The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

Priests and ministers and vicars in film are for the most part portrayed as earnest, friendly, and caring men (and women) who see their parishioners as their flock and try to be there for the community whether it's for the birth of a child, the marriage between two people, or the death of a loved one. One of my favorite portrayals of a clergyman is Simon Callow as the Very Reverend Beebe in James Ivory's A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1986).  My first encounter with a priest was not a happy one.  His name was Father McMahon and he was not overtly friendly or kind. He was stern and a task master.  We weren't a very pious family, but my parents wanted me to have some religious learning so every Wednesday after school, I would attend CCD (Cofraternity of Christian Doctrine) at my local Catholic church.  I was goofing off in line with another kid while waiting to enter the school. Father McMahon did not take kindly to our goofing.  He took us aside and made us wait for everyone else to enter the building before we could.  It left a lasting impression on me that priests were not nice people.

If only I had Father Chuck O'Malley, the irrepressible young singing priest with the straw hat played by Bing Crosby from Leo McCarey's GOING MY WAY (1944) as my religious instructor, my early perception of men and women of the cloth might have been different. It wasn't until I attended college at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, a Jesuit institution, that I would come across kindly priests and nuns that would return my faith in holy people again.

What's unique about GOING MY WAY is that its commercial success would quickly spawn a sequel just a year later, also directed by Leo McCarey called THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (1945) with Crosby reprising his role as Father O'Malley and Ingrid Bergman as his friendly rival Sister Mary Benedict. Sequels back in the Golden Age of Film were uncommon unless you were a Universal horror film like James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN (1931) which would lead to the sequel THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) or Karl Freund's THE MUMMY (1932) which would spawn four MUMMY sequels in the early 40s.  Today, sequels are common and expected if the initial film is a box office success.  GOING MY WAY would make six million dollars upon its release, a huge sum of money for 1944.  Not to be outdone, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S would make eight million dollars, even more than the original which was unprecedented. Although not necessarily a holiday film, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S has a spiritual quality to it that fits right in with the Christmas.  BELLS also has a few connections to Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE that would be released the following year in 1946. 

With a screenplay by renowned screenwriter Dudley Nichols (GUNGA DIN, STAGECOACH) based on a story by Leo McCarey, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S opens with Father Chuck O'Malley (Bing Crosby) arriving at St. Mary's parochial school to visit his friend Father Fogerty.  Only Fogerty has recently been hospitalized. St. Mary's is primarily taught by nuns led by Sister Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) and Sister Michael (Ruth Donnelly).  O'Malley's superiors ask him to step in as pastor of the school while Fogerty recuperates. O'Malley meets the rest of the sisters as well as the boys and girls of the school.  O'Malley immediately gives the children the day off as a holiday, drawing the ire of Sister Benedict. 

O'Malley soon discovers that St. Mary's is a dilapidated, rundown school, badly in need of repair. One of O'Malley's tasks is to determine if St. Mary's should be closed and the kids moved to a more contemporary school. Sister Benedict desires the new, modern building across the street, developed by businessman Horace P. Bogardus (Henry Travers). Mr. Bogardus wants to buy St. Mary's and turn it into a parking lot for his new building.  If he can't buy the school, he wants the school condemned and the children of St. Mary's sent to another school St. Vickers. O'Malley and Benedict will each try to convince Bogardus to donate his building to become the new St. Mary's. But that battle between the downtrodden and the mighty is only just one of the subplots of the film.

O'Malley meets a down on her luck, single mother Mary Gallagher (Martha Sleeper) who wishes her troubled daughter Patricia "Patsy" Gallagher (Joan Carroll) to attend St. Mary's.  Patsy's father Joe Gallagher (William Gargan), a musician, has been out of Mary and Patsy's life for some time. O'Malley will locate Joe and reunite him with Mary. When Patsy sees her mother with a strange man (she's never met her father), Patsy intentionally fails her final exams. Sister Benedict watches two schoolboys Eddie Breen (Richard Tyler) and bully Tommy Smith (Bobby Frasco) fight on the playground with Tommy knocking Eddie down.  O'Malley's impressed with Tommy's fighting skills.  Sister Benedict takes up Eddie's side.  She purchases a boxing book at the local sports department store and teaches Eddie the fine art of boxing.  When Tommy tries to beat up Eddie again, he's in for quite the surprise.

Bogardus begins to feel the stress with delays for his building not to mention guilt from the gentle prodding of Sister Benedict to donate his modern edifice to the school.  Bogardus's physician Dr McKay (Rhys Williams) advises Bogardus to get some rest. O'Malley checks with Sister Benedict on Patsy's grades. Benedict won't pass her for graduation. Benedict has a fainting spell after O'Malley tells her he's recommending St. Mary's be torn down. After Dr. McKay checks on Benedict, he reports back to O'Malley that Benedict has a mild case of tuberculosis and should go to a warmer climate to improve. O'Malley runs into Bogardus on the street, helping lost dogs and assisting old ladies onto the bus. Bogardus has a change of heart.  He's donating his new building to St. Mary's.  Sister Benedict has a change of heart when she learns Patsy failed her exams on purpose and meets Patsy's parents.  She makes an exception. Patsy can graduate with her peers.  O'Malley tells Benedict why he's transferring her due to her prognosis which brings joy to Benedict. What looked to be a very bleak finale transforms into an uplifting denouement just in time. 

Although Bing Crosby is arguably the star of THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S after the previous success of GOING MY WAY, Ingrid Bergman steals the film as Sister Mary Benedict, the tomboyish nun who teaches boys how to box and girls how to hit a baseball. It's funny how Hollywood treated Bergman.  I don't know if it was because she was European, Swedish, or had a child out of wedlock after an affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini, but Bergman's early career had her playing women of ill repute or loose morals.  In Victor Fleming's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941), Bergman plays a prostitute.  In Michael Curtiz's CASABLANCA (1943), she was Ilsa Lund, loving two men at one time during World War II.  In Alfred Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS (1946), she's an immoral party girl who sleeps with a former boyfriend turned Nazi to help the U.S. government find out his secrets.  

It makes sense that Bergman may have wanted to change her image a bit by playing a nun (okay, a beautiful nun) with no romantic love interest or sordid past for THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S.  Yet Bergman's not your typical nun.  She's described by one of her fellow sisters as a former "tomboy." She played baseball before taking her vows.  Sister Benedict has a competitive streak to her. When young Eddie is beat up by the playground bully (and praised for his fighting ability by Father O'Malley), Sister Benedict takes up Eddie's cause.  She buys a book on the fine art of boxing.  In the film's best and funniest sequence, Bergman teaches Eddie how to jab and weave before throwing a knockout punch. When Eddie practices with her, he accidentally punches the good Sister. There is no finer sound in film than the sound of Ingrid Bergman laughing, even if it's in pain. It's a priceless scene.

When you have two red hot movie stars like Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in a film, you expect fireworks in the chemistry department.  Don't expect that in THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S.  There is absolutely no sexual tension between the two actors and rightly so.  One is a priest, the other a nun. Instead, the two characters have a friendly rivalry, a good-natured battle of the sexes. O'Malley bends the rules a little bit. Benedict follows the rules. It will take a little time for O'Malley and Benedict to warm up to each other, always in a humorous way.  In the end, both O'Malley and Benedict will come away with a newfound respect for each other. 

I can see why Bing Crosby won Best Actor for his role as Father O'Malley in GOING MY WAY.  Crosby plays the benevolent priest with just the right tone.  He's never too funny or maudlin. O'Malley is a little unorthodox in his methods but in a homespun way. O'Malley's the All-American young man from Missouri who has chosen the path of God over sports or becoming a doctor. Most of the Bing Crosby movies I've seen, he plays smooth talking entertainers like in Michael Curtiz's WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) or wise cracking regular Joe in THE ROAD TO MOROCCO with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Singers who become actors are initially typecast in comedies or musicals or musical comedies. At some point, they want to show their dramatic side.  THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S is Crosby's chance to play a dramatic character who happens to sing a little. 

Director Leo McCarey's career had an interesting path.  Unlike many of his contemporaries who would direct two or three films a year like Michael Curtiz or Howard Hawks, McCarey turned out one film every couple of years which may explain why most of his films are acclaimed and well received.  He took his time with his story and characters.  McCarey's early hits include the riotous musical comedy DUCK SOUP (1933) starring the Marx Brothers and the screwball comedy THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. But McCarey would prove to be an innovator as well. McCarey directed the romantic comedy LOVE AFFAIR (1939) starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. He must have liked the story (or needed a hit later in his career) so much that McCarey would remake LOVE AFFAIR 28 years later changing the title to AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) with bigger movie stars Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the leads. And as we talked about earlier, GOING MY WAY with Bing Crosby would be so successful that McCarey would quickly follow that film up with a sequel THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S inspired by his own aunt who was a nun who helped to build the Immaculate Heart Convent in Hollywood, CA. Sequels were not the norm in the 1940s.

