My
seventh grade English teacher was an interesting character. From 1981 to 1982 he
encouraged us to write our own stories and introduced us to collections of macabre
short stories in paperback format (he even read us a story that he wrote
himself, about a man who cooks and eats his wife!) The names Richard Matheson,
George Clayton Johnson, Charles Beaumont and the like became household names to
me, just a few years before I dove head first into Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone as these masters of
storytelling frequently adapted these stories from Alfred Hitchcock paperback collections
into episodes of that extraordinary series. They were classy, spooky, and
bereft of violence and gore and sent a chill down one’s spine.
If
you mention the character names of Julie, Millicent, Therese, and Amelia to
die-hard horror film fans over the age of forty, they will no doubt recognize
them as the characters portrayed by the late actress Karen Black in what is
unquestionably one of her most famous horror outings, Dan Curtis’s made-for-TV
movie Trilogy of Terror. Originally
aired on the ABC Movie of the Week on Tuesday, March 4, 1975, the film was
presented with the warning, “Due to mature subject matter, parental discretion
advised.â€
Just
as the title tells us, there are three stories, or segments. The first is
“Julie,†adapted by author William F. Nolan from the short story “The Likeness
of Julie†by the late-great author Richard Matheson which first appeared in the
Ballantine Books collection Alone by
Night: Tales of Unlimited Horror in 1962. A college student, Chad Foster (Robert
Burton, Karen Black’s then-husband whose casting in the film compelled Ms.
Black to sign on to the three-segment project) cannot help but notice his English
teacher’s thigh, and wonders what she must look like under the minimal war
paint and her plain-Jane clothes. He watches her through a window as she undresses
and then gets the idea to ask her out on a date but Julie initially refuses,
then later accepts. They go to a drive-in movie and Chad spikes Julie’s drink
which puts her to sleep. Chad drives her to a motel and photographs her in
various sexually suggestive positions. He develops the photos in a darkroom and
shows her the photos. Julie is furious, and the story ends with a strange
twist. “Julie†is elliptical in a way, the structure calling to mind John
Fowles’s The Collector (1963). Actor
Gregory Harrison has a small cameo in this segment.
The
second story, “Millicent and Thereseâ€, adapted also by Mr. Nolan from Mr.
Matheson’s story “Needle in the Heart†which was originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in October
1969, is arguably the weakest of the three. Millicent is a sexually repressed
woman with dark hair who fights with her twin sister Therese who is sexually
free and blonde. Millicent truly believes that Therese is evil and creates a
voodoo doll with the desire to kill her. Dr. Ramsey (George Gaines of Punky Brewster), Millicent’s
psychiatrist, does his best to help her, although the ending can be sensed from
a mile away. In lieu of “Millicent and Thereseâ€, I would have liked to
have seen a version of Mr. Matheson’s “The Children of Noah†appear in this
collection, a short story that I read in that classroom in 1982. It left quite
an impression on me.
The
third and final segment is called “Amelia†and is based upon Mr. Matheson’s
short story “Preyâ€, originally published in the April 1969 issue of Playboy
Magazine. Mr. Matheson wrote the teleplay adaptation of his own source material
and it is this segment that has given Trilogy
of Terror its notoriety as being one of the scariest TV-movies of all-time.
Ms. Black plays the titular woman, Amelia, who has finally gotten away from her
physically overbearing mother. After spending a few hours shopping, Amelia
returns to her new apartment with a package containing a horrifically scary
wooden doll of an aboriginal warrior that possesses sharp teeth, a spear and a gold
chain that, according to the paper that accompanies it, must remain intact on
the doll in order to prevent it from coming to life. It is just the sort of
thing that any single woman would want to bring into their home.
Amelia’s
mother still holds a sway over her and a one-sided telephone conversation
reveals that despite moving out, Amelia still feels guilty about her renewed
independence. Unfortunately, the chain on the Zuni hunter doll falls off, and
Amelia becomes embroiled in a life and death struggle against the crazed
spirit. Director Curtis employs many effective cinematic devices that make this
episode truly frightening, including low-to-the-ground P.O.V. shots of the doll
chasing Amelia, screaming and brandishing its spear. The creepy ending and
terrifying final shot make this segment the hands-down winner in a rather
uneven overall film. Try to imagine seeing this segment in 1975. The violence
and bloodletting alone was unprecedented for its time. The nightmares that this
segment must have induced in children no doubt still linger to this day.
Mr.
