LATE EXTRA

James Mason with photo of Virginia Cherrill

LATE EXTRA (1935). Director: Albert Parker.

In his first film, James Mason, who stars, plays ambitious reporter Jim Martin, who lobbies to get assigned to the story of a cop killing. Bank robber Rudolph Weinhart (Clifford McLaglen) shot a police officer while he was fleeing from the crime scene. As Jim pursues the story, he is both helped and hindered by his girlfriend, fellow reporter Janet Graham (Virginia Cherrill). Even as Jim looks over another crime scene, that of a murdered woman who had called him saying she had information, Janet encounters another woman, Sylvia (Antoinette Cellier), who begs Janet to leave her out of the story or her own life may be forfeit. Inspector Greville (Donald Wolfit of Life at the Top) suspects that someone in the newspaper office has more information than he may be telling the police. Late Extra is one of those big city crime reporter sagas that shows life as it purports to be in a bustling newspaper office where everyone's after the big story and murder is the biggest story of all. Although Mason and most of the other actors are fine, the script is mediocre and this can hardly be called an auspicious debut for James Mason. Alastair Sim [The Ruling Class] plays a kindly older reporter named MacPherson. The picture has humor, sentiment and even a little action, but all told it just isn't very good.

Verdict: Fortunately Mason went on to much better vehicles. *1/2.

BECKET

Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole

BECKET (1964). Director: Peter Glenville.

In the 12th century the Saxon Thomas Becket (Richard Burton) becomes friend, companion -- and some feel, collaborator -- with King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) -- and the two go "drinking and wenching" together. First Henry makes Beckett the Royal Chancellor, and then hits upon the idea of making him Archbishop of Canterbury. This is done because of the friction between the king and the Catholic Church, but Henry gets a surprise when Becket takes his role seriously and becomes seriously pious. When an arrested priest escapes jail and is killed by a Nobleman, Becket wants the man excommunicated, which Henry sees as a blow against England. If Becket goes ahead with his plans, there will be terrible consequences ... Becket is a handsome, well-produced, and well-acted film with a fine score by Laurence Rosenthal, striking production design by John Bryan, and excellent wide-screen photography by Geoffrey Unsworth, but Becket must not be taken as literal history. Edward Anhalt's script was based on a poorly-researched play by Jean Anouilh which ignores the fact that Becket was not a Saxon, but a Norman as Henry was. While this may add more motive and conflict to the story, it simply isn't true. Then there's the blatant homoerotic element. The relationship between the two men first seems like a warm if cautious friendship, but turns strange (by 1964 standards) when Henry's wife and mother both object to the presence of Becket in the king's life. Henry's mother accuses her son of having an "unhealthy" and "unnatural" obsession with him; O'Toole plays certain scenes like a discarded lover; Henry clearly loves Becket much more than his wife and children; and at one point cries out in anguish in front of his men at how much he still loves Thomas Becket. If King Henry II had romantic or sexual longings for Becket, or if the two had a relationship early in life, there has never been any historical proof of it . In a sense the portrayal of Henry is the cliche of the tormented homosexual or bisexual man who acts as much out of "twisted" passion and rejection as anything else, like Rod Steiger's character in The Sergeant.

Richard Burton is excellent as Becket, while O'Toole is superb as the king. There is also fine work from John  Gielgud as the King of France; Donald Wolfit [Room at the Top] as Bishop Folliot, who'd hoped to be made Archbishop himself; David Weston as Brother John, a would-be assassin (of Becket) turned monk; and Sian Phillips as Gwendolyne, who loves Becket and comes to a sad fate. As the movie's representations of Henry's mother and wife, respectively, Martita Hunt [The Brides of Dracula] and Pamela Brown seem merely to be striking poses and busily "acting" compared to the others. Besides the distortion of history, there are other problems with the movie, such as the "cutesy" element of some scenes, with the king acting like a girl-crazy adolescent and the Pope almost turned into a figure out of a sitcom. There is absolutely no sense of the passage of time.

