From Russia With Love (1963)

Besides GOLDFINGER (1964), I have probably watched FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) more than any other James Bond film.  In high school, I owned GOLDFINGER and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE on RCA Video Disc (before consumers could own video cassettes) and would invite my high school buddies over for a James Bond night. I would have six or seven guys crammed into our small family room, digging James Bond scoring with exotic foreign women, driving kick-ass foreign cars, and fighting bad ass villains around the world. But I don't think I fully appreciated FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE back in high school. The Bond girl (Daniela Bianchi) never did much for me.  The Istanbul, Turkey location was too obscure. The MacGuffin (a Lektor decoder) wasn't very sexy as an object of interest.  But a revisit and reviewing of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE after several years has changed my tune. RUSSIA is a very strong sophomore effort in the Bond series.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is the second in the Bond series, following the successful introduction of James Bond to movie audiences in DR. NO (1961). In most cases, the second in a film series usually doesn't live up to the original. But what RUSSIA had going for it is most of the same creative people who worked on DR. NO.  Back to direct a second time was Terence Young who really developed and understood the James Bond mystique. Sean Connery reprised the role of James Bond which he would become internationally famous for.  The excellent producing team of Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman maintained the high standards that the first film set. Screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood returned to adapt author Ian Fleming's novel and make it a tight, suspenseful narrative.

In FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the international crime syndicate SPECTRE makes its first appearance. SPECTRE Agent #2 Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) hatches a plan with the help of ex-KGB Chief and SPECTRE Agent #3 Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) to offer a Russian Lektor decoding machine as bait to lure James Bond (Sean Connery) into trying to grab it. SPECTRE's plan is to pit the Russians against the English, with SPECTRE swooping in to grab the decoding machine and kill James Bond at the same time. Klebb enlists the naive but beautiful Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), a Russian cypher clerk to contact the British Secret Service that she wishes to defect with the Lektor decoding machine over to the West but only to James Bond. Tatiana doesn't know that Klebb has defected from the Russians to SPECTRE and is using her to trap Bond.

To make sure that the Russians don't kill Bond before SPECTRE can, Klebb enlists the help of white haired killer Donald "Red" Grant (Robert Shaw) to make sure their plan runs smoothly. Grant runs interference behind the scenes as Bond with the assistance of Turkish minister Kerim Bey (Pedro Armenderiz) make contact with Tatiana and set up a plan to steal the Lektor. Bond and Karim battle SMERSH/Russian agents intent on killing them. After Russian agent Krilencu (Fred Haggerty) ambushes them at a gypsy camp wounding Karim, Bond and Karim seek payback as they stake out Krilencu's hide out and Karim, using a rifle with a scope, kills Krilencu as he tries to flee. It's a nice Cold War touch. Krilencu tries to kill Karim and fails. Karim retaliates and succeeds. Bond and Karim set off a bomb as a diversion at the Russian embassy and Bond and Tatiana grab the Lektor and escape underneath Istanbul and quickly catch the Orient Express where they plan to jump off at the Yugoslavian border with the help of Karim's sons.

But Grant is one step ahead as always and awaits on the train, drugging Tatiana and preparing to kill Bond and steal the Lektor. Bond prevails with the help of his gas rigged briefcase and strangles Grant with his garrote after a fierce battle in his cramped compartment.  Bond and Tatiana improvise their escape, as SPECTRE teams converge on them, ending with a high speed boat chase.

One of the strengths of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE'S is director Young's casting choices. The supporting cast is made up of an eclectic group of actors. Lotte Lenya is inspired casting as the nefarious Rosa Klebb. She may be small and mousy looking but watch out for her poisonous knife tipped boot. Lenya performed primarily in musicals and operas including THE THREE PENNY OPERA but never had she played such an evil person. Robert Shaw as the blonde assassin Grant is another wonderful choice. Shaw was a theater actor and novelist before turning to movie acting.  Shaw's other memorable performance would be as Quint in Steven Spielberg's JAWS (1975). Both Klebb and Grant are memorable villains who belong in the Hall of Fame of Bond Baddies. I mentioned that Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana never was a favorite of mine but as I've grown older, I found her excellent as the innocent, beautiful doe-eyed Russian clerk (Bianchi is actually Italian and a former Miss World contestant)  who must fall in love with a British spy for her country. She's fresh, sexy, and I can't get that black ribbon tied around her throat as she seduces Bond out of my my mind. Pedro Armendariz as Kerim Bey, the Turkish Minister is another interesting casting choice, serving as Bond's Istanbul tour guide and confidante, helping Bond maneuver through the politics of the Cold War. Armendariz acted in several Westerns for famed director John Ford. Director Young also introduced us for the first time to Q played by Desmond Llewelyn, the mastermind behind all of M-6's gadgets.

The characters in RUSSIA have interesting layers and subtexts that make them more than just cardboard characters.  There is a hint that Rosa Klebb may be a lesbian as she strokes Tatiana's hair during her recruitment. Klebb even directs the secret filming of Bond and Tatiana making love behind a two way mirror at Bond's hotel room. Grant, although a sociopath, is almost the opposite of Klebb.  He seems asexual.  Early in the film, at SPECTRE ISLAND, he's given a massage by a beautiful masseuse, yet he seems ambivalent to her. The only thing that turns Grant on is killing people. Grant is Bond's doppelganger. In RUSSIA'S opening scene, Grant tracks down and kills an agent wearing a James Bond mask during a training exercise, a premonition of his mission. He follows Bond, mirroring his movements but always from a distance until the fateful train fight. Grant is Bond's guardian angel, saving Bond's life surreptitiously at the gypsy camp, later killing a Bulgarian agent who threaten to disrupt SPECTRE's subterfuge at a Turkish mosque. But Grant reveals a crack as he holds Bond at gunpoint on the train.  A hint of vanity and greed prove to be Grant's undoing.

Interestingly, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, whether intentional or not, has a lot of Alfred Hitchcock like characters and set pieces in it. Grant is very much a Hitchcockian psychopath (think Joseph Cotten in SHADOW OF A DOUBT), charming and good looking with a patented style of killing, a wire garrote that he pulls out from his sleeve.  There is a long train sequence on the Orient Express (think Hitchock's THE LADY VANISHES) culminating in one of the classic fight scenes in film history as Bond and Grant grapple in a cramped train compartment.  The staging of the fight is realistic, as the struggle is awkward and violent and doesn't seem choreographed. The finale echoes NORTH BY NORTHWEST as Bond is pursued not by a crop duster but a helicopter that buzzes him again and again. Ironically, Sean Connery would star in an Alfred Hitchock film a year later in MARNIE (1964) with Tippie Hedren.  Hitchcock liked to use the MacGuffin as a plot device to propel the story.  It might be microfilm or a treaty memorized by a foreign minister.  FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE's MacGuffin is the Lektor decoding machine.  We never see what it does but it's what brings Bond to Istanbul and all the spy and crime organizations wish to obtain it.

Many critics have suggested that the James Bond series owes its origins to Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) which had an unsuspecting hero being chased from famous location to famous location by erudite bad guys. The Bond filmmakers just substituted Bond for the unsuspecting hero but continued to have Bond chase villains from country to country. The early Bond films, with Fleming's novels as a great source, mixed up the story and locations very nicely, with an emphasis on character and plot. Later Bond films seemed to quickly explain the plot and spend more time coming up with exotic locations to send Bond to and spectacular stunts for him to perform.

But FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE stands out for its excellent action scenes.  Director Young kicks it off early with Klebb getting a tour on SPECTRE island of the the spy organization's training grounds , a SPARTACUS like outdoor set with agents in hand-to-hand combat and trainees having to dodge live flamethrowers. It's a creatively juicy scene. Young also stages a nice battle at the gypsy camp where Kerim Bey takes Bond to hide out, only to be attacked by Russian agent Krilencu and his men, the sequence punctuated by a great John Barry musical score. The before mentioned train fight scene between Bond and Grant set the standard for many future Bond fights.  Young ends the film with two exciting climaxes: Bond being chased by the helicopter and later, Bond and Tatiana fleeing by boat with the Lector decoder, chased by SPECTRE's boats and men, ending in lots of pyrotechnics.

There is lots of good trivia that comes from FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Actress Eunice Grayson makes her second appearance in a Bond film in RUSSIA as Bond's some time flame Sylvia Trench. Actor Walter Gotell makes his first of seven appearances in a Bond film but his only time as Morzeny, a SPECTRE heavy. Subsequently, he will play Russian General Anatoly Gogol in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) through THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987). Martine Beswick who plays beautiful gypsy Zora in RUSSIA will also appear in THUNDERBALL (1965). One character who does not make an appearance in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is American CIA agent Felix Leiter. Kerim Bey takes his place in RUSSIA as Bond's accomplice in stopping the bad guys. Felix Leiter would be played by a variety of actors throughout the Bond series including actors Jack Lord, David Hedison, and Everett McGill.