Matheson, who is most famous for his short story “Duel†which appeared in the
April 1971 issue of Playboy Magazine and inspired the television movie of the
same name, directed by Steven Spielberg, collaborated again with Mr. Curtis in
1976 on Dead of Night (1977), another
creepy TV-movie that consists of three segments.
Robert
Cobert brings his own special brand of musical spookiness to the film. He and
Mr. Curtis certainly made quite a team! Perhaps not on the order of Hitchcock
and Herrmann, but very close.
I'll admit I'm a soft touch for any spy movie of the 1960s, from the outright classics such as "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" to the endless Eurotrash James Bond rip-offs that flooded theaters like a tidal wave during this era. One of the more prominent spy flicks of the Sixties that evaded me until recently was "Hammerhead", in which the hero is Charles Hood, an American adventurer and playboy who is occasionally employed by Western intelligence services on a freelance basis. The film is based on a character in a series of novels by Stephen Coulter, who used the nom de plume James Mayo.The film was produced by Irving Allen, who blew the opportunity to make the James Bond movies with Cubby Broccoli in the 1950s. Broccoli instead teamed with Harry Saltzman and launched the most successful franchise the film industry had ever seen. Allen got some compensation by bringing Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm novels to the screen with considerable success. For "Hammerhead", Allen provided an adequate budget to allow for some lush production values and exotic scenery in Portugal.
Vince Edwards is well-cast as Hood and when we first meet him, he's been engaged by British Intelligence to thwart the theft of important NATO secrets that are due to be unveiled by a diplomat at a forthcoming conference in Portugal. The film opens in London with Hood attending a wild, "mod" hippie stage presentation that devolves into chaos. As he slips away, he meets cute with Sue Trenton (Judy Geeson), a dippy young hippie girl who jumps into his car. Before long, she's back at his bachelor pad but Hood doesn't have the time to engage her romantically, despite the fact that she obliges herself by taking a shower and slinking about in a wet towel. Hood receives orders to meet with the titular culprit, Mr. Hammerhead (Peter Vaughan), a tycoon whose hobby is to collect valuable examples of ancient artwork and sculptures depicting pornography. The business deal is designed to get Hood aboard Hammerhead's yacht, which the villain arrives at through his customary method of being lowered from his private helicopter in what appears to be an elaborate phone booth-like contraption. (Like most spy villains, he knows how to make an entrance.) Hood is shocked to find Sue is on board as well. What is she doing there? The plot never clarifies whether she is in league with Hammerhead or is also an agent trying to undermine him- or if she really is just a perky young woman with bad timing. It's just one confusing aspect of a fairly confusing story line that director David Miller manages to overcome by keeping the action flowing briskly and in an entertaining manner via punch-ups, hippie parties and chases on motorcycle and speedboat.
Vince Edwards makes for a dapper hero but although he cuts a dashing figure, he's a notch below Bond in that he occasionally loses a fight and lacks the rapier wit of 007, though he's not without the occasional wisecrack. It must be said that he's excellent in the action scenes, often performing many of his own stunts. Judy Geeson's character is easy on the eyes but quickly wears out her welcome through incessant giggling. She's a mod version of "Laugh-In" era Goldie Hawn and every bit as annoying.She is overshadowed by Beverly Adams (who appeared in two of the Matt Helm films) as Hammerhead's henchwoman. She's the epitome of a Sixties spy girl: promiscuous, sexy and adverse to wearing any extraneous items of clothing. In a scene that would make a modern feminist develop agita, her character demonstrates a prolonged exotic dance that is completely superfluous to the plot but which allows the camera to pan over every inch of her body. (In fact, the cinematographers spend so much time zooming in on bouncing breasts and shaking bottoms that it's surprising there isn't traces of drool on the lens.) Peter Vaughan is properly dour and pompous as Hammerhead, but aside from committing some ruthless acts against his own employees, the role is largely underwritten and the character never makes much of an impression. It should be said that the manner in which he meets his demise is possibly the most absurd death seen in a spy movie of this era, at least until Yaphet Kotto's Dr. Kananga turned into a human balloon and exploded in "Live and Let Die". Diana Dors, having become the British Shelley Winters, is another female accomplice of Hammerhead and one of the villain's thugs is played by future Darth Vader, David Prowse. Michael Bates has a good role as a master of disguise who is vital to pulling off the theft of NATO documents. There are also snippets of a title song, "Hammerhead", that will make you grateful the entire song was not used over the opening credits.
"Hammerhead" is akin to the Matt Helm movies in that it doesn't strive to be anything other than a fun time-killer. In that regard, it succeeds admirably.