Verdict: Entertaining, dramatic "history" served up on a now dated psycho-sexual platter. ***.

LIFE AT THE TOP

Laurence Harvey and Jean Simmons

LIFE AT THE TOP (1965). Director: Ted Kotcheff.

"You say you want a better life, but when you do step up a peg or two you hate yourself for it."

"He was smart enough to knock up the boss's daughter in days gone by, and that, mate, is real social security."

In this sequel to Room at the Top, some years have passed since Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) married the boss's daughter, Susan (now played by Jean Simmons). He works for his father-in-law, Abe Brown's (Donald Wolfit) firm, and is finishing up a report that he feels will be important to the company. Abe wants Joe to run for the council, but Joe's more liberal attitudes toward the working poor are at odds with the attitudes of his father-in-law. When Susan enters into an adulterous relationship with one of Joe's best friends, Joe finds himself increasingly drawn to TV commentator Norah Hauxley (Honor Blackman of Goldfinger). But will he find that he can achieve new success so quickly on his own, or did everything simply come too easily due to his connections? Life at the Top is not the masterpiece of the original film, but the performances are uniformly excellent, with Harvey, Simmons, and Wolfit [Blood of the Vampire] in splendid form. Michael Craig is fine as Joe's insouciant friend, Mark, although Margaret Johnstone [The Psychopath] as his wife, Sybil, seems a little unreal. An interesting early scene has Joe inviting the paper boy into the house for a warm cup of tea while he and his own son, Harry (Paul A, Martin), look at each other warily due to the class differences.

Verdict: Absorbing drama with differing points of view and outstanding performances. ***.

SATELLITE IN THE SKY

SATELLITE IN THE SKY (1956). Director: Paul Dickson.

An aircraft that can fly higher than ever before, dubbed the "Stardust," is sent on a test flight, and along with it comes a bomb that is also to be tested -- that is, exploded in space. There is some disagreement as to the wisdom of doing this, but things really get out of hand when it is discovered that the bomb, which was supposed to be jettisoned from the ship, is clinging to it magnetically instead. The crew realizes that if they return to Earth without dislodging the bomb, it will explode on the surface and kill thousands of civilians. The players in this tense situation include Commander Mike Hayden (Kieron Moore), Professor Merrity (Donald Wolfit), and reporter Kim Hamilton (Lois Maxwell, Miss Moneypenny of the Bond films), who is a stowaway on the ship. Bryan Forbes plays one of the technicians. There is some attempt at drama in the earlier sections of the film -- Kim thinks space exploration is a waste of time, to Hayden's consternation, and one of the scientists has a neglected wife -- but the movie only really comes alive with the business with the bomb.

Verdict: Acceptable, minor science fiction sans monsters. **1/2.

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE (1958). Director: Henry Cass.

Donald Wolfit plays an unusual kind of vampire, Dr. Callistratus, in this interesting variation on a theme. Although mistaken for a traditional vampire a la Dracula, Wolfit actually has a rare blood disease and needs frequent transfusions, making him seem demonic to the superstitious townspeople. After being dispatched via a stake through the heart, he is brought back to life by a heart transplant (not being an actual vampire, simply removing the stake won’t do the trick – the damaged heart has to be replaced). A few years later he’s the head of a prison for the criminally insane. One of the prisoners is a doctor (Vincent Ball) who’s been framed for killing a patient, and Wolfit has him help him with his experiments -- hiding from him the more dastardly stuff going on in the cellar. The doctor tries to escape to disastrous results, his girlfriend (Barbara Shelley) gets a job as a maid in the asylum, and Wolfit tries to drain the latter’s blood as his love-sick (for Shelley) hunchback helper Carl (Victor Maddern) looks on in horror and ultimately gets his revenge. Wolfit is fine and the other performances perfectly credible in a "vampire" movie with perhaps a more interesting plot than usual. Wolfit’s large, upraised eyebrows seem to have a life of their own. Absorbing and fast-paced, if directed by Cass with no special flair. Written by the prolific Jimmy Sangster.

Verdict: Good old horror film. ***.