Reviews

"Going Bye-Bye !" shows the screen's greatest comic double-act in brilliant form. It is in fact their last short comedy film classic - another five more two-reelers followed followed (though only one of these - "Them Thar Hills" - approaches the standard of this one). Long is at his fearsome best, and the dialogue ("Excuse me, I have milk in my ear"), characterisations and slapstick are wonderful. This is up there with Stan and Ollie's best. A must.

This spooky, intelligent television horror movie moves at a good steady pace, building towards its nightmarish climax, with a perfectly achieved sinister small town atmosphere. A clearer explanation of why the townsfolk do what they do would help, but the acting and writing keep you interested throughout. It's a classy excursion into horror from the writer that gave us "The Haunting".

This is a decently made RKO western, made a few years before the genre became truly great (1946 - 1962), though released the same year as the first classic of the genre ("Stagecoach"). Despite some heavy-handed romantic-comedy moments, the movie moves like one of its galloping horses - at one point, Wayne is wrongly accused of murder, is put in gaol, quells an outside mob riot from inside his cell, stands trial, and is freed all within 7 minutes !

The MGM musical circus had left Culver City a few years earlier by the time the studio decided to film this 1930s stage extravaganza. The result is bright and competent enough (and it retains most of the wonderful Rodgers & Hart songs), but ten years earlier the Arthur Freed Unit would have sharpened up the book, included a lot more dancing and had a superior leading man (Stephen Boyd is a disaster in this movie). Doris Day sings the standards very well, and - stealing the film - Jimmy Durante (who gives a glorious rendition of "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World") and Martha Raye are memorable in support.

"The Scout" is an underrated comedy, which though never quite hitting the heights gives good value in the funny-sentimental entertainment stakes and benefits from two excellent performances (Albert Brooks - in a role "Seinfeld"'s Jason Alexander would probably over-play on television - and Brendan Fraser). The hidden depths of the film - the young player's childhood "abuse" for instance - remain hidden (the movie seems shy about going there) but as old-style, far-fetched shtick the picture works very nicely.

Possibly the most pointless - and reverent - remake in the history of cinema. Not only is the 1960 original an unimpeachable classic, this version is virtually a scene-by-scene, shot-by-shot and line-by-line copy. The two main differences are the different actors and the colour photography, but these are not sufficiently striking enough to justify this curious, boring enterprise.

This Oscar-winning remake is super-proficient in its production values, but as an entertainment is a completely joyless trudge of a movie. It highlights the seemingly neverending pain, suffering and hate of the original novel and thereby just makes more obvious the inherent hypocrisy of that and the silent film (a revenge tale sub-titled "The Tale of the Christ" ?!?). The chariot race sequence - in its predictable way - is the only exceptional scene in the picture; the rest is boring and massively overrated.

By Randolph Scott standards of the 1950s, this is a disappointing and heavy-handed star western. Two or three of the characters could be dispensed with, while two or three other characters could be given more prominence. (The humour needs to be completely rewritten.) De Toth handles the action well - as always - but his grasp of the overall narrative is weak.

Though the eponymous character is a dull enigma from beginning to end (and is played in an annoyingly mannered way), and that the political / sexual angles are insufficiently detailed, this remains one of the director's greatest triumphs and the best of his five latter-day epics. Its brilliance is entirely visual - deserts, mountains, palaces, cities and trains have rarely been filmed with such compositional flair or dramatic feel.

Odd little western, in which the various plot strands don't gell and the romantic sub-plot between McCrea and Hendrix - though played low-key - comes over as quite creepy. The character actors are reliable, especially the always excellent John McIntire.

This adrenalin-pumping action thriller is terrifically well crafted with a Spielberg-like glee (ala "Duel"), and features a fine set of villains (ala "Bad Day at Black Rock"). As lead baddie, the late J.T. Walsh gives the movie's best performance. Hero and heroine - in the form of Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan - are the film's flaws, being bland and under-used respectively (she gets to kill Walsh in a silly, slightly unworthy final coda - which seems there only for her to do something significant). From a non-artistic p.o.v., the picture could be labelled bigoted towards mid-west folk, but as an entertainment it's a good, simple (though never simple-minded) actioner - well worth watching.

A coming out comedy with a few funny moments, but otherwise obvious, contrived, overacted, wishy-washy and flat. Its make-believe small-town world - where nearly no one is truly homophobic (just confused), yet only one person is gay (but closeted) - is totally unbelievable. The jokes suffer accordingly, being of the predictable 'easy laugh' variety (e.g. a lot of jokes revolve around the - untrue - thought that all gay men love Barbra Streisand) Every character is written in a routine sitcom manner, and the acting is variable (Kevin Kline is dull; Joan Cusack wildly over-the-top; Bob Newhart - as the bigot (!!!) - wasted, etc.). Tom Selleck, as the gay television journalist, gives a natural and non-stereotypical performance (unfortunately, the character has hardly anything funny to do or say)and Matt Dillon, as the movie star, convinces (more than his supposedly Oscar-winning war movie, an inept example of writer Paul Rudnick trying to have his cake and eat it).

This is an old-fashioned seafaring yarn, with not much inspiration of its own. Among the many adventure stories / movies it makes reference to are "Captains Courageous", "Mutiny on the Bounty", "Treasure Island", "Robinson Crusoe" and "The Swiss Family Robinson". Director Nils Gaup handles the action well and the production values are suitably epic and colourful. The British / Swedish cast combine surprisingly well, though no individual player is outstanding.

Cole Porter's stage classic becomes a generally successful movie, even though its theatrical roots are too strong for adaptation and the direction often strains too hard for (3-D) effect. (Originally intended as a 3-D release, it was released 'flat' - and is usually shown in this format in re-release.). Luckily the dancing is given equal prominence as the singing and the result - particularly in the ensemble numbers ("Tom, Dick & Harry" and "From This Moment On") - is fabulous. Special mention should be made of the adroit musical direction by Andre Previn and Saul Chaplin - the MGM musical sound at its most brilliant.

This a neat, colourful "Captains Courageous" variation, with veteran Joel McCrea and youngster Dean Stockwell combining really well. The moralising and the sentimentality are underplayed and the action is excitingly staged by underrated director Kurt Neumann (even if some of the 'wild horse' scenes are taken from an earlier Universal-International western - directed by George Sherman - called "Red Canyon"). All in all this 78 minute oater is well worth catching.