"Hammerhead" has finally been released on video in America. Mill Creek Entertainment has included it with five other Cold War films
in a collection that features "Man on a String", "Otley", "The Deadly Affair",
"The Executioner" and "A Dandy in Aspic". The DVD transfer is excellent
but unfortunately there are no bonus features.
Michael Curtiz’s Doctor
X is a more technically extravagant version of the original stage
production of playwrights Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller.The play was first tested at the Fox Theater
in Great Neck, Long Island, for a single night’s performance on January 10,
1931.It was immediately followed by a
brief run at Brandt’s Carlton Theatre in Jamaica, Queens, where newspaper adverts
suggested theatergoers “Bring Your Shock Absorber†along.The production then moved to Brandt’s Boulevard
Theatre in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, for several performances, only to
be followed by a week-long preview and fine-tuning at Brandt’s Flatbush Theater
in Brooklyn beginning January 26.
The three-act “mystery melodrama†would finally make its Broadway
debut at the Hudson Theater, off W. 44th Street, on February 9,
1931.The stage play featured actor Howard
Lang in the role of the sinister Dr. Xavier, but the mystery wouldn’t enjoy a
terribly long run on the Great White Way.The Hudson would eventually shutter the doors on the production in
mid-April 1931.
It’s no coincidence that four Brandt-owned theatres were successively
engaged to showcase the early previews of Doctor
X.The play had been intentionally co-produced
for the stage by the theatre owners William and Harry Brandt.Billboard
would note in December of 1930 that the two brothers had chosen to enter the
field of theatrical production as a potential remedy to offset the “slack
business conditions on the subway circuit.â€
The early reviews of the Brandt’s showcase were mainly
positive, especially when considering the decidedly grim fare offered.The critic from Brooklyn’s Times-Union thought Doctor X a “swell show.†The paper reported that the gruesome
goings-on of Jackson Height’s preview had not only caused a woman in the
balcony to scream in fright but that other patrons nervously called “for the
lights to be turned on†midway through the program.Whether such outbursts of fright were genuine
or simply publicity ballyhoo stunts may never be known.But likely more of the latter than the
former.
Not everyone was impressed. Brooklyn’s Standard-Union newspaper took a
contrarian view of the stage show’s ability to curdle the blood of attendees.In the paper’s review of February 10, 1931,
their critic would grieve that Doctor X
was a mostly undistinguished effort, “Freighted with all the dismal baggage of
those lamentable pastimes known as mystery thrillers.â€â€œEven though the authors, no pikers, have
arranged almost an endless procession of synthetic horrors,†the review
mercilessly continued, “spectators are no longer hoodwinked by such drowsy
tidbits.No longer can an actor with an
anaemic makeup or panels that slide open terrify theatergoers into submission.â€
Nonetheless, and though the play opened to mixed reviews,
some of the New York dailies were impressed.There were enough good notices to allow the Brandt’s to run
advertisements suggesting Doctor X as
“New York’s Only Mystery Hit: Electrifies Press and Public Alike!†The critic of the New York Herald Tribune thought it a grand affair, trumpeting, “’Doctor X’ holds the best claim for some
time to the grand heritage of such creepy works as ‘The Bat,’ ‘The Cat and the
Canary’ and ‘The Spider.’â€These
references to past and successful mystery-melodramas of the stage were not only
interesting but prescient: all three of these theatrical properties were
subsequently licensed by Hollywood studios to be brought to neighborhood movie
screens. Such transitioning of
properties from Broadway to Hollywood was, as referenced by the above review,
not unusual.
Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood’s The Bat had made its Broadway debut at
the Morosco Theatre on August 22, 1921.That play would be belatedly adapted for the screen as a vehicle for
Vincent Price in 1959.John Willard’s The Cat and the Canary would debut on
the boards of the Majestic Theatre on June 14, 1937, and enjoy no fewer than three
film treatments: there was Paul Leni’s celebrated silent film version of 1927,
a popular Bob Hope mystery-comedy of 1939, and a late-arriving 1978 British
production featuring Honor Blackman, Michael Callan and Edward Fox.Fulton Oursler and Lowell Brentano’s The Spider would make two appearances on
Broadway with an initial staging at Chanin’s 46th Street Theater in
March of 1927 and, again, at the Century Theater in February of 1928.That play would be brought to the big screen
twice, first in 1931 as a straightforward murder mystery, then reconfigured in
1945 as a film noir-style mystery picture.
