Lejink

Badfinger is one of my favourite bands and their "Straight Up" album is in my all-time top ten. A super-talented band with three fine songwriters, they got their start from being affiliated with the Beatles. Signed to their Apple label, it was McCartney who rechristened them and also wrote and produced their debut hit "Come and Get it" while they played on Lennon's "Imagine" album and participated at Harrison's Bangla Desh concert, with the latter also producing four of the tracks on "Straight Up".

Footage of them playing truly live is rare so I was delighted when this popped up in my YouTube recommendations this morning, and I eagerly watched it all the way through. I don't remember this particular programme probably due to its being shown only in the local Granada region, but this is a real find.

The format is a simple one, just film a group live in a TV studio to a small audience, playing a set of six songs. Five of the selections are indeed from "Straight Up", the mini-set closing with a rendition of their smash hit from the previous year "No Matter What".

I'm a big admirer of Pete Ham and his three tunes, their then current hit, the stunningly beautiful "Day After Day", where he challenges my perception that Harrison played the terrific solo, stately piano-led "Take it All" and the power-pop heaven of "No Matter What" naturally shine out, but there's also a blistering, extended run-through of Joey Molland's "Suitcase", a sweet take of his acoustic-flavoured "Sweet Tuesday Morning" whileTom Evans gets to unfurl his good-timey "Better Days".

The studio set itself is basic, the camera angles are a bit random and there are few audience reaction shots but the picture and sound quality is excellent and for a fan like me, getting to see them at their creative peak like this is pure gold.

I'm sure most people know the tragic back-story to the band who were completely ripped off by an avaricious manager which led to the early deaths by suicide of Ham and Evans, the group's last surviving member Joey Molland passing away earlier this year.

They've been called the unluckiest band in rock history and it's hard to argue with that assessment. What's inarguably true however is how good they were as this brief but bright showcase amply demonstrates.

Clark Gable and a young Lana Turner star in this melodrama set way out west at the end of the 19th century. He's Candy Johnson, a fast-talking, fast-palming con man who with his sidekick, the curiously named Sniper ends up on a train for Yellow Creek where he encounters Turner's seemingly prim and proper Miss Elizabeth Cotton who's on her way to see her old pa, played by Frank Morgan. Little does she know that her old man is a recovering alcoholic who has a past with Candy, but now reformed, he's built up the respect of the local townsfolk, who are growing ever more restive about life under the corrupt sheriff, Brazos Hearn, played by Albert Dekker.

From that premise, it's no great stretch to imagine that Candy will rub up against the corrupt sheriff, challenging his position at the top of the greasy pole, that he and Miss Cotton will soon be making their own cotton candy together, thus upsetting her dad and that there will be reckonings, some fatal, for some of the major participants in the drama.

There was much to like in the movie with Gable his usual charismatic self, and yes, he's duly fed another assertive Rhett-like line to further bolster his image, Turner makes the most of her mostly simpering part and Morgan garners sympathy in his part of protective father and concerned citizen. It's no surprise to see Claire Trevor in the mix in another tart-with-a-heart part and Marjorie Main is a real scene-stealer as the obdurate old Mrs Varner.

The film suffers from overloading the narrative and for me, going too lightly on shady Candy's graft operations, even as I appreciate a star of Gable's magnitude was hardly going to get his just desserts. It also suffers from a slow mid-section but certainly benefits from the chemistry between Gable and Turner which legend has it caused Gable's wife Carole Lombard to speed up her return to him with as it turned out, tragic and disastrous personal consequences for her.

All told, it's a solid piece of work, if barely credible and two-paced at times, made watchable principally by the interaction of the mature Gable and emergent Turner.

I didn't know of this film at all until I watched "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin and learned it was a remake of this Marlon Brando and David Niven double-header from the 60's. Not only that, apart from a different ending, the two features are almost identical.

When it comes to my taste in music and movies, I'm something of a "the original is always best" snob, for instance give me the Mitchum and Peck version of "Cape Fear" over Scorsese's pumped up 80's revamp starring De Niro and Nolte. That's my verdict here too. While Caine does a decent job in "Scoundrels" approximating the gentlemanly breeding of his princely, caddish Lawrence Jamieson character, Niven, with his natural class, absolutely nails the tricky-toff part, while I'm afraid it's another mismatch between Martin and Marlon, just as Steve, whose comedy I do have a soft spot for, is no lady-killer compared to Brando as the more low-rent Freddy Benson.

Directed with verve by TV director Ralph Levy, there's great chemistry between these two stars from very different eras. The succession of looks on each of their faces as they play out their relentless game of oneupmanship is a delight to see. Shirley Jones, of all people, eventually becomes their battleground but doesn't get to stray too much from her prim and proper screen image.

In addition to all this, I loved the twists and turns of the story, the sharp dialogue and the exotic locations. There are amusing scenes a-plenty, like Brando in his vest poking fun at his Stanley Kowalski role from "A Streetcar Named Desire", Niven surprise-announcing himself as the doctor who can cure Freddy's paralysis and especially when he whacks his rival with a cane to test out his ailment.

Yes the film reflects the somewhat demeaning attitude of the time towards women but that said, my only other disappointment really, was that I wish I'd seen this before "Scoundrels", so that I could have appreciated what I was seeing at first hand, without being able to second guess the self-same gags and set-ups.