radio broadcast on LP record with Burton whilst following the play along from time to time. Like an early version of an audio book. So, I have read it … sort of. Are audio books “reading”?

The play takes in a day in the life of a small, Welsh fishing village called “Llareggub” (“buggerall” backwards) as seen through “ghosts” of the citizens as they sleep. The narrator (First Voice/Second Voice) informs the audience that they are witnessing the townspeople’s dreams. There are many characters in the town and almost all of the characters in the play are introduced as the audience witnesses a moment of their dreams. The beauty of this is the play can move forward, backwards and sideways and create a vivid cast of characters that populate this small Welsh seaside town.

The film is directed by novelist, academic, biographer, historian and occasional cineaste Andrew Sinclair. It’s a labour of love (Sinclair also wrote the screenplay, as he did with the other two films he directed) and is quite beautiful in it’s images. Actually very beautiful and reminiscent of director John Ford (which may not be surprising as Sinclair wrote a biography on Ford, “John Ford: a Biography” in 1979). But, the film overall is pretty dull. Richard Burton is the narrator as he was in the narrated and I love Burton and the tone of his voice and could listen to him reading the, oft referred to, telephone directory. He loves Dylan Thomas (and all things Welsh) and so takes even more care than usual in his role of narrator character. The trouble is , inevitably, the film shows what the words describe. You are doubling up on the same imagery. And, that is tiring. A pity because the cast is good. Burton is great, O’Toole is always good even when “acting” as he is here, and Elizabeth Taylor (still married to Burton here and one of 11 films she made with him) is fun. The rest of the cast is (mainly / largely) Welsh and are authentic (and familiar from many supporting roles in English films). But, they do just seem to act out the evocative words.

LINKS

TRAILER

The 1954 radio play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZXhPYTX1BY

Posted in Drama, Play | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE RED PONY (1973)

Posted on April 23, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM (Made for Television)

FILM DIRECTOR: Robert Totten

SCREENWRITER: Ron Bishop, Robert Totten

FILM STARS: Henry Fonda, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Johnson, Jack Elam, Clint Howard, Julian Rivero, Roy Jenson, Lieux Dressler, Richard Jaeckel, Woody Chambliss, Link Wyler, Warren Douglas, Rance Howard as Sheriff Bill Smith

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: John Steinbeck

TYPE: Novella

PUBLISHER: Corgi

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1973

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1937

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: Steinbeck’s “The Red Pony” is four interrelated stories published separately (the first three chapters were published in magazines from 1933 to 1936) then collected into book form in 1937 (actually it is sometimes referred to as an episodic novella which is a printing by which a single larger work, often a work of narrative fiction, is published in smaller, sequential instalments). Not sure if that applied here as the stories, I believe, were written at different times.

The stories in the book are about a boy (aged from 10 to 12) named Jody Tiflin and his life on his father’s California ranch (where else for Steinbeck?) situated in the Salinas Valley between the Santa Lucia and Gabilan Mountains at the turn of the twentieth century.

Steinbeck had a way with characters. His books are always readable and what seem to be simple stories always hide more complex themes underneath. Steinbeck was, in the 30s, quite a political and socially conscious writer though his earlier books (including this one) would not indicate that. “The Red Pony” was his third though it wasn’t released until 1937 and after the his first critical success with Tortilla Flat (1935). It is full of the keen observations on the lives of the families that live on the land seen from, or focussing on, a boy coming of age (they “came of age” a lot earlier then … he would be gaming till he was 25 if set now). The earlier works lack the bite that comes with later Steinbeck but they still resonate in their description of time and place, the relationships between people and their humanism.

Steinbeck is one of my favourite writers or, rather, still is, as I read most when I was in my 20s and haven’t read much recently. But, I recall them fondly. Maybe he has faults but I tend to overlook them. His tales are full of humanity and understanding that transcends the anger over the exploitation he saw which is the focus of some of his more well know novels (In Dubious Battle (1936) The Grapes of Wrath (1939)). I should read more as Steinbeck, like many writers today, can be dark and cynical but, unlike many today, his cup is half full making him a great humanist.

The most famous version of this film is the glorious 1949 technicolour version produced and directed by (the great) Lewis Milestone for Republic Pictures, and starring Myrna Loy, Robert Mitchum, and child actor Peter Miles. This version made for television in 1973 doesn’t look as good but has an equally impressive cast and more bite. The first film is family oriented and concentrates on the a boys coming of age and has a wonderfully appealing performance by Mitchum as ranch hand Billy Buck and the beautiful Myrna Loy as the mother.  Steinbeck himself adapted the novel for the 1949 film and he focused mainly on the chapters “The Gift” and “The Promise,” thereby increasing the role of Billy Buck whilst changing some characters names, and adding a happier ending.

