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

 

Posted in Crime, Novel | Tagged | 2 Comments

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

Posted in Novel, Western | Tagged | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Crime, Novel | Tagged | Leave a comment

COWBOY (1958)

Posted on February 12, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Delmer Daves

SCREENWRITER: Edmund H. North, Dalton Trumbo

FILM STARS: Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Anna Kashfi, Dick York,  King Donovan, Brian Donlevy, Richard Jaeckel, Vaughn Taylor, Frank DeKova, Strother Martin

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Clair Huffaker

TYPE: Novelization

PUBLISHER: Gold Medal Book

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1958

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: Frank Harris

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1930

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: My Reminiscences as a Cowboy

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: Directed by the great Delmer Daves (who was a screenwriter himself) this was written by Edmund H. North and Dalton Trumbo (who did not receive a screen credit because he was blacklisted at the time) and then novelized by (novelist and screenwriter) Clair Huffaker. It reads as the film plays but with enough western colour to give it the look of a thoughtful novelization.

Based on Irish-American Frank Harris’ semi-autobiographical novel “My Reminiscences as a Cowboy” it is a (quite realistic) greenhorn goes west and fish out of water story, about the growth of a man taking a herd of cattle from Mexico to Kansas. I’m not sure how much Trumbo contributed to the script (some suggest North just fronted for him) but Edmund H North was no slouch. He had done westerns including the thoughtful “The Proud Ones” (1956) and “Only the Valiant” (1950) but he also wrote the science-fiction classic  “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) and then later worked on the script (and won an Oscar for) “Patton” (1970). Glenn Ford, popular throughout his 50+ year career had an especially golden 15 years between about 1953 – 1968. He was in great form here as the experienced trail boss though it’s not a stretch for him and it isn’t a role much different to  his in “The Sheepman” (1958), “The Violent Men” (1955) or “Jubal” (1956). Jack Lemmon in the 1950s was also on fire, here playing a variation on the (overly) tally Easterner character he played a lot. The supporting cast is populated with western faces like Richard Jaeckel, Frank DeKova, and Strother Martin , stalwarts like Brian Donlevy and King Donovan and in pre-Bewitched large-ish role Dick York.  Lead female Anna Kashfi had a a short career and its better known for her even shorter marriage to Marlon Brando.

Filmed on location  in the US south west the film was intended to be a more realistic look at a cattle drive in the west. I assume it was a reply to the many standard shoot em up westerns which would then, at the same time distinguish it from them (though in some ways it is similar to the excellent 1951 film “Cattle Drive” with Joel McCrea and Dean Stockwell). It was successful which led of course to more standard shoot em up westerns and any number of cattle and cowboy television shows like “Rawhide” and “Bonanza”.

Delmer Daves is, perhaps, one of the most undervalued and underestimated of post war American directors, probably because he worked in genre movies (albeit A-grade ones), especially westerns. There is, in all his films, more than meets the eye. Under the genre conventions and tropes there are 3D characters and thought of time and place that elevates his films. He is aware of social norms and forces and seems to be progressive as progress, represented by civilization, science, and knowledge, is generally seen as a positive force for Daves, who like director John Ford seems to prefer customs and positive societal and familial groups at the expense of individualism. That’s not to suggest there is no action in his films, there is, they are after all genre films, but the characters aren’t just shooting their way through problems and seem to acknowledge that other people exist on the planet. French film maker and critic Bertrand Tavernier once called him the “ethnical romantic”. I like that. His westerns are some of the best of the 50s, “Broken Arrow” (1950), “Drum Beat” (1954), “Jubal” (1956), The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Cowboy (1958), “The Badlanders” (1958), “The Hanging Tree (1959).

The book is an entertaining and easy read. The film is wonderful.

