prs-51's reviews

This is one of those fairly uncommon good films that you can watch often and it is always enjoyable and brings a smile to your face. It follows the antics of an LA Lothario as he navigates the problems of managing too many women in his busy life. The film deftly avoids presenting this character as a predatory jerk by showing him really to be in many ways a loser and that it is more the case that his romantic "success" is a result of his position as a gifted heterosexual hairdresser in the upper-class Los Angeles female ecosystem. The cast is uniformly good with a special shout-out to Jack Warden as Julie Christie's sugar daddy. The setting on President Nixon's 1968 election eve may add nuance to the background but the basic story can stand on its own. Good entertainment.

In the long list of film noir femmes fatales there's a pantheon of actresses usually headed by Jane Greer, Barbara Stanwyck and Gloria Grahame. To this illustrious list I think you can credibly add the name of Elizabeth Montgomery even though it is based on only one performance in one episode of a television show. In the "Rusty Heller Story" she plays the eponymous sexy Southern firebrand as she schemes and revenges her way up the greasy pole in the world of the 1920's bootleg era gangsters. She can charm the pants off any male shmuck and even has straight-arrow Eliot Ness watching himself. Its a bravura performance and she dominates the screen.

I am prompted to offer this review of The Wild and the Willing by what I think is its undeserved user rating on this site. While the film has its shortcomings it does offer some good entertainment for those who enjoy the atmosphere of the play hard-work little milieu of young 1960's university students. The banter and dialogue of especially the first half is good as well as the characters and motivations of many of the leads - the bright angry working class boy who fits right in but is forever feeling guilty about it; the good looking girls seeking that superior male meal ticket while being abruptly dismissive of lesser types wanting their company; the emotionally unsatisfied wife of a cold academic looking for comfort in younger male students and many others. And this is probably where it runs off the rails a bit in the second half with the relationship between the wife and the working class student being rushed and not quite plausible in its sudden intensity given he has been happily dating a young Samantha Eggar. The dramatic finale of the prank is also a little overblown. Overall this site's user rating of 6 is too low for a film that has many enjoyable attributes not least the acting of Ian McShane, Virginia Maskell, Samantha Eggar and others. I would clearly list it in the upper 7's.

This is a great addition to the rom-com genre. The characters are attractive and engaging, enjoy great chemistry and the dialogue crackles along throughout. Jack Quaid and especially Maya Erskine are excellent in the lead roles. Even the last half hour doesn't flag and so avoids something which plagues so many films in this genre. One aspect which engaged my post viewing ruminations was whether the lead female character Alice was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I concluded that while she probably was - after all the essential arc of the film is the overcoming of the male character's lifelong romantic commitment phobia by his association with a dynamic female friend at a series of weddings - nevertheless her character is so rich, well-drawn and zestful that it doesn't matter. Heartily recommended for those who enjoy their rom-coms and even those who don't.

I wish to add to the abundance of praise heaped on Mae Clarke in this delightful adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood's play of the sad yet somehow uplifting romance between a young soldier and a demi-mondaine in World War 1. Her wonderful naturalistic performance of the doomed Myra positively glows on the screen and has dated not a whit. One shudders to think what co-star Bette Davis would have done to the role with her mannerisms as she would most likely have been in the part if the film had been made a few years later. A note on the male lead. While lacking the charisma of later Hollywood stars his portrayal of earnest young romanticism does not detract from the film.

In hindsight it seems a waste that the 21 year old Mae Clarke could not parlay this exceptional performance into a long and distinguished career like her friend Barbara Stanwyck as this film is clear evidence that the potential was there. The modern age does not do romance at all well unlike this classic from the past and I highly recommend it.

Hemingway's great novel "The Sun Also Rises" has three layers to it. On the surface it is about the lives, adventures and falling out of a group of American and British expatriates in France and Spain after World War 1. At a second level there is a subtext running throughout the book about the search for meaning and authenticity in the aftermath of that horrendous war. And thirdly on a literary level there is the revolutionary style of Hemingway's spare prose where so often less is so much more. This film adaptation unfortunately only addresses the surface level – it is arguable whether any film adaptation could embrace all three. How does it rate on its limited scope? Only Errol Flynn as "Mike Campbell" captures the essence of the book character : bankrupt, dissolute, pathetic but still somehow endearing. His model in real life was dead within a decade. Tyrone Power as the protagonist "Jake Barnes" is stolid but unmemorable. Ava Gardner should be ideal as the reckless liberated 20's female "Brett Ashley" but the film fails to provide sufficient back story to explain her promiscuous dissolution and Gardner does not really convince in the role. Eddie Albert fails to project sufficiently the good-natured ebullience and intelligence of Jake's friend "Bill Gorton". Finally Mel Ferrer is merely adequate as "Robert Cohn" who triggers much of the falling out of the group in Spain. Overall this is a disappointing attempt to film what is probably an unfilmable novel. See it to watch Errol Flynn in one of his finest roles.

After reading some moderately positive reviews here I approached watching Istanbul with some optimism. I remembered fondly Errol Flynn's late-career turn as "Mike Campbell" in the film version of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises". Although too old for the part, he put in a fantastic performance and was the only actor in that film who truly "got" his character from that great novel. Sadly here he is listless throughout whether fighting or romancing or anything. Cornell Borchers plays the love interest done up as Ingrid Bergman but with little of the charisma. As an aside Peggy Knudsen ("Mona Mars" from "The Big Sleep") plays the distaff side of a crass American tourist couple. The roles are played in the manner of Ralph and Alice from "The Honeymooners" and it jars greatly to a modern taste showing yet again that the past is a foreign country. The plot involving lost love and diamond smuggling is ho-hum and the overall entertainment value is passable only.

Barbara Stanwyck was a great actress over a long and distinguished career and this is an enjoyable drama about the lives and loves of upper income New Yorkers in the late forties. But as much as she delivers her usual sterling performance, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her as she is upstaged in the glamour stakes by both Cyd Charisse and Ava Gardner who are both at the apex of their beauty. A secondary niggle relating to the casting has both Babs and Cyd fighting for the affections of Van Heflin. Van Heflin!! On the other hand James Mason is well-cast as the weak-willed sleazy husband. Overall an impressive entry into the "woman's picture" of the forties genre.

Coming late to assessments of Niagara on IMDb I see most of the themes that impressed this reviewer have been well canvassed. A middling to good rating as an entry in the film noir/thriller genre. One of the first full blown depictions of the hyper-curvaceous, iridescent lipglossy and figure-huggingly clothed Marilyn Monroe persona that became standard. The expert use of the wonderful Niagara Falls backdrop to the story. The unsettling(poor) performances of Max Showalter and Don Wilson. But just like cadillacmax@msn.com , the thought that was most insistent to this elderly male reviewer throughout was – Boy, would I love to be on a honeymoon with this Jean Peters.