Interestingly, Lionel Atwill was working on a different
Broadway stage at the same time Doctor X
was concurrently running at the Hudson.Atwill was working one block north at Broadway’s Morosco Theatre, the
featured player in Lee Shubert’s production of The Silent Witness (opening date 3/23/31).The
Silent Witness too was quickly picked up by Fox and following that show’s
Broadway run, Atwill traveled out to Hollywood to star in the play’s film
version, co-directed by Marcel Varnel and R.L. Hough.Though there were reports that Lionel Atwill
was to return to the New York stage directly following that film’s wrap, in early
March 1932 newssheets reported that Warner Bros. had asked him to remain in
Hollywood for a spell.He had been
offered the title role in their recently optioned property Doctor X.
There’s a lot to like about this film.With the release of Doctor X, Warner Bros. was most likely hoping to siphon off some of
the public interest and box office that Universal was enjoying with such
macabre fare as Dracula and Frankenstein.Though the studio fell short of producing an
iconic film, they nevertheless produced a pretty decent B-picture that offered
a modicum of thrills and chills.One of
the true highlight’s of the film version of Doctor
X, is the art deco “mad scientist†laboratory sets of designer Anton
Grot.The sets were so elaborate and
grand that the New York Herald Tribune
would run a fifteen paragraph long - and impressively detailed - tribute on
Grot and his designs.That article, “Built-in Menace Hangs Over All in Anton
Grot’s House of Doomâ€), includes an unusual for the period in-depth
interview with the designer.The article
also notes that no fewer than “192 sketches and blueprints†of imaginative and
elaborate design had been drafted in preparation for shooting.
The 1970s saw a tidal wave of gritty crime films unleashed on the
movie-going public. There were classics such as the first two
"Godfather" movies and "The French Connection", but there were also an
abundance of worthy but rather unheralded mid-range productions that
have proven to stand the test of time. Case in point: "Sitting Target" (released in some countries under the title "Screaming Target"), a
1972 British crime thriller that most readers have probably not seen or
are even aware of but has been saved from oblivion by the Warner
Archive's DVD release. The movie was directed by an equally unheralded
filmmaker, Douglas Hickox, who passed away in 1988 at the age of only
59. If Hickox never created any classics in the course of his career, he
did direct some good, very diverse films including
"Entertaining Mr. Sloane", "Theatre of Blood", "Sky Riders", "Brannigan"
and the sadly under-seen and underrated prequel "Zulu Dawn". In
"Sitting Target", Hickox benefits from a tightly-woven, fast-moving
screenplay by Alexander Jacobs, based on a novel by Laurence Henderson.
He also benefits from a fine cast that delivers impressive performances.
The film opens in a dank, fortress-like prison on the outskirts of
London (actually shot in real prisons in Ireland.) We meet Harry Lomart
(Oliver Reed), who has already spent a number of years in prison and is
looking at a sentence of serving fifteen more because of a high stakes
robbery he and his gang carried out that netted them 200 grand. The
money was never recovered and Harry and his best mate and right hand man
Birdy Williams (Ian McShane) intend to collect the dough once they are
out of jail. Harry spends his time exercising and bulking up to make himself even more intimidating. As it is, he's a violent bloke with a short fuse and a penchant for engaging in brawling (we can't refrain from pointing out that these were the same personality traits that characterized Reed himself.) Plans to escape are put into high gear after Harry's vivacious wife Pat (Jill St. John) pays him a visit and delicately informs him she can no longer put her life on hold waiting for him to be released. She tells him she has a new lover and provides the coup de grace by telling him she is pregnant with the man's child. Harry goes ballistic and swears to escape as quickly as possible for the express purpose of killing her. Using his gangland connections in London, he manages to arrange a daring an elaborate escape plan for he and Birdy as well as another convict, MacNeil (Freddie Jones). Douglas Hickox milks a good deal of suspense out of the escape sequence and when the gang gets out, they are whisked away by a waiting van driven by their henchmen. MacNeil goes his own way while Harry and Birdy get down to business. They are quite a team. Although Birdy is equally murderous, he has disarming charisma, is more intelligent than Harry and far less impulsive. The two acquire a Mauser pistol that converts into a sniper's rifle from an ill-fated gun dealer (Robert Beatty) who crosses them. Harry's plan is to shoot Pat dead from afar by using a distraction to lure her out on the balcony of her high rise apartment on a public housing estate. They also plan to recover the loot which was hidden by a gang member, Marty (Frank Finlay), who they intend to murder if he doesn't cooperate.