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ROYAL FLASH (1975)

Posted on February 5, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Richard Lester

SCREENWRITER: George MacDonald Fraser

FILM STARS: Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates, Florinda Bolkan, Oliver Reed, Tom Bell, Joss Ackland, Christopher Cazenove, Henry Cooper, Lionel Jeffries, Alastair Sim, Michael Hordern, Britt Ekland, Bob Hoskins

COUNTRY: England

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: George Macdonald Fraser

TYPE: Novel PUBLISHER: Pan

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1980

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1970

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Adventure

WORDS: You have to love the Flashman books (or anything by George MacDonald Fraser). Fraser writes faction and occasionally history but where the fiction is rooted in real places, times and historical events (with some liberties taken and a modern (satirical) sensibility). And his is not just a lip service historical backdrop. There is a lot of detail in the historical events. His books are so accurate that my Modern History teacher at school would on occasion read chapters to us in lieu of the regular syllabus. Of course he (the teacher) had a sense of humour as does Fraser who is quite cynical, sharp and able to make you laugh out load.

His central “hero” is Capt. Harry Flashman who is an unapologetic rogue who’ll stop at nothing to advance himself. Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC, KCB, KCIE is a fictional character created by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) in the semi-autobiographical Tom Brown’s School Days (1857). Fraser took that character and created adventures for him which, perhaps, are very satirically 70s in tone but are historically accurate (with some liberties) in time and place. Here Flashman gets swept up in the revolutions of 1848 and meets Prince Edward, Lola Montez, Ludwig I of Bavaria. Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx and German Chancellor Otto Von Bismark and gets involved in the British war in Afghanistan. The book is loosely based on the plot of The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope. Flashman explains that this is because the story was plagiarised from him by its author, Anthony Hope. Harrr, meta before meta? Harry Flashman appears in 12 of Fraser’s books.

The film directed by Richard Lester, who (as a satirical comedy director not adverse to humorous anachronisms) is a right fit for the subject matter (he had brought Fraser in to write the screenplay to his his enormously successful comedy adventure films based on the Alexandre Dumas novel of the same name, “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and “The Four Musketeers” (1974)). The film stars the always wonderful Malcolm McDowell who again is a perfect fit and unrelenting in his portrayal of Flashman. Lester said subsequently (in “Getting away with it : or, The further adventures of the luckiest bastard you ever saw” (2011) ), “that equivocal anti hero wasn’t easy to take. They wanted a real hero, a hero that was a bounder as well as a hero. And Malcolm McDowell was absolutely 100% bounder – the sleaze was coming through to the film.” I saw the film so long ago I don’t recall the specifics of the film but  I do recall laughing and being amused by the mix of history and humour. I was also on a Malcolm McDowell kick at the time (still am though it’s hard work).

Interestingly, Fraser also wrote the non fiction “The Hollywood History of the World: From One Million Years B.C. to Apocalypse Now” (1988). A book that everyone should read as a tonic to the boring overused trope about Hollywood bastardising history and getting it wrong. Fraser concludes that the standard of historical analysis in most movies is a lot better than the popular conception.

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JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961)

Posted on January 29, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Stanley Kramer

SCREENWRITER: Abby Mann

FILM STARS: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, William Shatner, Werner Klemperer, Karl Swenson, Edward Binns

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Abby Mann

TYPE: Novelization

PUBLISHER: Horwitz

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1963

COUNTRY: Australia

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1961

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Courtroom Drama

WORDS: A short novelisation, a long film. A great one, but long.

The story of German judges being tried,  after World War 2, for upholding the laws of the Nazi State against German Jews is a compelling one, and one that may provoke discussion.

“Judgement at Nuremberg” began as a television play made for the Playhouse 90 (an anthology television series) in 1959, directed by George Roy Hill and written by Abby Mann. It was such a success (and controversial) that it became a natural for someone like Stanley Kramer (who loved edgy subject matter) to bring it to the big screen in 1961. (later, in 2001, Abby Mann took it to Broadway). The television play had a great cast with Claude Rains, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Lukas and the magnificent Maximillian Schell as the defence counsel. The film had a greater and more powerhouse cast with Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland,. Montgomery Clift, William Shatner and Maximillian Schell reprising his earlier role (as did Werner Klemperer). Schell also appeared in the later Broadway production albeit in a different role.