The second version has Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara at their best (though both are, perhaps, to old for their roles) with a young Clint Howard as the boy (though it’s hard to reconcile that Clint with any number of eccentrics he played in later years). This version is more darker and adult oriented than the earlier version and is less about the pony than the antagonistic relationship of aging farmer Fonda and sensitive son Howard.

Both films may be based on the same story but they look at the same theme through different lenses. The former is family oriented, the latter reality (well as real as you can get for a Made for TV film in the 1970s), but both are just different views of the same themes – the cruelty of nature (including death, graphic descriptions of animals in distress, and a horse breeding scene), major childhood sadness, and the fallibility of adults as themes (amongst others)). That’s not to say there aren’t family elements in the latter film or realistic elements in the former.

By their nature both films are episodic though the first was better crafted. The 1973 film has all the restrictions of a Made for Television movie … smaller budget, cheaper sets, smaller crew who normally work quickly in television (both director writer Totten and co-writer Bishop worked almost exclusively in American television). But what it lacks there it makes up for in cast … apart from the leads you have Ben Johnson (almost straight off the back of his best supporting Oscar win for The Last Picture Show (1971)), Jack Elam, Richard Jaeckel and Rance Howard (Clint Howard’s real life father, and older brother Ron Howards father as well).

Both films are fine, though the first resonated more with me probably because I saw it first at a young age.

THE FILM

Posted in Made For Television, Novella, Release Format, Western | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA (1976)

Posted on April 16, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Lewis John Carlino

SCREENWRITER: Lewis John Carlino

FILM STARS: Kris Kristofferson, Sarah Miles, Jonathan Kahn, Margo Cunningham, Earl Rhodes, Paul Tropea, Gary Lock, Stephen Black, Peter Clapham, Jennifer Tolman

COUNTRY: England

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Yukio Mishima

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1976

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1963

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Gogo No Eiko

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS: Hmmm. I haven’t read this and I’m not sure I will.

I saw the film many years ago. I was old enough to watch it and, perhaps, not old enough to understand it, assuming there is something there to understand. I don’t mean to be pejorative but it is simple story of personal fascism and eroticism.

Yes, fascism and eroticism. Not uncommon in literature but here they are elevated by Mishima (or by his admirers) to the level of art. He is still a highly regarded author, and oddly, he seems to appeal to the intellectual literary left as well as the far right..

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was err, a character. He was a Japanese novelist, poet, playwright, actor, model, bodybuilder, closeted homosexual, hyper-masculine, militia leader, and nationalist. He saw himself as a post-modern samurai, who launched a failed right wing coup, and committed ritual suicide.  Bland he wasn’t. For whatever reason the right seems to put out a lot of these nationalist romantic poets who are forever invading things and are unconventional in outlook – Italian Gabriele D’Annunzio comes to mind.

The novel (and what a great title) is a coming-of-age story from the perspective of a narcissistic adolescent boy living with his widowed mother  in Yokohama, Japan. He and his equally narcissistic friends see themselves apart from Japanese society and are obsessed with restoring Japan’s former glory and traditions. His mother meets a sailor, who he (and his friends) see as the pinnacle of Japanese manhood, a modern samurai who lives a solitary life on the sea. They idolise him. But as the love between the mother and the sailor grows (watched in detail by the child through a peephole into the mother’s bedroom), and he becomes more “domesticated” the kids start to see him as flawed. The solution is to assassinate him to cleanse the world, the perfect society being one of beauty, eroticism and death wrapped in tradition and honour.

It’s a world of absolutes there are no shades of grey, fifty (groan) or otherwise.

For the film the location was changed to the English town of Dartmouth, Devon, where it was also filmed, and, this is perhaps its greatest flaw. The English may have been imperialists but they don’t have that militarism, or samurai tradition to draw on. Children fascists don’t organically spring from the ground as easily as they would, perhaps, in Japan (yes, I know, a big assumption). The film, perhaps, knows that and so downplays that a little while beefing up the working class sailor, upper class lady unconventional and erotic romance.

Kids acting like little farkers has a tradition (in film and literature) … Los Olvidados (1950), The Bad Seed (1956), Lord of the Flies (1963), Village of the Damned (1960), Devil Times Five (1974), Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) and all the horror ones, but here the evil stems from their philosophy and, of course, in the book the philosophy isn’t evil.

I enjoyed the film because I was going through a Kris Kristofferson phase. I was watching everything he was in … it was easier then when he was still a leading man. It’s a lot more difficult now. I can’t recall how Kristofferson’s Americanisms are explained but he is excellent as the sailor and in shape which helped with the erotic (and unsettling) sex and nude scenes on the screen. He and Sarah Miles also posed for a Playboy photo shoot in July 1976 which was quite revealing. It may be modest by todays internet standards but for two mainstream actors to appear in a spread like that was quite scandalous at the time and I suspect would raise eyebrows now (and maybe even kill careers) if mainstream. The photo shoot also created big problems between Kristofferson and his wife Rita Coolidge. I recall reading that he explained it away at the time by saying he was drinking too much. Which he was. He later admitted an affair with Miles. The film was never going to be mainstream and was not a hit when released, but it has a cult following. Interestingly, singer, songwriter and actor Kristofferson is of the American literary left.

