Month: March 2022

Rex Harrison hires actor Cliff Robertson to play a prank by inviting three former lovers (Edie Adams, Susan Hayward, and Capucine) to his supposed death bed. When one of the women dies, the investigation reveals more complicity and secrets. It’s a bit uneven in tone switching from outright comedy to murder mystery on the turn of a dime. It’s still quite a bit of fun for anyone who can appreciate such a mashup with quite an appealing cast that also includes a young Maggie Smith as Hayward’s dutiful nurse.  

American human rights lawyer Brad Dourif and his partner Frances McDormand document atrocities committed during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. When Dourif and his IRA driver are executed by security forces, McDormand joins police investigator Brian Cox in investigating the deaths. I’m admittedly uneducated with regards to the situation in Northern Ireland, both before during, and after the events from this film. The film doesn’t do a lot to educate on the matter which makes the plot a bit confusing for someone like myself, but the acting is reliably strong and makes up for that.

Unable to provide the identity of the one witness of his assistance of Allied soldiers during World War II, Hungarian immigrant Vittorio Gassman jumps ship in New York Harbor to evade immigration officials. Knowing only the man’s first name and that he works in Times Square, Gassman has a day to find him or risk never being able to enter the country again. It’s a tight little chase film with Gassman searching the dark streets of New York finding allies and foes on every corner. There’s a neat climax at the new United Nations headquarters that includes a somewhat heavy handed soliloquy over the treatment of immigrants particularly as a step in spreading peace and freedom throughout the world.

As one of the most costly film props at the time, it’s nice seeing Robby the Robot getting a little more love in this sequel of sorts to Forbidden Planet . Frustrated with his son, Richard Eyer’s, inability to live up to his expectations, scientist Philip Abbott takes the boy to his research laboratory where he introduces the kid to the local supercomputer and a box full of Robby parts. With a sudden, unexpected burst of intelligence, Richard manages to put Robby back together and finds in him the friend he has been longing for. This is no Forbidden Planet, but it’s still quite a bit of fun. Eyer is a complete brat in his role and would have been a great candidate to join the kids in Village of the Damned if he weren’t generally an idiot. He gets Robby to help him fly in a giant kite with no harness, turn invisible, and generally reek havoc all over his parents’ lives. Too bad there’s someone smarter and more powerful that can get in his way.  

This film runs like a less amusing version of Albert Brooks’s Lost in America. Californians Desi Arnaz Jr., Robert Carradine, and Melanie Griffith misguidedly move to Alaska with the foolish notion that it will only take a short while before they are making an easy living as salmon fishers. Reality quickly sets in and before they know it, they are broke and struggling at jobs not much different than they were working in California. The three leads are appealing in their continued optimism, but it’s hard not to get frustrated by their constant stupidity as they aimlessly jump from one misadventure to the next. 

With the help of hired guide Robert Mitchum, Senator Kirk Douglas zealously leads a wagon train of settlers from Missouri to the untold wonders of Oregon. I’m not a huge fan of Douglas generally, but he perfectly encapsulates the fervent drive of a politician whom everyone quickly grows to hate. The rest of the cast, which includes the debuts of Sally Field and Sam Elliott in a tiny uncredited role, is capable but not given enough to outshine Douglas’s bombastic character. The film touches on some interesting themes for a Western (adultery, pregnancies resulting from same, child murder, hangings, mental illness) and it has a beautiful, natural setting, but otherwise feels like it’s trying to prolong a dying genre. 

When his wife suddenly dies in a car accident, David Oyelowo travels to Maine to spend time with her cantankerous dying mother Dianne Wiest. I wish the relationships between the three of them was explored much more. While both of the main characters are obviously racked with grief, the audience isn’t given a chance to empathize as the dead woman is mostly a blank slate. Oyelowo and Wiest are both great actors, so it’s not a waste of time watching them work their craft, but I expected more.

After Army doctor Charlton Heston returns to his coal-mining home town, he is encouraged by socialite Lizabeth Scott to take a job tending to the imagined ailments of wealthy matrons in order to pay off the debts of his brother who had died in a mine he had failed to maintain the safety of. This is essentially The Citadel but told for an American audience. They both touch on the risks of coal mining, incompetent surgeons, good doctors gone astray by the lure of money, dutiful women standing by their good doctors, and a social ill that the film pushes to correct. Where the earlier film inspired the establishment of the NHS, this film argues against doctors who misrepresent themselves to patients and take credit for the work of other doctors. I think I’d rather have the NHS.