The film is a courtroom drama and most of the the stars play various defendants as long cameos. The film is long (three hours) but always compelling with come pointed speeches and surprisingly, notwithstanding the inevitable results, there is a lot even handed insight into the position of the accused. Kramer, despite all good intentions, wasn’t a great imaginative director. His strength came from the material and his casts (which is why, perhaps, he always produced his films). Apart from Mann’s multilevel insightful script the film is kept afloat (and is made great) by all the actors, but especially Maximillian Schell (who went on to went to win the Oscar for Best Actor and (the magnificent) Montgomery Clift (Spencer Tracy was also nominated whilst Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift were nominated for Best Supporting actors (Kramer and the film were nominated for Best Director and Best Film but didn’t win. Mann won Best Screenplay)). Perhaps, because of the Cold War (and wanting to keep the Germans on side from a filmmaking point of view as the exteriors were filmed in then West Germany) the Germans are portrayed more sympathetically than they would have been if the film had been made immediately after World War 2. Interestingly, the screenplay smartly acknowledges that the Cold War had some bearing on the trials.

Abby Mann was a American Jewish screenwriter and had written much for various anthology drama series on US television in the 1950s (an anthology series (radio, television, or film) spans different genres and presents a different story with different set of characters in each different episode. They usually have a different cast, writers and directors for each episode, but not as a rule).  He went on to write another “big cast” film about Jewish Peoples and the Nazis (and also directed by Stanley Kramer), Ship of Fools (1965) as well as (the great) The Detective (1968). He created the Kojak television crime show in the 1970s. He was a screenwriter who dabbled in fiction, normally novelising his own screenplays. And, Mann’s book reads like a transcript of the of the film. He is unsparing in his opinion that the German civic leaders and judiciary bore as much blame as the Nazi hierarchy for the injustices, but he is also careful to show how much the whole world contributed to Hitler’s rise. There is a bogeyman but we are all complicit. Mann wrote the original screenplay for Judgment at Nuremberg in 1957, at the tail end of McCarthyism, and the parallels of those persecutions were not lost on him. People losing their jobs, or being jailed for failing to answer questions will never be as bad as forced sterilisations and , imprisonment in concentration camps and executions but it is a slippery slope. And, parallels can be drawn to invents today in the west as social media, the media generally and governments chasing votes, all implement sanctions on transgressors … though ironically, calling anyone a fascist who disagrees. What was black is white, and what is white ions black.

Mann received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In his acceptance speech, he said, “A writer worth his salt at all has an obligation not only to entertain but to comment on the world in which he lives.”

That Hollywood is gone.

Interestingly, despite its best intentions, a question the film doesn’t address (or, rather, doesn’t answer) is the jurisprudential question over the actual legality of the German judges decisions during the Nazi State era. I assume it would get in the way of the “this is what we stand for” speeches but also the film is not about jurisprudence. The question is an interesting one. When applying positivist law (legal positivism) , the judges are duty bound to uphold the laws of the State (and follow, I assume, precedent). The film (and history) seem to argue that the judges should have followed Natural Law (which suggests there is a fundamental moral law the precepts of which are knowable and which should be applied to create just outcomes). The film lands firmly on the side of Natural Law. Despite the legal philosophies being incompatible the Nuremberg Trial reality, however, is mixed. The judges were found guilty (Natural Law) but the relatively light sentences indicate, perhaps, that the court acknowledges they were following the rules of Legal Positivism (applying the laws of the State). All well and good because the West before Nuremberg and after Nuremberg have always applied Legal Positivism. When was the last time you heard a judge say “this law is not just and I’m not going to hear this matter or sentence this person”? Importantly, I assume the repercussions on a judge saying that in 1935 would be worse than on one saying it now. But, we still don’t hear it. Perhaps we don’t have any unjust laws? Well, we don’t have ones akin to the Nazi State laws in relation to Jews but, again, a slippery slope? This is perhaps an oversimplification but jurisprudence was one subject many years ago – I will let others argue, if they wish.