The film is consistently fast-moving and engrossing with a top-notch cast in fine form. Reed makes a formidable, terrifying villain and McShane is terrific as his cheery but ruthless partner. Even Jill St. John manages to acquit herself well in a rare dramatic performance, coming off her performance as a Lucille Ball clone in "Diamonds are Forever" (assuming one can overlook her faux British accent that comes and goes). Edward Woodward appears as a police officer assigned to be bodyguard to Pat and there is a well-choreographed knock down fight between him and Oliver Reed.
There's a good deal of violence, so much so that the movie has the distinction of being the first film awarded an "X" rating in Britain for the reason of on-screen brutality. Director Hickox, working with a limited budget, manages to provide an impressive climactic car chase, marred only by some poor rear-screen projection shots of the principals.
"Sitting Target" is by no means a crime movie classic, but it deserved a far better fate. It's gritty and highly entertaining throughout.
The Warner Archive DVD is adequate, but some of the colors are washed out. It certainly merits a Blu-ray upgrade. The only bonus feature is an American TV spot.
The Warner Archive has released director Lewis Gilbert's excellent WWII espionage thriller Operation Daybreak.The 1975 film is largely unknown despite the fact that it's one of Gilbert's most ambitious and artistically successful movies. The story is based on fact. Allied Intelligence convinced three Czechs serving in the British army to parachute into their occupied homeland to assassinate Reinhold Heydrich, one of Hitler's most trusted commanders and the man he cynically appointed "protector" of the conquered nations of Europe. Heydrich was considered even more brutal than Hitler and the Allies feared the worst if a scenario came about in which he would have been appointed fuerhrer. As Reinhold was heavily guarded at all times, the commandos were left to their own devices to concoct the assassination plan. After an initial attempt went awry, they opted to boldly approach his car in the middle of the street and spray it with machine gun fire. It will not spoil the film to relate the historical fact that the plan ultimately succeeded, but Operation Daybreak is as much about the aftermath of the incident as it is about the mission itself.
Incredibly, the principal assassins and their network of partisans survived, at least initially. However, on the verge of rescue, elements of betrayal and carelessness led to tragedy. In reprisal for the assassinatin, Hitler ordered that the entire village of Lidice be razed to the ground and every citizen murdered or sent to concentration camps. Gilbert shot the film on location in (then) communist Czechoslovakia. The locales add immeasurably to the sense of authenticity. The film also boasts a sizable budget and there are impressive sequences featuring large numbers of German soldiers parading in the streets - a sight that must have been chilling for residences who lived through the actual occupation. Ronald Harwood's screenplay, based on the novel Seven Men at Daybreak by Alan Burgess, is consistently gripping- and the final battle between the conspirators and a large force of German troops takes place inside a magnificent church. Gilbert ensures this sequence is superbly staged on every level.
If there is a weak link in the film it is the casting of Timothy Bottoms in the lead role. Bottoms is competent enough, but makes for a bland and colorless hero. He is out-shown by fellow cast members Anthony Andrews, Martin Shaw, Joss Ackland and Anton Diffring, who makes a coldly majestic Heydrich. Curiously, the film contains many extended sequences involving Heydrich in which German is spoken without the benefit of sub-titles. Whether this was the case in the original film, I can't say, but it does make for some irritation on the DVD version. Also, the Czech characters all speak English, but as they are portrayed by American and British actors without any attempt to form a common accent, it gives the film's dialogue a Tower of Babel effect. Nevertheless, Operation Daybreak is a memorable movie about real-life heroes that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Hopefully, the Warner Archive release will achieve just that.
(The late Lewis Gilbert discussed Operation Daybreak and his other war movies in an exclusive interview with Matthew Field in issue #18 of Cinema Retro)
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The Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray edition of director John Sturges' "Escape from Fort Bravo", a 1953 Western that serves that combines several different aspects of the action/adventure film genre: traditional cowboy elements, Mescalero Apaches on the warpath and key elements pertaining to the Civil War. This "everything but the kitchen sink" approach makes the film the equivalent of celluloid jambalaya but it somehow works. The movie was originally set to be a 3-D production but MGM ultimately settled on making it an early venture in widescreen presentation format, filmed in a color process known as Ansco. It was heavily promoted and became a major boxoffice hit.
