Movie Movie.

Review #2059: Movie Movie.

Cast: 

"Dynamite Hands"

George C. Scott ("Gloves" Malloy), Trish Van Devere (Betsy McGuire), Red Buttons ("Peanuts"). Eli Wallach (Vince Marlow / Pop), Harry Hamlin (Joey Popchik), Ann Reinking ("Troubles" Moran), Jocelyn Brando (Mama Popchik), Michael Kidd (Pop Popchik), Kathleen Beller (Angie Popchik), Art Carney (Dr. Blaine / Dr. Bowers), and Barry Bostwick (Johnny Danko)

"Baxter's Beauties of 1933"

George C. Scott ("Spats" Baxter), Barbara Harris (Trixie Lane), Barry Bostwick (Dick Cummings), Trish Van Devere (Isobel Stuart), Red Buttons ("Jinks" Murphy), Eli Wallach (Pop), Rebecca York (Kitty), Art Carney (Dr. Bowers), Maidie Norman (Gussie), Jocelyn Brando (Mrs. Updike), and Charles Lane (Mr. Pennington)

Produced and Directed by Stanley Donen (#137 - Bedazzled (1967), #227 - Singin' in the Rain, #346 - On the Town, #1029 - Charade, and #1194 - Saturn 3)

Cast:

So, here we are with a package deal: two films in one for 105 minutes, which features "Dynamite Hands", a boxing drama and morality tale presented in black-and-white and "Baxter's Beauties of 1933", a musical comedy presented in color. The opening features George Burns in an introduction to the double feature, while in the middle of the two films features a trailer for "Zero Hour", a flying ace short. Both of the main features have a few actors playing roles in both films, with Scott being the main star of both with varying support from traditional names and newer names. For example, Van Devere, Buttons and Wallach are present around a newcomer in both Hamlin and Reinking (each making their screen debut). In the second one, Scott is the star with a mix of familiar names (Harris, who despite being a Tony Award-nominated actress, doesn't sing) with a few newcomers in Bostwick (well, actually he was in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but does that really count?) and York. The film was written by Larry Gelbart and Sheldon Keller. Older viewers might know the first name as the writer for television such as for Sid Caesar or his part in the creation in the TV show M*A*S*H or his work on Broadway with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. For film, though, he had just finished work with Oh God! (1977) but was later the co-collaborator for Tootsie (1982). Keller was also a writer for Caesar and M*A*S*H for a time, but this was the third of three film credits (the one before was Cleopatra Jones). They wrote the initial script in six weeks after months spent by Gelbart proposing the idea to studios. To serve as the production company was Lew Grade and his ITC Entertainment for distribution by Warner Bros., while Stanley Donen was tapped to direct. Donen did work in various genres besides the musical he is perhaps most famous for directing with Singin' in the Rain (1952). This was his second-to-last feature film as a director for features, for which he closed out his career with noted features (read: me being nice) in Saturn 3 (1980) and Blame it on Rio (1984). Plans for a sequel were thought of early because of Grade's liking of the material that would have seen Gelbert and Donen return, but the lack of audience returns (blamed on distribution) scuttled those plans.

Within its structure is attempts to make light of two (technically three) genres big in the old days. The first one would probably be right at home for folks already familiar with boxing films of yesteryear such as Golden Boy (1939), Two-Fisted Gentleman (1936), or, well, The Champ (1931). It goes okay, but it is only the bare minimum when it comes to boxing, because, well, it tries to be a silly morality play with a hodgepodge of cheap jokes. How seriously can you take a film that ends with a boxer seeing his manager get shot and immediately study as hard as possible in law school so they could serve as the prosecutor of said murderer? Scott apparently stated about the script that "Gelbart is such a good writer and the picture was so much fun I was almost ashamed to take the money." This could apply as both a sign of goodwill from Scott but also a possible sign of things to come with acting that is hit-and-miss, specifically with the first segment. Somehow, he seems more at home with the second segment in impending death rather than the middling spry manager played here. Hamlin does okay with the material, but one can only handle the mix of moments meant to played for boxing cliches and cliches about falling in and out of the influence of fame so far. By the time he gets to do corny lines for the climax, it almost seems like a punchline of an outstretched TV episode. At least Wallach leans into the hammy nature required from corrupt-doers, but I'm sure there was meant to be something more to having Van Devere (an established actor who happened to be a spouse to Scott) in both segments beyond making me wish to see them in other things with more time such as The Day of the Dolphin (1973). As for the musical, one perhaps thinks of 42nd Street (1933), which also happens to involve a director trying to make a big hit under the pressure of health (in a case of total coincidence, two years after the release of the film, the director behind the Broadway adaptation of 42nd Street would die on the day the show premiered). It is perhaps more musical in song rather than big, choreographed numbers, but it ends up just fine in light entertaining neatness, as evidenced by the free spirit in Bostwick, with him and York making a passable duo. One can only wonder if Harris not being involved in songs or dance was meant to play against type given her Tony Award-nominated background, but whatever. As a whole, you will get a few chuckles from what was meant as an "affectionate satire", one packed with plenty of familiar beats and a decent closer to overcome a few bumpy moments that is handled with the usual qualities presented by Donen and company for a decent recommendation.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Saturn 3.