I have a new found respect and love for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. It's probably a superior effort than DR. NO which can be partly credited to a bigger budget.   But the filmmakers took great care and effort to build upon the success of DR. NO and develop the world of Bond. For me, the filmmakers experience and success with DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE would culminate in probably the best Bond film of the franchise a year later -- GOLDFINGER (1964).

Woman of the Year (1942)

For all those men with wives or girlfriends who don't know a thing about sports and for all those women with husbands or boyfriends who don't know a thing about international affairs, director George Stevens comedy WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942) might be the film for both sexes to watch. Starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, WOMAN OF THE YEAR was the first of nine films that Tracy and Hepburn would make together starting with WOMAN in 1942 all the way to 1967's GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? Just like the characters that Tracy and Hepburn play in the film, the two stars would fall in love during the making of their first film together even though Tracy was married and never did divorce his wife.  The chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn is one of the strongest parts of this film and it's easy to see how Tracy fell for Hepburn. Her sultry glances and dazzling smile made me almost fall in love with her.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR wants to be a screwball comedy like HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1939) with its newspaper setting and witty dialogue and WOMAN is most entertaining during its first act.  Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy), a sports columnist for the New York Chronicle sits in Pinky's bar with "Pinky" Peters (William Bendix), a former boxer turned bar owner, listening to the radio when he hears political columnist Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) make a disparaging remark about baseball.  Both Sam and Tess work at the Chronicle but have never met. Sam writes a scathing article in his column Manabout Sports toward Tess. Tess fires back in her column Now. Their editor Mr. Clayton (Reginald Owen) calls both into his office, requesting a cease fire.  When Sam sees Tess, it's love at first sight.

Sam invites Tess to a New York Yankee baseball game.  She gets to sit in the press box with him despite cries of "No women in the press box" from his fellow male sports writers. Tess knows nothing about baseball but Sam patiently explains the game to her. Tess invites Sam back to her apartment after her weekly radio broadcast. Sam thinks it's an intimate evening with just the two of them but when he arrives, Sam discovers a big party in full swing with lots of international guests speaking French or Russian. These two scenes are a wonderful introduction for Sam and Tess to each other as well as a fish out of water feeling in the other's world.

All Sam wants is to be alone with Tess but she's busy attending parties, interviewing dignitaries, and giving speeches. Sam pursues her like a love sick puppy. When Sam goes to a university to pick up Tess after another speaking engagement, he stumbles into a Women's Rights rally with Tess honoring her aunt Ellen Whitcomb (Fay Bainter). Comically, Sam is the only man on stage sitting with a panel of feminists.  Sam finally gets Tess alone and proposes to her. Tess wants to get married quickly and they find an available church in South Carolina. When Sam and Tess finally have what looks to be their honeymoon night, their romantic evening is once again interrupted, this time by Tess's friend, the Yugoslavian statesman Dr. Lubbeck (Ludwig Stossel), recently escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. Another party breaks out in Tess's apartment with Lubbeck and his entourage. This time Sam invites Pinky and his bar friends to mingle with Tess's European friends.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR loses its momentum as Sam and Tess's marriage stalls. Sam grows frustrated with such an independent woman as Tess. He wants to come home to just his wife and not her work or her assistant Gerald (Dan Tobin) taking dictation. One night, Sam comes home to find Tess has adopted a young Greek refugee child without asking him.  When Tess is named "Woman of the Year", she attends the award ceremony alone as Sam stays home with the young Greek boy Chris (George Kezas), returning him to the Greek Children's Home that night. Sam moves out of their house. Tess's aunt Ellen surprises her with the announcement that she's marrying Tess's father Senator William J. Harding (Minor Watson). Tess arrives at the impromptu wedding alone.  As she watches how happy Ellen and her father are, Tess realizes that a marriage means being a team, being involved with one's spouse. Tess races home, deeply changed.  She tries to prove to Sam she can be a home maker but her attempt at making Sam's favorite waffles for breakfast comes off with I LOVE LUCY like disastrous results. Sam gives Tess and marriage another chance but the spontaneity that WOMAN OF THE YEAR started with seems forced by the end.

The screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr and Michael Kanin is at its best when it plays off the opposites attract plot lines. Tess trying to learn about baseball or Sam frantically searching for someone who speaks English at Tess's apartment party are priceless. WOMAN OF THE YEAR loses steam after Sam and Tess are married. Like most films about a man and a woman with completely different interests, the fun is in the foreplay, the flirting, the early stages of courtship. Director Stevens does such a good job showing Tess's sexy, independent side that it's a let down when she has to tone it down to win Sam back, almost becoming domesticated. 

Although director George Stevens is a capable director having directed classics like GUNGA DIN (1939), SHANE (1953), and GIANT (1956), WOMAN OF THE YEAR could have benefited from a more seasoned comedy director like Preston Sturges or Frank Capra. Apparently Hepburn wanted her favorite director George Cukor who directed her in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) two years earlier but settled on Stevens for this film. Cukor would eventually work with Hepburn and Tracy in ADAM'S RIB (1949) and PAT AND MIKE (1952).

Yet director Stevens and his writers Lardner and Kanin stage many great comic scenes. Besides the baseball scene and League of Nations party scene, my other favorite scene is Sam believing he's alone with Tess and finding Lubbeck and Tess together in her bedroom. The surprised look on Sam's face and the shock on Tess's face is wonderful. Then, Lubbeck's bodyguards come in and Pinky and his friends and suddenly Tess's room is as crowded as the stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935).

Katharine Hepburn is a joy to watch as Tess Harding, handling comedy and romance with equal aplomb. Spencer Tracy's performance as Sam Craig is a bit more complicated. It's fun to watch him transition from a no nonsense sports writer to a softer, loving side but I never got a good handle on him in the second half of the film.  I kept waiting for him to give Tess a second chance and even at the very end of the film, Sam still doesn't seem completely convinced Tess can be devoted to him and her career. Any comedy needs some good supporting players and one of my favorite character actors William Bendix fulfills that role in WOMAN OF THE YEAR as "Pinky" Peters, Tracy's pugilistic bar buddy who's never tired of telling a stranger his boxing tales of yesteryear.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR is a fine film to initiate a film lover to the great screen duo of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.  I look forward to viewing ADAM'S RIB soon to see how these two progressed as acting partners. I just wish the filmmakers had come up with a little less male chauvinistic ending to the film.

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

HEAVENLY CREATURES (1994) has several interesting things going for it.  It's based on a real life murder in New Zealand in the 1950's. It was actress Kate Winslet's first feature film.  It was directed by Peter Jackson, pre-THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.  And it hints at director Jackson's future themes as HEAVENLY CREATURES is a dark subject that he chooses to film with fantasy overtones similar to his more recent THE LOVELY BONES (2009).  In fact, CREATURES had some surprisingly creative fantasy sequences that I never expected to see in a film about matricide.

I first fell in love with Kate Winslet during TITANIC in 1997 (no she is not aware of my love for her). After TITANIC I wanted to see everything that she had done even if it meant watching her in obscure films like HIDEOUS KINKY (1998).  HEAVENLY CREATURES was the one film in her filmography I kept  hearing about that I had never managed to rent or see until now. But it is very evident from her performance in CREATURES that she was destined to be a star.

HEAVENLY CREATURES is based on an actual murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1954. Adapted by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, the film explores the obsessive friendship between two polar opposite school girls - introverted Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) and extroverted Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) from 1952 to 1954.  Juliet is worldly, sophisticated, and opinionated. She's just moved to New Zealand from England. Pauline is frumpy, reserved, and not nearly as pretty as Juliet. Having both suffered from childhood illnesses, Pauline and Juliet are held out of gym class together at Christchurch Girls  High School, which kick starts their relationship.

Pauline and Juliet have vivid imaginations.  Imaginary worlds like Borovnia and the 4th World, matinee idols and opera stars (like Mario Lanza) that interact with them, unicorns and clay warriors that come to life, the two girls hide in these fantasies to avoid their less than perfect personal lives. For Juliet, she harbors resentment toward her parents Hilda (Diana Kent) and Dr. Henry Hulme (Clive Merrisen) who seem to leave her every time she becomes ill.  Pauline has a brief sexual encounter with one of her parents boarders named John (Jed Brophy) who's sweet on her. The experience proves to be awkward and not emotionally satisfying. Pauline's father Herbert Rieper (Simon O'Connor) kicks John out when he discovers their tryst . Pauline's relationship with her mother Honora (Sarah Peirse) begins to go downhill.

As Pauline and Juliet spend more time together, the girls relationship begins to create tension for both sets of parents. Pauline becomes more withdrawn and fights frequently with her mother. Dr. Hulme visits Pauline's parents and confesses he fears the girls' "friendship is unhealthy." In other words, he thinks Pauline is a lesbian.

The film does explore Pauline and Juliet's sexual awakening as young women. Pauline and Juliet take baths together, sleep in the same bed, eventually make love.  It's all part of their obsessive descent toward a most reprehensible act. The girls begin to find both sets of parents oppressive and suffocating, interfering with their personal and fantasy lives.  When Juliet's parents announce they're divorcing and sending Juliet to live with an aunt in South Africa, Pauline is adamant that she'll accompany Juliet but Honora blocks that idea.  Pauline devises a plan to murder her mother Honora and convinces Juliet to assist her, believing that with her mother out of the way, the two girls can be together forever, maybe even run away to Hollywood or Juliet's parents will adopt her. HEAVENLY CREATURES ends with Pauline and Juliet carrying out their heinous plan.

HEAVENLY CREATURES most closely resembles Peter Jackson's most recent film THE LOVELY BONES, another dark film sprinkled with fantasy elements based on the Alice Sebold novel. In THE LOVELY BONES, a young girl on the threshold of womanhood is murdered by a pedophile neighbor.  The film follows her in heaven as she watches her family try to catch her murderer. The murder of a child is a horrific subject but Jackson offsets it with images of heaven as a palette of bright colors. He never shows the girl's dead body to the audience, just her pretty self in the afterlife.

Pauline and Juliet are anything but the HEAVENLY CREATURES they believe they are. Jackson opens the film up with a clever 1950's  New Zealand archival news reel, the citizens of Christchurch seemingly all prim and proper and clean-cut before cutting to Pauline and Juliet racing up a path, screaming, covered in blood. Throughout the film, there permeates a sense of dread, even in some of the light-hearted fantasy sequences. At one point, Pauline imagines her imaginary clay Borovnian warrior Charles (Ben Fransham) killing her psychiatrist. Pauline is clearly having a tougher time dealing with reality and Jackson occasionally films her close up with a crazed stare, her brown furrowed, that hearkens to actor Vincent D'Onofrio's insane Private Pyle in FULL METAL JACKET (1987).

CREATURES goes so far as to use the journal voice-overs in the film from the real life Pauline Parker's journal entries. The filmmakers shot at many of the same locations where the girls frequented including the murder scene. The most unsettling part of the film for me was the closing titles revealing the fate of the two young murderers.  For as horrific crime as they committed, it seemed to me they got off easy. The fact that they were not adults kept them from the death penalty and both were free within a decade.

Just as in THE LOVELY BONES, Director Jackson shows off his creative talents in the fantasy scenes for HEAVENLY CREATURES. CREATURES obviously didn't have the big budget that BONES had yet Jackson has some clever sequences with a King Arthurian like sand castle, life-size clay warriors (that sort of resemble the Chinese terra cotta warriors), and a black and white Orson Welles (Jean Guerin) from THE THIRD MAN (1949) that chases Pauline and Juliet after they watch the film at a theater. Jackson's use of fantasy sequences helps to lessen the depressing subject of two girls murdering a mother as well as show Pauline and Juliet's state of mind.

Kate Winslet's career skyrocketed since her role as Juliet in HEAVENLY CREATURES including 4 Academy Award nominations in her still young career but the lesser known Melanie Lynskey who plays Pauline has had a decent career including 57 episodes on the TV hit TWO AND A HALF MEN as well as roles in Jason Reitman's UP IN THE AIR (2009) and Steven Soderbergh's THE INFORMANT! (2009) . But HEAVENLY CREATURES ultimately is a harbinger of what a great talent director Peter Jackson would become. He shows command of his craft as almost every scene in HEAVENLY CREATURES has something special about it whether it be the music, the camera movement, the editing and pace, the fantasy scenes, or the casting and acting. Jackson would show his virtuosity with THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Besides Spielberg in his younger days, Jackson may be one of the most talented directors today.

HEAVENLY CREATURES is a must for Peter Jackson fans and Kate Winslet fans.  It's a treasure to catch a director or actress early in their careers work on something as intelligent and well made as CREATURES. 

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

My first encounter with director George A . Romero's DEAD films was a midnight showing of the second in his series DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) at the Tanasbourne theater in Beaverton, Oregon in the early 80's. The theater was crowded and the audience shrieked and cheered when zombies disemboweled humans.  I remember being nervous because the gore was suppose to be graphic but there was a cartoon-ish edge to it, as if director Romero was winking at us, letting us know it was fake blood and intestines. DAWN OF THE DEAD may have kick-started the zombie craze but it was Romero's first in the series that changed the horror landscape for zombies.

Before DAWN OF THE DEAD, Romero made his splash into horror cinematic history with the groundbreaking NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) ten year earlier.  If ever there was a classic horror film title, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was it.  I had always been intrigued by NIGHT but after seeing the colorful and gory DAWN, could NIGHT really live up to the second film?

The answer is a resounding yes. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is almost like watching a documentary, shot in harsh black and white, with lots of hand held camera work, which makes the zombie plague seem authentic and  real. Director Romero and his crew of young filmmakers were making commercials and industrial films in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when Romero and fellow screen writer John Russo decided to make a low budget horror film. With a cast of unknowns, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is not a perfect film. But for 1968, NIGHT has some shocking classic horror scenes as well as a sub-text to the mood of America at the end of the turbulent 60's.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is about a mysterious plague that is turning every day citizens into flesh eating killers.  A group of survivors find themselves barricaded inside a farm house in the middle of the Pennsylvania countryside as zombies roam around outside, waiting to attack and eat. The survivors include Barbra (Judith O'Dea) who was attacked in a nearby cemetery by a zombie (Bill Heinzman); Ben (Duane Jones), an African-American man who discovers the farm house after surviving a zombie attack; Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) who finds refuge in the farm house basement with his wife Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman) and their injured daughter Karen Cooper (Kyra Schon); and a young couple Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley).

Radio reports suggest that radiation from a downed Venus space probe may be the cause of the zombie epidemic.  While the zombies stumble and stagger outside the farm house, inside the survivors bicker about whether to stay trapped inside or make a dash for the highway, using the dead owner's truck to escape. Harry votes for barricading themselves in the basement but Ben convinces Tom to help him take the truck to a nearby gas pump where they can fill up the truck's tank and speed away from the zombies.

Ben's plan goes awry when Tom accidentally starts a fire with the hose. The truck explodes, killing Tom and Judy, and the zombies converge on the burnt corpses as Ben runs back to the farm house. Tension mounts as Cooper and Ben both want to be in charge. Ben shoots Cooper as they struggle for control of the gun. Cooper stumbles back down into the basement where the injured Karen (did I mention she was bitten by a zombie) awaits to snack on her father. The zombies begin besieging the farm house and a catatonic Barbra sees her brother Johnny (now a zombie) and lets them pull her into the night as the house is overrun by zombies. Ben descends into the cellar, shooting the Coopers (who are now all zombies) and awaits the morning night.  NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD ends with a pack of law enforcement officers and hunters roaming the countryside, picking off wandering zombies like it was deer season, throwing their bodies onto a burning pile. One sharpshooter sees movement in the farm house. Is it Ben alive or just another zombie?

As fantastic as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is, let's not forget that it's a low budget horror film made by a first time director. The first time I saw NIGHT, I was surprised by how slow and talky it was. There were long dialogue scenes between Ben and Barbra with Ben describing action that the film's budget can't show.   Probably for budgetary reasons, the majority of the film takes place inside the farm house.  The acting is passable but none of the actors really shine except for Johnny (Russell Streiner), Barbra's brother, who only appears at the start and end of the film and utters the creepily prophetic "they're coming to get you, Barbra."  Kyra Schon as the young zombie Karen Cooper steals the film with her brief, shocking appearance at the end of NIGHT and she doesn't even have any dialogue.  The music is mostly cheesy and over dramatic.  Even the camera work is uninspired at times and confusing. But even with all those negatives, it's superior than most first time, low budget horror film attempts.

What sets NIGHT apart from bad low budget horror films is that it has zombies.  Never before had an audience seen monsters that look like our friends and family behave in such a hideous manner.  Never had a film shown zombies (or any monster) eat the flesh and intestines of other human beings so graphically.  Director Romero and his actors set the standard for zombie motion - the sluggish movement and shuffling feet that zombie fans copy today at flash mobs and zombie festivals. Even though zombies move slow, their constant patience, their waiting, their hands reaching through boarded up windows, Romero always keeps the mood tense and suspenseful. NIGHT'S zombies appear in their work clothes, pajamas, even in the nude.  What Romero may have lacked in production value, he makes up for it in shock value.