Written and directed by New York born Lewis John Carlino who also wrote and directed The Great Santini (1979) as well as writing Seconds (1966), The Fox (1967), The Brotherhood (1968) , The Mechanic (1972), Crazy Joe (1974), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977).  All his films mix ideas in with the drama. “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea” takes the mix to the extreme – art, literature, philosophy, eroticism and sex intertwine in the drama and the romance. In other words, a 1970s film.

Good? I ‘d have to watch it again.

LINKS

TRAILER

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THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)

Posted on April 2, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz

SCREENWRITER: Norman Reilly Raine, Seton I. Miller, Rowland Leigh

FILM STARS: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, Sr., Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter, Una O’Connor, Herbert Mundin, Montagu Love, Carole Landis, Trigger (as Lady Marian’s horse)

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: none

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Ward, Lock & Co

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1938

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Hardcover

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: None

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1938

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Adventure

WORDS: Okay, a kids book to cash in on a adventure film which kids liked, and, which grown ups liked.  This is a novelization is perhaps a “true novelization”. Most novelizations are books written from screenplays so the books can be released at the same time to cash in on the film. This novelization is also, no doubt, rushed out to coincide with the film, but, because it is aimed at a younger audience, it is less fussy with detail and takes the form of narrative with some description … basically describing what is said and going on on-screen with pictures to go along with the action. In the days before TV, VHS and DVD this is the way you re-lived the magic of the movie.

Today, with easy access to the film, this is not worth reading … but what a book! The colour plates (and the sepia scenes) are spectacular and vivid which gives the book coffee table book gravitas … leave this lying around and you are more likely to strike up a conversation about the film than if you left around a straight film edition or novelisation.

The film is, spectacular. Made in 1938 it was a big budget quality production. Directed by the great Michael Curtiz and starring the great Errol Flynn (along with Rod Taylor (and Mel Gibson) the greatest of Australian actors) in perhaps his best role and he is backed by a great leading lady, Olivia de Havilland, and a superb supporting cast (especially Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains and Alan Hale). This is intelligent escapism with never a dull moment and not one shaky camera used. You don’t need a shaky camera to get across action if you have a good director and cast. The sets are impressive (no CGI), the colour is vivid (no down and dirty colour), the costumes are marvellous and the tone pitched perfectly between serious and comedic but always with an eye on adventure. I love this film. Loved it as a kid and love it now. It’s one that adults and kids can both watch (much like the Raiders of the Lost Ark films). A while back I watched this movie with my young kids, and they loved it. We watched it again when they were teens and they still loved it. I suspect they will love it as adults. There is something perfect about the daring do, the chivalry, the romance, the fight between good and bad, the lack of moral greys. Whether it is accurate or not who knows (and, ultimately, who cares). There is some debate whether Robin Hood (who steals from the rich to give to the poor)  existed and if he did he certainly wasn’t the Robin Hood that came to be familiar in English folklore and then in subsequent literature, film and television. Many actors have played Robin Hood Douglas Fairbanks, Jon Hall, John Derek, Richard Todd, Richard Greene, Lex Barker, George Segal, Patrick Bergin, Kevin Costner, Cary Elwes, Devon Sawa, Russell Crowe, Taron Egerton and others but Errol Flynn is the most memorable and the best, hands down. My opinion, but I’m not the only one.

I would love to see this on the big screen. Until then it’s the big screen at home.

If you haven’t seen it

A. Shame on You.

B. Go watch it now.

EXTRACTS

The Book

 

Some Colour Plates

FILM TRIVIA NOTE

Roy Rogers admired Maid Marian’s horse, then-named Golden Cloud, so much that he bought it (in 1943), renamed it Trigger to use in his own films. Trigger became one of the most famous animals in show business.

LINKS

TRAILER

Posted in Adventure, Book Type, Novelization | Tagged | 2 Comments

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)

Posted on March 26, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Mike Nicolls

SCREENWRITER: Ernest Lehman

FILM STARS: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis, Agnes Flanagan (uncredited), Frank Flanagan (uncredited)

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Edward Albee

TYPE: Play

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1984

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1962

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS:  A great play and a great film. Films of plays, inevitably, especially if domestic dramas tend to follow their source material pretty closely. No hate mail from theatre lovers please but plays are dialogue and directions for film, errr screenplays, so they are easily realised. Having said that, historically,  theatre could be more confronting than film because it reached fewer people.  Though there are (were) limits … the more confronting a play the more it was called “experimental” and it existed outside of the theatre mainstream. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee should have been shuffled into the ‘experimental” because of its profanity. But, despite controversy, it was mainstream, and it was a big hit.

