Set in Mexico, two teen-aged slackers (Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna) who spend their summer days getting high while their girlfriends vacation in Italy meet up with an older woman (Maribel Verdu, PAN'S LABYRINTH) at a wedding. The three go off on a road tour together in search of the perfect beach but it is a summer that will affect the boys lives profoundly. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN), the film plays out like a raunchier, sexed up version of SUMMER OF 42 but in the end, no less sentimental. Curiously, the film has an unseen narrator who provides background information about the character's past and their future which fills in the gaps that the narrative is unable to provide. Bernal and Luna are fine but the screenplay doesn't allow them much character development which leaves the burden to Verdu which she does with aplomb and subtlety. Despite the haphazard teen "hey dude" comedy beginnings, the film ends on a poignant note.
Three American girls (Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley, Pamela Tiffin) in Madrid find romance, then heartbreak, then romance again. A remake of the 1954 hit THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN (and by the same director, Jean Negulesco) relocated from Italy to Spain. With the exception of Lynley's character, the girls seem dumbed down and less captivating than the gals in the 1954 film and the Madrid background doesn't hold the romance of the Rome locations. Ann-Margret is given four songs to sing and with the exception of the title song, they're a pretty dire bunch. Still, it's colorful and there are minor pleasures such as seeing Gene Tierney, whose powder room confrontation with Lynley is the film's highlight, in her final film role. Lionel Newman is responsible for the Oscar nominated scoring and the lensing by Oscar winner Daniel L. Fapp (WEST SIDE STORY) is classy. With Anthony Franciosa, Brian Keith, Isobel Elsom, Antonio Gades, Gardner McKay and a handsome piece of wood by the name of Andre Lawrence.
The massive success of BUCK PRIVATES which featured Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Army caused Universal to halt production on their next film HOLD THAT GHOST and whip up this wan comedy which put them in the Navy. It's one of their weaker vehicles but ironically was a huge hit for them. There's one genuinely hilarious routine with Abbott conning Costello out of his money by getting him trying to guess which cup has a lemon under it as Abbott switches them around. The Andrews Sisters are responsible for two of the three musical highlights, the lively Gimme Some Skin My Friend and the kitschy Hula-Ba-Luau which the sisters perform with native drums attached to their hips and the Condo Brothers do a bouncy tap number. Other than that, it's pretty dull going. Dick Powell as a popular radio crooner hiding out in the navy and Claire Dodd as a newspaper reporter provide the anemic romance. With Dick Foran and Shemp Howard.
A dumb American hunk (Gary Cooper) who thinks with his crotch instead of his brain is entrusted to deliver money to buy guns for a group of revolutionaries hoping to defeat a corrupt Chinese war lord (Akim Tamiroff). But he gets waylaid by a femme fatale (Madeleine Carroll) which begins a chain of dire consequences for all involved. Directed by Lewis Milestone (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT), the screenplay (co-written by Clifford Odets) is unusual for an adventure movie in that all the characters are highly flawed and often downright unlikable. Cooper is pretty dumb for a hero, which might be amusing if this had any comedic elements but it doesn't and his irresponsible behavior is often irritating. Madeleine Carroll's dubious heroine has a weak moral center, acting as a shill for her scumbag father (Porter Hall). Despite his Oscar nomination, Akim Tamiroff is unconvincing as the Chinese war lord, one of the worst Caucasian as Asian performances I've seen. The film's highly imaginative cinematography by Victor Milner (THE FURIES) received a well deserved Oscar nomination as did the film's score by Werner Janssen. Director Milestone keeps the action to a minimum while keeping the attention on the film's idiosyncratic characters. With William Frawley in a shockingly bad performance, Dudley Digges, Philip Ahn, Leonid Kinskey and John O'Hara (yes, the John "BUTTERFIELD 8" O'Hara) as a newspaper reporter.
A narcotics agent (Victor Mature) chases a cold blooded dope smuggler/killer (Trevor Howard) from New York to Rome to Greece and New York again. Shot in stylish black and white CinemaScope by Oscar winning cinematographer Ted Moore (GOLDFINGER) and directed by a second string director John Gilling, it's a fairly diverting thriller. The ads for the film shrieked, "This is a picture about DOPE!" but the movie seems less concerned about narcotics (MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM it's not) than being a fairly standard action film in an international setting. The film's opening is a bit disconcerting. It's supposed to be New York but it's clearly London with a lot of English actors with bad American accents but that handicap is over once they hit Europe. The overly insistent score, mostly jazz, is by Richard Rodney Bennett. With that gorgeous piece of human architecture Anita Ekberg as Howard's unwilling accomplice, Martin Benson, Andre Morell, Dorothy Alison and Eric Pohlmann.
Based on a novel by the Irish writer Edna O'Brien, who also did the screenplay, the Brian G. Hutton (WHERE EAGLES DARE) film focuses on a toxic marriage between a controlling but vital wife (Elizabeth Taylor) and her philandering spouse (Michael Caine) that reaches a crucial state when he falls in love with a quiet young widow (Susannah York). Taylor is pretty awesome here in one of her best performances, what one refers to as a tour de force (she won the Italian Oscar for best actress for her work here) and a force of nature, she is. Her Zee is brimming with life to an overwhelming degree so that you can see why living with her could exhaust you to the point that a passive young thing like York would seem like a life raft to Caine. Taylor's Zee is whizzing around to the degree that you're never quite sure if she's genuine in her sincere moments or her devious mind is clicking away, setting the stage for a grander plan. Caine carefully balances his performance, rising to Taylor's near hysteria in his scenes with her and tender in his scenes with York. O'Brien's clever screenplay is full of wit yet still delving into the untidiness of romantic relationships. With Margaret Leighton and John Standing.
The owner (Clifton Webb) of a major automobile company invites three candidates (Cornel Wilde, Fred MacMurray, Van Heflin), along with their wives (June Allyson, Lauren Bacall, Arlene Dahl), to New York in order to evaluate the men for the position of general manager of the company. But he feels a wife can be a major asset (or liability) so the wives are scrutinized too. Jean Negulesco (THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN) directs this sophisticated CinemaScope entertainment and it's a treat to see that an intelligent script doesn't get lost in the glossy wide screen glamour. It's like EXECUTIVE SUITE, another corporate themed drama released the same year (1954), but in a lighter though no less thoughtful vein. Allyson (coincidentally one of the stars of EXECUTIVE SUITE) gives what may be her best performance as the gauche Kansas City housewife pitifully unprepared for the cosmopolitan lifestyle of the New York corporate environment. With Elliott Reid and Margalo Gillmore.
A poverty row version of THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY courtesy of quickie producer Sam Katzman who brought us ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU and TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK. After two propellers fail, an airline flying from Lisbon to New York prepares to make a crash landing into the Atlantic ocean but not before crew and passengers reflect on their lives. The film is full of bad actors spouting off even worse dialogue. Unlike its superior brethren like AIRPORT and HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, we couldn't care less about these nonentities played by uncharismatic actors. As the plane's pilot, Gary Merrill (ALL ABOUT EVE) plays the role so crankily that we're never quite sure if it's the character or Merrill realizes the mediocrity of the project. With Nancy Davis (aka Nancy Reagan) in her final movie role, Irene Hervey and Roger Smith and a bunch of people you never heard of.