With DAWN OF THE DEAD, Romero poked fun at consumerism, as the band of survivors in DAWN are trapped in a shopping mall, the symbol of consumerism, trying to avoid being consumed by zombies. Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, whether intentional or not, reflects the mood of the country in the late 1960's.  The armed policemen picking off zombies reminded me of the confrontation on college campuses across the country between students and police.  Or the tragedy at Kent State where police fired upon and killed unarmed demonstrators. Romero casts black actor Duane Jones as Ben in the leading role when race relations were boiling and the only black actor playing leading man parts in Hollywood was Sidney Poitier.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD plays against all expectations of the horror genre. The seemingly strong hero Ben's plans ultimately fail.  Tom and Judy die and are eaten because of Ben's doomed decisions.  Ben shoots Cooper, who although not the most friendly guy, hasn't really done anything to deserve it besides question Ben's ideas.  Ben doesn't want to hide in the cellar but when all hell breaks loose, the cellar is his last outpost.  None of the characters are very sympathetic. Barbra is traumatized and hysterical. Cooper is uptight and nervous. Karen, the injured daughter, ends up killing both her parents. The survival rate is not very good for this group. In horror films, the monsters are usually killed at the end.  In NIGHT, some of the zombies are destroyed but the news reports tell of outbreaks all over the state. When the police and law abiding citizens begin shooting the zombies, who really are the monsters?  Us or the zombies?

I would say DAWN OF THE DEAD not NIGHT kick started the zombie craze which has been picking up speed in recent years. Romero followed up DAWN OF THE DEAD with DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) which may be my favorite besides NIGHT but didn't quite have the following of DAWN and NIGHT. Romero has made a few more DEAD films since then including LAND OF THE DEAD (1985),  DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007), and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (2009). Director Danny Boyle introduced us to fast zombies in 28 DAYS LATER (2002). Actor Simon Pegg wrote and starred in SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004), a black zombie comedy that was well received as was the recent ZOMBIELAND (2009) starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg.  The RESIDENT EVIL video game and movies owe its success to Romero's DEAD films.  Television has gotten into the living dead act with AMC's acclaimed series THE WALKING DEAD based on a graphic comic series that just started its second season. Even Michael Jackson used dancing zombies in his classic music video Thriller. 

The zombie has come a long way from Romero's 1968 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD yet NIGHT is the gold standard for zombie films.  The fact that NIGHT is low budget and shot in a realistic way with actors that are not household names made it seem like a zombie plague may have really occurred.  The zombie is an extension of all of us - curious, stubborn, and always consuming something, even if it happens to be your best friend's intestines.

The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)

One of my favorite things about movies is when a unique pair of actors star in a film together.  Sometimes it's the rising young star matched with the older, mature actor.  Clint Eastwood (young) and Richard Burton (mature, distinguished) in the 1967 war thriller WHERE EAGLES DARE comes to mind.  Or Tom Cruise (young, cocky) starring with older veterans like Dustin Hoffman in RAIN MAN (1988) or Paul Newman in THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986). Newman himself had teamed with younger Robert Redford in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) and THE STING (1973).  And even Hoffman was the young turk to older star Steve McQueen in PAPILLION (1973).

Other times it's a dream combination of actor and actress.  Hitchcock hit gold twice with the duo of Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart in REAR WINDOW (1954) and Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in TO CATCH A THIEF (1955). Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951) is another dream team. But one combination that defies believing is the pairing of sex symbol Marilyn Monroe with the world's greatest actor Laurence Olivier in THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1957).

Written by Terence Rattigan based on his play, Laurence Olivier had performed THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL on stage with his then wife actress Vivian Leigh (Rattigan's play was called The Sleeping Prince). THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL is an interesting film in which Monroe maybe upstages the great Olivier. It's reported that the two of them did not get along during the film (which Olivier directed and Monroe's company co-produced).  Sometimes that conflict offscreen makes the chemistry onscreen that much better. There's definitely a mystique about the unusual pairing with a new film coming out about the two stars and their acrimonious relationship called MY WEEKEND WITH MARILYN (2011) with Michelle Williams playing Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Olivier.

Set in 1911, the Regent of Carpathia (Laurence Olivier) arrives in London for the coronation of King George V and the Queen Mary. A new man in the Foreign Office named Northbrook (Richard Wattis) is assigned as the chaperone to the Regent during his visit.  On the night before the coronation, Northbrook takes the Regent to the Avenue Theater to watch The Coconut Girl. The Regent meets the performers backstage before the show. The show's star Maisie Springfield (Jean Kent) has entertained the Regent before but this time the Grand Duke is smitten by the curvaceous and sexy American showgirl Elsie Marina (Marilyn Monroe). After the show, Elsie is presented with an invitation by Northbrook to the Carpathian Embassy for a late night dinner with the Regent.

Elsie is leery of the invitation, having been involved with powerful men and late night parties before but the Regent is a bit different. The Regent is stern and uptight. He enjoys her company but keeps her waiting as he telephones dignitaries and ambassadors, trying to stave off a possible coup in his home country. He treats his son, the future King of Carpathia, Nicolas (Jeremy Spenser) like a child which leads Nicolas to seek alliances with the Kaiser in Germany, Carpathia's enemy.  The Regent has not known love since his wife died ten years earlier.

 The Regent and Elsie's night together will become a comedy of errors as the Regent finally tries to seduce Elsie but is constantly interrupted by Northbrook (at Elsie's request) as well as son Nicolas and various servants.  Finally, the Regent tires of his ill-fated romantic night and asks to have Elsie driven home but Elsie passes out. The next morning, the Regent discovers Elsie's still in the embassy. Afraid of a possible scandal, he urges Northbrook to sneak her out but when his deceased wife's mother, the Queen Dowager (Sybil Thorndike) attendant falls ill, the Queen invites Elsie to be her temporary lady in waiting at the coronation. It's Elsie's one chance to pretend to be a princess as she rides in the procession to the coronation.

With photography by famed cinematographer Jack Cardiff, Director Olivier covers the coronation's rituals and music extensively, catching Elsie's wonder at the pomp and circumstance. Back at the embassy, Elsie prepares to leave when she overhears Nicolas talking on the phone in German, still plotting to overthrow his father. Elsie knows German, having grown up in Wisconsin, and warns Nicolas to behave. Nicolas warms up to Elsie, who becomes a sort of step-mother to the young king.  Nicolas invites Elsie to the Coronation Ball that night, much to the consternation of the Regent.  At the ball, Elsie helps to smooth over the rough relationship between father and son. Elsie also turns the tables on the Regent back at the embassy, seducing and charming him, showing the Regent how to loosen up and more importantly, be a good, loving father to his son. Will the Regent of Carpathia take the American showgirl back to his home country and wed her? You'll have to watch THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL to find out but Olivier and writer Rattigan play the relationship honestly and how it should be.

For those that doubt that Marilyn Monroe was the movie icon of the 1950's, THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL is another example of how mesmerizing her screen persona was.  Monroe stood out in small roles in ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) and MONKEY BUSINESS (1952) but once she became a star, she never let go.  Monroe certainly was sexy and curvaceous and would spawn many imitators (Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren) but she became a very good actress which set her apart from the others.  Monroe's breezy, charming Elsie nearly steals THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL from Olivier's Regent.  Every time Monroe is on the screen, she commands the audience's attention. Much like Judy Garland, whatever personal demons Monroe had off-screen, she hid it on-screen with one captivating performance after another.

Olivier appears to have fun with his Regent character which is a far cry from performing Hamlet or Richard III.  With his monocle and absurd Eastern European accent and funny little laugh, Olivier the actor hams it up as the insecure, uptight ruler who has difficulty expressing his emotions. Olivier's scenes with Monroe are fabulous as his Regent is bewitched and befuddled by the commoner Elsie. As mentioned, the two apparently did not get along off-camera but Olivier coaxes a fantastic performance out of Monroe. As director, Oliver could have sabotaged Monroe's acting in the editing room but he gets a terrific turn out of her.  If Olivier were afraid of being overshadowed by Monroe, he doesn't reveal it in his acting or directing, playing up Monroe's sensuality and comedic abilities. This was Monroe's third film based on a play after THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955) and BUS STOP (1956).  But I think her strength was really in comedy and this may be her most complete comedic performance.

The supporting cast is good especially Sybil Thorndike as the Queen Dowager, the Regent's slightly bewildered and deaf mother-in-law who takes a liking to Elsie, not quite realizing her son-in-law's intentions or why Elsie is wearing the same dress in the morning as when they were first introduced the night before. And Richard Wattis is fun as the non-plussed English bureaucrat assigned to keep the Regent entertained.

