VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET

Jerry Lewis

VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET (1960). Director: Norman Taurog.  

Intergalactic visitor Kreton (Jerry Lewis of The Patsy) has a fascination with Earth and attaches himself to a family that consists of businessman Roger Spelding (Fred Clark), wife Rheba (Lee Patrick), and daughter Ellen (Joan Blackman), whose horny boyfriend is Conrad (Earl Holliman of Hot Spell). Apparently Kreton's race has given up sex eons ago so he is fascinated whenever Ellen and Conrad make out. Roger has a neighbor named Mayberry (Gale Gordon), who is convinced the earth is being visited by flying saucers and extraterrestrials, which Roger thinks is utter poppycock until Kreton shows off his abilities. For one thing, whenever Roger or anyone else tries to tell anyone the truth about their visitor, all that comes out of their mouths is "Mary Had a Little lamb." Despite the irritation that Kreton may cause him, Roger appreciates it when he helps him with his boss, Abercrombie (Jerome Cowan). But it isn't long before the authorities take an interest in Kreton ... 

Lee Patrick, Jerry Lewis, and Fred Clark

Visit to a Small Planet is suggested by a play by Gore Vidal, who satirized McCarthyism. All that has been jettisoned to make way for the comedic style of Lewis, which actually fits the basic plot pretty well. Lewis is fine as the lovably dopey Kreton, although he gets competition from Lee Patrick, who is also lovably dopey. Clark, Gordon, Cowan and Holliman are all as professional as ever. Joan Blackman was introduced in this movie although she had already had a few credits; she later did a couple of films with Elvis. Ever-dignified John Williams (of Midnight Lace) is bizarre and perfect casting as Delton, the head of the extraterrestrials, and Ellen Corby is fun as Gordon's wife. Barbara Bostock makes a positive impression as Desdemona, who sings a weird ditty and dances with Lewis in a beatnik coffee shop scene. 

Verdict: Highly imperfect and often silly, but cute and well-acted as well. **3/4. 

A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE

Charles Boyer

A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE (1948). Director: Zoltan Korda. Screenplay by Aldous Huxley, based on his short story "The Gioconda Smile."

"I think of Henry all the time." -- Janet.

"No, you don't, you think of yourself in relation to Henry which is an entirely different proposition." -- Dr. Libbard.

Henry Maurier (Charles Boyer) has three women in his life: his bitter, ill and jealous wife Emily (Rachel Kempson); his dear long-time friend, Janet (Jessica Tandy of Butley); and his pretty young mistress, Doris (Ann Blyth). Henry is no angel, which causes him big problems when Emily is found dead. At first everyone assumes she died of heart failure, but the hateful nurse Caroline (Mildred Natwick) insists it was murder. An autopsy shows that there was arsenic in her system, so Henry's new marriage to Doris is interrupted by a trial. The results seem preordained, but Emily's doctor, James Libbard (Cedric Hardwicke of The Winslow Boy), engages in a battle of nerves with the person he believes is truly responsible.

Jessica Tandy

The performances in A Woman's Vengeance can not be faulted, with Boyer managing to make a sympathetic figure out of someone who may not deserve any sympathy. Mildred Natwick and Cedric Hardwicke are both excellent as doctor and nurse. Ann Blyth proves once again that her Veda in Mildred Pierce was no fluke, and Jessica Tandy nearly walks off with the movie in her fascinating portrait of a woman suffering from unrequited love. Called upon to display every possible kind of emotion she is on top of it all in every sequence. John Williams is also notable in a brief bit as the prosecutor, and there are other good supporting bits as well.

Boyer with Ann Blyth

One has to wonder exactly what screenwriter Huxley -- best-known as the author of "Brave New World" -- was trying to say in this little picture. One suspects it wasn't that circumstantial evidence can condemn an innocent man, and one hopes it was more than the old "Hell Hath No Fury" chestnut, but I'm not certain. The feelings of the scorned woman are explored, although her actions are not condoned. While A Woman's Vengeance is not and is not meant to be an Agatha Christie-type murder mystery, the pace does drag after the not-so-big reveal, and Huxley's screenplay is awfully talky at times. Russell Metty is the cinematography and there's a subdued score by Miklos Rozsa. Director Zoltan Korda was the brother of Alexander Korda. Rachel Kempson was the wife of Michael Redgrave.