McCarey is not a suspense director like Alfred Hitchcock, but he definitely draws out the happy endings to the very last moment.  In AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, the two lovers who meet on a cruise ship and promise to meet each other in New York after they reach port never connect due to an unfortunate accident to one of them. McCarey waits to the last few minutes of the film to finally reunite Grant and Kerr (or Boyer and Dunne depending on which film you like). In THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S, he puts characters in difficult situations that seem heartbreaking with no hope in sight.  Patsy fails her exams on purpose and Sister Benedict has to flunk her, ending Patsy's hopes of graduating in front of her mother.  Father O'Malley tells Sister Benedict he's transferring her away from St. Mary's at her happiest moment, just after Bogardus donates his new building to the nuns. Only at the last moment does McCarey allow Sister Benedict to learn Patsy could have easily passed her test and failed the exams on purpose. She lets Patsy graduate with her peers.  And Father O'Malley realizes he needs to tell Sister Benedict her getting sent away is for health reasons, not for anything bad she did.  Phew!  Happy endings but not until the final frame. 

In an unusual piece of casting, character actor Henry Travers who we normally see playing fatherly characters in films like Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA (1941) or Alfred Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) plays the heavy Horace P. Bogardus in THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S although he's more grumpy than sinister. It's fun to watch Sister Benedict work her slow magic on Bogardus, turning him from greedy developer to kind philanthropist.  But Bogardus is not one hundred percent saintly as he reminds Dr. McKay that his donation of his new building to the school is a tax write off.  More about Travers in a moment. THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S would be the last film for two actresses appearing in it.  Joan Carroll who plays the troubled student Patsy Gallagher would retire after BELLS which is a shame. Carroll had a distinctive face and appeal but moved on to a perfectly normal life.  Carroll's other well-known role was the middle sister between Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS in 1944.  Martha Sleeper who plays Patsy's down on her luck mother Mary Gallagher would not make another movie after THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S although she continued working in the theater and later was successful in the costume jewlery business.

There are a couple of connections between THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S and arguably the most famous Christmas movie of all time Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE which came out a year after BELLS in 1946.  Henry Travers who plays against type as the curmudgeon building developer Horace P. Bogardus in THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S would be cast by Capra as Clarence the friendly angel who gives James Stewart a second chance at life in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It might be Travers most famous role and it's probably no coincidence he appeared in it as McCarey and Capra were friends. And check out the movie theater in the fictional town of Bedford Falls in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. The movie listed on the theater marquee is none other than THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S. 

Some final trivia tidbits. Although GOING MY WAY was made at Paramount and made them a ton of money, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S was made and released by RKO Studios.  Maybe Paramount Studios didn't believe in sequels at the time, a miscalculation by Paramount with BELLS surpassing GOING MY WAY'S success and gross receipts. GOING MY WAY would bring Oscars to both Leo McCarey for Best Director and Bing Crosby for Best Actor at the 1945 Academy Awards.  But not to be outdone, Ingrid Bergman would win Best Actress Award that same year for her performance in George Cukor's GASLIGHT (1944).  THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S had three new Academy Award winners in its pedigree. 

THE BELLS OF ST MARY'S is not your typical Christmas movie.  Except for one Christmas sequence where Father O'Malley and Sister Benedict watch the young children of the school practice a Nativity skit, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S takes place outside the holidays.  But THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S has all the hallmarks of the holiday season. It's about compassion, sacrifice, doing good for others, and love for your fellow man and woman (or boy and girl).  There is no better Christmas gift to receive than that. 

Never Say Never Again (1983)

Before CrazyFilmGuy moves on to the Timothy Dalton era in the James Bond series, we need to step back to visit the one anomaly in the entire James Bond canon. NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983) is a remake of the 1965 Bond film THUNDERBALL.  Why would the Bond filmmakers remake one of their own films?  The answer is that THUNDERBALL was the only Ian Fleming story that producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman did not outright own the rights to.  Kevin McClory, who co-wrote the THUNDERBALL screenplay with Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming, won a legal dispute with Ian Fleming to make his own Bond movie. The settlement was that it would have to be a remake of THUNDERBALL. So NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN has no involvement from any of the regular Bond production team like Broccoli, Saltzman, or any of the technical talent.  But it did have the involvement of the last person anyone expected. 

The man who walked away from James Bond (at probably the right time in his career) after DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1973) was talked into reprising his most famous role, although slightly older now. That man was Sean Connery. Connery was 53 when he made NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. The story goes (whether true or not) that Connery told his wife after DIAMONDS that he would never play James Bond again.  When he decided to put on the black tuxedo and pull out the Walther PBK one more time, his wife allegedly said, "Never say never again." I remember going to see NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN when the film was released in 1983.  OCTOPUSSY starring Roger Moore as James Bond and produced by Broccoli was released the same year, four months before NEVER.  I found OCTOPUSSY disappointing. Moore was becoming too old as Bond and they even brought back Maud Adams a second time as the Bond Woman. It was a joy to have Sean Connery back as 007. Even though NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was a remake, it was a new take on the story with a new cast and production team. 

From the film's title supposedly based on Connery's wife's response to his return to a character he had sworn never to reprise again to Connery's final wink at the camera at the movie's end, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN firmly has its tongue in cheek throughout the film.  The screenplay by veteran Hollywood screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr (THE PARALLAX VIEW, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR) follows THUNDERBALL'S plot fairly faithfully, focusing on some story points more than others, glossing over other pieces of plot.  A few new characters are added, and one crucial character is changed from a British RAF pilot to an American Air Force pilot. 

Directed by the capable Irvin Kerschner (fresh off the success of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in 1980), NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN begins with James Bond (Sean Connery) coming out of retirement and immediately failing a training exercise at a Latin American jungle facility. When Bond reports back to London, an infuriated M (Edward Fox) sends him to a health retreat in the English country to shake the rust off and get back into spy shape. Meanwhile, we're introduced to Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), SPECTRE operative #12 who attends a high-level SPECTRE (the global crime syndicate) meeting run by Ernst Stavros Blofeld (Max Von Sydow). Blofeld reveals SPECTRE's next sinister plot involving Fatima, another SPECTRE agent Maximilian Largo (Klaus Marie Brandauer), and two American nuclear warheads. 

Bond accidentally uncovers Fatima working with an injured American Air Force pilot Jack Petachi (Gavin O'Herlihy) at the spa.  Fatima has hooked Petachi on heroin. Petachi has an electronic eye (never fully explained) with a copy of the U.S. President's retina on it (also not fully explained). Petachi travels to his air base in England and uses the president's retina scan to substitute two dummy nuclear warheads for two real warheads during a military exercise. The warheads go off course into the Atlantic where Largo and his crew pluck the warheads off the ocean floor and secure them in his giant yacht called the Flying Saucer. Blofeld proceeds to blackmail the world for billions of dollars, threatening to explode the two nuclear bombs in two undisclosed locations in seven days if SPECTRE's demands are not met. NATO demands the double O program be reinstated. Bond is back in business. Fatima rewards Petachi by killing him after the mission's success.

After picking up a few gadgets from Algy (Alec McCowen) in Q branch including a special exploding pen and a souped-up motorcycle, Bond travels to the Bahamas where he enlists British Embassy contact Nigel Small-Fawcett (a young Rowan Atkinson) to locate Largo's yacht which is in the area. Bond hooks up with Fatima who in between making love with 007, tries to kill Bond twice. Largo's yacht heads to the south of France. Bond follows along where he teams up with CIA agent Felix Leiter (Bernie Casey).  Bond discovers that the dead Jack Petachi's sister Domino (Kim Basinger) is Largo's love interest. Bond impersonates a masseuse to get close to Domino then crashes a charity ball Largo is hosting to introduce himself to both Domino and Largo. Largo invites Bond to join him for lunch the next day if he's still around. 

Largo orders Fatima to finish off Bond but 007 has the last laugh as he defeats Fatima in spectacular fashion after a tense motorcycle chase thru the streets of Nice, France. Bond makes it for lunch with Largo who shows him around the yacht. Bond manages to discover that one of the warheads is under the White House and alerts M.  The other warhead is headed for some destination called "the Tears of Allah." Largo takes Bond and Domino to his Moroccan castle Palmyra where he imprisons Bond and offers up Domino to a band of Arabs. Bond escapes (naturally) from his cell and rescues Domino via horseback. Bond along with Felix and his men track Largo to an underwater cave where an ancient Middle Eastern temple known as "the Tears of Allah" exists. Largo plans to detonate the nuclear bomb underneath Middle Eastern oil fields, disrupting the world's crude oil supply. Will Bond, Felix, and Domino be able to stop Largo and SPECTRE in time?