Olivier had directed numerous stage plays and his film direction for THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL is like a play.  He shoots most of the film on one big set - the Carpathian Embassy. Olivier doesn't use a lot of fancy camerawork, preferring to let the actors roam around the enormous set.  And the screenplay is divided into three acts: 1) the Dinner Date; 2) the Coronation; and 3) the Coronation Ball. But the film never seems static like a play and Olivier keeps the plot moving along at a good pace.

I find it interesting that in most of her films, Marilyn Monroe was always paired with an older man.  It was almost as if no young actor could handle her star power.  Joseph Cotten in NIAGARA (1953), Robert Mitchum in RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954), and Tom Ewell in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH are all much older than Marilyn. The trend continued with Laurence Olivier in THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL.  Even when she did act with actors her age like Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959), Curtis and Lemmon were dressed in drag for most of the film. It would  have been interesting to see Monroe act with a contemporary in a film like James Dean or Paul Newman. The closest she came was acting opposite the unfamous Don Murray in BUS STOP.

THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL is the only film that Marilyn Monroe made outside the United States (it was filmed in London) and it came at the tail end of her short film career.  But I think it was a turning point in her progression as an actress and showed what potential Monroe had. The fact that one of the greatest actors in theater and film Laurence Olivier directed her performance is no coincidence. As Elton John so eloquently sang about Marilyn Monroe in the song Candle in the Wind "your candle burned out long before your legend ever did."

Mildred Pierce (1945)

My first encounter with actress Joan Crawford were still photos from films late in her career like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (1962) or STRAIGHT-JACKET (1964) where she looked like a deranged witch with her black arched eyebrows and jet black hair.  Later, Crawford's daughter Christina's none too flattering book Mommie Dearest painted Crawford rather unflatteringly and the film version MOMMIE DEAREST (1981) with Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford was almost a caricature of the actress and over the top.  Needless to say, I didn't have a good early impression of Joan Crawford or her film career. However, the one Joan Crawford film I had seen was Nicholas Ray's JOHNNY GUITAR (1954), an interesting western with Crawford as the tough owner of a saloon.

But check out the film noir mystery MILDRED PIERCE (1945) based on the novel by hardboiled crime writer James M. Cain and directed by Michael Curtiz and you'll see Joan Crawford was quite beautiful in her heyday and a very good actress, so good that she won the Academy Award for best actress in 1945 for her portrayal of Mildred Pierce Beragon. Crawford had been dropped by film studio MGM as she had just turned 39 years old and Warner Brothers picked up her contract. MILDRED PIERCE was her first film with her new studio.  She must have loved the irony of it all.

Two of author James M. Cain's more famous novels were turned into classics of the film noir genre - DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) directed by Billy Wilder and starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson and THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946) starring John Garfield and Lana Turner.  Film noir is a French term (it means "black film") for crime drama and mysteries set after World War II that usually involve a man caught in a moral predicament (murder, adultery, robbery) and a woman who may not be as virtuous as she seems (whore, murderess, femme fatale). The photography is often very stylized, with many scenes taking place at night, shot in a criss cross of black and white shadows like the moon shining through Venetian blinds. MILDRED PIERCE had never interested me primarily because of the title.  It didn't sound very film noirish. Who was this Mildred Pierce? Her name was mundane sounding. Was there murder involved?  There was only one way to find out. I had to watch it.

MILDRED PIERCE begins very film noirish like, with a CITIZEN KANE opening as rich playboy Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) is shot multiple times by an unknown assailant, falling over and muttering "Mildred" before dying. We next see Mildred Pierce Beragon (Joan Crawford) walking idly at night on the Santa Monica pier. She peers into the water and contemplates jumping before a cop scares her away. On her way back to her car, Mildred passes a club on the pier. The club's owner Wally Fay (Jack Carson) sees her and invites her in for a drink. Wally has recently taken over Mildred's restaurant chains. Mildred invites Wally back to her place, a beach house next to the ocean.  Unbeknownst to Wally, Monte's body lies inside that house. Mildred pretends to go to change, locks Wally in the house, and flees.  The police arrive, find Wally breaking out of the house and Monte's body inside the house. The police show up at Mildred's house (she is the dead Monte's wife after all) and bring her in for questioning. At the police station, we meet all the players in this mystery as Inspector Peterson (Moroni Olsen) questions Mildred.

It's at this point that MILDRED PIERCE turns from film noir mystery to melodrama as director Curtiz turns to flashbacks as Mildred chronicles her climb from pie baking housewife to entrepreneur. Stuck in a sterile marriage to recently unemployed Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett), Mildred's life revolves around her two girls - younger tomboy Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe) and older sibling Veda Pierce (Ann Blyth). It's Veda that Mildred works so hard for - baking pies so Veda can get new dresses or piano lessons. When Bert begins spending too much time with the widow Mrs. Biederhof (Lee Patrick), Mildred kicks Bert out of the house.

Bert's former insurance partner Wally Fay (Jack Carson) shows up looking for Bert and begins to immediately make a play for Mildred's affections. Knowing she is broke and with bills piling up, Mildred looks for work and lands a waitressing job at a diner run by Ida Corwin (Eve Arden in a nice comedic supporting role). Mildred learns the restaurant business quickly and wishing to make more money so she can buy Veda better things, Mildred turns to Wally to help her start her own restaurant.  Mildred eyes a particular piece of property that happens to be owned by the rich but lazy Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott). Beragon refuses at first but eventually relents and sells her the property.

Mildred's diner (called Mildred's) takes off and she ends up starting up a chain of Mildred's diners. Mildred also begins a relationship with Beragon. After spending a day swimming and cuddling with Monte, Mildred returns to her home to find Bert waiting in the rain. Little Kay has contracted pneumonia and dies. Mildred throws all her energy into her chain of restaurants. But as successful as she becomes, she can't seem to impress her remaining daughter Veda. Veda gets mixed up with a naive young man Ted (John Compton) and they elope only to quickly divorce after Veda pretends to be pregnant.  Veda and Wally force Ted's family to pay a cash settlement to keep her quiet. Fed up with Veda, Mildred throws her beloved daughter out of the house.

Mildred returns from a month long vacation in Mexico to find that Veda is now singing in Wally's nightclub. Mildred wants to reconcile with Veda and decides to marry Monte, who Veda enjoys being around.  Monte agrees to the arranged marriage but only if he gets one third ownership of her restaurant business. Mildred agrees. But Monte and Veda's lavish spending begins to drain Mildred's finances. She has to give up ownership of the business which Wally takes over. Then, Mildred discovers that Monte and Veda may be more than just friends. So Mildred takes a gun and sets out to Monte's beach house to confront him.

MILDRED PIERCE is ground breaking in that the film deals with divorce from the woman's point of view. Mildred is an incredibly resilient, strong female film character.  When she's down on her luck, she doesn't turn to any thing drastic like street walking but takes a menial job as a waitress. As she begins to have success in her job, she does it thru hard work and perseverance and doesn't use her sexuality to climb the ladder of success although she probably could if she wanted to. Her two biggest flaws are her unconditional love toward Veda and her choice in men. The three male leads in MILDRED PIERCE run the gamut of bad masculine tendencies.

Mildred's first husband Bert (Bruce Bennett) is passive and intimidated by Mildred's independence, even turning to another woman for comfort. Bert will grow to admire Mildred as a mother and businesswoman and even become her ally and protector later on.  Wally Fay (Jack Carson) is the wolf-ish former partner of Bert's who tries to bed Mildred almost every time they are together. He's part uncle, part business manager for Mildred, and part horndog. Wally's like a dog in heat, tugging at Mildred's bathrobe belt when he visits her one night. Actor Jack Carson does a nice job making Wally likable when he could have come off as sleazy. Carson may set the world record for biggest smoker ever in a film as well. Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) is the third cog in Mildred's wheel of men. Monte wastes away his family's fortune drinking and gambling, allergic to working for a living, selling a family piece of property here or there to keep his lavish lifestyle going. He may be enamored with Mildred but it's her money that he's more in love with. Actor Scott played Monte perfectly, self-deprecating one moment then pleasantly sneaky the next.

But there's another triangle in MILDRED PIERCE just as intriguing as the three men and that's the relationship between Mildred and her daughter Veda and Monte. It's a stormy relationship as everything that Mildred does for Veda isn't good enough. Mildred begins to realize Veda is a spoiled brat, a younger version of Monte who Veda begins to spend more and more time with.  Veda lives for money. She figures if she has enough, she can get away from her mother. Beragon seems to drain every one's money - his and Mildred's. Veda wants to live the lifestyle Monte has but she ends up like Monte - spending money that neither of them has. Actress Ann Blyth as Veda is a mother's worst nightmare - a daughter from hell who will blackmail her innocent husband's family for a monetary settlement or steal her mother's husband for herself.