Films inevitably follow hit plays.

The film (like the play) is both funny and tragic as a bitter, aging married couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of a distressing and emotionally draining night. In some ways the play (and the film) follow the usual lines of people coming together, clashing, and secrets being revealed but it works here because the dialogue is so pointed and honest. Of course the bickering reveals things about societal expectations on marriage and commitment, reality and illusion, convention and rebellion. Albee, like a north eastern Tennessee Williams, has the knack for capturing domestic dialogue revealing hidden meanings underneath.

I’m not sure what screenwriter Ernest Lehman did but he isn’t a slouch (Executive Suite (1954), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Sweet Smell of Success (with Clifford Odets) (1957), North by Northwest (1959), From the Terrace (1960)). I assume he just massaged the stage directions into film directions and made the play “filmic”.

In the film Nick (played by the always underrated George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis), are invited for drinks at the home of henpecked professor George (Richard Burton) and his vulgar, sexually aggressive wife, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor). All the cast are wonderful but, no doubt, the pairing of Burton and Taylor who were married in real life (they had married in 1964) is genius. They were, very much so,  the Brad and Angelina, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore err the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard of their time. Everyone followed them, or followed them as much as they could in pre internet days. They had already starred in films together and their pre marriage affair was well known. The thought of them playing a married couple spitting insults at each other rather than gazing at each other through a romantic comedy was too much. It works in spades. They were so convincing I assume that people thought the characters on screen were the real Burton and Taylor. And in part they were, but perhaps, we all have a little George and Martha in us?

Former actor and comedian Mike Nichols had become by 1965 one of the most in-demand stage directors in the American theatre. He had not directed a film. There is a tendency , especially in drams, to have a static camera and have the characters move around the scene (not quite a “filmed play” – where you literally film the play rather than make a film) but Nichols has his camera up close and at a distance (within a room) when necessary. It’s never boring (and it’s 132 minutes long (the play ran for almost 3 hours)). Nichols went on to direct more literate dramas (Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Fortune (1975)), more dramas based on nooks, (The Graduate (1967),  Primary Colours (1998)), more films from plays (Biloxi Blues (1988), Closer (2004 )) and even some iterate action films (Catch 22 (1970), Day of the Dolphin (1973)) which were less successful. The key word is “literate” … what would George and Martha make of that?

Wikipedia talks about the differences between play and film (why bother to word salad it as my own when I can quote? … “The film adaptation differs slightly from the play, which has only four characters. The minor characters of the roadhouse owner, who has only a few lines of dialogue, and his wife, who serves a tray of drinks and leaves silently, were played by the film’s gaffer, Frank Flanagan, and his wife, Agnes… The play is set entirely in Martha and George’s house. In the film, one scene takes place at the roadhouse, one in George and Martha’s yard, and one in their car. Despite these minor deviations, however, the film is extremely faithful to the play. The filmmakers used the original play as the screenplay and, aside from toning down some of the profanity slightly—Martha’s “Screw you!” (which, in the 2005 Broadway revival, is “Fuck you!”) becomes “God damn you!”—virtually all of the original dialogue remains intact, although a major monologue by Martha is cut. (In the version released in the UK, “Screw you” is kept intact. In an interview at the time of the release, Taylor referred to this phrase as pushing boundaries) … Nick is never referred to or addressed by name during the film or the play”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Afraid_of_Virginia_Woolf%3F_(film)

The play’s title, which alludes to the English novelist Virginia Woolf, is also a reference to the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” from Walt Disney’s animated version of The Three Little Pigs.  Writer Woolf, a big bad wolf, three little pigs all fit in with the social and intellectual milieu of the films characters and their personalities, though someone else came up with it. Albee described the inspiration for the title … “I was in there [a saloon in New York] having a beer one night, and I saw “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” scrawled in soap, I suppose, on this mirror. When I started to write the play it cropped up in my mind again. And of course, who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means who’s afraid of the big bad wolf … who’s afraid of living life without false illusions. And it did strike me as being a rather typical, university intellectual  joke”.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Afraid_of_Virginia_Woolf%3F

A great play, a great film but above all great casting in the leads.

LINKS

TRAILER

 

Posted in Book Type, Drama, Play | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE SATAN BUG (1965)

Posted on March 19, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: John Sturges

SCREENWRITER: James Clavell and Edward Anhalt

FILM STARS: George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, John Larkin, Richard Bull, Frank Sutton, Ed Asner, Simon Oakland, John Anderson, John Clarke, Hari Rhodes, Martin Blaine, Henry Beckman, Harry Lauter, James Hong

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Alistair Maclean

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Fontana

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1965

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1962

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE:  Thriller

WORDS: Alistair MacLean is always a good read and John Sturges is always a good watch. In the case of The Satan Bug, apart from the title, this is almost all they have in common.