Review #1194: Saturn 3.

Cast: 
Farrah Fawcett (Alex), Kirk Douglas (Adam), Harvey Keitel (Captain Benson; voiced by Roy Dotrice), and Ed Bishop (Harding) Directed by Stanley Donen (#137 - Bedazzled (1967), #227 - Singin' in the Rain, #346 - On the Town, and #1029 - Charade)

Review: 
Whether a film is good or not, even the terrible ones can have an interesting story to tell about how it came to be. John Barry was a production designer for hit films in the 1970s such as A Clockwork Orange (1971), Star Wars (1977), and Superman (1978). He had expressed an interest in making a film of his own, and he approached Stanley Donan with an idea that would be presented as a Gothic sci-fi thriller. Although Donan was not interested in directing the feature due to not having much interest in science fiction, he encouraged Barry to develop an outline, which he developed into a draft that he showed to Donan. He felt that the idea could work for Barry's directorial debut, albeit with a need for help with developing the screenplay. Martin Amis (writer of novels such as Dead Babies but who had no prior experience with screenplays) was enlisted to develop a draft, which was presented by Donan to Lord Lew Grade (producer of shows such as Thunderbirds and The Prisoner) in 1978 for consideration. While having the script in his possession on an airplane trip, Grade happened to be seated next to Fawcett and her representative; he showed her the script (under the working title The Helper), and she expressed interest, which led to her making a deal with Grade to be in the project. After signing Douglas and Keitel, the film had their prime trio and began production in late January 1979. Donen described the film at one point as “...both sensuous and sensual, full of chills, fright and horror. It’s science fiction, but not ‘comic strip’ SF....It’s something of a Frankenstein story, and meant to frighten audiences in a very unusual way.” Colin Chilvers dealt with the construction of the robot, which cost over $1 million to make, while Stuart Craig was charged with production design, such as the interior of the Titan research station - it should be noted that the Saturn 3 set took over four months to build while running a distance of 280 feet for a film with a final budget of $10 million, with production overruns from Raise the Titanic (ITC Entertainment's other big production at the time) resulting in cutbacks for this film.

As much I do not like to emphasize age when it comes to a film, it certainly is a bit odd to see Fawcett and Douglas as a couple, in part because of the 30 year age difference between the two. Originally the idea was to have Sean Connery cast in the role of the older male lead, but plans fell through for that, leading to Douglas being cast. Douglas had strife with Barry, whose time as director proved short. Two weeks into production, he left the production, with Donan stepping in as director. Donan stated that Barry's departure was due to Barry's lack of experience on a film set in dealing with actors and staging scenes (as said by Donan, while calling him a "terrific talent"). It should be noted that the film has a run-time of 88 minutes; at least fifteen minutes were cut out of the movie (reportedly due to Grade's objection to them), with one notable scene being cut out involving a dream sequence of Adam killing Benson after the two try some sort of space pill. It should be mentioned that there also existed a television cut of the film that was 96 minutes long that included extensions and additions while toning done some of the film's violence. The final little nugget of weirdness came when Keitel refused to post-synch his dialogue, leading to a re-dubbing of his character by Roy Doctrice. Imagine making a film relying on three main characters and having one of them not even use their own voice the whole time - it sure is a strange thing.