Director Michael Curtiz shows in MILDRED PIERCE why I consider him one of the great chameleons in directing as he can handle any genre just like other great genre directors like Howard Hawks or Stephen Frears.  Curtiz is adept in every style; drama (CASABLANCA), western (DODGE CITY), swashbuckling (THE SEA HAWK or THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD), musical (WHITE CHRISTMAS) or horror (THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM). MILDRED is really only film noirish at the beginning and end of the film and Curtiz and screenwriter Ranald MacDougall keep the mystery of who shot Monte Beragon close to their vests until the very end.

MILDRED reminded me of Curtiz's CASABLANCA in a couple of ways.  There is the love triangle of Mildred, Monte, and Veda which CASABLANCA (1943) has with Rick, Ilsa, and Victor.  Also, Curtiz uses Mildred's Restaurant as a character and location just like he did with Rick's Cafe in CASABLANCA and sets many scenes in the diner, often with the hustle and bustle of customers and waitresses in the background for realism.  But where CASABLANCA told Humphrey Bogart Rick's back story in a couple of flashbacks and was mostly set in the present, Curtiz's MILDRED PIERCE has some interesting shifts in time. The film opens dramatically with Monte's murder but when Mildred goes to the police station, she tells her back story in flashbacks to Inspector Pearson. Each time we return briefly to the present, Inspector Pearson reveals a twist to the mystery. Curtiz then returns to the events leading up to Monte's murder at the start of the film.

In DOUBLE INDEMNITY, author Cain uses the insurance clause "double indemnity" where an insurance company will pay double the claim amount if the death is accidental as a motive for Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray to commit murder.  In MILDRED PIERCE, Wally cautions against Mildred seeking to divorce Bert because of California's "community property" law where both parties would split things evenly 50/50.  Bert could get half of Mildred's share of her business.  Bert turns out not to be interested in Mildred's money, the only one of the three men not after her wealth.  These type of real life claims and laws add to the authenticity of Cain's stories of greed, murder, and revenge.

I am going to make it a point to go to the bookstore and purchase Cain's MILDRED PIERCE.  I'm curious to discover if Mildred was more sexual in the book then the 1945 film was able to show. Both DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE had protagonists who commit adultery yet Mildred seems to refrain from using her sexuality for advantage although she is clearly aware of her sexual freedom. I want to find out if Wally Fay ever made it with Mildred.

HBO recently remade MILDRED PIERCE (2011) as a mini-series starring Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce and directed by Todd Haynes. I'm sure Kate Winslet does a fine job as Mildred but for me, this is Joan Crawford's defining role. At the beginning, I mentioned that Crawford was relegated to acting in horror films toward the end of her career but to see Joan Crawford at her best, pick an afternoon and watch MILDRED PIERCE. I'm glad I did.

Fright Night (1985 and 2011 versions)

If you wanted to trace the popularity of the vampire in books, television, and movies in the last two decades, I would submit to you that it all started with two modest vampire films that were released in the mid-1980's. Both THE LOST BOYS (1987) and FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) strayed away from the familiar stuffy Victorian Count Dracula plot we had become accustomed to and sexed it up by placing vampires in today's society. I'm not declaring that vampire films set in the modern era hadn't been done already but both LOST BOYS and FRIGHT NIGHT had a great story, above average special effects and make-up, and a sense of humor about the subject matter that paved the way for recent successful vampire franchises like TWILIGHT and television's THE VAMPIRE DIARIES.

I was surprised earlier this year when I read that they were remaking FRIGHT NIGHT with Colin Farrell in the starring role.  All of a sudden, the horror films that came out when I was a teenager or in college are being remade already, as if horror films have become the new Shakespeare play, where a new generation of audience can become familiar with MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981) or THE THING (1982) or THE HITCHER (1986) instead of OTHELLO or THE TAMING OF THE SHREW or HAMLET.

My love for the original FRIGHT NIGHT comes in three parts. First, I was a big vampires fan as a kid even dressing up as Dracula with my Mom's homemade cape for several Halloweens. The film also resonates to my childhood memories of late night horror television shows like Fright Night which Roddy McDowell's character Peter Vincent hosts in the original film.  For a young kid in Portland, Oregon, my Saturday nights were staying up for Sinister Cinema  hosted by Victor Ives on KATU-TV. Then, there is actor Roddy McDowell who I loved in the PLANET OF THE APES (1968) and subsequent APE sequels.

FRIGHT NIGHT is an extremely simple premise.  What if a vampire moved into the house next door? Writer/Director Tom Holland has said he wanted to do the classic Boy Who Cried Wolf story. The boy is Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale), a typical high school teenager who lives with his single mother Judy Brewster (Dorothy Fielding) in a modest suburban neighborhood. Charlie is a big fan of the late night horror show Fright Night hosted by famed vampire killer/B horror film actor Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell).

One night while trying to convince his girl friend Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse) to have sex with him up in his room, Charlie notices two men carrying a coffin outside his window. Tall, charming, and handsome, Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) has bought the house next door along with roommate Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark) with intentions of fixing it up. Charlie forgets about what he saw until two separate women he sees go into Dandrige's house turn up dead on the local television news later that week.

Charlie begins snooping around Dandrige's property, even having  a police detective (Art J. Harris) investigate but nothing turns up. Charlie finally meets his new neighbor when Mrs. Brewster invites Dandrige over.  Since a vampire can only enter a house invited, Dandrige returns later that evening to threaten Charlie to mind his own business or else. Since Mrs. Brewster , best friend "Evil" Ed Thompson (Stephen Geoffreys), and girl friend Amy don't believe him, Charlie turns to TV horror film host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell) who has killed vampires, at least on TV, to help him.

Vincent, just fired from his TV horror show wants nothing to do with Charlie but reluctantly agrees to visit the so-called vampire Dandrige, after Amy offers to pay him.  Vincent hopes to prove to Charlie that vampires really don't exist except in the movies. At Dandrige's home, Vincent gives Jerry a fake vampire test which he passes. Hoping that Charlie will now believe that Jerry isn't a vampire, Vincent notices as they're leaving that Dandrige doesn't cast any reflection in Vincent's hand mirror.

Dandrige turns Charlie's friend Evil Ed into a vampire and sends him to kill Peter Vincent, who realizes that Dandridge is indeed a vampire. Vincent barely escapes with his life as he fends off Evil Ed with a crucifix.  Vampire Jerry pursues Amy, who reminds him of a former love.  Jerry bites Amy and takes her back to his house. Charlie and Vincent arm themselves with crucifixes and wooden stakes and enter Jerry's home in a final battle to kill the vampire Jerry Dandrige and rescue Amy from the bloodsucker's control.

Director Holland proves that a good vampire film doesn't always have to have an army of vampires to be entertaining. One good scary vampire will do. Jerry is an 80's version of Count Dracula. He dances in nightclubs, wears preppy clothes, and eats an apple a day when he's not drinking the blood of young women. His henchman Billy Cole is the equivalent of Dracula's servant Renfield, a human ally to guard Jerry's coffin during the day and assist with disposing of Jerry's victims. 

FRIGHT NIGHT revels in the vampire lore novelist Bram Stoker created and the Universal and Hammer Dracula films promulgated throughout the years. Crucifixes, bats, wooden stakes, and vampires not casting a reflection or turning into a wolf all play key parts in the film.  FRIGHT NIGHT clearly is a homage to past vampire and horror films and McDowell's character's name Peter Vincent might be a nod to Peter Cushing (who played the vampire killer Van Helsing several times) and horror film star Vincent Price.

FRIGHT NIGHT saves the best for last with some outstanding visual effects by Richard Edlund (GHOSTBUSTERS) that includes Jerry turning into a ferocious over-sized bat and Amy with a grotesque, elongated mouth full of fangs.  But some of the film's best scares are just Jerry and his long fingernails appearing outside a window, ready to grab Vincent. The original FRIGHT NIGHT does what all good horror films should do. It scares you and has fun doing it.

One of the many interesting changes that FRIGHT NIGHT (2011) director Craig Gillespie and writer Marti Noxon alter is the location of the film to the city that plays all night and sleeps during the day - Las Vegas. What better locale for a vampire to live and thrive in then Sin City. Even better, Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) and his mother Jane (Toni Collette), a realtor, live in an island suburb on the desert outskirts of Las Vegas, one of those developments that got hit by the recent bad economic times with many houses foreclosed or empty.

This time, it's not Charlie who notices that a vampire is in their midst but Charlie's former best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Evil Ed points out to Charlie that many of their classmates are not showing up to class anymore. Ed has noted that it's mostly kids in their neighborhood and has pinpointed the root cause as Charlie's handsome neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell). Charlie scoffs at Ed's accusations as Charlie is more into his new hot girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots) then Ed's vampire conspiracy theories. But then Ed vanishes.

