It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

Featuring a whole host of stars, this movie certainly lives up to its title - it's utterly crazy. The plot revolves around a race to get at a hidden treasure, with several parties trying to get there first - little knowing that they're walking straight into a trap set by Police Chief Culpepper (Spencer Tracey). Terry Thomas, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers and other swap alliances constantly in an effort to get to the treasure first.  There's more than one surprise once they finally get there, however...

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is really an excuse for a hyper-extended chase scene - some on the ground, some in the air - with loads of slapstick and lots of shouting. I liked the film overall, but found it a little overlong and definitely too reliant on slapstick and simple acts of random chaos for the humour. However I can mainly forgive this because it is still very funny at times, occasionally the dialogue comes to the fore, and with Peter Falk and Dick Shawn stealing the show with their limited screen time (did Dick Shawn ever play a relatively normal character?!?), it's all great fun.  Recommended if you like the likes of The Great Race and suchlike movies from that era.

Peter Falk links:

Movie Review - Penelope (1966)

Terry Thomas links:

Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957)

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965)

Dick Shawn links: 

The Producers review (1968 version)

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)

Peter Sellars' last outing as Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseaua relentlessly silly and often very funny movie. Chief Insp. Charles Dreyfus is just coming out of the lunatic asylum, but keeps seeing Clouseaua, which is threatening to send him over the edge again. The reason for this is that everyone thinks Clouseua is dead due to an identity mix-up and botched assassination attempt. Jacques goes undercover to find the people who tried to kill him, while Dreyfus is charged with finding the killers and bring them to justice - whereas he'd much rather congratulate them!  Simone Legree, private secretary to the millionaire who thinks he's succeeded in having Clouseaua killed, ends up helping him; after briefly turning his old boss' home into an exotic parlour, once he realises that the departed is not so departed after all, also aids in his quest.

The film lurches from one chaotic scene to another, ending up with a crazy chase scene in Hong Kong.  Dyan Cannon is good as Simone Legree, Peter Sellars is funny, Bert Kwok is funnier, but Herbert Lom steals the scene every time he's on screen - sadly not very often.  Revenge of the Pink Panther is like a compendium of the most stupid moments from all the previous films rolled into one, but it's done with a joyous abandon and lovely musical score by Henry Mancini, and it hits the funny bone more often than not.

Not high class cinema perhaps, but certainly a very enjoyable film (particularly if you're in a very silly mood at the time!).  The scene with Herbert Lom having to read a glowing eulogy of his hated colleague is classic.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

The Hobbit Needs Direction!

Apparently Guillermo del Toro dropped out of directing The Hobbit a month or so ago, and now they're trying to get Peter Jackson involved. I hadn't heard a thing about this before today!!

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Quartet (1948)

This fascinating piece of film history is based on four different short stories by W.Somerset Maugham, with an introduction and conclusion by the author himself.  His comments on writing are interesting (especially to a fellow writer [albeit unsuccessful one!] like myself), and the four stories, each introduced by the first sentence or two from the story being read, are quite intriguing.  Each story looks at part of the human psyche, with moments of intrigue, comedy and just downright weirdness.  There are a plethora of stars featuring here, including Cecil Parker, Honor Blackman, George Cole and many others.

The four stories featured in Quartet are:

The Facts of Life - a young man travels to Monte Carlo for a tennis tournament, with three specific pieces of advice from his worried father - don't gamble, don't lend money to anyone, and don't get involved with women.  The young man of course manages to break all three, though not altogether intentionally.  He turns out to be a very lucky young man however, though his father is still not a happy man... Whimsical and simply told, it nevertheless holds great interest in its characters and has a killer last line.

'The Alien Corn' - this one features Dirk Bogarde as a young man intent on pursuing a career as a professional pianist, much to the dismay of his family.  The young woman who loves him (who disturbingly appears to be his first cousin) tries to help but is also looking for her feelings to be reciprocated.  The ending has a "that's can't really be what's going to happen, can it?" feeling to it.

'The Kite' - George Cole is a young man with a passion for flying kites.  He ends up in prison and his life in tatters; a prison visitor tries to get to the bottom of what has happened.  A feud between his mother and wife are mainly to blame.  The happy ending does seem a bit contrived, but it is only presented as a possibility so doesn't lose plausibility as a result - in any case this is very surreal and just a little disturbing.

'The Colonel's Lady' - the wife of a retired colonel has a boring marriage, but when her book of poetry is published, things are about to get a lot more interesting...  It turns out that this mild-mannered housewife who wouldn't say boo to a Goose has more fiery passion in her than anyone - especially her husband - ever imagined.

The four stories cover the innocence of youth, two cases of obsession and trying to regain lost youth in that order, so the stories int he film have a nice symmetry to them.  The 2003 DVD restoration does a cracking job apart from a couple of rare errors on the soundtrack.  The link below is for the DVD collection we have which has Quartet along with two other films based on "W.Somerset Maugham's stories (Encore and TriO), which I haven't yet seen.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Introducing Indie Movies Online

The UK based movie-on-demand website www.indiemoviesonline.com offers hundreds of great films to watch at high quality online, legally and for free. There is literally something for everyone, and many gems to be found.

 All types of movie are represented including thrillers, sci-fi, comedies and slick US horrors and more.

