Monday, February 27, 2006

Day 57: "The House on Carroll Street"


Director: Peter Yates 1988
A neat, underappreciated thriller set in 1951 during the anti-Communist witch hunts. Kelly McGillis (and why didn't she have a bigger career?) plays a photo editor at Life magazine who loses her job after declining to name names before a HUAC-like committee. An uncharacteristically restrained Mandy Patinkin plays the committee's oily counsel, clearly inspired by Roy Cohn. Jeff Daniels is a sympathetic FBI agent ordered to hound McGillis; of course, he falls for her. The plot involves the government smuggling in Nazi scientists--scientists who also happen to be war criminals.
There are Hitchcockian touches, including a climax along the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. Unfortunately, Yates ("Bullitt," "Breaking Away") is no Hitchcock, although there are enough suspenseful moments to make up for the occasional Nancy Drew-like plot turns. One thing the film does brilliantly is recreate the New York of the early 50s, particularly Greenwich Village and Park Slope, where the house of the title is located.
Written by Walter Bernstein, who was a victim of the blacklist, and who covered similar turf in the 1976 dramedy, "The Front," with Woody Allen.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Day 56: "Genevieve"


Director: Henry Corneilius 1953
The title character is a 1904 Darracq, quite a vintage car by 1953. The movie is a charming, deft comedy about an auto rally between London and Brighton and back again. The return trip turns into a race between two old friends. The race stirs up jealousies (Kenneth More's character once dated Dinah Sheridan's character before she married the owner of Genevieve), and the males try hard to prove their masculinity. Of course, the trip back is fraught with mechanical breakdowns, dirty tricks, and revelations. Harmless stuff, really, but with a tiny edge that distinguishes it from other comedies of the era. Another plus is a delightful Kay Kendall as More's rally date.
Wonderful music from harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler. Screenplay by William Rose, who would soon write "The Ladykillers" with Alec Guinness.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

A Break: "The Film Snob's Dictionary"


Authors: David Kamp, Lawrence Levi (2006)
If you love movies, go out and get this ASAP. Kamp and Levi have written an insightful, humorous book for movie obsessives and those amused by the pretensions of movie obsessives. Entries include the difference between the terms movie and film (as in, "It's a MOVIE if it's preceded by a trailer for the latest Jerry Bruckheimer epic. It's a FILM if it's preceded by an announcement from a pear-shaped, balding man down in front who introduces himself as 'Michael, the programming director'"); ten "lost" masterpieces," including "Kaleidoscope," an hour-long experiment directed in the 1960s by Hitchcock without sound but with nudity; ten snob-approved sequels, including one of my favorites: John Frankenheimer's "French Connection ll"; and the ten great ubiquitous overweight veteran character actors of the modern American cinema: Joe Bon Baker, Wilford Brimley, Fred Dalton Thompson, Jack Warden, et al. There's lots more. The entires are smart, and many are laugh-out-loud funny.
This is a real gem, just $11.95 at your favorite oversized, ultimately depressing chain book store.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Day 55: "The Girl Hunters"


Director: Roy Rowland 1963
The roar of the .45 shook the room. Charlotte staggered back a step. Her eyes were a symphony of incredulity . . .
“How c-could you?” she gasped.
I only had a moment before talking to a corpse, but I got it in.
“It was easy,” I said.
I was about 12 when I read those words, the then-shocking climax to Mickey Spillane’s first Mike Hammer mystery, “I, the Jury.” I’d already been through the Hardy Boys, comic books, much of Ian Fleming. Spillane, of course, was a hugely best-selling writer by then, his heyday roughly between 1947 and 1952 when he cranked out the first batch of Hammers before going on hiatus for nearly ten years (he became a dedicated Jehovah’s Witness). The books were still in print in 1963, when I discovered them. And in print they remain: two omnibus collections of those early Hammers were published in 2001. Although appearing first in hardcover, Spillane was really a paperback phenomenon, his violent, slightly racy books blessed with those amazing paperback covers of the times.
Kids who liked to read 40 or so years ago were often attracted to pulp, which had a kind of second life thanks to cheap paperbacks--often reprinted magazine stuff from the 20s, 30s and 40s (particularly mysteries and sci-fi). The stories were fast-paced and highly readable, if also highly forgettable. There were exceptions: Hammett, Chandler, Ross MacDonald, John D. MacDonald, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and a slew of other memorable writers. The material had a quality of danger to it; 12-year-olds were introduced to dark, scary worlds. Today, pulp lives for kids through graphic novels, video games, and, yes, books. What’s Harry Potter if not a journey through an often dark and scary world?
A former comic-book writer, Spillane pumped up the amount of graphic violence and sex (mild by today’s standards, hot stuff for the 1950s) in his Hammer books—and was rewarded with lots of money and lots of critical damnation. He didn’t care. The books took two weeks to write.
Several Hammer books were made into mediocre movies, the exception being “Kiss Me, Deadly,” one of the best films of the 1950s and one that had the guts to depict Hammer as the sadistic vigilante he really was. If you’ve never seen “Kiss Me, Deadly,” rent it today. An amazing movie.
Another great Hammer-inspired movie moment is at the end of 1953’s“The Band Wagon,” my favorite movie musical. In it, Fred Astiare and Cyd Charisse dance the “Girl Hunt Ballet,” a wonderful parody of Spillane.
Mickey Spillane clearly has a sense of humor, for in 1962 he wrote a new Hammer mystery and called it “The Girl Hunters.” The following year, he played his own creation in the movie version. I may be wrong, but I can’t recall a writer ever playing his own series character. Imagine Conan Doyle as Sherlock Holmes, Chandler as Philip Marlowe, Fleming as James Bond, Tom Clancy as Jack Ryan.
Spillane’s not much of an actor, but the material isn’t too demanding. There are some nice exterior shots of New York (although most of the movie was shot in the UK). The femme- fatale is a sexy Shirley Eaton, soon to be fatally gilded in “Goldfinger.” The story moves along, and occasionally there are some real howlers (the newspaper columnist Hy Gardner, also playing himself, tells Spillane/Hammer that a certain politician “hated those Commie punks as much as we do.” Commie punks were often the targets of Hammer’s wrath).
Mickey Spillane turns 88 next month. Reportedly, he’s already written the final Mike Hammer book. Hammer himself should be the same age as Spillane, except Hammer resides in that Neverland of fictional characters who remain perpetually 39 or so. Long may he and Mickey Spillane live.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Day 54: "The Daytrippers"


Director: Greg Mottola 1996
I was tempted at first to call this a "wonderful, little film"--then thought better of "little." Yes, it's an indy. No big budget. No superstars. No special effects. No car chases (actually, there is one, but fans of "Bullitt" can relax). It's just not fair to call this little, so let's stick with wonderful.
The ensemble cast is working at top form: Hope Davis, Parker Posey, Stanley Tucci, Anne Meara, Pat McNamara and Liev Schreiber. Writer/director Mottola has created funny, sad, believable characters in a seemingly simple story that's really not all that simple. Davis suspects husband Tucci is unfaithful, so she, her parents, her sister and her sister's boyfriend pile into a stationwagon and trek to Manhattan from Long Island. They spend the day trying to find the husband, and during their odyssey they meet up with some interesting characters. This is a melancholy movie that seems just right to me. Some characters learn from the journey. Some--at least Meara's overbearing mother--do not. A lovely film--and Mottola deserves another crack at a feature film.
Produced by Steven Soderbergh.