Although it follows the plot of THUNDERBALL more or less with a few updates and has a top-notch cast (including the return of Sean Connery as James Bond), NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN lacks some of the pizazz and grandeur that the official Bond series carries. From the very beginning when we realize we're not going to see Bond viewed through the barrel of a gun to the absence of Bond's theme music (NEVER uses the awful synthesizer soundtrack that was vogue in the early 80s) to no Maurice Binder opening credits with half naked women and a popular theme song, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN is a Bond movie without the bells and whistles audiences are accustomed to. It's just a good old fashioned, more tongue in cheek than usual spy film although a well-made one. 

Comparing the two films, the remake moves faster in the first act than the first film and is slightly shorter in length although both films are still too long. The French NATO pilot in the THUNDERBALL is switched to an American pilot in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. We actually get to see SPECTRE mastermind Blofeld a few times in NEVER as opposed to just hearing his voice and seeing his hands stroke his white cat in THUNDERBALL.  The filmmakers change the locales to make it fresh.  Both films visit the Bahamas, but THUNDERBALL spent the second half of the film entirely there. NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN takes us to the French Rivera and Spain (standing in for a Moroccan fortress). Largo's character is changed from the larger, uglier Emile Largo in THUNDERBALL to the younger, boyish looking Maximilian Largo in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. 

THUNDERBALL had an Italian actor and a French beauty queen whose voices had to be dubbed. On Connery's request, the actors assembled for NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN like Klaus Marie Brandauer, Max Von Sydow, Kim Basinger, Barbara Carrera, Edward Fox, and Bernie Casey are all recognizable and established names.  The later Bond films with Daniel Craig would take this approach with big time actors like Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, and Ralph Fiennes appearing in the series. The action sequences are exciting with an exhilarating chase sequence involving cars and Bond on a motorcycle in the South of France and a knockout fight sequence between Bond and one of Fatima's heavies Lippe (Pat Roach from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK) that would make Inspector Clouseau proud as they nearly destroy the entire health spa as they battle each other.

Sean Connery eases back into the role of James Bond in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN as easily as he slips into a tuxedo or a beautiful woman's bed. Connery (like the film in general) plays Bond a little bit lighter than when he was younger. Connery was in his early 50's when he returned as Bond, twelve years after his last Bond film DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER.  He wore a toupee for NEVER and might be a bit too old to be chasing after Kim Basinger. So why would Connery return to a role he swore he had given up?  If you look at his filmography after DIAMONDS, he appeared in some good films like John Huston's THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975) and was part of the ensemble cast in Sidney Lumet's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1976) based on the Agatha Christie novel. 

But there were some duds like Richard C. Sarafian's THE NEXT MAN (1976) and Ronald Neame's METEOR (1978) as well as cameos in films like Terry Gilliam's TIME BANDITS (1981).  Connery wasn't exactly on Hollywood's radar anymore. Playing Bond again in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN with some good actors was a chance to remind Hollywood he still was a star.  And it paid off. Connery would win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Chicago cop Jim Malone in Brian DePalma's THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) and go on to some of his biggest hits afterward in Steven Spielberg's INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989), John McTiernan's THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1991), and Michael Bay's THE ROCK (1996).  Not a bad comeback for the second half of his career. 

At first glance, Kim Basinger's role as Domino Petachi seems like a piece of fluff, just eye candy for Bond to pursue. The first half of the film, Basinger's in leotards or a bathing suit. But we forget that Domino's brother is Jack, a pawn in Largo and SPECTRE'S plot. When Domino learns from Bond that her brother has become collateral damage and he's dead, Basinger's performance kicks in as a vengeful sister who will have a delicious opportunity to pay back Largo in the film's finale. Basinger and Connery have a nice dance scene (doing the fox trot) and Basinger shows off her athletic ability in the water and on horseback. Basinger was still fairly new to acting in 1983 but by the time she appeared in BATMAN (1989) she had become a full-fledged actress who would later win a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in Curtis Hanson's L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997). 

The Nicaraguan born actress Barbara Carrera has the role of her career as the lethal SPECTRE handler and assassin Fatima Blush. The exotic beauty (and former model like Basinger) not only gets to sleep with and try to kill Bond numerous times, but Carrera also wears the most flamboyant costumes in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Carrera's career began in interesting genre films like THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1977) starring Burt Lancaster, I, JURY (1982) with Armand Assante, and LONE WOLF MCQUADE (1983) with Chuck Norris. Carrera really sinks her teeth into the role Fatima, nearly stealing the movie from Connery.  Carrera's Fatima Blush is a worthy member to the Hall of Fame of beautiful but deadly Bond assassins which includes the red headed Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe from the original THUNDERBALL and more recently Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp in GOLDENEYE (1995). 

The character of Largo played by Sicilian actor Adolfo Celi in the original THUNDERBALL was a sadistic pirate.  Austrian born actor Klaus Marie Brandauer goes a different route in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN with his performance as Maximilian Largo. Brandauer plays Largo as a spoiled, jealous boy with his expensive toys: a yacht, video games, nuclear warheads, and Domino. Brandauer bounced around between European and Hollywood films in the 80s and is best known as Meryl Streep's philandering husband in Sydney Pollack's OUT OF AFRICA (1985). 

Rounding out the solid supporting case are Bernie Casey (REVENGE OF THE NERDS) playing the first African American Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright would carry on the mantle beginning with CASINO ROYALE (2006). Edward Fox (DAY OF THE JACKAL) plays the role of M as a whining bureaucrat rather than Bernard Lee's stern, exasperated father like take on M in the originals.  Bond may age but in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN Miss Moneypenny is much younger, played by Pamela Salem. The great Max Von Sydow (THE EXORCIST) assumes the role of SPECTRE mastermind Ernst Stavros Blofeld.  Blofeld comes off as a cat loving CEO of the world's largest criminal organization.  And comedic actor Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean in BEAN) appears in one of his first film roles as a bumbling English attaché in the Bahamas assigned to assist Bond. Atkinson would later spoof the Bond films playing the title character JOHNNY ENGLISH (2003) co-written by SKYFALL screenwriters Neil Purvis and Robert Wade. 

Some final tidbits on NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Our old friend Douglas Slocombe (who we just saw his beautiful camerawork in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB) was the cinematographer for NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.  The tongue in cheek flavor of the film may be due to screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr's roots in the campy 1960s television show BATMAN for which he wrote many episodes. Even though director Irvin Kerschner had just done THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, some of the special effects in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN highlight not every film in the early 80s had Industrial Light and Magic aka ILM to support a filmmaker's vision. 

Sean Connery would finally never play James Bond again after NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.  But with the real Bond production team beginning to spin its wheels and show its age with OCTOPUSSY and later A VIEW TO A KILL (1985), Connery's jump back into the role that made him famous was a nice diversion for fans of 007.  Because of its past troubled legal disputes with THUNDERBALL, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was the once chance to have a James Bond film remade, providing audiences with a reboot of the THUNDERBALL story with new actors playing the familiar Bond characters fans were associated with and a new production team tasked with living up to the true Bond franchise. CrazyFilmGuy would say that NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN'S mission was accomplished.

The Howling (1981)

I consider the Golden Age of Horror films to be from 1931 to 1945 with films like Tod Browning's DRACULA (1931), James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), Karl Freund's THE MUMMY (1932), and George Waggner's THE WOLF MAN (1941) among the best. Hammer Films from Great Britain would resurrect and breathe new life into the horror genre in the 1950s and early 60s reimagining the classic Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, and Werewolf tales with vivid color and a splash of sex and gore. But in the late 70s and early 80s, a modern 2nd Golden Age of Horror emerged, led by mostly young directors, some just out of film school. Filmmakers like John Carpenter (HALLOWEEN), Joe Dante (PIRAHNA), John Landis (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON), David Cronenberg (SCANNERS), and father figure George Romero (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) told fresh tales of horror with the benefit of new amazing special effect and make-up artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin (THE THING), Tom Savini (DAWN OF THE DEAD), and Dick Smith (THE EXORCIST). It was a heady time for horror.

