While this should have been a rousing success given the stars (Richard Todd none other in a support role) it is lamed by a hopeless script in which a selfish woman (O'Hara) runs off to have an affair pursued by her pretty awful kids. The lover has a daughter (Hussey) who for some reason joins in the plot to separate the lovers and falls in love with the boy. The whole thing is unpleasant and it is difficult to know who is worse, the kids or the adults, so when Hussey gets a (well deserved) spanking from her father you just want to boot his backside to wake him up to his own responsibilities. All together a complete waste of time.
Reviews
42 Reviews
True Grit
(2010)
Engaging remake
31 August 2022
An engaging remake of the popular John Wayne movie. It's nearer to the book itself, darker and possibly a better movie, but has the problem that everyone speaks out the sides of their mouth, which makes the dialogue difficult to follow at times. Marty played by Hailey Steilfield is as engaging and annoying by turns and no surprise when La Beauf (well played by Damon) spanks her. She is rescued by Rooster Cogburn, the part well taken by Jeff Bridges. The one thing he doesn't have is the sheer stature of John Wayne. But this is a pretty good effort. The baddies with Joss Breslin are all well up to character and the movie ends as the book does - unlike the Wayne film. Result? An honourable draw between the two versions.
Top Gun: Maverick
(2022)
Terrific entertainment - but take your brain out!
19 August 2022
Well Tom Cruise is still able to convinces with his charm and his smile that he is the Top Gun but you really need to take your brain out for this film. The plot is really daft but then you don't go for the plot. Just to say the graphics and the action really do sweep you away and take you out of your seat. They are absolutely phenomenal. Must be seen on the big screen but I wouldn't recommend it in 3-D if you are prone to seasickness! Just take your brain out and sit back and enjoy the spectacle!
True Grit
(1969)
Enjoyable western but worth an Oscar?
18 August 2022
A droll western based on a classic short book about a girl avenging her dead father. Quite dark for the time as westerns go. Wayne is Wayne of course in a role that was made for him - I think the Oscar was for longevity rather than acting ability but he is good. Kim Derby is suitably winsome and annoying at the same time, earning a spanking from Le Beauf (a pretty wooden Glenn Campbell) but then appears to sit far too comfortably on her horse afterwards to be whollyconvincing. Interestingly, for all Wayne's reputation, he is the one who rescues Mattie from the spanking this time!
There are a few unpleasant scenes and Rooster comes across as the ruthless lawman he is. I never know why the crowd must sing 'Amazing Grace' at a hanging! Perhaps it's the only hymn the producers know!
Robert Duvall is a superb villain and the smaller parts are all well done. The end is different from the book btw but no spoilers.
Incidentally, I was talking to a real soldier who told me he'd like to see Wayne fire HIS rifle under his arm! But this is the movies so sit and enjoy!
There are a few unpleasant scenes and Rooster comes across as the ruthless lawman he is. I never know why the crowd must sing 'Amazing Grace' at a hanging! Perhaps it's the only hymn the producers know!
Robert Duvall is a superb villain and the smaller parts are all well done. The end is different from the book btw but no spoilers.
Incidentally, I was talking to a real soldier who told me he'd like to see Wayne fire HIS rifle under his arm! But this is the movies so sit and enjoy!
Hell Canyon Outlaws
(1957)
Tall Trouble!
16 August 2022
This excellent little B western was released in Britain under the title of The Tall Trouble starring Dale (Wells Fargo) Robertson. As the sheriff's name is Wells then you might see the connection. Three of the outlaws are sure huge. Buddy Baer was an ex-boxer who fought the great Joe Louis twice. Just to say the plot is predictable but very likeable with all the chapters - good and bad - showing charisma. Great to catch sometime.