Verdict: Great cast -- especially a superb Tandy -- giving their all but the film on a whole is unsatisfying. **1/2. 

BLACK SUNDAY (1977)

Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller

BLACK SUNDAY (1977). Director: John Frankenheimer.

German-Arab Dahlia (Marthe Keller) is a member of the terrorist group Black September. She has been able to manipulate her lover, a bitter Viet Nam vet named Lander (Bruce Dern), into helping her in a plot to kill thousands of Americans. She hopes to send a message to the U.S. to stop aiding Israel. A taped message that she had planned to release to the media after the event has been recovered following a raid so that now the government knows something deadly is planned but doesn't know what. (The fact that Lander is one of the pilots of the Goodyear blimp for the Superbowl should give you a clue.) Israeli agent Kabakov (Robert Shaw) and FBI man Sam Corley (Fritz Weaver) join forces with others to find this woman -- whom Kabakov should have killed during the raid but didn't -- and stop her plan before she can kill over 83,000 people -- and the President -- at the Superbowl in Miami.

Robert Shaw

Black Sunday is a thinking man's thriller, the kind they generally don't make anymore, in that it has some great action set pieces and lots of suspense, but it also has interesting characters and heroes who are not quite superhuman. The film is over two hours long but never boring as it follows the deadly exploits of the daring terrorist duo and their equally daring pursuers, with speed boat chases, telephone bombs, hotel shoot-outs and a climax involving a blimp, a helicopter, a sub-machine gun wielded all too well by Dahlia, and a bomb that will fire thousands of metal pellets into a crowd of cheering and clueless fans if something isn't done to prevent it.

Marthe Keller 

The acting in the film could not be bettered. Marthe Keller of Fedora gives another excellent and passionate performance as the terrorist, and Bruce Dern [Coming Home] is simply superb as the tormented and vengeful vet who spent months in a POW camp and whose wife left him for another man when he finally returned home. Robert Shaw is similarly on target, as are supporting performances from Weaver, Steven Keats [The Last Dinosaur] as another ill-fated Israeli agent, and others. There's a horrifying scene in a warehouse when the evil duo test their weapon on an innocent caretaker who only thinks they're going to take his picture, and many other memorable moments. John Williams' score is also quite effective.

This is based on a novel by Thomas Harris. I always thought it was far superior to his over-rated Silence of the Lambs and that this earlier film is far superior to the film version of Lambs. Back in 1977, terrorist plots like this were strictly the stuff of movies and books, not to mention James Bond, but 9/11 certainly changed that notion, as we soon realized, sadly, that now anything was possible ...

Verdict: Terrific thriller with a great plot and excellent performances. ***1/2. 

SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT

Ursa and General Zod blow the hell out of Grand Central

SUPERMAN II (1980). The Richard Donner Cut.

Richard Donner, who directed the first Superman, did a lot of work on the sequel -- the two were filmed concurrently, actually -- before being fired. Some of his work was redone by the director of record, Richard Lester. This cut assembles the version as it might have looked in theaters if Donner had not been dismissed.

At the end of Superman, the Man of Steel (Christopher Reeve) stops Lex Luthor's missile from wiping out California, but he doesn't realize that the explosion of this same missile in outer space has freed three notorious and vicious Kryptonian villains from their prison, the Phantom Zone. Hulking Non (Jack O'Halloran), bitchy Ursa (Sarah Douglas), and imperious General Zod (Terence Stamp) make their way to earth where they find they have developed the same powers as Superman. Before long they have invaded the White House where the not-so-good general forces the president (E. G. Marshall) to his knees. "Oh, God," says the president. "Zod," corrects the general. Where is the man of steel? Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) has finally figured out his secret identity and the two make love in his Arctic Fortress of Solitude. Then Superman decides to quit being the Man of Steel, always off saving the world, so that he can spend his life with Lois; he uses Kryptonian technology to do this. (This begs the question: since it was Superman that Lois fell in love with and not Clark Kent, would she really want him just as an ordinary human?) Too late, he discovers what has happened in Washington D.C., and makes his way back to his fortress as an ordinary man ... what a guy -- he doesn't even wear gloves! Conveniently, he is able to get his powers back.