New and classic films are added all the time. Expect to find titles like; Allegro, Baise Moi, The Boss of it All, Brothers, Chopper, Choking Man, Dark Star, Evil Aliens, Funny Ha Ha, George Washington, HurlyBurly, King of New York, Kontakt, Love is the Devil, Millennium, Mirror Maze, Mutual Appreciation, My Left Foot, Old Joy, The Pleasure of Being Robbed and Reprise.

There are also stacks of quality documentaries including:  A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese, Crass:  there’s no Authority but Yourself, Sympathy for the Devil, Word Wars, The Cutting Edge, Room 2017 and many more.

You will also find some of the best Animation and classic shorts like; Adam, Creature Comforts, The Quay Brothers Collection,  I Am Bob, Where’s the Money Ronnie? and The Traffic Warden (starring David Tennant).

Since launching in June 2009, indiemoviesonline.com has attracted over 2.5m unique users with its unique blend of free movies. For film fans, www.indiemoviesonline.com is a must visit destination.

Content providers that license films to www.indiemoviesonline.com include The British Film Institute, Aardman, East West, Soda Pictures, Hanway Films, ITV, Spolight, Screen Media, Cinetic, Content Films/Fireworks and Content Republic.

This is a site I didn't previously know about but will definitely be checking out.  More info soon!

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Movie Review - Colonel Effingham's Raid (1946)

Titled "Man of the Hour" in the UK, this movie based on a Barry Fleming novel stars Charles Coburn as the eponymous Colonel Effingham, just retired from military service, returning to live in his old hometown and looking for a new challenge.  He soon finds his new vocation in life - righting the wrongs imposed upon his hometown, fighting the crooked Establishment of politicians and encouraging the townsfolk to abandon their apathetic ways and stand up for themselves.  To do this he starts writing for a local newspaper, The Leader, where he is often at odds with both his cousin, young reported Al Marbury (William Eythe) and Editor, Earl Hoats (Allyn Joslyn).  He finds more ready acceptance of his ideas from Ella Sue Dozier (Joan Bennett), daughter of the Leader's former owner.

While at heart it's a simple tale about community spirit and refusing to give up, there are some satirical jibes at the way American politics works, snappy dialogue for the most part and pleasing performances from Bennett and Joslyn (though Bennett's character is somewhat wasted).  Eythe;'s acting is okay but his narration is poor (the voiceover thankfully only occasionally chimes in).  The film mainly hinges on the larger-than-life performance of Charles Coburn, who is more than up to the job.

Overall Colonel Effingham's Raid is an enjoyable comedy that has aged remarkably well.  Definitely recommended viewing.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Ray Harryhausen Exhibition to open soon

Just a reminder that the London Film Museum (near the London Eye) will be opening an exhibition of the master animator's work on 29th June 2010 (incidentally when Ray turns 90... well it probably isn't a coincidence! :-D)

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it down to the official press preview date, though I hope to make it sometime to see the exhibition. To whet your appetites, here's an excerpt of the official release:

The exhibition will allow the visitor to discover the pioneers of the art of dimensional animation that begins with Georges Méliès through to Ray's mentor Willis O'Brien (the creator of King Kong (1933), and finally to the peak of dimensional animation with Ray's body of work and his invention of what was known as Dynamation. The exhibition will include original models used in his films and Ray's artwork that allowed him to visualise the final creatures and how they would appear on the screen.

Ray is the father of modern day special effects. Without his imagination and wonderful fantasy films there might have been no George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Nick Park or Peter Jackson. It was Ray who inspired these famous filmmakers and each of them credits Ray for their inspiration.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

The Pink Panther (1963)

Despite some sterling comic work by Peter Sellars and a typically sauve performance by David Niven, this comedy never really raises many laughs worth mentioning until the final 20-minute sequence, set in a fancy dress costume. It's a bit dull and tiresome until then, though Sellars manages to raise a laugh now and then. Capucine is fine as his wife who's really working with (and the lover of) "The Phantom", AKA Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven), but Claudia Cardinale is insufferably annoying as Princess Dahla (perhaps her character was actually supposed to be insufferably annoying?!).

Not the best of the series by a long way, probably best to skip the first hour and a half of the 115 minute runtime. Blake Edwards would do better with later Pink Panther movies...

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Battle of the Sexes (1959)

This movie directed by Charles Crichton is one of those frustrating comedies that has you convinced that it's about to burst into life and become very funny, but never actually does it.  Starring Peter Sellars as Mr Martin, a mild-mannered clerk with hidden reserves of steely determination, Robert Morley as Robert Macpherson (the new owner of his recently departed father's traditional business) and Constance Cummings as an American businesswoman (Angela Barrows) out to prove that she's the ultimate professional, Battle of the Sexes constantly flatters to deceive.  Though there are a couple of good scenes, most of the film is faintly engaging or amusing at best; Sellars' character is deliberately subdued, Cummings' character is (predictably_ overbearing and annoying, while Robert Morely nearly saves the day with an enjoyable performance as a nice chap who's completely and utterly out of his depth.  

Battle of the Sexes is based on a short story (The Catbird Seat by James Thurber) there's not enough fleshing out of the story and characters, and the film does little with a fairly strong opening scenario.  Overall it's not a terrible film and the scenes where Martin manages to convince everyone that Barrows has gone insane is pretty funny, but the film is sadly lacking in genuine laughs otherwise.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog