Archive for Reviews
The Girl Can’t Help It Movie Review
Jayne Mansfield is the very definition of a bombshell. And very funny. In this movie, Tom Miller (Tom Ewell) is a talent agent. He’s not had much luck lately when he gets a call from a mobster, Fats Murdock (Edmond O’Brien). Fats wants his girlfriend Jerri Jordan (Jayne Mansfield) to make the big time so he can have a big-time girlfriend. Fats wants her to be a star, but she likes to cook and wants a family. “Don’t I look maternal?” she asks Tom while leaning over, her 40 inches almost in his face. Tom falls for Jerri of course. The Girl Can’t Help It is an enjoyable, but not great, movie, if a bit schizophrenic.
For some reason, this movie has lots of Rock ‘n’ Roll stars in it. They have nothing to do with the story, but it’s a fantastic opportunity to see Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Eddie Cochran, The Platters, and a Rock ‘n’ Roll band with an accordion, all in living Technicolor. I love the over-bright film used in the 1950s.
Who is Tom Ewell and how did he get to star opposite both Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield? There are better comedians, more romantic leading men, better looking actors, but he gets these plum movies. Well he was a Broadway star, and was in the Broadway version of The Seven Year Itch. And he followed his short movie career with a long television career.
The DVD has a Biography Channel documentary on Jayne Mansfield. She had a 40-inch bust and loved attention, especially from men. She married a Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay. She claimed to have an IQ of 163, but scholastic evidence is lacking though she could speak five languages.
The Girl Can’t Help It, 1956. Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O’Brien. Directed by Frank Tashlin. 99 minutes.
The photos below include the iconic shot of Jayne holding two bottles of milk.
Concrete Cowboys Movie Review (1979)
This made-for-TV movie from 1979 starring Jerry Reed and Tom Selleck falls squarely into the hickspoitation/hick-flick genre. The cover says it stars Tom Selleck and Morgan Fairchild. In small print it also says Jerry Reed, which is what convinced me to pick it up. When the credits for Concrete Cowboys start, it’s obvious that Mr. Reed was the star, and the others were not. Fame is fickle.
Basically Jerry Reed carries this movie, but Tom Selleck doesn’t hurt it any. Roy Acuff, Ray Stevens and Barbara Mandrell each make a cameo appearance. Morgan Fairchild isn’t too memorable in this roll that probably could have been done better by several actresses of the time. Of course, I could be swayed by her later, more glamorous, image and seeing her as a Nashville wannabe just didn’t seem to fit her.
Jerry Reed and Tom Selleck play J. D. Reed and Will Eubanks, two drifting cowboys on the way to California. But they get sidetracked to Nashville while running from some hick sheriff and a crooked poker game. When they arrive, they call up Lonnie Grimes, a guy they got drunk with at a football game, and he offers to let them stay at his place if they pick up a package. He is on his way out of town, but they can use his apartment and his car. In fact, he seems almost too happy to have them pick up the package and use his car and his apartment.
A hit man mistakes the cowboys for Lonnie when they pick up the package. The hit man doesn’t know who to get, just whoever picks up the package. And a woman who mistakes them for Lonnie because they are at his apartment comes and asks them to find her sister. She offers $1000 so they take the job. Surprise, Surprise, the two incidences are related.
If you just want to kick back and enjoy some good-ole-boys, this is a fine movie. Don’t try to patch the holes in the story, they are too big. The fun in this movie is Jerry Reed and Tom Selleck. But mainly, Jerry Reed. A lot of faces you’ll recognize. There’s some cool fashions and decorations also. Lonnie has a movie camera that pops out of the ceiling aimed at his bed. Selleck as Will asks “What would a fella be doin’ with a setup like this in his bedroom?” Reed: “Well… The trouble with you Will Eubanks is you’ve let too sheltered a life.”
Concrete Cowboys, 1979, directed by Burt Kennedy, written by Jimmy Sangster. starring Jerry Reed, Tom Selleck, Morgan Fairchild, Claude Akins. 100 minutes.
The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini-DVD Movie Review
EDIT: I’d like to state that I was sick as pig when I watched these movies and wrote the review. Two movies in one pack: The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Almost nothing similar about them except they both are about teenagers, have some element of the supernatural, and, interestingly, they both have a song called “Geronimo.” Two completely different songs, one an instrumental with gunshots and the name Geronimo shouted out occasionally, and the other is sung by Nancy Sinatra.
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- TV Tommy Ivo
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- I want a shirt like this
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- Nancy Sinatra
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- Vox Guitar – Bobby Fuller Four
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- Nancy Sinatra
The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) begins interestingly enough with a pair of female hotrodders street racing. One good girl and one troublemaker. Then there is a cool scene inside a hot rod garage with several cool old 1950s hot rods and “TV” Tommy Ivo, the drag racer. There are good clean-cut kids explaining to the adult reporter that most hotrodders are just good clean-cut kids and only a small minority are troublemakers. Then to the hangout, where there is some horrible lip-synching and instrument-synching. And the music only mediocre at best.
The good female hotrodder has a good family with a dad who worries too much and mother who seems to understand the kids. The girl gets grounded for being in the race, but her mom works out that she can still have a bash at her house, followed by a slumber party. During the party, the dad goes out on the porch and sees a couple kissing, the young man says “We just came out to get some fresh air.” The dad: “Where did you think you’d find it? Down her neck?” Then during the slumber party there is more dancing, just this time the girls are in pajamas. A lot of this movie is dancing teens, not much in the way of story, drag racing, or horror.
At 40 minutes into the movie we finally hear about a ghost and Dragstrip Hollow. They of course have a dance at the haunted mansion in Dragstrip Hollow and an implied drag race. For some reason what could have been a great climax is nothing because they were too cheap to film another race. There is some artificial intelligence, which is very interesting for a show this old. All in all, watching The Ghost of Dragsrip Hollow is not a bad way to spend Sunday morning when you’re sick on the couch.
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) has Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Nancy Sinatra! What more could you ask of a horror movie? Well how about introducing The Bobby Fuller Four (of “I Fought The Law” fame) playing some very unusual Vox instruments. Actually, The Invisible Bikini is not a horror movie, more like a spoof of horror. It has Eric Von Zipper and the Rats motorcycle gang from the Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello beach movies, so that tells you what level this movie is aiming at.
Boris Karloff is a dead circus performer who has to do one good dead to go “up there” with his old girl who died 30 years ago. She wore an invisible bikini. Not a see-through bikini, but a bikini that shows whatever is behind her. So, if she’s standing in front of a wall then you the wall where her bikini is. Kinda pointless except it makes a very interesting title for a movie. Anyway, she has to go out and accomplish his good deed, which is to make sure the kids of some people he swindled become his heirs. The lawyer, Rathbone, is trying to do away with all the heirs so that he can become the sole benefactor.
That’s about the plot. This one has lots of dancing also, only now they are in swim suits. And there is a scene with girls in pajamas again.
That’s about the plot. This one has lots of dancing also, only now they are in swim suits. And there is a scene with girls in pajamas again.
Actually both movies were enjoyable in their own way. Ghost Of Dragstrip Hollow/The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (Midnite Movies Double Feature)
Charles Bronson as The Mechanic – 1972 – Movie Review
Fifteen minutes into the movie and you haven’t heard anyone say anything.
Charles Bronson with a really bad haircut is Arthur Bishop, a hit man, also known as a mechanic. He fixes problems. Bishop works for an unnamed organization. He is extremely methodical in getting to know all about his mark making his hits look like accidents or natural causes. He is alone. In fact, one scene with his “girlfriend” only emphasizes how alone he is. And he lives in a really cool house. In his spare time Bishop practices fighting skills and studies a painting that looks like something from Hieronymus Bosch.
At the funeral of a friend he has just killed, he meets up with Steve McKenna (Jan-Michael Vincent), a guy with apparently no conscience whatsoever. Steve also happens to be the son of the man he killed. Bishop decides it would be good to train this kid so he could have back up, maybe a partner, and someone to pass the job onto. Vincent plays a narcissist very believably.
There is a discussion after watching a karate meet. In a karate meet there isn’t any contact because then someone would die, “and that’s against the law.” Bishop says that everyone is a killer; the mafia, the military, governments. You can get away with it depending on who’s playbook you are using. When Steve asks if the Japanese karate master is a killer, Bishop replies no, the rules are what’s important to him.
Unfortunately, Bishop didn’t realize he needed permission from his organization to bring someone in. This puts his own life in danger. He had thought he was more freelance than he was. Their playbook is the one he is playing by when he had thought he was using his own.
Bishop flips a switch and the wall opens to this corkboard where he hangs his info on his mark
While generally a slow movie, it is not boring. Well paced with some actions scenes – a motorcycle chase is especially fun – The Mechanic is not really an action movie, it’s not quite deep enough for a character study, so let’s call it a tension movie. Besides, super-cool Charles Bronson is a hit man, what’s not to like?
The Mechanic, directed by Michael Winner. Written by Lewis John Carlino. Starring Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent. 1972. 100 minutes.
10th Victim (1965) Movie Review (La Decima Vittima)
Ten years or more ahead of Death Race 2000 (1975), Rollerball (1975), Deathsport (1978), and Running Man (1987), The 10th Victim is by far the classiest in the let’s-kill-or-watch-killing- for-fun-freedom-or-money genre. As a way to control violence (and, one assumes, make money for the governments by getting people to bet against the odds, like the lottery), an international game is devised that allows a person at a chance for one million dollars. You can volunteer to be in the Big Hunt and if you do, you take alternating turns being the Hunter or the Victim. The Hunter knows his prey, the victim does not know who is hunting him. If you live through 10 hunts, then you win one million dollars, a lot of money in 1965.