Charlie finds Ed's notes and surveillance video on Jerry. He spies on Jerry from his window as Jerry invites the beautiful neighbor Doris (Emily Montague) over for a beer. When Charlie hears a scream later that night and then Jerry drives off, Charlies sneaks into Jerry's house.  He finds Doris locked in a secret room behind Jerry's closet. Jerry returns and Charlie sees with his own eyes that Jerry is a vampire as he takes a bite out of Doris.

Charlie turns to Peter Vincent (David Tennant), a cross between illusionist Criss Angel and British actor Russell Brand, to help him. Vincent is the star of Fright Night, a horror themed illusion show at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Vincent claims to be an expert on vampires, even collecting supernatural weapons. He tells Charlie vampires don't exist and has him thrown out of his lavish suite.

Director Gillespie does a nice job in the beginning setting up the Charlie/Jerry showdown and the second half of the film delivers. Jerry drives Charlie, Mrs. Brewster, and Amy out of their house by pumping gas into their home and lighting a match, blowing up their home. The three flee into the desert at night only to be chased by Jerry in a truck. The three are able to escape temporarily from Jerry. Charlie and Amy return to see Vincent.  Vincent tells them what kind of vampire they're up against.  Evil Ed, now a vampire, shows up to kill Vincent, sent by Jerry. As Charlie and Vincent battle with Ed, Jerry grabs Amy, putting her under his spell and takes her back to his house. Charlie and Vincent arm themselves with Vincent's arsenal of vampire weapons and return to duel with Jerry and his collection of victims underneath Jerry's home.

The new FRIGHT NIGHT does an excellent job of paying homage to the original while adding enough new story points to make it more than just a copy cat remake.  Writer Moxon wrote for the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER television show and knows her vampire universe very well.  Fans of the original will appreciate Jerry snacking on an apple or Amy wearing a white dress in Jerry's subterranean lair when Charlie comes to rescue her and she greets him with her elongated set of fangs. The filmmakers even cast actor Chris Sarandon (the original Jerry) in a cameo as a poor driver who comes across the Brewsters and Amy battling Jerry at night on a deserted highway.

Colin Farrell plays Jerry as more of a working class predator and survivalist then Chris Sarandon's seductive Jerry. Farrell's Jerry is feral as he uses his sense of smell and hearing almost like an animal to find his victims or detect intruders. David Tennant's Peter Vincent is a bit sexier than Roddy McDowell's conservative Vincent. The new Vincent collects vampire and other supernatural weapons and we later discover that Vincent and Jerry have a history that goes back to Vincent's childhood when his parents were killed by a vampire.  Mrs. Brewster (Toni Collette) also has a bigger role in the new version. She flirts with Jerry at first but soon discovers that Charlie's fears regarding neighbor Jerry may be true. She's not going to let Jerry hurt her son and plays a big part in their escaping from Jerry during the highway chase.

One thing I realized after watching both FRIGHT NIGHT films is how brave the Charlie Brewster character is. Maybe because Brewster never had his father around to protect him and had to play that role for his mother and girlfriend, Brewster is not afraid to die to protect the women he loves from Jerry. I wasn't sure I was going to like Anton Yelchin as the new Charlie but he does an admirable job of playing a teenager emerging from his geek stage into a cooler guy stage. How many teenagers do you know who would wear a fire retardant suit and light themselves on fire to destroy a vampire ... and maybe himself as well?

Evil Ed, on the other hand, seems destined to become a vampire. Just like Jerry, Ed is an outcast, different.  Ed's teased at school, never really fitting in with the popular crowd. He doesn't have a girlfriend like Charlie. It makes sense that becoming a vampire is Ed's way of becoming cool. Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Ed adds yet another memorable fringe character he has played in films like SUPERBAD (2007) and ROLE MODELS (2008). Thankfully, he didn't imitate the original Evil Ed Stephen Geoffrey's obnoxious laugh.

As I finish this new FRIGHT NIGHT review, the film has been out for two weeks and surprisingly has not done very well at the box office despite getting pretty good reviews from critics. My hypothesis is that not enough parents of my generation have shown their kids the original FRIGHT NIGHT to prepare them for the remake.  I showed the original to my kids a few months ago and they enjoyed it as much as I did the first time. It's hard to believe its been 26 years since FRIGHT NIGHT was first released. The new FRIGHT NIGHT filmmakers may have a cult classic on their hands, they just may have to wait a few years for it to be discovered, much like the original FRIGHT NIGHT.

Sahara (1943)

With the United States fully committed to World War II after December 1941, films promoting the Allies fight against the Axis were not far behind.  John Wayne did his duty cinematically, starring in films like FLYING TIGERS (1942) or BACK TO BATAAN (1945).  Although entertaining, these films were just a more creative form of propaganda, to sell war bonds and stir national support.  With real life villains like Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo, it wasn't hard to do.  Another film star who made an interesting war film during WWII was Humphrey Bogart.  But it's not CASABLANCA that I'm referring to.  It's a 1943 tank film Bogart starred in called SAHARA.

Although CASABLANCA wasn't a success when it first came out, that didn't stop the studios from finding other exotic one word titles for their films.  SAHARA may sound sexy and mysterious but it's a gritty, well-made war film that doesn't pull any punches in its portrayal of desert warfare as well as the enemy the Allies were fighting.  Directed by Zoltan Korda and co-written by Korda and John Howard Lawson, SAHARA focuses on America's early entry into World War II in North Africa as we joined the British 8th Army to gain desert warfare experience.

The film opens with an American tank crew cut off from its British allies and bombarded by German artillery shells somewhere between Egypt and Libya. Stuck in no man's land and about to be overrun, Sgt Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) and his two man crew Jimmy Doyle (Dan Duryea) and Waco Hoyt (Bruce Bennett) retreat into the Sahara desert hoping to hook up with another British or American tank battalion.  As the tank makes its way over sandy dunes, it becomes a sort of Noah's Ark. First, it picks up five British soldiers led by Captain Jason Halliday (Richard Nugent) with a South African named Stegman (Guy Kingsford) and a French soldier Jean Leroux (Louis T. Mercier) thrown in for good measure.  Further along, the group comes across a British Sudanese soldier Sgt. Major Tambul (Rex Ingram) marching with his Italian prisoner of war Giuseppe (J. Carroll Naish).

Tambul offers to lead the tank group to a well that may be full of water but it's bone dry when they reach it. A German fighter plane on patrol piloted by Captain von Schletow (Kurt Krueger) spots the lone tank and dives at them with guns blazing. Joe lulls the German ace into thinking they're out of ammunition and shoots the plane down with his tank, capturing the arrogant German pilot, adding yet another nationality to his menagerie.  Joe and the group finally reach the ruins of a desert fort where they can settle down and decide their next move.

Director Korda uses the desert outpost as a chance to showcase the collection of soldiers. There's a nice scene where Korda cross cuts between Joe and Giuseppe learning about one other in one part of the fort while Tambul and Waco find they have much in common as well in another section of the ruins. If they are to survive, this group of Americans, British, French, South African, and Italians has to work as a team.  Tambul discovers that the fort's well contains some water and the group work together to bottle as much as they can.

Following behind the ragtag band of brothers, a German battalion led by Major Von Falken (John Wengraf), also lost in the Sahara, makes its way toward the ruins in search of water. Von Falken sends a scout car ahead.  Joe and the others ambush the scout car and take two more Germans prisoner.  After interrogating them, Joe releases the POWs, tricking them into thinking they have more water than they do.  Joe's hope is to hold off the German battalion as long as possible.  He sends Waco off with the scout car in the other direction to find help. The Germans arrive and a series of battles occur as the nine remaining Allies try to hold off an entire German battalion until help arrives.

Bogart's Joe Gunn is an American Everyman, fighting the Germans in the name of freedom and liberty for all. He's not married, has no girlfriend except for his beloved tank which he refers to as Lulubelle. Besides a tank, Bogart will later whisper sweet nothings to a boat the Queen in THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951). Sgt Joe has a nice speech mid-way through the film, meant to inspire his fellow soldiers to fight the good fight in their last stand but he's also talking to the audience in 1943, urging them to support the Allies at all costs and never surrender to the evil confronting them. It's a brief, powerful speech.

Bogart is steady as Joe, never flashy or over the top. Dan Duryea as Jimmy and Bruce Bennett as Waco have a nice camaraderie going throughout the film. An ongoing gag in SAHARA has Jimmy and Waco wagering on everything from whether Joe will let the Italian POW Giuseppe ride with them on the tank to whether Waco or Jimmy will make it out of the desert alive. Surprisingly, director Korda doesn't romanticize the stand off between Allies and the Germans. Very few of either side will be alive at the end of the film.