Quite a fun Wells Fargo western
16 August 2022
This is quite a fun Wells Fargo western in that as well as having the usual gun fights with the baddies there is a particularly cute and sassy young lady in the shape of the fetching young Stephanie Carrie (Diane Jergens). Jim Hardie is on a stage with a beautiful woman and the sassy and pretty Stephanie when the stage is held up. The baddies are fought off but Stephanie and Hardie are left alone without the stage . She develops a crush on the series' hero Hardie (Dale Robertson) and who can blame her, such a handsome cove? She relentlessly tries to force him into a position where he will have to marry her, but being a gentleman (as was the custom of heroes in old westerns) he refuses to take advantage of her. Instead, having exhausted his patience, her reward is a sound spanking over Hardie's knee in front of her older brothers, who grimly acknowledge it's something they should have done years ago! Stephanie Makes a good deal of fuss while being spanked (who wouldn't?) and there is a very funny moment after as she tries to sit down and realises that she can't, so complete has Hardie's lesson been! Such things were reasonably common in old time westerns but they would no doubt have earned a censorship now if not a court case! As it was all end happily ever after, as usual with family friendly westerns.
One of the great westerns
13 August 2022
Quite simply one of the greatest westerns ever made. It's a bit long and slow in places but the whole thing has an atmosphere which breathes the old west as imagined in a myriad screen westerns. And that is the whole point of it that 'when a legend becomes the fact you print the legend'. That was John Ford's whole philosophy in making movies. The twist in the end of this one never fails to surprise even when you know what's coming. John Wayne and James Stewart are a bit elderly for their parts but play them very well. Lee Marvin an iconic baddie as the tittle character. For the rest it's made up of John Ford regulars. Shot in mesomeric black and white. This film will require your patience but at the end you feel you have really met a master filmmaker.
Tales of Wells Fargo
(1957–1962)
Classic TV series
6 August 2022
I can remember this from my youth watching it with my parents. We loved it. It was a classic TV western series at the time with Dale Robertson outstanding as Jim Hardie. I always remembered him as the left-handed draw but apparently he was right handed but taught himself to draw left handed for the sake of the show to make the character more distinctive. Some people moan that this is not the real West but of course it's not any more than most other westerns are not. This is the western done for entertainment. If you like the old-fashioned western you would like this. It was usually a good story with a good central character. Robertson was apparently the best horseman in Hollywood and owned hundreds of horses himself.
Railway Children
(2022)
A good idea but...
1 August 2022
It was a good idea to update the railway children story of the Second World War but an absolutely dumb idea to put modern ideas of racism - presumably to please the woke crowd - into it. Come on this is a children's film. We know that racism existed in the American army but the enemy was not the Americans but the Nazis. Even the murderous Joe Stalin was on our side! The idiots who rewrite history like this give our children the wrong idea, that somehow the brave lads who went to war against one of the most murderous regimes ever were the bad guys. These things are just totally annoying and totally out of place in children's films. Another example of woke virtue signalling. The movie could've been made a lot more entertaining with a lot better and more imaginative screenplay. Hopeless!
My Week with Marilyn
(2011)
Really enjoyable
1 August 2022
Just how much of this is real history I don't know but the tale of the filming of the 'Prince and the showgirl' is highly entertaining. I dare say admirers of Marilyn and her then insufferable husband, Arthur Miller, might be miffed, but this is actually what people tell us of her behaviour. Also the goon who trapped around with her giving her so good advice on acting when there were two of the greatest actors who had ever lived on hand is ironic. But then Marilyn was a basket case to work with according to Billy Wilder in addition to Olivier. This is a highly amusing film and entertaining too but probably must be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt in terms of history. But just sit down and enjoy. Michelle is superb. Okay she is not Marilyn but then who was?
Branagh has a good time as Olivier - the great actor was not impressed with Miller apparently as he found his conversation boring - "but then it's better than his plays!"
Branagh has a good time as Olivier - the great actor was not impressed with Miller apparently as he found his conversation boring - "but then it's better than his plays!"
Charming Episode - ending somewhat anticlimatic
1 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
How many young men would not fall under the spell of the charming Nancy Styles as played by Deborah Wally? She is determined to get her way and ends up in heaps of trouble with the young man, Michael Burns, she seduces and runs off with. They both end up kidnapped but I don't think the bad guys would be as merciful as these bad guys were in letting them go. However, it's good to see both the kids getting their comeuppance in the end for the trouble they've caused with a good spanking at the end - especially as the troublesome Nancy Styles is included! Someone mercifully gives Michael a pillow to aid him sitting on his horse at the end - whether Nancy was sitting down in the wagon is left open to our imagination! If her spanking was anything like the one Michael got I doubt it very much.