It all happened at the perfect time for a horror film fan like CrazyFilmGuy who was just approaching high school during this renaissance of new horror films. After watching all the classic Universal horror films with my aunt in my youth, I was craving new material to see with my high school friends or new girlfriend. Next to Dracula, the Werewolf is my second most favorite horror character.  Hollywood, as it's apt to do, had two competing werewolf films come out in 1981. John Landis's AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is a terrific werewolf film mixing horror with comedy which is not an easy thing to do. I vividly remember going to see AMERICAN WEREWOLF with my girlfriend and we enjoyed the film immensely.  But the second werewolf film of 1981, director Joe Dante's THE HOWLING holds a special place in my heart as a lover of horror films but also film history in general. 

Not only is Joe Dante's THE HOWLING one of my all-time favorite werewolf movies, but it may also be one of the greatest horror geek out films of all time with all kinds of horror film Easter eggs for movie lovers. Based on the novel The Howling (in title only) by Gary Brandner, screenwriters John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless (but mostly Sayles) gave many of the characters in THE HOWLING the names of film directors who directed or produced werewolf films from both Universal and Hammer films. Director Dante also cast THE HOWLING with veteran actors like John Carradine, Kevin McCarthy, Kenneth Tobey, Slim Pickens, and Dick Miller who either appeared in classic horror/Sci-Fi films or classic films in general.  THE HOWLING is a horror movie fan's Birthday and Christmas gift rolled into one.

THE HOWLING begins with TV news anchor Karen White (Dee Wallace) meeting serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo) in a seedy porno shop in Hollywood, wired by the police to catch Eddie. The surveillance goes badly. Karen barely escapes with her life as Eddie is shot by a trigger-happy young policeman (Steve Nevil). Haunted by dreams and close to a nervous breakdown, Karen begins to see noted psychiatrist Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee) who's been promoting his new book The Gift on her TV station. Waggner believes time away from her news anchor job will do her good and recommends Karen spend some time up at his retreat north of Los Angeles called the Colony, an experimental living community. With the blessing of KDHB General Manager Fred Francis (Kevin McCarthy) and her news colleagues Chris Halloran (Dennis Dugan) and Terry Fisher (Belinda Balaski), Karen travels up to the Colony with her husband William "Bill" Neill (Christopher Stone) for some well-deserved rest.

Karen and Bill attend a barbeque at the Colony hosted by Dr. Waggner where the meet some of the locals including Jerry Warren (James Murtaugh) and his wife Donna (Margie Impert), Charlie Barton (Noble Willingham), the eccentric Erle Kenton (John Carradine), the mysterious and seductive Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks) and her equally feral brother T.C. (Don McLeod). Later that night, Karen hears strange howls at night. Or is it the wind? While on a walk the next evening, Karen and Donna come across a disemboweled cow. The local sheriff Sam Newfield (Slim Pickens) arrives to investigate.  Back in L.A. Chris and Terry search Eddie Quist's apartment and find disturbing drawings including one of Karen.  They go to the morgue to view Eddie's body but when the Morgue Attendant (screenwriter John Sayles in a cameo) opens the vault, Eddie's body is missing. 

Bill goes on a hunt with the locals to find the animal that killed the livestock. He shoots a rabbit. Marsha offers to cook it for Bill and tries to make a move on him which Bill rejects. On his way back to his cabin, Bill's attacked by an animal, suffering a bite. Waggoner bandages Bill up. Karen's scared and calls her Terry, asking her to come up to visit them.  Karen attends some group therapy sessions with Waggner.  Karen and Bill's relationship becomes strained and out of sync. Terry explores the Colony and discovers a cove that resembles one of Eddie Quist's drawings. Bill sneaks out at night and meets Marsha. They make love next to a fire where both turn into werewolves. The Colony is not a therapy retreat but a haven for werewolves. 

The next day, Terry discovers a rustic cabin full of the same drawings she found in Eddie Quist's apartment.  She encounters a werewolf but manages to cut off its hand and flee. Terry runs to Waggoner's office.  She calls Chris to tell him Eddie is one of Waggoner's patients, but her call is cut off when Eddie the werewolf disembowels her. Chris calls the Sheriff then jumps in his car, buying silver bullets from an occult book shop owner (Dick Miller) before driving up to the Colony. Karen and Bill have a fight over Marsha. Karen goes to Waggoner's office to call Chris and finds Terry dead and Eddie alive.  Eddie begins to transform again. Karen throws acid on Eddie and runs out of the office. She reaches her car, but Jerry and Charlie are waiting for her. They take Karen by gunpoint to a barn where a werewolf council has convened led by Waggoner. But there's dissent among the group. Marsha doesn't like that Waggoner brought Karen to the community. Chris arrives at the Colony with rifle in hand. He shoots several werewolves. As Karen and Chris try to escape, Karen is bitten. Back in Los Angeles, Karen goes on camera with dangerous consequences to warn her viewers that werewolves live amongst them.

What about those character names and their connection to other werewolf films? Let's start with William "Bill" Neill played by Christopher Stone. Neill was the director of FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1944). His full name was actually Roy William Neill.  George Waggner (played by Patrick Macnee) directed THE WOLF MAN (1941). Erle Kenton (played by John Carradine) directed HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) and HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945) in which the Wolf Man appeared in both. Ironically, a young John Carradine played Dracula in both of those films. Terry Fisher (played by Belinda Belaski) references Hammer Film director Terence Fisher who was at the helm of THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961). Fred Francis (played by Kevin McCarthy) is British cinematographer and director Freddie Francis who made LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF (1975).  Legendary and prolific B-movie director Sam Newfield (played by Slim Pickens) directed THE MAD MONSTER (1942) which had a werewolf in the film. Charlie Barton (played by Noble Willingham) made ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) which had Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man playing second banana to the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.  Lew Landers (played by Jim McKrell) was another B-movie maestro who directed THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943) that had both a vampire and werewolf in the picture. Jerry Warren (played by James Murtaugh) rivaled Ed Wood for some of the cheapest made horror films ever made including his werewolf contribution FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF (1964). Lastly director Stuart Walker who directed the first talking werewolf film WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935) is referenced by morgue attendant John Sayles as a former co-worker. An incredible Who's Who of werewolf trivia by THE HOWLING filmmakers and fun for horror movie fans to pick out.

For all the times I've watched THE HOWLING, I've mostly paid attention to the horror film aspects of the film, but screenwriter John Sayles (who would go on to direct prestigious films including MATEWAN, EIGHT MEN OUT, and LONE STAR) cleverly throws in some social commentary and pop culture references that I noticed upon this viewing. THE HOWLING takes shots at the cutthroat world of local television news where a news station risks the life of their news anchor for an exclusive.  Karen is put out as bait to capture serial killer Eddie Quist and nearly loses her life when the police operation goes awry.  General Manager Fred Francis is more interested in historic TV news ratings than Karen's welfare when he puts Karen on air to tell the audience how she caught Eddie the Mangler. 

The disintegration of a marriage is another topic not normally found in a horror film although THE HOWLING is no KRAMER VS KRAMER (1979). Karen and her husband Bill whose marriage appears strong at the start of THE HOWLING will fall apart once they go to the Colony. When Bill wants sex, Karen's not in the mood, still recovering from the trauma at the porno store.  Later, when Karen's interested, Bill's not in the mood, recovering from a wolf bite and unknowingly, snared by the she-wolf Marsha. Karen and Bill even have a domestic violence spat with Bill striking Karen after she accuses him of sleeping with Marsha. It's domestic drama in the middle of a supernatural tale.

Psychotherapy is another target in THE HOWLING.  Dr. Waggner runs the Colony, a forest hideaway where he works with patients fighting repressed memories. He pedals his book The Gift on KDHB TV and advises the channel during the Eddie Quist manhunt. Donna Warren tells Karen she tried other groups like Primal Screamers and Scientology before finding Waggner and his methods. But it turns out Waggner's a fraud. The Colony is a sanctuary for people who suffer with lycanthropy aka werewolves.  Waggner does help the werewolves to control their urges. Charlie Barton raises livestock for the werewolves to feed on instead of humans.  But Eddie Quist's serial killings eventually expose the Colony's secret. 

Director Joe Dante sprinkles throughout THE HOWLING cast a Who's Who of supporting actors with ties to classic horror and science fiction films as well as classic films in general.  I can't think of another film that has so many juicy connections bridging the past with the present. Let's start with actor John Carradine. Carradine appeared in over one hundred films (some good; some not very good) including John Ford's THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1939).  One of his earliest appearances in horror is a brief, uncredited appearance as a hunter in FRANKENSTEIN (1931). As previously mentioned, Carradine appeared as Dracula in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA, both directed by Erle Kenton which is Carradine's character's name in THE HOWLING.  As Erle, Carradine gets to ham it up as the oldest werewolf in the Colony.