In the movie, there have been no wars since The Big Hunt began. People seem to think that a lust for violence is the only reason for war. This is a very simplistic and unrealistic view of the world. War is caused by one group’s desire for something another group has or is blocking. Or by lunatics.
Very few people make it through 10 hunts. Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress) has made it through 9 (and what a kill that 9th one is!), and for her 10th, the Ming Tea Company has offered her a deal on top of the one million if she will endorse Ming Tea and can orchestrate the killing so they can film it for a commercial. This means she can’t just sneak up on her Victim, but must lure him to the area they have set up for filming. Caroline pretends to be a reporter working on a story about Italian men and sex, and attempts to set up an interview with her Victim, Marcello Polletti (Marcello Mastroianni). He is suspicious, as he must be, for he is Victim and doesn’t know who the Hunter is. Then it’s a cat-and-mouse game from there.
Polletti is depressed and unhappy with both his wife and his mistress (Elsa Martinelli). Life seems to have lost any interest, and so he joined the game to either end it or make it interesting. Plus, with the million he can get away from his women and his debts.
Andress, looking better than I’ve ever seen her (and that’s pretty darn good), doesn’t seem as stilted in her acting here as she does in Dr. No and her other earlier work. Here, she isn’t too bad as New Yorker who speaks very good Italian. Lots of New Yorkers know Italian I’m sure.
The cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo is superb. The film simply looks stunning. He also did the Italian films 8 ½ and La Notte. The style in The 10th Victim is fantastic and is reason enough to watch. Even the ancient ruins around Rome look like High Modern sytle. There are also several moments of very funny black comedy.
In one interesting scene Polletti makes fun of “neo-realists,” people who don’t believe in his worship of the sunset, but the inside-joke is that “neorealism” is an Italian film style that is gritty and spontaneous, the opposite of this outlandish plot and smooth style.
Highly recommended for lovers of mid-1960s, Modern style, murder-for-no-reason films, Rome, or Ursula Andress.
Photos courtesy of lilita at flickr.
The 10th Victim, directed by Elio Petri. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress and Elsa Martinelli. 1965, 92 minutes.
Love Crazy (1941) Movie Review
Who says there’s no sex in old movies? Only people who don’t watch them. Love Crazy
begins with a very happily married Stephen Ireland (William Powell) on his anniversary. He and Susan Ireland (Myrna Loy) have a tradition of walking and rowing and a midnight dinner for their anniversary before turning in for the night, but in a scene where you can feel the sexual tension, Powell wants to have the evening backwards (you know why). They begin the evening by turning out the lights in the bedroom(!), but before anything interesting happens, her bossy mother stops by (Florence Bates). Mrs. Cooper can’t imaging they’d be anything but happy to see her on their anniversary and she invites herself to dinner. It takes a person of no imagination and an unhappy marriage to think that way.
begins with a very happily married Stephen Ireland (William Powell) on his anniversary. He and Susan Ireland (Myrna Loy) have a tradition of walking and rowing and a midnight dinner for their anniversary before turning in for the night, but in a scene where you can feel the sexual tension, Powell wants to have the evening backwards (you know why). They begin the evening by turning out the lights in the bedroom(!), but before anything interesting happens, her bossy mother stops by (Florence Bates). Mrs. Cooper can’t imaging they’d be anything but happy to see her on their anniversary and she invites herself to dinner. It takes a person of no imagination and an unhappy marriage to think that way.
When Mrs. Cooper is finally ready to go, she falls and sprains her ankle. This means that Susan must go pick up her aunt at a distant train station, which should take about 3 hours while Steve “cares” for his mother-in-law. An old flame (Gail Patrick) has moved in downstairs and he talks to her while getting some air on the balcony. Steve tells her to call him and he’ll act like it’s a business call so he can get away. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cooper overhears and tells the wife.
After a few more hilarious misunderstandings, Susan decides she should divorce Steve because she can’t trust him. To postpone the divorce proceedings, Steve acts insane. Unfortunately, this works too well, and even though Susan doesn’t believe he’s crazy, she has him committed to a sanitarium to teach him a lesson. He spends the rest of the movie trying to get back with his estranged wife while proving he isn’t crazy. He even dresses as a woman to get to his wife.
William Powell and Myrna Loy are simply fantastic together and the sexual tension is very palpable. The comedy is zany but well grounded. The supporting cast is great. Love Crazy is recommended for everyone who loves old screwball comedies.
Love Crazy. Directed by Jack Conway, written by David Hertz (story) and William Ludwig (story), William Ludwig (screenplay), Charles Lederer (screenplay), and David Hertz (screenplay). Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick, Jack Carson. 99 minutes. 1941.
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