Saboteur (1942)

I'm having a mini-Hitchcock season this month watching some of the lesser-known films that I've not seen for a while. This one apart from the stupendous ending atop the Statue of Liberty was something of a disappointment and featured one of his least charismatic casts.  Robert Cummings is just too lightweight to engage one (and although he appears in a later Hitchcock picture, "Dial  M for Murder", all he has to be in that one is a lightweight actor).  The only character actor of note is Otto Kruger, but there is not enough of him to help.

One bit that I had forgotten was the hero's hiding out while on the run with a group of circus sideshow freaks which included  pair of Siamese twins (not real) which seem to be haunting me this week (see the next entry).

Chaos (1999)

I was rather looking forward to this Japanese film which I'd been told (incorrectly) was a horror film by the director of the original "Ringu".  It was OK but neither  horrifying nor suspenseful and I only hope American producers can resist remaking this one, since everything Japanese seems to be grist to their mill at present.

Too late: just discovered that a remake with de Niro and del Toro is awaiting release. 

Chained for Life (1951)

I have wanted to see this classic exploitation pic for a long time but have never managed to locate a copy previously.  It was sheer perverse curiosity on my part to want to view a film starring (real) Siamese twins -- Daisy and Violet Hilton out of "Freaks" made nearly 20 years earlier.  While the Farrelly Brothers can get some cheap laughs out of conjoined twins in "Stuck on You" (best line: "We're not Siamese, we're American") there is nothing even vaguely amusing in this film.  A large part of the footage is made up of filmed vaudeville acts (sharing the bill with the singing sisters) and one can only regret that the ladies were lured back into a movie with no artistic merit whatsoever.  A sad, sad business -- so shame on me for watching it in the first place.

The Sin Eater (US: The Order) (2003)

Brian Helgeland may have been the oscar-winning writer of "L.A. Confidential" but in his third outing as a director (dare I say his films have become progressingly worse), he would be more in the running for the Golden Raspberry.  He probably thought it a super idea to reunite three of his "Knight's Tale" stars (if in fact any of them had any star quality); Heath Ledger is an over-rated plank of wood and Shannyn Sossamon and Mark Addy have a great future in straight-to-video features. No point summarising the nonsensical plot -- just remember if you run into the film in a dark alley to escape as fast as you can.

My Life Without Me (2003)

Rather surprisingly this is a Spanish-Canadian coproduction (one of the producers is Pedro Almodovar).  A young trailer-dwelling mother of two learns she has only 2-3 months left to live but can not bring herself to tell her husband (Scott Speedman) or her mother (Deborah Harry/Blondie).  Instead she resolves to do certain things before she dies which include finding a potential wife for her husband, visiting her father in jail (an uncredited Alfred Molina), and discovering what it is like to make love with another man -- Mark Ruffalo who falls in love with her (he too does not know that she is ill).  Parenthetically I think he is a fine actor but I wish he didn't always look so dirty and/or scruffy.

Sarah Polley a super actress who has been in films since childhood plays the lead without mawkishness.  In other hands this might have been an obvious tearjerker but she manages to leave the viewer simply deeply deeply sad.

 

The Fan (1981)

A sleazy exercise in stalker gore propped up by a singularly starry cast including Lauren Bacall, James Garner and Maureen Stapleton.  One wonders what drew any of them to the pic other than a paycheck as Michael Biehn's nutter first worships and then comes to hate his idol stage star (Bacall) attacking and/or killing anyone that he feels is coming between them.

Fifty-seven at the time but playing 50 Bacall had just come off a run of Broadway musical successes in real life and the movie becomes schizoid itself featuring her in high-tech musical rehearsals counterpointed with Biehn's bloody vendetta.  I had seen this before many years ago and should have remembered to give it a miss. 

Alone/Horton Foote's Alone (1997)

A cable movie mixing sadness and hope held together by Hume Cronyn's doughty survivor.  A widower he manages to muddle through without any real help from his family who are all too invovled with their own problems.  The prospect of oil being found on his land brings greed to the fore as his nephews played by Chris Cooper, lumbered with a totally disfunctional family and no great success himself, and Frederic Forrest,  with a remarkably chubby Shelly Duvall for a wife, hope for great riches.  So do his two married daughters.  No oil is found and all hopes are dashed. Even Cronyn admits disappointment but one know that he will soldier on.  The film also features a remarkably subdued turn from James Earl (I am your father) Jones.

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Far from showing its age this Hitchcock film which ends urging America to involve itself in the war in Europe remains fresh and riveting, full of set pieces that remain in the mind's eye -- the chase through a sea of umbrellas, the windmill moving against the wind.  Since he is remembered for his Western roles during the second half of his career, one forgets that Joel McCrea started as a light leading man in romantic comedies back in the 30's, and he becomes the reluctant action hero here.  Hitch has more fun with his casting of a group of memorable character actors. In particular, Herbert Marshall the most debonair of leading men makes the suavest of villains, George Sanders - often a villain - plays a stalwart good-guy and Edmund Gwenn forever associated with Kris Kringle turns up as a Cockney assassin. 

Assassination Tango (2003)

It must be Robert Duvall week -- the second film in three days, but oh dear what can I say about this vanity piece co-produced, written and directed by Duvall.  I have a lot of time for him as an actor and his previously directed "The Apostle" was a tour de force.

I have read that he is obsessed with the Tango and I think he was trying to express his love for the dance while making a non-thrilling thriller of his character biding time in Buenos Aires while waiting to make a hit. Most of the dance sequences were pleasant enough except for those where he was dancing.  He looked and moved like the 72-year old that he was and probably enjoyed himself (especially since his partner in these sequences was his present gal-friend) a lot more than the audience.  I think everyone should have at least one hobby that they love but that doesn't necessarily make for an interesting film.

Prelude to a Kiss (1992)

It's a good 10 years since I last viewed this film and while I clearly remembered the central conceit of the story, I might as well have never seen it previously for all I could recall. For a high concept story-line of personalities changing bodies (the young bride Meg Ryan -- as ditzy as she was in "The Doors" and the old codger, Sydney Walker becoming each other) the end product was oddly charmless.  Walker apparently originated the role in the original Broadway show and was probably the best thing in the movie; the romantic lead, Alec Baldwin, was also in the original but apart from looking very young was nothing special.  I think I could resist watching this again in another 10 years.

The Captive Heart (1946)

This was a re-view of a film not seen for some years as I replaced an old Beta copy with a DVD.  However all of the stiff-upper-lip sentiment remained undiminished as a stalwart cast of British character actors went through their POW paces. Michael Redgrave was very moving as the czech concentration camp escapee posing as a British officer and the end scenes framed over joyful celebrations on V-E Day managed without any dialogue to produce the remembered lump in the throat.  What is it about some movies that they can make us weep even 'though we know that it is all pretend?

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2004)

This made for cable film is based on  a popular book which I have not read but which was adapted for film by the author so I must assume it is fairly faithful which means I will probably never read it after sitting through this twaddle.

It stars Jon Voight in old-age make-up which makes him look like a spotted toad. He has just died having tried to save a little girl from falling machinery at the amusement pier where he has worked all his life. He then must meet five people from his past not all of whom he has actually ever met (although I counted six) before they can find their own heavens and he can find his -- or some such rubbish.

The stand-out among these is Jeff Daniels as a blue-skinned man (I kid you not) who died in a car accident when the Voight character as a child ran in front of his car.  Having advised Voight that he was the cause he is free to lose his blue skin and go off to his personal nirvana.  Groovy.