Elvis: That's the Way It Is
(1970)
What a great artist
31 July 2022
Forget the awful films, this documentary pres3nts Elvis doing what he did best - an electrifying performer. This was made at the beginning of his stint at Las Vegas before the crooked Parker started him and burn out and ultimately his early demise.
Father of the Bride
(1950)
Lovely nostalgic movie
30 July 2022
A lovely nostalgic movie with the lovely Elizabeth Taylor in all her youthful beauty. Spencer Tracy is the father narrating his daughter's nuptials and why not? Interesting that the publicity photographs featured a spanking scene where there was none in the movie. A better version than the later one with Stave Martin, this has more charm - and the young Liz.
DC League of Super-Pets
(2022)
Pretty mediocre
30 July 2022
The idea is to make The Private Life of Pets for superheroes. It starts well but is lamed by a tedious and wordy script which is bereft of ideas. In the end it becomes boring. I took my grandchildren to see it and they found it quite fun but we're struggling at the end. Brilliant animation but it couldn't disguise a basically mediocre effort.
DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace
(2022 Video Game)
Mildly amusing but became boring
30 July 2022
This adventure of a super dog started off well but frankly became tedious and boring by the end. I took my grandchildren to say it but I think they were a bit browned off by the end of it. Of course the animation is wonderful and top class but frankly that does not make up for a poor script which is over-long and far too wordy. So not a hit as far as I'm concerned.
Some Like It Hot
(1959)
Great one-joke movie
30 July 2022
This is a one-joke movie but a very good one. It is often hilarious even if the joke begins to wear a little thin by the end. Simply great performances by Curtis Lemmon and, of course, Monroe, in spite of driving everyone crazy on the set. Billy Wilder sure knew how to direct a movie.
The Flint and Maggie show
30 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Spoiled but extremely pretty rich girl Maggie Hamilton goes on the run and gets herself in a heap of trouble being captured by some bungling outlaws. Actually, having seen her parents one wonders whether she would be better off with the outlaws or the parents . But really, one couldn't imagine any outlaw could survive in the West with so little brain power but never mind. Maggie blames everyone but herself for her troubles but is rescued by the resourceful Flint and appears to fall for him until the morning when she tries to shoot him, something I can't imagine even this naughty girl doing. This at last emptied his pot of patience (and his gun) with the brat and he does what should have been done years before and puts her over his knee for a well earned spanking. She makes a great deal of fuss as she is being spanked but having seen her behaviour one can only applaud Flint for his efforts! But hey presto, in the miraculous manner of movies of the day, the spanking works wonders and she learns through her pert bottom what everyone has been trying to tell her all the while and suddenly becomes a grown-up girl. Amazing how simple life was then in an age when teenage problems and traumas could be solved so simply! As for her parents, one would like to kick them up the backside at the end as they appear to have learnt nothing!
Susan Oliver was actually 28 at the time but plays the naughty teenager very well indeed and of course was extremely pretty and really steals the show. She actually reappeared in Wagon Train in a later episode - a far more serious but no less flirtatious role - but that was a far more serious affair!
Susan Oliver was actually 28 at the time but plays the naughty teenager very well indeed and of course was extremely pretty and really steals the show. She actually reappeared in Wagon Train in a later episode - a far more serious but no less flirtatious role - but that was a far more serious affair!
Stephanie returns!
27 July 2022
At the end of 'The Black McGloins' Stephanie Powers says she will return for Lancer and here she does - but as another character. This time it's the wildly improbable female bandit Zee. She gives a spirited performance as the bratty girl and one wonders why Lancer doesn't spank her, as that often happened to such young ladies in westerns of this period, and as indeed he did in her previous incarnation as another bratty character! I suppose it's okay as things go but the script is somewhat convoluted by introducing another set of villains and wanders all over the place. But okay for an hours mindless entertainment.
