Change Your Image
pterzian
Reviews
Taradise (2005)
Not for everyone, but catnip for some
A vastly entertaining program--which, in a just world, would have continued for more seasons--featuring Tara Reid, the voluptuous, husky-voiced blonde from New Jersey who combined a certain naiveté with boundless enthusiasm in interesting/offbeat locations. Instead of a surgery-enhanced robot like Jenny McCarthy or Brooke Burke, Tara Reid behaved like an actual human being on camera, was immensely attractive at all times, even when slightly inebriated, and unexpectedly entertaining. It was a little like a whirlwind tour of the Mediterranean in the company of someone who may not know much about the local history or customs but wants to find out and have a good time into the bargain. Not everyone's idea of great television, but harmless fun--and very pleasant to watch (and listen to) Tara Reid.
Happy (1960)
'Happy' thoughts
I, too, remember 'Happy'--although I only saw it once or twice. I seem to recall that it was set in a resort hotel somewhere, and I don't think at age ten it registered to me whose son Ronnie Burns might be. For that matter, the 'actor' who played Happy would now be close to 50 years old; I wonder if he continued in show biz or is now in real estate in Southern California? Anyway, I would argue that its premise was no more surreal (or original, for that matter) than a popular network predecessor called 'The People's Choice'--starring Jackie Cooper of 'Our Gang' fame--which featured the audible thoughts of the family basset hound, Cleo. The path from there to 'Misted Ed' and 'My Mother the Car' was clear and unimpeded.
School for Scoundrels (1960)
Period piece
I give 'School for Scoundrels' a 9 out of 10 as punishment for the ending, where good triumphs over lifemanship. Terry-Thomas and Ian Carnmichael are always enjoyable, and of course this is the Golden Age of British (cinema) Comedy; but this is really Alastair Sim's movie, in my view. If you've ever seen a St Trinian's film, or 'A Christmas Carol,' you'll know what I mean. The initial interview between Mr Potter and Henry Palfrey is a small masterpiece, especially where Mr Potter (Sim) asks the oblivious Henry if he wouldn't agree that 'this round goes to me.' AS's (deliberately?) uneven voice, malevolent eyes and feline movements cannot be duplicated. I first saw this movie at the age of nine or ten when it was released, and remember enjoying Terry- Thomas most of all. Watching it again after a half-century I am struck by how astonishingly pretty Janette Scott is.
Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)
Forty Years On
I was moderately charmed by 'Morgan' when I first saw it in 1966, partly because it afforded a (romanticized) view of Swinging London and it has its absurdist moments. Watching it again after 42 years, however, I was repelled by Morgan's vandalism and obsessive behavior--we would now call it stalking--and the seeming helplessness of the people he is determined to harass. Morgan's 'eccentricity' wears very thin very quickly, and he becomes tedious and offensive; in the end, one longs for him to be punished and suffer. Stuffed shirts like his nemesis Charles Napier are always cinema villains, but I found him sympathetic under the circumstances. Irene Handl, as always, is delightful as Morgan's long-suffering, class conscious, Marxist mum, and we see Vanessa Redgrave before her Madame DeFarge period. In the end, a waste of David Warner's considerable (comic) talents.