With all of that background, it is no wonder that this did not turn out to be a great film. It is a tremendous exercise in ridiculousness for the science fiction genre, having a hodgepodge of cliches that make the movie seem like a strange blend of numerous movies, such as Alien (1979), Forbidden Planet (1956), but also Demon Seed (1977) while being worse than all three. It is a strange little movie, having no real sense of tension or wonder while having one of the stranger love pursuits - this time with a nutty creep and his lumbering Frankenstein robot (powered by baby brains). It is pretty evident that this script must have gone through numerous revisions, which reminds me of the Infinite monkey theorem (a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text) and if it was like that, but with script doctors. How can anyone make dialogue such as "Your body is very beautiful. I'd like to use it" or scenes such as Douglas (wearing no clothes) choking out Keitel work without making someone cringe (or giggle)? Fawcett seems to come out of it with the least lost, in part because her warmth and charm works just fine that fits the horror type okay. Douglas is simply not the right guy for the part, but at least he is hammy enough to enjoy in his attempts to have chemistry with Fawcett. Keitel (or more specifically, Doctrice) is creepy, but he isn't too particularly interesting to go along with, not having enough menace to really make this seem worthy of chills. By the time the film tries to pull a shocker for a climax (at least I assume its supposed to be surprising), the film already has run out of air. At least the robot seems interesting, but it seems as if they really wanted to make something different involving this robot as some sort of innocent Frankenstein's monster type, but really it is not much more than a killer robot that inhabits passion for Fawcett. The effects are decent, and the sprawling set is interesting - but it can't elevate the movie and its material to anything captivating. What we have here is a movie that is occasionally weird to point and look at while perhaps having a laugh, but what we don't have is something that is actually any good. It is a middle-of-the-road kind of film that can't be trashed as all-around terrible (despite some efforts on the part of the film) nor one that merits much of a following. It could be worth it as a curiosity for someone looking for a ridiculous failure piece - or some groans.

Next Review - Raise the Titanic.
 
Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

Charade (1963).

Review #1029: Charade.

Cast: 
Cary Grant (Peter Joshua), Audrey Hepburn (Regina Lampert), Walter Matthau (Hamilton Bartholomew), James Coburn (Tex Panthollow), George Kennedy (Herman Scobie), Dominique Minot (Sylvie Gaudet), Ned Glass (Leopold W. Gideon), Jacques Marin (Insp. Edouard Grandpierre), Paul Bonifas (Mr. Felix), and Thomas Chelimsky (Jean-Louis Gaudet) Directed by Stanley Donen (#137 - Bedazzled, #227 - Singin' in the Rain, and #346 - On the Town)

Review: 
Writers Peter Stone and Marc Behm had made a script called The Unsuspecting Wife across Hollywood, however nobody wanted the script. It was turned into a novel (with the title of Charade), along with being serialized in Redbook magazine, with attention soon focused on it, with the rights sold to director Stanley Donen. The final script was written by Stone to fit the main cast, while Behm got a co-credit for story. In any case, this is a movie that fits into three genres: suspense thriller, romance, and comedy, and the final result is a film that does well in all three genres, particularly due to the cast. The movie has been cited as one resembling an Alfred Hitchcock movie (Grant had starred in Hitchcock's North by Northwest (#223) four years prior), with a few plot twists, scenes to build tension, and innocent people thrust into strange/dangerous situations. It helps that the title sequence is done by Maurice Binder, who would become famous for doing the title sequence for the James Bond films for over 20 years, with Henry Mancini providing the music score.

The movie also happens to have an interesting relationship between Grant and Hepburn, resembling something out of a romantic comedy, although this is one that is quite interesting. Grant was nearly 60 by the time of the film's release in December of 1963, with the age difference between him and Hepburn being one of roughly 25 years. There are lines in the film where he comments on his age, and it is Hepburn who pursues him, which is certainly refreshing. In any case, they have good chemistry with each other, responding with a sense of wit and fanciful cleverness that always seems right. In terms of the suspense elements, they also do a good job handling the thrills and suspense just right. Hepburn is refreshing and compelling as usual, which one could apply to Grant as well. Matthau does a fine job, sticking out easily but being quite useful for the film. The trio of Coburn, Kennedy, and Glass are all fine adversaries for the movie, not merely just cardboard cut-outs for the film to throw away without giving them some sort of scene for them to stick out, such as when they first appear during a funeral. The rest of the cast is also fairly decent in their roles. In any case, this is a movie that keeps you on your toes, having a few turns that don't cheat the audience but keeps them guessing and keeps them excited as well. The violence that occurs in the film may feel a bit off in tone with the other parts of the movie, but it never comes off as too distracting with the entertainment that comes with the movie. The run-time of 113 minutes is pretty fair for the film, never really dragging at any one point.