The story is set in Arizona when the area was a territory in the days before statehood. Fort Bravo is a remote desert outpost that protects a small town in the midst of hostile Indian country. The fort's commander, Colonel Owens, (Carl Benton Reid) is sitting on a powder keg. His troops are standing guard over a large contingent of Confederate prisoners that outnumbers the Union troops, who are regularly reduced in numbers when Apaches attack their patrols. (It's not satisfactorily explained how the Reb prisoners arrived in Arizona, since the territory saw only one minor battle/skirmish fought on its soil.) To keep order, Owens treats his prisoners with a light touch and extends all respect and courtesies to the Confederate senior officer, Captain John Marsh (John Forsythe). The Rebs resent the fort's second-in-command, Captain Roper (William Holden) for his often brutal treatment of recaptured prisoners who have attempted to escape into the brutal environment surrounding the fort. The dynamics of the situation at Fort Bravo take a dramatic turn with the arrival of a stagecoach that had been under attack by Apaches. A passing cavalry patrol intervenes and brings the stage safely to the fort. The most prominent passenger is Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker), a stunning beauty who alights from the stagecoach dressed to the nines and looking as though she just stepped off a fashion show runway in Paris. (As in many such scenarios in Hollywood Westerns of this era, she has endured a brutal journey in excruciating discomfort but her hair and makeup aren't any worse for the wear.) Upon seeing her, Roper is immediately smitten. He learns she has come to Fort Bravo to see the wedding of Colonel Owens' daughter Alice (Polly Bergen) to one of his senior officers (Richard Anderson). Carla and Alice are old friends but the wedding serves as decoy for Carla's real reason to visit the fort. Seems she is a Southern sympathizer who is secretly engaged to Captain Marsh. She intends to serve as a crucial conspirator in helping Marsh and a few other prisoners escape with the help of a local merchant who will hide the escapees and Carla in his wagon after he leaves the festivities for the wedding. Meanwhile, she strings Roper along by acting flirtatious and somewhat sexually suggestive. Roper becomes so head-over-heels in love with her, that he ends up proposing they get married.
Up to this point, "Escape from Fort Bravo" is fairly routine horse opera stuff. However, after Marsh, Carla and a few others manage to escape, the film switches into high gear and affords director Sturges the opportunity to show off his skills at directing a big budget action movie, something that would become his trademark as his reputation in Hollywood became elevated in status. Humiliated by being cuckolded by Carla, Roper and a few troopers track down the escaped prisoners and recapture them. Predictably, Carla has been pining away for Roper, realizing that she no longer loves Marsh. Upon heading back to Fort Bravo, the small group is surrounded by Apaches and forced to abandon their horses in the midst of the harsh desert. The Apaches use inspired military-like strategies to isolate the group and pick them off one-by-one. Sturges cranks up the suspense and makes the most of this highly engrossing sequence, which serves as the heart of the film. The performances are all fine, with Holden in particularly good form and the movie benefits from a good supporting cast of welcome character actors including William Demarest as an aged Confederate prisoner and Howard McNear as the conniving local merchant.
The new Warner Archive Blu-ray looks sensational and does justice to cinematographer Robert Surtees' impressive shots of the Death Valley landscapes where much of the movie was filmed. If you like the movie and own the previous DVD release, it's worth investing in the Blu-ray upgrade.The only bonus feature is the original trailer.
In browsing through the seemingly endless selection of retro movie choices available on Amazon Prime, I was rather surprised to come across the 1972 Peter Sellers comedy "Where Does It Hurt?", as- to my knowledge- the movie has never been released in any video format in the USA. I had seen the film when it played in theaters and I recalled enjoying it. Thus, I thought that after almost a half-century later, it would be time to revisit the title. At the time, Sellers was working steadily, but from an artistic standpoint, his career was in the doldrums. For the last few years, Sellers was seeming to accept any script that came with a fat paycheck attached. Even the more high profile and promising productions disappointed: Sellers was fired from the mega-budget, all-star 1967 spoof version of "Casino Royale" before he had finished filming some key scenes. His reunion with Blake Edwards for "The Party" proved to be a ten-minute gag painfully stretched to feature film length. Until he and Edwards would stop their on-going feud and revive "The Pink Panther Franchise" in 1975, Sellers had been on a downward spiral.