Film fans will remember Kenneth Tobey from the classic sci-fi/horror film THE THING FROM ANTOHER PLANET (1951) directed by Christian Nyby and produced by Howard Hawks. Dante remembered Tobey and cast him as a veteran cop trying to locate Karen White with his trigger-happy partner on the streets of Hollywood at the beginning of THE HOWLING. Tobey would also make an appearance in Dante's GREMLINS (1984). Kevin McCarthy who plays ratings hungry general manager Fred Francis was the lead in another classic sci-f/horror film, Don Siegel's THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956), shouting the famous line "You're next!" at the end of the film. One of Dante's favorite lucky charms who has appeared practically all his films is Dick Miller. In THE HOWLING, Miller plays Walter Paisley, bookstore proprietor and werewolf lore expert.  Walter Paisley was the name of Miller's character in the Roger Corman directed BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959). Corman, who's production company Concorde produced Dante's JAWS rip off PIRAHNA (1978) has a cameo at the beginning of THE HOWLING.  Miller would play the unfortunate pawn hop owner who sells Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator ammunition in James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR (1984). 

Rounding out THE HOWLING'S eclectic supporting cast is the recognizable Slim Pickens who plays Sheriff Sam Newfield. Pickens could usually be found in countless westerns both in film and television including Mel Brooks' BLAZING SADDLES (1974) but one of Pickens most memorable roles is in Stanley Kubrick's' DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) as Major "King" Kong, riding a nuclear bomb like a bronco to doomsday at the film's finale. One of Dante's final touches is casting British actor Patrick Macnee as the TV psychiatrist Dr. George Waggner.  Magee is most famous playing British Agent John Steed on the hit British TV show THE AVENGERS (1961-1969) opposite Honor Blackman and later Diane Rigg.  As the show was syndicated, THE AVENGERS became a hit in America as well. Macnee brings class to THE HOWLING as an educated and concerned doctor who turns out to not quite be what his public persona indicates. 

She doesn't get enough credit, but Dee Wallace is the glue that grounds THE HOWLING into reality despite its incredible werewolf transformations and effects. Wallace's performance as anchor woman Karen White, tenuously trying to keep her grip on reality as her career and marriage crumble in the aftermath of the disastrous Eddie Quist encounter is a tour de force for a horror film. Wallace's performance in THE HOWLING must have caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, who cast Wallace as the single mother trying to raise three kids and a cute little alien in E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTIAL (1982), another impressive performance by Wallace. The 80s were good to Wallace with lead roles in Lewis Teague's CUJO (1983) based on the Stephen King novel and CRITTERS (1986), a sci-fi horror comedy.

THE HOWLING is very male dominated but besides Dee Wallace, three other actresses have prominent and important roles in the film. Belinda Belaski who plays Karen White's co-worker and friend Terry Fisher was a favorite of director Joe Dante.  Belaski appeared in his first film PIRAHNA and would also have roles in Dante's GREMLINS, GREMLINS: A NEW BATCH (1990), and MATINEE (1993). Belaski's Fisher is both a confidante to Karen and an investigative producer who uncovers more than she bargained for when she comes up to the Colony when Karen needs her the most. Newcomer Elisabeth Brooks has both the toughest and sexiest role as Marsha, the so-called "nymphomaniac" of the Colony. In truth, Marsha is the most truthful of the inhabitants, barely concealing her true nature (except that she's Eddie Quist's sister). Brooks certainly has a lupin quality to her. Lastly, Margie Impert as Donna Landers provides a sisterly role, taking in Karen and showing her around the Colony when she first arrives. Donna shows us that not all werewolves have to be violent people.  They can also be wives and best friends. 

Some final HOWLING tidbits. Make Up artist and huge werewolf fan Rick Baker began work on THE HOWLING before director John Landis pulled Baker away to work on AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (Landis and Baker had worked in 1973 on a low budget film called SCHLOCK together previously). Baker's assistant Rob Bottin would take over the werewolf effects duties. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON'S beast is four legged. THE HOWLING chose to have its werewolves two-legged. Both werewolf films would be released in 1981 and both Baker and Bottin would be applauded for their special effects especially the transformation of men and women into werewolves done without dissolves like Lon Chaney Jr. in THE WOLF MAN. 

A couple of werewolf special effects in THE HOWLING did not turn out quite as spectacularly as hoped yet director Dante left them in the final cut albeit very briefly.  The scene where Bill and Marsha make love in the woods and transform into werewolves ends with an animated shot of the two creatures intertwined before panning up to a full moon. It only works because it ends that particular scene.  The other partially successful effect by Dave Allen is toward the end with three stop animation model werewolves howling as Karen and Chris flee the Colony. It's Dante's attempt to have a full length shot of the werewolves but it's very brief and obvious the creatures are models and not people in a werewolf costumes. But I applaud both experiments with different types of special effects. 

Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone play husband and wife in THE HOWLING but were actually engaged during filming and married from 1980 to 1995 when Stone died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 55. Besides THE HOWLING, Wallace and Stone also worked together in CUJO.  Actor Dennis Dugan who plays news producer Chris Halloran would continue to act but also turn to directing.  Dugan chose comedy over horror, directing several Adam Sandler films including HAPPY GILMORE (1996) and GROWN UPS (2010). THE HOWLING is full of cameos.  Besides screenwriter John Sayles as the morgue attendant and low budget film director/producer Roger Corman as Man in Phone Booth, look for Famous Monsters publisher Forrest J. Ackerman as a Hollywood bookstore customer, fellow Corman director protege Jonathan Kaplan (HEART LIKE A WHEEL) as a gas station attendant, and RAGING BULL cinematographer Michael Chapman as Man at End of Bar in the film's final scene.

Often the best part of a film is the movie poster.  The rest of the film is crap.  This is not the case with THE HOWLING which I believe may be one of the greatest movie posters in film history.  Like the film, the poster hints at the horror that awaits. An unseen woman screaming behind scratch marks on a canvas. A creepy red font spelling out the title.  Kudos to Avco Embassy's marketing team. 

Director Dante and screenwriters Sayles and Winkless even stick in a pop culture icon in a subversive way in THE HOWLING with the use of the yellow smiley face.  Serial killer Eddie Quist uses a yellow smiley face sticker to lead Karen to their Hollywood Boulevard rendezvous. He places it on a phone booth where he calls her and later the porno booth where they finally meet in person. But after Eddie's killed, we continue to see that smiley face in various places like Eddie's apartment or the ramshackle cabin that Terry stumbles upon in the woods of the Colony. The sticker hints that Eddie or some malevolent force is lurking. What should be a warm feeling when seeing a smiley face takes on a sense of dread.

For Dante, Sayles, Bottin, Wallace, and many others, THE HOWLING would be their calling card to bigger projects and success.  Director Dante would go on to direct the Steven Speilberg produced GREMLINS and later the sci-fi comedy INNERSPACE (1987) starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, and Martin Short. But for CrazyFilmGuy, THE HOWLING is Dante's best film, a love letter to the horror and sci-fi classics that must have shaped him (and many of us) in our youth.  Every aspect of THE HOWLING is superb for a film that cost slightly over one million dollars to make. John Hora's cinematography is excellent, garish lighting for the Hollywood scenes, moody backlighting and fog for scenes shot in Mendocino County standing in as the Colony.  Editors Mark Goldblatt (TERMINATOR II: JUDGEMENT DAY) and Dante keep the film moving at a nice 90-minute pace yet give every character his or her moment. The werewolf transformation scenes are cut perfectly, mixing actor and werewolf model mask flawlessly. And Italian composer Pino Donaggio's atmospheric score melds perfectly with the film.  THE HOWLING would spawn many sequels including HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (1985) with Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning but none of them come close to the originality of THE HOWLING. 

John Landis's AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is a great werewolf film, made on location in Wales and London, with a bigger budget and studio backing.  But for me, THE HOWLING is a better film, pushing the classic werewolf story into the modern era, mixing humor, horror, and social commentary into a classic made by filmmakers who pay homage to the cinematic past while forging a new future for horror films in today's film universe.  

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

My love for English Comedy can be traced back to two sources: actor Peter Sellers and the comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus. Sellers tickled me in my youth with his bumbling French detective Inspector Clouseau in a series of Blake Edwards films including A SHOT IN THE DARK (1964), THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER (1975), and THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976). But it was also Sellers's ability to play multiple roles in films that caught my attention in Jack Arnold's THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (1959) and Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) in which Sellers plays three different characters in both films. Monty Python's Flying Circus was like no style of comedy I had ever seen before.  Skits starting in the middle or having no conclusion, the use of funny, twisted words, and irrelevant sight gags (including the occasional nudity), the young Cambridge and Oxford comedian/actors Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam (the one American), Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin forever changed my sense of humor. Monty Python would move on from television to films with the hugely popular MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975) and MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN (1979). I have no doubt that both Peter Sellers and the Monty Python group were inspired by a certain actor and some films that actor made for a small but creative studio in the late 40s and early 50s. 