This is an early MacLean (and written and released originally under the pseudonym Ian Stuart, and later republished under MacLean’s own name). Being an early MacLean (1962) it is generally a better novel than some of his later ones, though some of those have their merits. Like most MacLean it is a sophisticated “catch the bad guy before he creates havoc” story. And like most MacLean there is deception, thrills and spills.

The film has those elements but, being American, goes off on its own way.  There are name changes (the hero), place changes (England in the book, the US in the film) and even narrative changes. In the film, Barrett, the hero, is a Korean war veteran, who is working in sophisticated espionage territory like a less gadget-ed and less superhuman James Bond while in the book, Cavell the same hero, is a detective trying to nut out what’s going on. Both are on the trail of a madman who has created a virus (bug) that can kill many all at once, the many being everyone in London as the target in the book and the everyone in the world in the film. Either way, given recent events a virus on the loose makes eerily compelling reading watching and makes the film less the sci-fi as it was sometimes called in the 60s.

Being still in the midst of the cold war, with talk about germ warfare and just after the 1957-1958 Pandemic (the Asiatic Flu) which killed 1.1 million worldwide and 116000 in the US the film generates more paranoia in its race against time story than the book. The one person behind the potential mayhem, like some sort of a Dr. Mabuse, is always a little bit of a let down but the far reach of the powerful, like Mabuse, is still frightening. Though The Last Man On Earth (1964) is similar (though after the fact) Sturges was ahead of the curve on other virus movies that threatened to leave swathes of the population dead such as The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Black Sunday (1977) and Outbreak (1985), The Happening (2008), Contagion (2011), World War Z (2013). I suspect the film isn’t as well known as it should be because the lead, George Maharis, popular at the time, isn’t well known now. A pity, Maharis is excellent, and is an actor who should have been a lot bigger than he was. He is good, and is good across many films and his Route 66 is one of my favourite shows from the 60s. When he is backed by Richard Basehart, Dana Andrews, and Anne Francis as well as future familiar television faces Ed Asner, Simon Oakland, Frank Sutton, John Larkin and James Doohan (and Lee Remick in a cameo) why complain. Spot the stars (minor or otherwise) is always a favourite pastime in watching Old Hollywood. Director John Sturges holds it all together. He was no slouch and could balance action and drama perfectly … The People Against O’Hara (1951), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), McQ (1974), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and he was on a roll in the 60s … The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Ice Station Zebra (1968)(another Alistair MacLean), Marooned (1969).

Read it, watch it.

LINKS

TRAILER

Posted in Novel, Thriller | Tagged | 2 Comments

THE NEW CENTURIONS (1972)

Posted on March 12, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Richard Fleischer

SCREENWRITER: Stirling Silliphant, Robert Towne (uncredited)

FILM STARS: George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander, Scott Wilson, Erik Estrada, Clifton James, James Sikking, Rosalind Cash, Ed Lauter, Kitten Natividad

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Joseph Wambaugh

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Sphere

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1972

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1971

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Crime

WORDS: Joseph Wambaugh was a cop, so he wrote books about what he knew and that made them that much more real. Wambaugh (born in1937) received an associate of arts degree from Chaffey College and joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1960 where he served for 14 years, rising from patrolman to detective sergeant. He also attended Cal State Los Angeles, where he earned BA and MA degrees. His books aren’t thrillers, mysteries or hard boiled detective stories but they they are police procedurals but ones where the crime (if any) is ancillary to the characters. The criminal activity dealt with is part of what the job entails runs parallel to life on the job with its high and lows.

The book was set in the early 60s and follows three rookie cops and their first five years, or so, on the job. It’s gritty stuff, and perhaps that’s why the books became so popular (this was a best seller and launched Wambaugh’s career in writing). Police procedurals and matter of fact police operations were nothing new, in literature or on television and film. The police procedural “Naked City” on TV ran from 1958-1963 and was popular and influential. Wambaugh’s novels in some way resemble the writing on the show, though with the NYC locale changed to Los Angeles (Wambaugh being a Los Angeles police officer set (most of, all of, I think) his novels in LA). Likewise he draws on films like “Detective Story” (1951) and “The Detective” (1968) as well as books like the aforementioned “The Detective” (1966) by Roderick Thorp and novels by Ed McBain. Where Wambaugh departs is by ging the characters more back (and side) story. They are people who are police but their jobs tend to define them, as jobs do for many people. Writing in the 70s allows him more grit, more street grit, and he can explore the back lives of the police with more frankness. There is professional stress, marital stress, alcohol abuse, PTSD, prejudice. The cops aren’t just knights in shining armour or flawed characters who happen to be cops, they are people with all the same problems and prejudices as normal people though theirs are modified and amplified through their jobs. The book (and the film) are episodic and devoid of a central story. It’s all characters and situations.  This happens a lot now but in police literature and film it was relatively fresh in the early 1970s.Interestingly there is also a lot of dark humour (the off-colour humour you expect to hear from people within certain occupations which sound a little jarring to outsiders), especially later in his books. Having said that this book  was written while Wambaugh was still a cop and is, perhaps, a little more restrained but it it still has a feel for the streets. This and what followed led to him being known as the “father of the modern police novel”.