"Where Does It Hurt?" casts Sellers as Dr. Albert T. Hopfnagel, the scheming administrator of an independent hospital in Los Angeles. Hopfnagel has turned the place into his own fiefdom, hiring equally corrupt people to serve in key positions. They coerce patients into staying in the hospital longer than necessary by forging their medical records and billing insurance companies to cover their treatments and room costs. If a patient finally gets wise and causes a fuss, Hopfnagel will let them in on the scheme and bribe them with booze and women to get them to cooperate. Indeed, the place is a virtual bordello with the "nurses" freely dispensing sexual favors along with the aspirin and most of them have been hired because of their bust lines, not brains. Hopfnagel is not above indulging, too. Despite the jealous nature of his on-premises girlfriend Alice (Jo Ann Pflug), who helps fleece the patients, Hopfnagel is addicted to having quickie sexual encounters with female staffers in private nooks. His office even has a secret built in escape route that is hidden by a hallway Pepsi machine. It's the kind of scenario that would have been a perfect fit for Groucho Marx and Sellers milks whatever laughs the film possesses out of his attempts to fool around while assuring Alice he's remaining true. If only the rest of the film were as amusing. In fact, "Where Does It Hurt?" runs out of steam shortly after the maddeningly addictive title song. Director/screenwriter Rod Amateau had some legitimate credentials in the television industry, but his feature films were mostly low-grade, despite the presence of impressive cast members. (His previous film was the notorious "The Statue" with the estimable presence of David Niven, Virna Lisi and Robert Vaughn.) Amateau's screenplay, based on the novel "The Operator", is one long dirty joke. I suppose I can excuse my 15 year-old self for finding the smutty situations amusing back in 1972, but much of it is painful to endure today. Sellers acquits himself well enough but the role is sketchily written and not up to his potential, though he once again displays his ability to project a perfect American accent. Pat Morita has a supporting role that is cringe-inducing due to the idiotic Asian stereotype he plays, but Harold Gould scores some laughs as a hopelessly inept surgeon who gets all the major surgeries precisely because he can be counted on to botch them and worsen the patient's condition.
The film's premise had some nuggets of legitimate social commentary. America has always been the only Western democracy to privatize citizen's health care in a for-profit scenario. Consequently, despite having top rate doctors and research, the financial aspects of the system have been prioritized to the point where you can be charged $10 for a single aspirin and go bankrupt if you become seriously ill and lack adequate coverage. Unfortunately for Amateau, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky beat him to the punch with his scathing, Oscar-winning script for "The Hospital", which was released a year earlier. That film dissected the U.S. health care system and predicted it was on a collision course with destiny. Compared to the earlier film, "Where Does It Hurt" is a fairly anemic medical comedy.
The print shown by Amazon leaves a lot to be desired but then again, so does the film. For Sellers' fanatics only.
A year after their Oscar-winning triumph, The Bridge on the River Kwai, William Holden and writer/producer Carl Foreman teamed again for another drama set in WWII, The Key. The 1958 drama is primarily a love story but there is plenty of action on the high seas, all superbly photographed in B&W by the great Oswald Morris. The offbeat story is set in England in the early days of the war before America entered the conflict. Britain stands alone against the seemingly unstoppable German forces and fights to maintain shipping on the high seas in the face of ever present U-Boat threats. William Holden is Capt. David Ross, a Canadian serviceman who is reluctantly assigned to skipper a rescue tug boat that is sent to retrieve men from sinking ships that have been torpedoed. There is good reason for his less-than-enthusiastic acceptance of his assignment: the tugs are lightly armed sitting ducks for the U-Boats. The specter of death hangs over every mission. Ross is pleasantly surprised to be reunited with fellow tug captain Chris Ford (Trevor Howard). The two old friends bond again by getting drunk then returning to Chris's apartment. He has a rare commodity. While most servicemen are crammed into barracks-like hotel rooms shared by numerous other men, Chris has been fortunate enough to secure his own apartment. He explains that the place has an eerie tradition. The present occupant is to make an extra key and give it to his best friend, who will inherit it in case he dies. Ross is startled to find that the apartment comes with another fringe benefit that is passed down from doomed owner to doomed owner: Stella (Sophia Loren), a beautiful but somber Swiss refugee who acts as housekeeper and lover for the latest tenant. Still, Ross sees that there is genuine affection between Stella and Chris and the two even announce plans to marry. A premonition convinces Stella that Chris will never return from his next mission: a prophecy that sets in motion an engrossing series of events of which nothing else can be revealed here without providing "spoilers".
It's glorious to see three great stars of the cinema playing off each other. (While Holden and Loren reached superstar status, Howard was always regarded as a character actor- albeit, one of the best in the business.) Under the sensitive direction of Carol Reed, the leisurely-paced story contains elements of the supernatural with the premonitions and apparitions accompanied by Malcolm Arnold's eerie score. The supporting cast is also impressive with the great Bernard Lee in fine form as a naval officer with the unpleasant duty of sending rescue boats on virtual suicide missions. In all, a fine film all around- and one that neatly avoids the cliched final sequence you believe the script is building to.