Director Korda is a good choice for this desert war film having directed another desert adventure film FOUR FEATHERS in 1939.  The locations out near Palm Springs, California and Yuma, Arizona make SAHARA all the more authentic. The filmmakers even used American soldiers from the U.S. IV Armored Corps who were training in the area as German extras. Like any desert film, the soldiers must deal with the usual cliches like fierce sand storms and lack of water. Korda keeps the film fresh and realistic, but he does throw in the ultimate war cliche when British soldier Fred Clarkson (a young Lloyd Bridges) pulls out a photo of his sweetheart to show his mates. That is the kiss of death for any soldier in a war film.  Clarkson will get shot by the German pilot Schletow soon after.  Of all people, director Oliver Stone would kill off one of his soldiers the same way in PLATOON (1986). Never show a photo of your girl friend to your buddies while in the field of battle. At least not in a war film.

Like many European directors and screenwriters, Korda, born in Austria-Hungary (now Hungary), does not hide his contempt toward the Axis characters whose real life countrymen had invaded his nation. Both Schletow, the handsome blond Aryan pilot and Major Von Falken are shown as cold and sneaky men, completely brainwashed by the Nazi agenda. Von Falken even has his soldiers shoot "Frenchie" Leroux in the back after a brief cease fire, white flag still in Leroux's hand. Not surprisingly, during SAHARA'S final battle, the racist Schletow escapes from his cell only to be chased down and killed by the black Sgt Major Tambul, the symbolism not lost on anyone. Only the Italian Giuseppe is portrayed as sympathetic. He doesn't believe in Mussolini's cause, he's just a man fighting for the wrong side, hoping to return to see his child.

SAHARA caught me by surprise with its LOST PATROL like plot and its many twists and turns.  It's clearly got an agenda, to support the Allies and to defeat the Axis powers, but director Korda does it in an entertaining, engaging manner. Knowing a good plot when they had one, Columbia Pictures would make a western loosely based on SAHARA in 1953 called LAST OF THE COMANCHES.  Ironically, Lloyd Bridges, who had a small part in SAHARA would also co-star in COMANCHES. I just hope he didn't show a picture of his favorite gal to anyone this time.

Radio Days (1987)

Comedian, writer, actor, film director and auteur Woody Allen has had his ups and downs throughout his prolific career. Success came early with his funny film spoofs like TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969) and SLEEPER (1973), Allen hit his zenith with the Oscar winning ANNIE HALL (1977) and the critically acclaimed MANHATTAN (1979). But since 1990, Allen has had more misses (SHADOWS AND FOG, EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU, and SCOOP) then semi-hits (VICKI CRISTINA BARCELONA or the recent MIDNIGHT IN PARIS).

But in the mid to late 80's, Woody Allen had, in my opinion, a stretch of four films (you could throw in a fifth - BROADWAY DANNY ROSE too) that are some of my favorites in his film resume. Three of them - ZELIG (1983), THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985), and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986) I had seen before.  But RADIO DAYS (1987), Allen's nostalgic revisit to his growing up during the Golden Age of Radio was the one I had not seen.

One reason I enjoyed RADIO DAYS is that Allen does not appear in the film. He's the narrator of the film. I like Woody Allen as an actor but sometimes his shtick gets a tad old. Playing the Allen character as a youth is Seth Green. Having Allen as the voice over is a wonderful device as he is a great storyteller. As Allen regales us with stories of his favorite radio shows early in the film, it reminded me of my father telling me about his favorite radio shows when he was a kid like The Shadow or Sky King or Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. In the 30's and 40's, radio was the television, the Internet, MTV, ESPN, CNN, and Entertainment Tonight all rolled into one.

RADIO DAYS is a series of stories, memories, and anecdotes of radio's heyday framed around Allen's growing up in a lower middle class Jewish family in Rockaway, New York just before and during World War II. We meet young Joe (Seth Green) who dreams up ways of buying a replica of the secret decoder ring worn by his radio hero the Masked Avenger. Joe's father (Michael Tucker) has a million get rich schemes while hiding his true profession from Joe. Uncle Abe (Josh Mostel) brings home heaps of fish every day to his exasperated wife Ceil (Renee Lippin) to cook. Cousin Ruthie (Joy Newman) listens to the neighbor's phone calls on the party line ("Mrs. Waldbaum's having her ovaries taken out," she whispers to the family). Aunt Bea (Dianne Wiest) dreams of getting married but always ends up with the wrong man. And Joe's mother (Julie Kavner who would go on to become the voice for Marge Simpson) oversees her sweet but slightly nutty family.

Interwoven through their stories are the stars and shows of Radio: the Masked Avenger (who's really the bald, short Wallace Shawn); Breakfast with Irene and Roger; Guess That Tune; Radio G-Man Biff Baxter; Bill Kern and his Legends of Sports; and plenty of great music by the best big bands and orchestras of that era. Allen weaves in Orson Welles phony broadcast of a Martian invasion on one of Aunt Bea's dates. He also reminds us that not everything on the radio is wonderful.  The first hand account of a young girl who fell down a well in Pennsylvania ends in tragedy when the reporter announces her rescuers have brought her up dead.

 One storyline that Allen uses as the bridge between his family stories and the world of radio is the fall and rise of Sally White (Mia Farrow) from Cigarette Girl at an uptown Manhattan club to gossip queen of the airwaves. Sally dreams of radio stardom but with her squeaky Brooklyn accent, her closest brush with the radio is casual trysts with radio stars like Roger (David Warrilow) from Breakfast with Irene and Roger. Fired from her Cigarette Girl gig, Sally's luck sort of changes when she accidentally witnesses her boss get shot at her new job. Hit man Rocco (Danny Aiello) takes her back to his Mom's house to finish her off but they discover they're both from the same Brooklyn neighborhood. Rocco gets her a part on a radio drama but the attack on Pearl Harbor interrupts that dream. We watch Sally go from singing to the troops to doing radio voice overs for a laxative commercial. Only after she takes diction lessons, does she find her true calling. She becomes a gossip columnist, reporting on all the show business shenanigans she saw when she was a cigarette and coat check girl.

With Sally's story, Allen captures all the different facets of the radio business. Just like when silent films went to sound, the right voice can mean all the difference in a radio performer's success or failure. Radio offered a variety of professions: singer, musician, news reporter, sports commentator, gossip columnist, actor or actress, commercial voice over talent, or host of game shows. Allen brings it all full circle on New Year's Eve 1944 as Sally and many other radio stars (Irene and Roger, the Masked Avenger, Biff Baxter) go on top of the roof to bring in the New Year. They sense the Age of Radio is almost over, lamenting it's imminent demise with the coming new year.

Allen tapped into some magical creative period with RADIO DAYS and the other films. Of the four films, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS is the only modern one. But with ZELIG, PURPLE ROSE, and RADIO DAYS, he seems sentimental, revisiting childhood memories in one sense but also exploring the first half of the 20th Century and its newest diversions -- cinema and the radio. ZELIG is really his only special effects movie with Allen as Zelig inserted into historical newsreel footage and hobnobbing with historical figures, celebrities, and sports figures from the 1920's. In THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO celluloid star Jeff Daniels literally jumps out of the screen and into the real life of Depression-era waitress Mia Farrow. With RADIO DAYS, he's waxing nostalgia for his youth, the music and stars of the radio reminding him of events and stories in his formative years.

Actors from other Woody Allen films make small appearances in RADIO DAYS: Diane Keaton (ANNIE HALL), Tony Roberts (MANHATTAN), and Jeff Daniels (THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO) all appear in bit parts. If you look closely, you will also see William H. Macy and Larry David in brief roles. Woody  Allen dated his leading ladies and RADIO DAYS is the only film that has his previous girlfriend Diane Keaton and his then current girlfriend Mia Farrow in the same film.

Filmmaking is a collaborative process and I think Allen's success during this period can also be attributed to his editor Susan Morse, cinematographer Carlo Di Palma, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, and casting director Juliet Taylor who were involved in RADIO DAYS as well as some or all of the other three films. There is a synchronicity that happens when a director works with the same actors and crew. Creative sparks happen and everyone does their best work.

If RADIO DAYS was the end of Woody Allen's sentimental phase, his next phase would become a bit darker both artistically and professionally.  CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989) and HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992) to name a couple of films made after RADIO DAYS are meaner films about destructive relationships as people cheat on each other.  Allen would eventually leave Mia Farrow for Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn in 1992. And in my opinion, Allen's films got less interesting for a period of time after RADIO DAYS. But it looks like Woody Allen may have refound his magic again with MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011) which again has him mixing reality with fantasy. It was a style that he found success with during the mid-80's which RADIO DAYS can be counted as one of those hits.