Mauvaise Graine (1934)

Set in Paris, the son (Pierre Mingand) of a wealthy businessman (Paul Escoffier) has his funds cut off because his father disapproves of his extravagant ways. However, when he falls in with a gang of car thieves, he finds he has a talent for theft. Directed by Billy Wilder (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) in his directorial debut. By the time this French film was released, he had already relocated to Hollywood where he wrote screenplays and eventually began directing again in 1942 with THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR. It's an amiable inoffensive comedy but nothing in the film indicates the debut of a major film director. I had a difficult time warming up to the characters. Having had my car stolen once, I find nothing amusing about car thieves and the movie romanticizes them a bit. The film was remade in England in 1936 and in France in 1950. Interesting as a footnote to Wilder's career and an early performance by the great Danielle Darrieux as Mingand's love interest. There's an early score by Franz Waxman (SUNSET BOULEVARD), who would follow Wilder to Hollywood. With Raymond Galle and Jean Wall.

Un Homme Amoureux (aka A Man In Love) (1987)

A struggling actress (Greta Scacchi) living in France is offered a small but important role in a major film. An almost immediate affair begins with the film's leading man, a famous American actor (Peter Coyote). Co-written and directed by Diane Kurys (ENTRE NOUS) in her English language directorial debut. A potentially interesting film is sabotaged by a major miscasting choice. There's an axiom that it takes a star to play a star and Peter Coyote isn't and never was a star. He's a decent character actor but as a leading man, he's sexless and without presence. The film's numerous love scenes are among the most unerotic I've ever seen. One simply doesn't understand the passion that the two women (Jamie Lee Curtis as his wife is the other one) have for him. He's a zero. Shot in English, French and Italian, this is a French/Italian film with American and British leads. Coyote has a crying scene that's abominably embarrassing yet the director (Jean Pigozzi) raves how brilliant it is! In fact, the movie they're making looks pretty crappy. Coyotoe's isn't the only bad performance in the movie. John Berry (yes, the blacklisted director) as Scacchi's father in pretty horrendous too. None of the characters are likeable and eventually, it's a pointless film. With Claudia Cardinale, Vincent Lindon and Peter Riegert.

The Payoff (1956)

A private investigator (Howard Duff) is hired by an attractive blonde (Janet Blair) to pick up an envelope at a prizefight and deliver it to her the next day. It sounds simple enough but when he gets drugged, beaten up and robbed of the envelope, he suspects there's more here than meets the eye! Written by Blake Edwards (THE PINK PANTHER) and directed by John Meredyth Lucas. Originally shown on television as part of the Ford Television Theatre, this is a compact little tale in the style of film noir with all the usual trimmings. Duff's private detective narrates the story in the hard boiled style of  a Bogart or Mitchum in a Raymond Chandler opus. The lovely Janet Blair is a little too wholesome for a femme fatale but it hits all the right buttons and moves quickly. With Richard Crane and Michael Fox.

Colpo In Canna (aka Loaded Guns) (1975)

A flight attendant (Ursula Andress) agrees to deliver a letter from a stranger to a man (Woody Strode) in Naples. Suddenly she finds herself in the middle of a gang war between two drug kings! Written and directed by Fernando Di Leo (THE ITALIAN CONNECTION). A hot mess of a movie! Director Di Leo is best known for his violent Italian gangster movies and this attempt at fusing a brutal mobster movie with comedy falls flat. It's like a parody of his own films. The comedy is too broad and cringingly unfunny. The emphasis on comedy is pushed by Luis Enriquez Bacalov's clownish silent movie comedy underscore. Ursula Andress shows why she was nicknamed Ursula UNdress as she drops her clothing at every opportunity and parades her gorgeous body for all to view. A sad movie, really. For Ursula Andress voyeurs only. With Marc Porel and Isabella Biagini.  

Claudia And David (1946)

A young wife (Dorothy McGuire) is struggling with the responsibilities of marriage and motherhood while her husband (Robert Young) builds a successful career as an architect. Her immaturity leads her to behave unreasonably and suspiciously. Based on the short stories by Rose Franken and directed by Walter Lang (THE KING AND I). This was a sequel to the 1943 film CLAUDIA which had been a great success on Broadway starring McGuire, who recreated her role in the movie version. The first film was a big hit and this sequel also hit pay dirt at the box office. Honestly, this sequel didn't do much for me and I like both McGuire and Young. In between the two CLAUDIA movies, they did THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE which is a better film. The film benefits from an excellent supporting cast including Mary Astor, John Sutton, Gail Patrick, Rose Hobart, Florence Bates and Harry Davenport.

International Settlement (1938)

Set during the Sino Japanese war, a gunrunner (George Sanders) becomes enmeshed in a scheme involving fraudulent customs certificates. Meanwhile, he finds the time to fall in love with a mysterious chanteuse (Dolores Del Rio). Directed by Eugene Forde (CHARLIE CHAN AT MONTE CARLO), this exotic combination of romance and intrigue is very entertaining. Reunited from the previous year's LANCER SPY, Sanders and Del Rio make for an attractive couple and the Shanghai backdrop (actually the 20th Century Fox backlot) adds a bit of mystery and glamour. It's a minor film (CASABLANCA it's not) but one needn't try too hard to like it. A slight annoyance is the secondary romantic couple (June Lang and Dick Baldwin) who the movie could easily have done without as they add nothing to the story. With Leon Ames, Keye Luke, John Carradine and Harold Huber.