The resurgence of English comedy can be traced to after World War II.  Leading the charge was actor Alec Guinness and the small Ealing Studios. Ealing Studios, although known as a thrifty company, would have a string of comedy hits after the war including KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949), THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951), THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951), and THE LADYKILLERS (1955).  Alec Guinness appeared in all four films.  In KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, Guinness would play eight different roles which would be an inspiration for Peter Sellers to play multiple roles in his films.  Guinness and Sellers would even appear together in Alexander Mackendrick's THE LADYKILLERS.  I think originally my plan was to blog about THE LADYKILLERS but somehow, I got THE LAVENDER HILL MOB in my brain instead.  Although both films have a crime element to them, they are primarily comedies.  Furthermore, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB has a connection to a more modern film starring two Monty Python members and the first appearance in a film by a young Audrey Hepburn (don't blink or you'll miss her as she makes an appearance in the first few minutes of LAVENDER).

Directed by Charles Crichton and an Academy Award winning screenplay by T.E.B. Clarke, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB opens with mild mannered bank clerk Henry Holland (Alec Guinness) living it up at a Rio De Janeiro cafe, handing out wads of cash to waiters, philanthropists, and the beautiful Chiquita (Audrey Hepburn in her first screen appearance).  Holland reminisces to a stranger sitting at his table how he came to arrive in Rio.  We flashback to London a year earlier. Holland works as a bank clerk, supervising the delivery of bullion from the gold refinery to the bank.  Holland has been doing the same job for twenty years.  Honest, underpaid, treated poorly by his supervisor Mr. Turner (Ronald Adam), Holland has a secret plan.  He wants to steal a shipment of gold bullion from his own bank.  His only problem is finding a method to smuggle the bullion abroad. One night while reading a crime novel to his neighbor Mrs. Chalk (Marjorie Fielding) at the Balmoral Private Hotel in the Lavender Hill section of London where they both live, a new tenant Alfred Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway) arrives.  Pendlebury is an artist. Pendlebury makes and sells all kinds of tourist novelties including miniature lead Eiffel Towers paperweights.  Pendlebury shows Holland around his factory. Those Eiffel Tower replicas give Holland an idea.

Holland approaches Pendlebury with his plan to steal a shipment of gold bullion.  When Pendlebury asks how they could possibly smuggle so many gold bars without the authorities discovering it, Holland suggests melting the gold into miniature Eiffel Towers paperweights and ship them to France. Pendlebury likes the scheme and becomes his partner.  When Holland returns to the office the next day, Mr. Turner has good news.  Holland has been promoted and will be moved from the Bullion Office to Foreign Exchange.  Holland is mortified. He and Pendlebury now need to speed up the robbery before his transfer.  The men realize they will need some real criminals to assist them. Holland and Pendlebury go around town loudly discussing Pendlebury's trouble with his safe's lock with his company's payroll inside.  Their ruse attracts two safecrackers: Lackery Wood (Sidney James) and Shorty Fisher (Alfie Bass). Holland explains their plan to the two petty criminals. Not surprisingly, Lackery and Shorty eagerly join the Lavender Hill Mob.

Holland lays out the plan which involves Pendlebury, Lackery, and Shorty. Holland's final trip will be to escort 212 gold bars. During the route, Holland signals to the security drivers he believes someone is following them.  The driver stops to investigate. Shorty, pretending to be a street vendor selling art, jumps into the van and drives off with Holland in the back. Shorty takes the van to Pendlebury's shop where he and Lackery unload the gold into one of Pendlebury's vans.  They tie up Holland as part of the plan, but the police are already snooping around, scaring Lackery and Shorty who drive off, leaving Holland blindfolded and clueless to his surroundings. Holland falls into the Thames River where he's rescued by two police officers. Holland is taken to the police station, questioned by Inspector Farrow (John Gregson) who Holland feeds misleading information to, and released.  The Lavender Hill Mob begin melting down the gold into little Eiffel Towers and ship them off to Paris. Pendlebury has the boxes marked with a special letter which means don't open. The plan is going along splendidly. But like most robberies, things begin to unravel. 

After biding their time, Holland and Pendlebury travel to Paris to pick up their shipments. On a lark, they go to the top of the Eiffel Tower where Pendlebury shows Holland where the lead Eiffel Towers are sold. To their horror, they discover one of their specially marked boxes open behind the vendor.  She has just sold six gold Eiffel Towers to a group of English school girls. Holland and Pendlebury chase the English girls all the way back to St. Christopher's School in London.  They convince the School Mistress (Eileen Harvey) the girls accidentally bought a test prototype and switch out the gold ones for the lead ones plus a ten-shilling bill. But one girl June Edwards (Alanna Boyce) won't switch her souvenir out. Holland and Pendlebury follow her after school to a Police Training School where an exhibition on Police Work is going on.  June gives the gold paperweight to her policeman friend. Surrounded by hundreds of policemen, Holland and Pendlebury manage to snatch the last gold tower. Chased thru the exhibition, they steal a police car and speed away. Pendlebury is caught but Holland manages to flee with six gold paperweights, eventually reaching Rio.  THE LAVENDER HILL MOB ends with Holland admitting to the stranger he's spent the last of the money. But there's one last surprise in store as Holland and the stranger rise to depart the Rio cafe. 

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB follows the classic heist film checklist but in a unique, English way. It's the anti-thesis of John Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, an American film that was released a year earlier in 1950 about a jewelry heist that unravels. In ASPHALT, most of the participants are criminals. With LAVENDER, the key participants are a meek bank clerk and an eccentric artist. The plan in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE crumbles when partners begin to double-cross each other. In THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, nobody mistrusts anyone to the point that Lackery and Shorty have complete faith that Holland and Pendlebury will return from Paris with the gold and split it fairly between the four of them.  Bad luck is the one ingredient that binds all heist films from Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA (1941) to Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) to Michael Mann's HEAT (1995). A cop showing up at the wrong time. A member of the heist crew oversleeping or talking too much the night before. For Holland and Pendlebury in LAVENDER HILL MOB, it's one of the boxes of gold Eiffel Towers marked to remain sealed that is inadvertently opened at an Eiffel Tower kiosk.

Two sequences in particular help make THE LAVENDER HILL MOB rise above most comedies.  The first sequence is almost surreal with director Crichton pre-dating the French New Wave with his camera angles, editing, and effects.  Holland and Pendlebury, atop the Eiffel Tower, confident their scheme has worked are aghast to discover one of their prized boxes of gold bullion paperweights has not only been opened but six English school girls have bought them. As the schoolgirls take the elevator down, Holland and Pendlebury chase them, racing down the circular stairs of the Eiffel Tower, throwing bowler hats and coats to the wind, laughing hysterically and becoming dizzier by the moment until they reach terra firma. It's a kaleidoscopic foreshadowing that their foolproof plan has started to go awry.

The second sequence is an extended set piece and the finale as the two men plan to steal the last gold paperweight from the one schoolgirl who wouldn't exchange her gold one for a lead one. The schoolgirl leads them to all places the local police station where an Exhibition about Police Work is in full motion and her favorite police officer works at. Holland and Pendlebury audaciously steal the last paperweight right under the authorities noses then lead them on a wild chase through the police headquarters at first before they steal a police car. The police become Keystone Cops temporarily, running into dead ends at the exhibition or crashing their police cars into each other trying to catch the Lavender Hill Mob.

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB thumbs its nose at authority institutions like banks and the police. Holland is passed over for promotions because he's humdrum and honest.  For twenty years, he never complains and does his job. But secretly, he's plotting against the bank not necessarily because they have ignored him. He's just ridden with gold bullion for so long, it's shine has corrupted him. Even after the robbery, the bank parades Holland around.  He's a hero to them even though the gold bars are gone. Little does the bank know their meek Mr. Holland was the architect of the robbery. The finale at the exhibition showcases how police solve crimes. But the perpetrators who have stolen the gold bullion brazenly snatch the last Eiffel Tower gold paperweight right in front of the authorities.  Their escape makes the police look foolish as they run and stumble over each other to catch them. Later, in the stolen police car, Holland uses the wireless microphone to send the other police cars on wild goose chases. Briefly, the police look like fools. But in the end, Inspector Farrow and his men prevail. 

Ealing Studios comedies seemed to favor elderly women as foils or comic characters.  In THE LADYKILLERS, an octogenarian landlady Mrs. Wilberforce becomes a thorn in the side of five bank robbers hiding out as tenants in her dilapidated house.  THE LAVENDER HILL MOB has no such central character, but it does have the white-haired Mrs. Chalk, a mystery loving neighbor of Holland.  Holland reads to her a hardboiled crime thriller when he returns from work one night.  Mrs. Chalk is very excited when Inspector Farrow and his men drop by to question Holland. It's like a scene from one of her crime books. Holland and Pendlebury both rent from the motherly Ms. Evesham (Edie Martin) who has signs around her hotel like "wipe your feet" and a curfew for her boarders. Just like Mrs. Wilberforce, Ms. Evesham has no idea that criminals are renting from her. 

For director Charles Crichton, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB would be his biggest hit for Ealing Studios and his career until Monty Python alum John Cleese reached out to Crichton to direct Cleese's screenplay A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988) co-starring Kevin Kline, Jaime Lee Curtis, and fellow Python alum Michael Palin. Crichton would be the perfect choice for A FISH CALLED WANDA as it had many elements similar to THE LAVENDER HILL MOB. There's a crime element (a jewelry robbery), eccentric characters (Kline's buffoonish Otto and Palin's stuttering animal lover), and an elderly woman with dogs who keeps getting in the way of Palin's plan for revenge on Otto for his sadistic treatment of his prized aquatic fish. A FISH CALLED WANDA would reintroduce the film world to Charles Crichton and his skill at handling comedy with a caper plot.

Crichton (with the assistance of Guinness) would introduce cinephiles to a future film actress and movie star in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB. Although she only appears for about ten seconds at the very beginning of the film, Audrey Hepburn makes quite an impression as the beautiful Chiquita with her black gloves, white suit, and beautiful profile. Apparently, Guinness was impressed with the young Hepburn as a stage actress and arranged for her small role in the film.  Two years later, the world would discover Audrey Hepburn in William Wyler's comedy ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) starring Gregory Peck and she would rocket to stardom. Ironically, Stanley Holloway who plays Pendlebury in LAVENDER would play Hepburn's father in George Cukor's MY FAIR LADY (1964). Also look for a young Robert Shaw (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, JAWS) in an uncredited part as a police chemist at the exhibition and Richard Wattis (THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL) as an Opposition Member of Parliament.

My generation knows Sir Alec Guinness who plays Henry Holland in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB first and foremost as the wise Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi who teaches Luke Skywalker about the Force from George Lucas's STAR WARS (1977).  Modern audiences might be surprised that Guinness started out in comedies like THE LAVENDER HILL MOB and THE LADYKILLERS.  It would be director David Lean who would change Guinness's fortune from comedies to more dramatic fare when Lean cast Guinness as the martinet Colonel Nicholson in THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI (1957). Guinness would become Lean's good luck charm.  Although not playing multiple characters, Guinness would be a chameleon for Lean with performances as Fagin in OLIVER TWIST (1948), as Arab Prince Faisal in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962), as Russian General Yevgraf Zhivago in DR. ZHIVAGO (1965), and as Indian Professor Godbole in A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984). Guinness's role as Holland in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is a whimsical performance. Quiet, boring on the outside, Holland's a dreamer on the inside who almost pulls off the crime of the century. Guinness's Ealing Studio comedies are a master class in watching an actor hone his craft. never appearing the same from film to film. 

Stanley Holloway who plays the eccentric artist/sculptor Alfred Pendlebury in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB was a favorite actor of  Ealing Studios appearing in several films for Ealing including PASSPORT TO PIMLICO (1949) written by LAVENDER screenwriter T.E.B Clarke and THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT (1953) directed by Charles Crichton and also with a screenplay by T.E.B. Clarke. Holloway was primarily a comedic actor and his Pendlebury is one of his best performances. Like Holloway, he's a dreamer but much more of an extrovert.  Because Pendlebury's not really a criminal, his sincerity and honesty nearly bring the heist to an end right after its success. Rounding out the Lavender Hill Mob are British character actors Sidney James as Lackery Wood.  James would appear in a string of successful CARRY ON British comedies in the 60s like CARRY ON CLEO (1964) and CARRY ON AGAIN DOCTOR (1969). Alfie Bass was a comic actor who often played Cockney working-class roles like Shorty in THE LAVENDER HILL MOB.  Bass would also appear in Roman Polanski's comedy/horror film THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (1967). 

Some final LAVENDER HILL MOB tidbits. The full name of screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke is Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke. Clarke's nickname was Tibby.  Special mention should be made of Producer and Ealing Studio Studio head Michael Balcon who ran Ealing Studios from 1938 to 1955.  Balcon was instrumental in Ealing's successful string of comedies including THE LAVENDER HILL MOB.  Balcon was influential in the early career of Alfred Hitchcock in the 20's and 30s and even produced Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS (1935).  Lastly, the beautiful black and white cinematography for THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is courtesy of none other than Douglas Slocombe who would have a prolific career capped off with his work as director of photography for Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) and its two subsequent sequels.

In the end, my mistake of confusing THE LADYKILLERS with THE LAVENDER HILL MOB turned out to be a happy one. THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is a delightful, smart, entertaining comedy caper showcasing the English comedy at its best in the post-World War II era. I'm excited to view THE LADYKILLERS in the near future to see the culmination of Ealing Studios decade of classic British humor. 

Midnight Run (1988)

Assassins. Hitmen (and women). Bounty hunters. In the movies, we're fascinated by these miscreants and their dark and nefarious deeds.  From Blake Edwards THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976) which opens with various assassins from around the world trying to knock off the clumsy Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) at Munich's Oktoberfest to Joe Carnahan's SMOKIN' ACES (2006) where the before mentioned three (assassins, hitmen and hitwomen, and bounty hunters) all descend on Lake Tahoe to knock off or grab a mob snitch (Jeremy Piven) to David Leitch's just released BULLET TRAIN (2022) starring Brad Pitt with a bunch of killers and assassins on a speeding train, filmmakers find interesting stories and characters for these wrongdoers to thrive in.  In reality, hired killers and bounty hunters are much more mundane, usually not wearing fancy clothes or sporting mohawks to call attention to themselves.  Often, the one thing the movie hitmen and the real hitmen share are they're not very smart.  Not all of them. But some.

Add to this subgenre Martin Brest's MIDNIGHT RUN (1988).  Like friends telling me about films I needed to see that I had never seen like George Roy Hill's SLAP SHOT (1977) or George Armitage's GROSSE POINTE BLANK (1990), more than one friend had recommended that I had to see MIDNIGHT RUN.  Somehow, I missed MIDNIGHT RUN when it was originally released. I was just out of college in 1988 and trying to figure out what my vocation was going to be. I started working in movies as a Production Assistant which ate up most of my time so I may not have been going to many movies that year.  But when I look up films from 1988, there are many that I saw in cineplexes including A FISH CALLED WANDA, BULL DURHAM, and MARRIED TO THE MOB. MIDNIGHT RUN slipped past my radar.

MIDNIGHT RUN'S director Martin Brest has slipped past film fans radar.  He's not a prolific director with only six director credits to his name.  You probably wouldn't know that Brest directed the widely popular BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984) starring Eddie Murphy. But looking at Brest's film credits, what jumps out are that his films are a combination of the fish out of water plot and unlikely duos or trios.  His first noteworthy film GOING IN STYLE (1979) is about three senior citizens who decide to rob a bank.  BEVERLY HILLS COP placed an urban Detroit cop in the swank environment of Beverly Hills. For MIDNIGHT RUN, it's a blue-collar bounty hunter who has to catch and bring back not a vicious criminal but a low key, unassuming mob accountant. Oil and water.  But these dichotomies make for entertaining, compelling films. 

With a tight script by George Gallo and directed by Martin Brest, MIDNIGHT RUN introduces us to bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert DeNiro). We see Jack at work as he chases and catches a fugitive named Monroe Bouchet (John Toles-Bey). But then Jack's competitor, another bounty hunter named Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) knocks Jack momentarily unconscious and briefly grabs Monroe before Jack regains the upper hand and takes Monroe bacl.  Jack turns Monroe into a bail bondsman named Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) and his associate Jerry Geisler (Jack Kehoe) and claims his bond money.  Eddie has a big score for Jack.  He needs Jack to find and bring back a low-level Mafia accountant named Jonathan "the Duke" Mardukas (Charles Grodin) who embezzled $15 million from his mob boss Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina) and gave it away to charity.  The Duke skipped out on a $450,000 bail that Moscone posted on him. Jack agrees to find and bring the Duke back for $100,000.

Almost immediately, Jack is picked up by the FBI led by special agent Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto). Mosely wants to know if Jack is looking for the Duke. Jack denies any involvement and leaves, stealing Mosely's badge as he does. Jack flies off to New York where he's immediately harassed by two of Serrano's goons Tony (Richard Foronjy) and Joey (Robert Miranda). With some help from a police friend and the use of Mosely's badge, Jack tracks Jonathan to his sister's house. Jack arrests Jonathan and heads straight to the airport to fly him back to Los Angeles and collect his money. But Jonathan has a fear of flying.  Jack and Jonathan exit the plane and take the train instead. Furious that Jack and Jonathan are now taking a train to Los Angeles, Eddie calls in Marvin to help expedite Jonathan's immediate return.

So begins a cross country trek by Jack and Jonathan to arrive in Los Angeles before midnight on Friday, chased by Mosely and the FBI, Jimmy Serrano's goons and hired hitmen, and now Jack's bounty hunter competitor Marvin. Marvin and Mosely almost catch Jack and Jonathan on the train, but they jump off, switching to bus travel next.  The bus pulls into Chicago (Jack's hometown) where Serrano's snipers wait to pick them off. But Mosely and the FBI show up. During the shootout between the FBI and Serrano's men, Jack and Jonathan manage to escape again. Needing money, Jack begrudgingly visits his ex-wife Gail (Wendy Phillips) and his teenage daughter Denise (Danielle DuClos) for money so they can continue their journey west. Gail loans him what money she has in the house and lets Jack borrow her station wagon. Jack calls Eddie and asks him to wire $500 to Amarillo, Texas. Eddie's partner Jerry leaks the info to Serrano's men. Jack and Jonathan begin to bond as they head out west.

The final act has Jack and Jonathan encountering a helicopter full of Serrano's snipers, falling into and floating down a raging river, getting picked up by a group of Native Americans, pretending to be the FBI inspecting supposed "counterfeit" money at a diner so they can obtain some dough to continue to Los Angeles, and hopping a train (literally) to Flagstaff. Marvin gets the upper hand with Jack in Sedona, grabbing Jonathan from Jack before losing Jonathan directly to Serrano's men.  Jack makes a deal with FBI agent Mosely. Jack will help set up Serrano by offering him some fake computer discs supposedly containing Serrano's hidden assets so the FBI can arrest him if Jack gets custody of Jonathan in return. Mosely agrees and all parties confer at Las Vegas's McCarron Airport for the final showdown, but things don't turn out exactly as expected. 

One of the clever devices of MIDNIGHT RUN is Jonathan aka the Duke becoming Jack's conscience. Now, Jack already has a conscience. We learn this when Jack reveals to Jonathan that when Jack was a cop in Chicago, he wouldn't go on the take like his fellow police officers with a local drug dealer (who turns out to be Serrano). Jonathan becomes Jack's conscience for everyday life. He keeps telling Jack to stop smoking, reminding him that smoking will kill him.  Jack's marriage fell apart after he left the police force. Jonathan pushes Jack to reconcile with his ex-wife and daughter when they pay them a visit to borrow some cash and a vehicle. If we imagine the classic conscience imagery, Jonathan is the angel or good conscience, and Jack has become a bit of the devil or bad conscience. Jonathan's concern for Jack makes the two of them connect throughout the film.

All the characters claim to be smarter than anyone else in MIDNIGHT RUN, yet everyone keeps getting duped. Marvin successfully grabs Jack's bond escapees twice from Jack only to fall for the oldest trick in the book and lose them right back to Jack. Jack falls for Jonathan's claim he's afraid of flying only to learn later Jonathan knows how to fly a crop duster. FBI Agent Mosely orders Jack to stay away from Jonathan only to have Jack steal his ID badge. The stolen badge keeps coming back to haunt and embarrass Mosely.  Even mob boss Serrano falls prey to his better senses.  His men Tony and Joey keep failing to catch or kill Jonathan.  Serrano keeps threatening to kill both of them if they don't but Serrano only bluffs and he's eventually apprehended by the authorities. Bail Bondsman Moscone will be double crossed by Jack but only after Moscone hired Marvin for more money to find Jack and Jonathan.

What makes MIDNIGHT RUN so much fun is the relationship between DeNiro's Jack Walsh and Charles Grodin's Jonathan "the Duke" Mardukas.  Like any good buddy film, they need to hate and antagonize each other at the start of the film only to come to respect one another by the end of the film. Grodin is the perfect foil as the quiet yet irritating Jonathan who easily gets under the skin of DeNiro's uptight bounty hunter Jack. After a series of intense, dramatic roles in films like Michael Cimino's THE DEER HUNTER (1978) and Martin Scorsese's RAGING BULL (1980) it's nice to see DeNiro in a comedic film albeit action comedy.  DeNiro would appear in more comedies later in his career including Harold Ramis's ANALYZE THIS (1999) and Jay Roach's MEET THE PARENTS (2000).

Grodin made a career playing bland, unassuming characters with a rebellious or wild streak lurking inside in films like Elaine May's THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972), Warren Beatty's HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978) or Ivan Reitman's DAVE (1993). In MIDNIGHT RUN, Grodin's Jonathan seems like the typical nerdy accountant but he's more street smart than he lets on.  He nearly escapes from Jack a couple of times, rescues Jack from a raging river, and comes up with a plan for the two of them to grab some easy money as the continue their run from their pursuers. Jonathan wins Jack over with his ingenuity.

MIDNIGHT RUN is full of juicy roles for some of the most colorful supporting actors in Hollywood.  The actor who steals the film is John Ashton who plays Jack's bounty hunter adversary Marvin Dorfler. Marvin is a complicated character.  At times, he's the smartest guy in the film until he does something so stupid, he's the dumbest guy in the film. Director Brest must have loved Ashton as he cast him as one of the LA detectives stuck with chaperoning Detroit cop Eddie Murphy in BEVERLY HILLS COP. Joe Pantoliano (RISKY BUSINESS, MEMENTO, THE GOONIES) gets to play one of his usual bombastic, screaming characters who can't catch a break as Bail Bondsman Eddie Moscone. Audiences love to root against Moscone and Pantoliano makes you care for him briefly before you're happy he's never going to get his bond money back.

Yaphet Kotto (LIVE AND LET DIE, ALIEN) plays FBI agent Mosely in a quiet, understated way which makes his performance funny when he learns Jack has stolen his ID badge.  Mosely's seething but it's always internally, no histrionics or dramatic meltdowns.  The one actor whose performance is a bit disappointing and one dimensional is the great Dennis Farina as mob boss Jimmy Serrano. Serrano is the least fleshed out of MIDNIGHT RUN'S characters.  Yes, he has a history with Jack going back to Chicago and Serrano knows how to push Jack's button.   But Serrano's just a regular cardboard villain. Farina never really finds a way to bring any humor or empathy to the Las Vegas mobster.  Check out Farina in Barry Sonnenfeld's GET SHORTY (1995) with John Travolta and Gene Hackman or Steven Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT (1998) with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez to see Farina at his best.

The musical score for MIDNIGHT RUN is very jazzy which will surprise movie fans when they find out the composer is Danny Elfman.  Elfman is best known as the composer for most of Tim Burton's films including BEETLEJUICE (1988), BATMAN (1989) and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990).  Elfman's music is usually haunting and dramatic so it's nice to see him branching out in a different direction. Elfman's score for MIDNIGHT RUN was one of the first movie scores he did.

Although director Martin Brest has not made a ton of films, Brest has had an interesting up and down career.  Brest's reputation as a perfectionist may have contributed to his limited resume. Brest was the original director of WAR GAMES (1983) starring Matthew Broderick before he was replaced by John Badham. Some of Brest's scenes he directed are still in WAR GAMES.  Brest reached the pinnacle of his career directing Al Pacino to his Academy Award winning performance in SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992).  And it was Brest who directed the ill-fated GIGLI (2003) starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez that may have sunk his career due to the off-set romance and tabloid headlines with Affleck and Lopez that overshadowed the film (besides a terrible title and plot). 

But MIDNIGHT RUN is Brest during one of his best creative periods. Juggling multiple locations and an array of characters, Brest steers MIDNIGHT RUN confidently to a satisfying conclusion. DeNiro and Grodin are perfectly cast as an unlikely odd couple who form a bond even though DeNiro's Jack Walsh may be taking Grodin's Jonathan inadvertently to his death. A multitude of pursuers and an unlikely pair who become buddies, MIDNIGHT RUN is a satisfying combination of genres that entertains, thrills, and makes you laugh. No bail bond required.