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SCENES

Maximillian Schell as the defence counsel Hans Rolfe

 

Montgomery Clift as witness Rudolph Peterson

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BEHOLD A PALE HORSE (1964)

Posted on January 22, 2023 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Fred Zinnemann

SCREENWRITER: JP Miller

FILM STARS: Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Raymond Pellegrin, Paolo Stoppa, Mildred Dunnock, Christian Marquand, Carlo Angeletti, Daniela Rocca, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Lonsdale

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Emeric Pressburger

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Fontana

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1964

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1961

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Killing a Mouse on Sunday

NOTES

GENRE: Thriller

WORDS: Author Emeric Pressburger is Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer who occasionally wrote fiction. He wrote this book, after years of “communal” creativity in film with Michael Powell (together they did The Red Shoes (1948), Black Narcissus (1947), Stairway to Heaven (1946), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and many others) to prove he could do something on his own. The book is a thriller but not a conventional page turner thriller. Its subplots and moralising make it more of a character story with thriller elements.

The story takes place shortly after the Spanish Civil War. It’s the story of an aging leftist revolutionary who wants to sneak back into Spain from France to see his gravely ill mother, but the dying mother asks a priest to tell her son that he will be killed by the Francoist rightist Guardia Civil police if he comes. Simple enough and the priest feels duty-bound to go and tell the man, even though the mother doesn’t believe in God and the son hates priests. Thoughts on religion, conscience, love, loyalty, law, duty are at the back of this story.  Interestingly it’s told from four different points of view – those of a former leftist revolutionary, a policeman (who has been hunting the leftist), a priest, and a small boy. It sounds serious, and it is though it is essential an adventure with tragedy and even comedy interjected , much in the style of  Hemmingway.

The original title of the novel, “Killing a Mouse on Sunday”, is intriguing,. I’m not sure who changed the title though “Behold a Pale Horse” is more what I would expect from something by director Zinnemann.”Behold a Pale Horse” is a phrase taken from the biblical Book of Revelation. A reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a pale horse is Death … “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth”.

I saw the film many years ago. I recall it being well made but one note and lacking heart or soul and slightly “important” (like many Fred Zinnemann films – yes, all well made very watchable films, but with characters that seem a little cold and one dimensional (much like Kubrick’s human characters). You may get caught up in their plight but you are never going to hold your breath, or cry or cheer ecstatically with or for them). For me the joy was of seeing Quinn and Peck in another film together, I recall it being an odd film, dark and ambiguous (which seems the intention of the filmmakers). Influenced by Hemmingway and others I liked my Spanish Civil War black and white then though I suspect I would enjoy ambiguity and grey more so now. I do recall being more sympathetic with Quinn’s “fascist” character, though that I put down to as much as I like Peck I like Quinn more. Interestingly Quinn wanted Peck’s sympathetic role but to avoid typecasting (apparently) they gave him the role of the police captain. Quinn would play a variation on the Peck role in The Passage (1979). The film was written by the great J.P. Miller, a novelist and screenwriter and another of the great writers who came through the golden age of  US TV drama in the 1950s to write feature films.

The film was banned in Spain. “Incensed by scenes showing Viñolas with a mistress, and taking bribes, the government of Spain denied filming as well as distribution in Spain, causing problems for its distributor, Columbia Pictures, which had all of its films denied distribution in Spain, and was compelled to sell its distribution arm in Spain. Columbia Pictures remained closed in Spain for several years, until agreeing to release several Spanish films outside of Spain. Months prior to the release of the film, Columbia Vice President M. J. Frankovich estimated that the studio had lost “millions” in the year since it had decided to go ahead with production against the wishes of the Spanish government”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behold_a_Pale_Horse_(film)

The film was a flop at the time, Zinnemann said in 1966 (in an article “A Man for All Seasons’: Less Pomp, More Circumstance” for The New York Times), “The reaction to that was a disappointment, but it was justified. The point simply did not get over. I took too much for granted. I thought the Spanish Civil War was still with us, but apparently it is dead, in spite of all those refugees. There were other troubles too – with the Franco government. I was to blame for playing the Spanish Civil Guard as ‘heavies.’ They are sacred cows. Columbia suffered heavily through the Franco ban on their films because of ‘Pale Horse’ but they were wonderfully good about it”.

I must watch the film again. As cold as Zinnemann may be, his films can be repeat viewings.

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