Tormented (1960)

A jazz pianist (Richard Carlson) is about to be married when he is visited by a woman (Juli Reding) he had an affair with. She threatens to expose him to his fiancee (Lugene Sanders). When a railing high atop a lighthouse gives way, she falls clinging to the railing and asking to be saved but the pianist allows her to fall to her death. But that is not the end of her as her ghost stalks him. Directed by schlockmeister Bert I. Gordon (VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS), this low budget B (or is it C) movie is like an extended version of a TWILIGHT ZONE episode. Its ending is telegraphed so there are no surprises and Gordon isn't a stylish enough director to provide the requisite atmosphere that might have made a ghost story work. While absurd, it's not quite silly enough to qualify as "camp" but the movie has one stylish asset, the B&W cinematography of Ernest Laszlo (IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD). With Joe Turkel and Susan Gordon.

Three Little Words (1950)

The lives of songwriting team Bert Kalmar (Fred Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton) and their rise to fame from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway to Hollywood. Directed by Richard Thorpe (IVANHOE), this is yet another glossy highly fictionalized biography of popular composers courtesy of MGM, who had recently done Jerome Kern (TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY) and Rodgers and Hart (WORDS AND MUSIC). The narrative is a tub of cliches but one doesn't watch movies like this for their plot (and certainly not their accuracy) but the songs and dances. In this case, that might be enough because we have Astaire partnered with Vera Ellen and Hermes Pan doing the choreography. There's also Debbie Reynolds as Helen Kane singing (dubbed by the real Kane) I Wanna Be Loved By You and Gloria DeHaven playing her real life mother singing Who's Sorry Now? There's also Arlene Dahl displaying a lovely singing voice leading one to wonder why MGM didn't put her in more musicals. With Keenan Wynn, Gale Robbins and Carleton Carpenter.

Why Be Good? (1929)

A young flapper (Colleen Moore) enjoys the wild life but she's really a "good" girl. When the son (Neil Hamilton) of a rich businessman (Edward Martindel) falls for her, his father cautions him against girls like her. Directed by William A. Seiter (YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER). Ah, the 1920s! Flaming youth! Flappers and sheiks doing the Charleston and drinking booze from silver flasks! This silent movie captures the frenzied spirit of the era wonderfully but its story is bland and inane. It's just a routine cautionary tale though Colleen Moore has a fiery speech about men who push girls to dress and behave a certain way for their male pleasure and then judge them as "bad" girls. Colleen Moore is the reason to see the movie! With her bobbed hair, slinky chemise and frenetic dancing, she embodies the flaming youth of the jazz age as much as Clara Bow or Joan Crawford. With Bodil Rosing and John St. Polis.

High Road To China (1983)

Set in the 1920s, a society heiress and flapper (Bess Armstrong) is living the high life in Istanbul. But she needs to find her missing father (Wilford Brimley) or risk losing her inheritance to her father's scheming business partner (Robert Morley). To this end, she hires a womanizing, hard drinking ex-WWI pilot (Tom Selleck) to fly her to Afghanistan where she believes her father might be. Loosely based on the novel by Jon Cleary and directed by Brian G. Hutton (WHERE EAGLES DARE). Tom Selleck was the first choice to play Indiana Jones in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK but he had to pass because he was tied up with the TV series, MAGNUM P.I. This action movie has a lot in common with RAIDERS (though the source material preceded the Spielberg movie) and we get a taste of what Selleck might have been like as Indiana Jones. Initial reviews were tepid but I suspect that's because it was considered a RAIDERS imitator. Today, it holds up very well. Unlike a lot of TV actors trying to transition to the big screen, Selleck has a strong screen presence. The aerial sequences are well done, Selleck and Armstrong have a nice chemistry and there's a beautiful score by John Barry. With Jack Weston, Brian Blessed and Cassandra Gava. 

Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)

Set in 1870s Northern California, hydraulic mining sends floods of muddy water into the Sacramento Valley destroying land and water resources necessary to the wheat farmers in the valley. Against this backdrop, a mining engineer (George Brent) and a farmer's daughter (Olivia De Havilland) fall in love although their loyalties belong to different factions. Based on the book by Clement Ripley and directed by Michael Curtiz (CASABLANCA). The movie is a fictionalized take on the 1882 Woodruff vs. North Bloomfield Mining Company lawsuit. It's an agreeable potboiler more interesting for its landmark court decision than its anemic romance. The film was shot in the relatively new three strip Technicolor process. Unfortunately, the print I watched was somewhat faded and not very sharp. It needs a major restoration but it's not an important enough film to spend the necessary funds. With Claude Rains, Margaret Lindsay, Tim Holt, Sidney Toler and John Litel.

Splendor In The Grass (1961)

Set in 1928 Kansas, a teenage girl (Natalie Wood in an Oscar nominated performance) and boy (Warren Beatty in his film debut) are in love but must deal with their emotions and sexual feelings in a repressed era. Written by William Inge (PICNIC) and directed by Elia Kazan (EAST OF EDEN). Just a wonderful film that catches the angst of budding romance among youth that aren't fully prepared for the power of their passion in an era when "good" girls saved themselves for marriage. With one exception, the performances are first rate. Kazan was an actors director and I'll assume responsible for Wood's career best performance. From her emotional breakdown in the bath to her poignant farewell to Beatty at the end, she's sensational. The one exception is Pat Hingle whose over the top performance as Beatty's crude father threatens to sabotage the movie at any minute. A rich and lovely film. The subtle underscore is by David Amram. With Barbara Loden, Audrey Christie, Sandy Dennis (also in her film debut), Gary Lockwood, Zohra Lampert, Martine Bartlett, Lynn Loring, Sean Garrison and Phyllis Diller (also in her film debut).