The success of the book led to a film. The rookies played by Keach, Estrada and Wilson are fine but the old timer, played by George C. Scott, is exceptional (I hate to say it but they don’t make actors like George C. Scott anymore). Scott’s  role is enlarged in the film (to fit his star power) and does give the film a focal point around which the rookies can rotate (the uneven though underrated and always interesting Stirling Silliphant (“Marlowe”, “Towering Inferno”, “Poseidon Adventure”) wrote the original script and when Scott came on board new scenes were written for him by Robert Towne (“Chinatown”, “The Yakuza”)). There are some differences between book and film. Some characters die in the film that don’t in the book and some of the (real world) events are different. The decay (social and otherwise) in Los Angeles isn’t as obvious in the book as it is in the film. Also, the book is written in the early 70s so Wambaugh is, perhaps, commenting on current issues but by setting the book in the past he gets some “distance” and some relief from criticism (important given he was still a cop at the time of writing). Richard Fleischer directs and I have always been a sucker for his films. He had done a few cop films (mainly early in his career) in the late 40s and early 50s but he had done dramas as well. His strength is in giving the action context and allowing his characters to have asides amidst the action.  His films are thoughtful. Great music by Quincy Jones. Special mention to Kitten Natividad who has an uncredited bit as a go go dancer (her first film).

The title “The New Centurions” is, of course, brilliant and evocative though I’m not sure how it applies. In the Roman empire the man who was in charge of a century of infantry soldiers  was called a centurion (they formed the backbone of the Roman legion and were responsible for enforcing discipline and received higher pay and a greater share of the spoils than did common soldiers). The police officers here are strictly patrolmen  shit kickers.

A good read and a good film.

LINKS

TRAILER

 

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THE WHITE BUFFALO (1977)

Posted on March 5, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: J. Lee Thompson

SCREENWRITER: Richard Sale

FILM STARS: Charles Bronson, Will Sampson, Jack Warden, Slim Pickens, Kim Novak, Clint Walker, Stuart Whitman, John Carradine, Cara Williams, Douglas Fowley, Clifford A. Pellow, Ed Lauter, Martin Kove, Dan Vadis.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Richard Sale

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Mayflower

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1977

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1975

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: I read this many years ago when I was about 15 I think. I don’t have much of a recollection of it in a “compare and contrast” to the film. I recall liking it. But, when you first discover the joys of reading (as opposed to “having to read”) as I had in my very early teens every book is magical and, perhaps, seemed better than what they were.

Books weren’t easy to come by, at least they weren’t for us. This came from a book exchange in Ashgrove, Brisbane, the suburb over from where I lived. It sold second hand books, cheaply and as the name suggests you could bring in books and  get credit towards other books or cash. “Book Exchange” … do they still exist or are they all “Antiquarian and Rare Book” stores today? I spent a lot of time in those stores. I wish I had the buying power I have now.

Anyway, much like this book, I digress. The book is odd. it is written, partially, in old western language, and intertwines myth, dream and reality and has something to say about … something. What now I don’t recall. Author Richard Sale is a screenwriter (and sometimes director) though, oddly, not of westerns and not even of (many) action films. His screenwriting background is perhaps why the book reads easily though it clearly, also, has higher literary aspirations, and I have no problem with that.

I saw the film at about the same time (actually I saw the film before reading the novel) and I recall that being even more dreamlike, though “like a dream” that I’m familiar with I find it more memorable than any number of better films. There is something in the film. Ambition, perhaps,  even if its goals haven’t been reached. Director  J. Lee Thompson said of the film “It’s a Moby Dick of the west. It’s a film we hope will work on many levels. On the first it is a wonderful, sensitive story between Wild Bill Hickok and the great Indian chief Crazy Horse. On the second it talks of a man having to find himself, seek his destiny, rid himself of fears and become more human.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Buffalo.

It’s a strange story (Sale wrote the screenplay also) of real life characters not in real life situations in an, almost, fantasy like landscape. Wild Bill Hickok is haunted by violent reoccurring dreams of a giant white buffalo. He must find and kill the beast if it exists. On the search he meets the Native American Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, who is also searching the plains for the giant white buffalo, which had killed his daughter. Together they (eventually) team up to kill the creature.

What struck me at the time, having been brought up on American cowboy movies was the feeling of foreignness in the film. The cast is American and it was filmed in the US but (British) director J. lee Thompson (much underrated, probably because he worked with Bronson so much) , (Italian) executive producer Dino De Laurentiis, and (British) music composer John Barry give it an international favour. And that coupled with its post modern (?) view of the west, means it will stand out, or stick in the mind. It’s also a sad view of the west, or that’s how I recall it. The west has ended and all that is left after the westward expansion and exploitation is a battered and altered landscape populated by characters in need of psychiatrists. The film is often derided but I have fond memories of it and recall many scenes – the giant (animatronic) buffalo (both fake and dreamlike), the mountains of buffalo bones after the hunters have taken their skins, the weird looking Wild Bill Hickok (looking nothing like the traditional Hickok in my mind), and the strange characters that pop in and out of this Don Quixote type tale, with Hickok, as played by Bronson near its center.

But, that’s why I watched the film in the first place, probably. Bronson. My Uncle, Barba Ivo, loved Bronson and I would watch films with him when my Mum was at work. Bronson never let us down.

The cast in this film is spectacular. Four favourites of mine Bronson, Stuart Whitman, Clint Walker and John Carradine appear and are backed by Will Samson, Jack Warden, Slim Pickens, Kim Novak, Ed Lauter and in a small bit former “sword and sandal” star Dan Vadis.

Is it a good film. I don’t know but I know will watch it again … maybe soon.

LINKS

TRAILER

US Film Tie In Edition

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HATARI! (1962)

Posted on February 26, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Howard Hawks

SCREENWRITER: Leigh Brackett, Harry Kurnitz

FILM STARS: John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Elsa Martinelli, Red Buttons, Gérard Blain, Bruce Cabot, Michèle Girardon, Valentin de Vargas, Eduard Franz

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Martin Milner

TYPE: Novelisation

PUBLISHER: Pocket Books

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1962

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Adventure

WORDS: A great example of what can happen between story, screenplay, novelisation and film. Everything looks the same but not quite. The book follows the film up to a point. All the films elements are there but the film goes off in directions its hands on director liked. The book (based on the screenplay) is an adventure novel crossed with a romantic comedy as is the film but the film leans more to romantic comedy with adventure thrown in. Howard Hawks, an auteur director, had his beliefs, ideas and themes and much like directors John Ford, Charlie Chaplin, Anthony Mann, Alfred Hitchcock can’t fail to inject them into his films. His work wasn’t just a job but an extension of himself.

The film was written by Leigh Brackett and Harry Kurnitz to what Hawks likes. Brackett had written for him before – “The Big Sleep” (with William Faulkner and Jules Furthman)(1946) and “Rio Bravo” (with Jules Furthman and B.H. McCampbell) and would go on to wite “Man’s Favourite Sport?” (uncredited) (1964), “El Dorado” (1966) and “Rio Lobo” (with Burton Wohl) (1970). Kurnitz had co-written (with Harold Jack Bloom and William Faulkner) “Land of the Pharaohs ” (1955) for Hawks. Hawks’ themes are the camaraderie amongst professionals, the need to get a job done, the distrust of outsiders to the group, strong tomboyish but sexually attractive female characters, the fight against nature (mother earth), humour as a bonding agent between people, and lots of talk, frequently rapid.

The book is all narrative / story and includes pictures from the film for good measure. You don’t get a lot of the local flavour though there is no doubting the characters are in Africa. East Africa’s Tanzania, l specifically. But, what Hawks has done is accentuate the films with grace notes which push his themes and the characters he loves : John Wayne’s Sean Mercer is central but he is more central in the film, the camaraderie in the film is more accentuated than in the book, the rivalry between the Kurt the German and Chips the Frenchman for Brandy is more accentuated in the book, Pockets in the film is a potential romantic interest whilst in the book he isn’t,  the Indian (Little Wolf) in the book is a potential romantic interest and not so much in the film. There other bits and pieces in the book like Kurt and Chips and the warthog, some business with the local village as well as other bits and pieces that don’t appear in the film. If they were filmed and cut, I don’t know. But, even so, this 166 page novelisation becomes a 157 minute film full of grace notes, pauses and bits and pieces of mood. Perhaps the biggest difference is in the title … Hatari is Swahili for danger, and there is “danger” in the capturing of live wild animals for zoos in the book and the film, but the film keeps it PG. The book has more than one wild animal that has to be shot to avoid injury whilst the film tends to avoid that bloodshed. This is aftercall, primarily, a romantic comedy.

The book is a great read for those who like to “compare and contrast” but the film is one of the great African safari type films, better so (for modern audiences) because animals aren’t killed but caught for zoos and for, arguably, their preservation.

