THE BAND WAGON (1953) - I was ten years old when I became aware of Cyd Charisse as she did a strip tease while singing the theme song for THE SILENCERS. This was a memorable moment in my young life. I saw clips of her in the MGM compilation film THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT, but I didn't know that that song originated with this movie. I am not a fan of movies directed by Vincente Minnelli, but this movie was a backstage story written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and was a lot of fun. Seemingly washed-up movie hoofer Fred Astaire was lured to New York with the promise of a new Broadway show written by Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray. They wanted hit director Jack Buchanan to guide the show, but he wanted to turn the light musical comedy THE BAND WAGON into a modern-day FAUST. Young ballet dancer Cyd Charisse was wanted for the female lead, and she immediately began to butt heads with Astaire as he worried that she thought he was too old and and she worried that he thought she was too inexperienced. During the rehearsal period, the two finally realized that they could work together, and after a disastrous out-of-town opening, they decided that they could return the show to the original script and have an hit. I would have prefered that they not fall in love in the end, but I guess that was not they way these movies worked. Charisse was given a nice showcase to exhibit her talent, with Michael Kidd's choreography. Ava Gardner had a nice cameo as herself, while Julie Newmar briefly appeared in one number and Steve Forrest had a line while getting off the train. Most of the musical performances might have actually been able to be presented on stage, but the final "Girl Hunt Ballet" couldn't. It was rather silly but fun.
Midsomer Murders "Left For Dead" Season 11 Episode 3 (2008) - The story here is just like a Horror film. Four children, two boys and two girls, think that they've killed another boy, so they dump his body in a disused well. When the boy comes to, he climbs out of the well and is found by an couple that is still aching from the death of their son a year earlier. They decide to tell the boy that he is their son and that he must live in their cellar to protect him from the "outers". Things start to unravel decades later when the boy finds the woman he wrongly thinks is his mother dead and he accidentally kills the man he wrongly thinks is his father. So our police heroes start to investigate when the boy's memories of his childhood trauma leads to murder.
Midsomer Murders "Schooled In Murder" Season 15 Episode 6 (2012) - This also has something of a Horror movie premise with a traumatic childhood experience inspiring a series of murders.
Midsomer Murders "The Scarecrow Murders" Season 22 Episode 4 (2022) - Who is committing murder during the Annual Scarecrow Festival, that is a fundraiser for the local church? Is it linked to the on-line gambling business they support?
THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION (1957) - Author C.S. Forester is best known for his 12-book series about Horatio Hornblower, an officer in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, with the first book published in 1937. Before that, he wrote two novels dealing with the Peninsular War - the fight against Napoleon's forces in Spain. In 1932 came DEATH TO THE FRENCH and in 1933 came THE GUN. THE GUN is the novel upon which THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION is loosely based. Fleeing from the invading French Army, the leader of the Spanish Army orders his huge cannon - possibly the largest cannon in the world - to be dropped off a cliff because it is slowing down his retreat. Finding that cannon is deemed important to French General Theodore Bikel as he's heard that a British naval officer, Cary Grant, has been ordered to get it. Grant is expecting to be dealing with the General of the Spanish Army, but the General has retreated and he must deal with guerrillero leader Frank Sinatra. Sinatra agrees to help Grant get the cannon to the British after Grant helps him to use the cannon to destroy the French garrison at Avila. Luckily, Sinatra's girlfriend, Sophia Loren, is there to convince the two men to cooperate, and to provided the screenwriters with an unengaging romantic triangle. Reportedly married screenwriters Edna and Edward Anhalt were close to separating at this time, but that doesn't explain the poor quality of the script, which is filled with cliches and a surprising lack of characterizations. Spectacle seems to be the main reason for this movie, and director Stanley Kramer delivers that with thousands of extras on real locations in Spain. Unfortunately, this tends to make the stars look unimportant, but if the intention was to celebrate the heroism of the Spanish masses, it succeeded. A big question for me is why such a famous "liberal" filmmaker like Stanley Kramer decided to make a film in Fascist Spain with a story that lionizes the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion? If you are interested in dramatizations of the British fighting the French in Spain during the Peninsular War, may I suggest the Sharpe novels written by Bernard Cornwell beginning int 1981, and turned into TV films beginning in 1993.
RAVENOUS (1999) - Reportedly writer Ted Griffin was inspired by the stories of cannibalism by the Donner Party and by Alfred E. Packer to invent a Native American legend in which eating another human endows the eater with the dead person's strength as well as supernatural healing powers. It also seems to spread like a virus. Some dialogue seems to indicate that Griffin intended this tale of ravenous cannibalism to be an analogy for Manifest Destiny and American consumerism. So, it starts off as a wilderness drama, becomes an Horror film and then a gory black comedy. Produced by American and British companies, the film was partly shot in Durango, Mexico - I guess for the opening scenes during the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, but mostly in the snowy mountains of Slovakia, doubling for the Sierra Nevada of California. Macedonian born filmmaker Milcho Manchevski won great acclaim with his first feature, BEFORE THE RAIN, and was hired to direct this film. After three weeks of production, Manchevski was fired by executive producer Laura Ziskin and replaced by Raja Gosnell, who had made NEVER BEEN KISSED. Reportedly, the cast didn't approve of Gosnell, so actor Robert Carlyle suggested director Antonia Bird, with whom he had just made FACE. Bird got final directing credit, and there are no reports on which parts of the film can be blamed on which director. The film started well, with Captain Guy Pearce throwing up at the idea that he took heroic action during the Mexican-American War. Assigned to a remote fort in the Sierra Nevada, Pearce found himself surrounded by a group of distinct characters played by David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, Joseph Running Fox and Sheila Tousey. Suddenly Robert Carlyle appeared with a tale of how he escaped from a group that had become cannibals. As Carlyle suggested that a female member of the group might still be alive, Many members of the fort set off on a rescue mission. Up to this point, the film worked well, but then came twist after twist and the film became irritating. To top it all off, the film had a non-ending. Reportedly Bird was unhappy with changes the studio made to the film without her input.
Unsung "Chingy" (2024)