Moderately entertaining if you take your brain out
27 July 2022
This western series never really took off but this one has Stephanie Powers - speaking in an Irish accent straight out of John Ford's Quiet Man - to brighten it up. The story of the Irish family of con artists who settle down and whose daughter Lancer falls for, is impossible, but then take your brain out and enjoy two young people flirting. A lovely scene where Stephanie tries to seduce Lancer by bathing in her birthday suit is followed by another where she chased round the barn by him and then receives a much needed spanking from him - but ultimately gets her man where she wants him - is charming. And there is a twist at the end of the episode which is fun. At the finish we expect Stephanie to come back for another episode and she did - but as another character! Certainly not profound but just sit back and enjoy!
Bridge of Spies
(2015)
Terrific historical drama
26 July 2022
Spielberg at his best here in a low temperature historical spy drama about the Gary Powers / U2 spy plane incident which ended with an exchange of spies on a bridge. Even though those of us who lived through this period know the ending Spielberg builds up the tension marvellously with great performances by Rylance and Hanks. But it is the atmosphere created by the master director that sticks in the memory.
Rain Man
(1988)
Truly great movie
25 July 2022
A truly great movie, a bit of a fantasy built round the character of Raymond Babbitt, who was based on a real life savant, Kim Peek. What is important here is the relationship that develops between the two brothers as they have their long journey on the road together. Although the brilliant Hoffman gives the most eye-catching performance as the savant, the real hero is Cruise, who gives a remarkable performance as the arrogant younger brother who eventually finds a heart through his relationship with his disabled older brother. The rest of the cast is eminently well chosen and situations suck you into the movie.
The movie is never consciously sentimental but it will make you shed a tear at the end. The only complaint is that Tom Cruise didn't get an Oscar as well.
The movie is never consciously sentimental but it will make you shed a tear at the end. The only complaint is that Tom Cruise didn't get an Oscar as well.
Mary Poppins
(1964)
Disney at his very best
23 July 2022
I am usually pretty resistant to musicals but I'll always make an exception for this one. This is absolutely magical and as magical as the day it was first made. True the animation creaks a bit compared with modern stuff, but at the time it was revolutionary. And who cares anyway when the acting and the score is so vital. Julie Andrews is absolutely first rate and this is probably her best role. Dick Van Dyke when once you get over his horrendous cockney accent (I'm from a London family) throws himself into the part of Bert with great gusto and every one else is splendid, including the two kids. Just add a fantastic score by the Sherman brothers and what's not to like? Apparently the original Mary Poppins author did not like it but who cares? Thousands of children (and their parents) did!
Viva Las Vegas
(1964)
Cut above most Elvis movies
21 July 2022
This is a cut above most Elvis movies for the simple reason that sexy Anne-Margaret appears to have woken him out of his stupor and they really sizzle together in some of the numbers. He actually displays some energy and looks as if he is enjoying himself and with A-M opposite, who wouldn't! Songs like 'Come on everybody' and 'What I say' are really worth hearing in themselves with the King's tonsils even if the plot is thin and predictacle.
McLintock!
(1963)
Fun but I dislike abuse
18 July 2022
This westernised version of 'The Taming of the Shrew' is fun in parts but does not wear well, especially the scenes where Kate and her daughter get spanked. Becky certainly deserved one I know but what father would hand the lad a metal coal shovel to spank his daughter with? The hand would be quite sufficient to teach a bratty girl a lesson, as many of us of that generation found out! And no, giving a girl a spanking would not automatically make a her fall for a guy, even in the West! More seriously, if Maureen O'Hara is to be believed and she had bruises for weeks after Wayne spanked her (again with a metal shovel) she should have sued him! What should have been light hearted bum warming turned frankly humiliating and abusive. Wayne gave his co-star Elizabeth Allen a far more appropriate smacked bottom in Donovan's Reef. For the rest it's knock about fun - amusing first time round but tiresome on repetition with John Wayne appearing to mistake boorish and drunken behaviour for manliness. You look at it and ask when he (and every other man on the set) is going to grow up!
Tell Your Friends