Reviews

Cliff Walkers is a profoundly awful film. Ironically, it gets deserved high marks for being visually stunning. It has great art direction, clean editing, and the casting is good. But everything tragically stops there. The plot is impossibly convoluted and so utterly ridiculously and needlessly intricate that it leaves zero room for even basic character development. Every character is essentially moving through beautiful shots, mindlessly double-crossing everyone else. And then there is the dumb stuff... like all the spies are given poison pills, but only AFTER they have started the dangerous mission. First they parachute into snow-covered wilderness, and THEN they are standing in knee-high snow distributing tiny white pills. Meanwhile, the spies are supposedly under constant direct surveillance by enemy agents, and yet repeatedly they escape various gun battles and knife fights. Lots of bullets fly and blood is drawn, but nobody important in the story dies from actually being shot in a gun battle, even if this could possibly advance the plot,and be... ya know... realistic... it's a spy cartoon masquerading as a serious film. And since everyone wears the same stylish black, and nobody is telling the truth, it's impossible to say who is working for whom. Some people will blame the impenetrable anti-plot on CCP (Chinese government) story censors. But don't kid yourself. There are MANY good films made in China in spite of CCP censors. This movie is NOT one of them. It's a sad tragic waste, a melodramatic empty vessel, a hollow gesture to the sacred honor of the subject it purports to idealize (the fight against WWII fascism). The blame for this film's utter failure rests squarely on the director and writer... and especially the producers who should have insisted on a script re-write. Don't waste your time on this movie.

The Moon-Spinners is classic Disney-style fare from the mid-60s. It fits right in the groove with other Disney movies from that era like "That Darn Cat" and "The Love Bug". Keep in mind that this stylistic resemblance may be seen as an advantage or a serious flaw.

The story happens in Greece, on the island of Crete, though it's actually not very much about Greece or its culture. Of the seven major characters, only one is actually Greek. Two of the actors (notably Eli Wallach) play at being Hellenic while struggling through bad accents and mangled dialog. Culturally, the whole film is a profound embarrassment if you know anything about Greece. But of course, that wasn't the point of the project. Rather, it was a vehicle for Haley Mills. By this standard, she does good work presenting herself as a wacky cute girl who stumbles onto a scheme involving stolen jewels. The plot itself is needlessly confused, and characters say and do all sorts of things that make no practical sense except as stale devices to move the story along. The truly shining moments of the film come only near the end in scenes involving former silent-movie-legend Pola Negri in her final film role. At this point the movie thoroughly entertains and nearly makes up for the hour-plus of previous tedium. Unfortunately, even Eli Wallach fails to impress in this strained vehicle. If you're looking for a "good movie", one with a solid plot and uniformly good acting and directing, then pass on The Moon-Spinners. It's really quite unremarkable. But if you want to conjure warm memories of a classic-Disney childhood, and you want to see the last glimpse of the amazing Pola Negri, then definitely watch this film.