One thing to note is that the movie is in the public domain, due to an error made by Universal Pictures (the studio that released the film) on the copyright notice. At the time, copyright notices needed to include "Copyright", "Copr." or its symbol on the notice, but since there was no such thing on there, the film (but not the music by Henry Mancini) was immediately in the public domain upon release. The film has been remade four times: Kokhono Megh (1968), Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978), The Truth About Charlie (2002), and Chura Liyaa Hai Tumne (2003). In any case, Charade is a fine gem that succeeds in what it wants to be, whether a thriller or a romantic comedy, whether due to Donen's execution of the script, or from the dynamic cast. This is an easy one to recommend, for all the charm and fun that it inspires.

Let me say a few words about the significance of today's day, December 20th. Seven years ago on this day, Movie Night was created. Over the years, I have done reviews on this certain day for previous anniversaries, from The Iron Giant (#083) for 2011, The Avengers (#312) for 2012, The Man Who Came to Dinner (#501) for 2013, Shock (#676) / Elf (#677) for 2014, Galaxina (#770) for 2015, and Billy Madison (#887) for 2016. Obviously the show has evolved quite a bit since then, and I like to think that Movie Night will continue to evolve and hopefully stay useful, no matter what happens. Thank you. 

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: On the Town.

Review #346: On the Town.

Cast

Gene Kelly (Gabey), Frank Sinatra (Chip), Ann Miller (Claire Huddesen), Jules Munshin (Ozzie), Betty Garrett (Brunhilde Esterhazy), and Vera-Ellen (Ivy Smith) Directed by Stanley Donen (#137 - Bedazzled and #227 - Singin' in the Rain) and Gene Kelly (#227 - Singin' in the Rain)

Review

It's been a while since I reviewed a musical or even a film, and this just happens to be both. But look, Frank Sinatra happens to be in this (I wonder if anyone will be thinking to themselves "Who?"), so there's a small first. Gene Kelly pops up once again, always seeming to be impressive in either directing or starring. The film around Kelly does a respectable job, with singing and dancing right off the bat, mostly being useful. Kelly again does manage to carry a good portion of the film, which is useful, along with Sinatra and Garrett. The story may no be much, and it may seem strangely short (at about 100 minutes), but it works for the most part. It has a strange charm, keeping you watching for some odd reason. Countdown to 350 Reviews: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4...

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Singin' in the Rain.

Review #227: Singin' in the Rain.

Cast
Gene Kelly (Don Lockwood), Donald O'Connor (Cosmo Brown), Debbie Reynolds (Kathy Selden), Jean Hagen (Lina Lamont), and Millard Mitchell (R.F. Simpson) Directed by Stanley Donen (#137 - Bedazzled) and Gene Kelly.

Review
Eugene Kelly was born on August 23, 1912, which was 100 years ago. Kelly revolutionized dancing and singing in movies. You might be wondering why this is important to list. Because what I happen to review today is all that and more. The whole cast does a great job (especially Kelly and Reynolds) I have to admit, the music and songs are good. I have reviewed a musical before, let me use some words from it: "This is a good film with music in there that helps the story and does not ruin anything, unlike some other musicals," (#073 - The Lion King) In this film, the music does makes you smile and laugh at times and truly doesn't ruin a thing. After 60 years, the film's legacy has grown to be considered one of the greatest musicals/films ever.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Bedazzled (1967)

Review #137: Bedazzled.

Cast
Peter Cook (George Spiggott / The Devil), Dudley Moore (Stanley Moon), Eleanor Bron (Margaret), Raquel Welch (Lust / Lilian Lust), Alba (Vanity), Robert Russell (Anger), Barry Humphries (Envy), Parnell McGarry (Gluttony), Danièle Noël (Avarice), Howard Goorney (Sloth), and Michael Bates (Inspector Clarke) Directed by Stanley Donen.

Review
This film is the first I've seen of Dudley Moore, and along with Peter Cook, they make a great pair in this film. It's a bit smart with everything, trying to be just more then what you believe. It's got some good gags and all, especially when Charles makes everything go all wrong (as he is the Devil) The film may not always have a good joke around every corner, but it at least is a good film all around.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.