The cast in this film is perfect. John Wayne is perfect. He is here both a man of action and funny (Wayne did a lot of comedy and was good at it, which is often forgotten). The international cast playing the international band of friends includes (the great) German Hardy Kruger as Kurt Müller, Italian Elsa Martinelli as Anna Maria “Dallas” D’Alessandro, Frenchman Gérard Blain as Charles “Chips” Maurey, Frenchwoman Michèle Girardon as Brandy de la Court, American actor of Spanish (and Austrian) descent Valentin de Vargas (born Albert Charles Schubert) as Mexican Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez, and Americans Bruce Cabot as native American Little Wolf (“The Indian”), and Red Buttons as “Pockets” the cab driver from New York.

Filmed on location brings the film to another level. and the actors actively engage with the landscape, which the novelization misses. Also, according to director Howard Hawks, “all of the animal captured in the film were performed by the actors themselves (though with professional assistance) —not by stuntmen or animal handlers (although a stand-in, Mildred Lucy “Rusty” Walkley, was used for some scenes involving Elsa Martinelli’s character) … Much of the audio in the capture sequences had to be re-dubbed due to John Wayne’s swearing while wrestling with the animals, and Hawks said Wayne admitted being scared during some of the action scenes, particularly those in which he is sitting in the exposed “catching seat” as a truck hurtles over terrain full of hidden holes and obstacles … Wayne “had the feeling with every swerve that the car was going to overturn as he hung on for dear life, out in the open with only a seat belt for support, motor roaring, body jarring every which-way, animals kicking dirt and rocks and the thunder of hundreds of hooves increasing the din in his ears.”  On the other hand, one evening, while Buttons and Wayne were playing cards outside, a leopard came out of the bush towards them, but, when Buttons mentioned the approaching leopard, Wayne reportedly simply said, “See what he wants.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatari!

That lighter mood in the film is enhanced by the wonderful soundtrack of Henry Mancini Mancini, American but of Italian Abruzzese descent (as I am often told). The whole soundtrack is wonderful (Hollywood African exotica), one of Mancini’s best and “Baby Elephant Walk” became the hit for Lawrence Welk and his Orchestra (#48 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1962 as well as #10 on the Easy Listening chart.). The instrumental earned Mancini a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement in 1963.

This is one of the great films of the 1960s.

Pages

Pictures

LINKS

TRAILER

MUSIC

The Theme (by Henry Mancini)

The hit song (by Henry Mancini)

The Hit song (by Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra)

Posted in Adventure, Novelization | Tagged | 5 Comments

RISING SUN (1993)

Posted on February 19, 2023 by velebit2


THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Philip Kaufman

SCREENWRITER: Michael Crichton, Philip Kaufman, Michael Backes

FILM STARS: Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako, Tia Carrere, Steve Buscemi, Tatjana Patitz, Tylyn John

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Michael Crichton

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Arrow

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1992

COUNTRY: Australia

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1992

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Crime

WORDS: A slick book and a slick film.

Michael Crichton is one of my guilty pleasures. He writes superior pulp thrillers. Superior because his stories are always (usually) set against new and / or emerging issues and trends in the world which gives them more believability and plausibility than most. Most of his novels have a science sci fi reality bent. Here he tackles global economic power struggles and US / Japanese economic relations Written in 1993 it is a fascinating look behind the scenes of international trade and if written now in the era of US / Chinese economic relations would, perhaps, be even more fascinating.

The thriller elements are all there: shady deals, sex, murder, corporate greed, culture clashes but all against the real world US / Japanese economic power relationships. His grounding of characters in real world issues is what makes his books a great read. This is plane and beach reading but of a most superior kind.

The film is equally slick. Directed by the not so prolific and much underrated Philip Kaufman (Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1977), The Wanderers, The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being). Kaufman seems to always have one foot in indie art and one foot in the mainstream. This is perhaps his most straight mainstream film but it still has enough quirk to make it interesting. The plot has been altered a little – Wesley Snipes is the protagonist, therefore changing the character’s race from Caucasian to African-American. (talk about “Blackwashing in film , errrr colour blind casting. It’s odd, when a Caucasian plays a traditional character of colour in a film it’s called “whitewashing” but when and actor of colour plays a traditionally Caucasian character its not called blackwashing (or any other colour) but “colour-blind casting”. The formers sounds like a negative and the later like a positive … go figure). In any event Crichton argued against it unsuccessfully because “In a movie about U.S.-Japan relations, if you cast someone who’s black, you introduce another aspect because of tension between blacks and Japanese”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_(film)

But Wesley Snipes was hot at the time and it’s all about the money and box office return. On top of that some names have changed as has the identity of the murderer (!), though that change didn’t take away from the meaning or implications in the book.

All is almost forgivable when you have Sean Connery in the lead and Harvey Keitel, Mako, Kevin Anderson, Tia Carrere and Steve Buscemi in the supporting cast. Unfortunately, despite having a smart script (David Mamet did a draft but I’m not sure if anything ended up in the final) the films ends up being “a “buddy cop” thriller, albeit a smart (er) one.

LINKS

TRAILER

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