Sony has released The Key on DVD. The transfer is excellent, though no extras are included.
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The Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray special edition of the 1939 crime flick "Each Dawn I Die", based on a novel by Jerome Odlum. The film is primarily notable for the teaming of James Cagney and George Raft, two perennial favorites in Warner's lucrative gangster movie sagas. Like most of these films, this one was shot on a modest budget and consists mostly of interior shots, with "exteriors" largely filmed on the Warner back lot. Nevertheless, it's an unusual movie in Cagney's career because of the character he plays. This time he's on the right side of the law as Frank Ross, a big city crime reporter for an influential newspaper who has been relentlessly exposing powerful elected officials and business titans as criminals. In response, they hire some goons to kidnap Frank, knock him unconscious and drench him in alcohol. They then place him behind the wheel of a car and send it speeding into an intersection where it causes an accident and the deaths of innocent people. At his trial, Frank pleads that he's the victim, but the local D.A. and judge are part of the rackets and ensure he's sentenced to 20 years hard labor. En route to prison, Frank meets fellow prisoner "Hood" Stacey (George Raft), a renowned local gangster. The two men get off to a tense start but when Frank prevents Hood from being stabbed with a shiv, he earns the gangster's respect. Hood concocts a plan to use a forthcoming courtroom appearance as a means to enact an elaborate escape plan. Frank agrees to help him by pretending to be his adversary while secretly aiding in the escape based on Hood's promise to track down the people who framed Frank and force them to confess. The escape goes well but Hood receives mistaken information that Frank had tried to double-cross him, thus leading Hood to drop his promise to aid Frank's cause. Frank faces serving his full sentence, his despair only alleviated by the continued loyalty of his girlfriend and fellow reporter, Joyce (Jane Bryan) and his mother (Emma Dunn), both of whom continue to lobby for his release. Most of the suspense comes from the plot device of when and how Frank and Hood will inevitably resolve their misunderstanding.The film culminates with an attempted major prison break and a resulting battle with National Guard forces, as would later be seen in "Brute Force".
Under the direction of William Keighly, the film is engrossing throughout and ranks as one of the better Warners crime films of the era. On the accompanying informative commentary track, film historian Haden Guest points out that Cagney had been going through a tense period while under contract with the studio, as he held out for more interesting roles. "Each Dawn I Die" represented a victory for him in that he was no longer playing a wisecracking gangster. In fact, Cagney's performance is dramatically different than what audiences had been used to. He's an every day guy who tries to play by the rules under a prison system so cruel that only the warden is the soul official who shows any humanity or compassion for the inmates. It's a largely humorless role for Cagney, who does the unthinkable at one point: he breaks down and cries due to his seemingly helpless situation. Cagney was happy to let George Raft have the flashier role and Raft certainly runs with it, playing the kind of mob boss Cagney was rebelling against playing again. They provide the expected on-screen chemistry but the screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine and Warren Duff tends to be rather confusing at times due to the references to many villains of varying degrees of importance to the story and what their roles are in framing or exonerating Frank. While "Each Dawn I Die" doesn't rank with all those fabled classics released in 1939, it's good, solid entertainment throughout.
The Warner Archive's Blu-ray provides a sterling transfer and a wealth of great bonus extras. On the aforementioned audio track, Haden Guest provides insights into the fact the movie tended to buck the much-hated Production Code which provided self-censorship guidelines for studios that ensured all gangster movies had to uphold the theory that crime doesn't pay. Haden points out that the film nevertheless paints a dim view of public officials by presenting them are rotten to the core. The movie also presents the prison guards as ruthless sadists and the parole board as corrupt. It's surprising this much candor was left in the final cut. Other bonus extras are all from 1939:
A newsreel about Japan's invasion of China narrated by Lowell Thomas
a 1949 reissue trailer
The Oscar-nominated cartoon "Detouring America" as well as bonus cartoon "Each Dawn I Crow"
The documentary color short "A Day at Santa Anita"
The trailer for "Wings of the Navy", a current release from WB that is promoted in the film when the prisoners see it during a movie night
The featurette "Stool Pigeons and Pine Overcoats: The Language of Gangster Films"
"Breakdowns of 1939": a compilation of movie set bloopers
Radio show version of the film with George Raft and Franchot Tone.
This crime movie release from the Warner Archive is an offer you can't refuse.
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