The centerpiece of the film in any version is the battle between the revivified Superman and the three villains in New York City (rechristened "Metropolis," of course). Beautifully shot, edited, and choreographed, this sequence remains one of the best superhuman battle scenes in any comic book movie. (Today's super-hero films often present very sloppy and poorly articulated battle sequences.) A special highlight is when the bad guys use their super breath to literally blow dozens of pedestrians -- who are after their blood after they seem to have killed the Man of Steel -- down the streets near Grand Central Station. Buses are thrown, towers are toppled, Zod and his colleagues bounce Superman around and vice versa, and the special effects throughout are still outstanding.

This version (and probably the theatrical version as well) of Superman II has its problems, mostly having to do with Gene Hackman and his cohorts, played by Ned Beatty and Valerie Perrine. The movie is "adult" enough to show Lois and Superman in bed (although this is by no means a sex scene), so why does it have such stupid humor as Perrine flushing a toilet in the Fortress of Solitude? These campy characters never fit comfortably into this or even the original movie anyway. Hackman gives a perfectly good comic portrayal, but his presence is not required. The sequences with him are tedious, and there is dialogue in the film that betrays a dated seventies sensibility. Continued from the first film, the whole business with Superman's dead father, Jor-El (Marlon Brando) somehow counseling his son, raises more questions than it answers. Anti-climactic and twenty minutes too long (even it it's shorter than the theatrical version), Superman II is nevertheless a very worthwhile comic book flick. Reeve and Kidder are fine but the picture is nearly stolen by Terence Stamp, who makes a rather sexy and very sinister General Zod -- it's a terrific performance. And he is nearly matched by Sarah Douglas as the strutting, sexy, and highly anti-social Ursa. John Williams contributes his usual effective scoring, and Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography is first-rate. As in the first film, Superman reverses time again, so that Lois no longer knows his secret identity (this was done differently in the theatrical version, I believe), but that insures that events that no longer could have happened are referred to afterward -- confusing, as usual. Followed by Superman III.

Verdict: Worth it for the Times Square battle if nothing else. ***.

SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE

Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve take flight

SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE (1987). Director: Sidney J. Furie. (Based on a story by Christopher Reeve).

The Daily Planet, where Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) and Lois Lane (Margot Kidder of Black Christmas) work as reporters, becomes the casualty of a hostile takeover by a sleazy tabloid king (Sam Wanamaker) and his pretty daughter, Lacy (Mariel Hemingway of Manhattan). In a more significant development, a young boy writes to Superman that he should make the world safe by getting rid of all nuclear missiles. The Man of Steel complies, sending the missiles hurtling into the sun, but then has to face a solar-spawned nightmare in the form of Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow), created by the nefarious Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman of The Firm) and his zany nephew, Lenny (Jon Cryer). Upon its initial release, Superman IV was excoriated by fans and critics alike, but it's always been a fun, entertaining movie that truly resembles an eighties (or perhaps a seventies) Superman comic book. Hackman and Cryer dumb down the story, yes, but are not too intrusive, Kidder and Reeve are fine, as always, and Mariel Hemingway scores as Lacy, the "rich bitch" who turns out to have both a brain and a heart. Mark Pillow certainly looks menacing and turns in some highly effective pantomiming as Superman's nuclear adversary. One amusing sequence has Clark/Superman using his speed powers to date Lois and Lacey at the same time. But the highlight of the film is the protracted battle between Superman and Nuclear Man (as well as the magical sequence when Superman takes Lois for a flight). The film's special effects work came in for criticism, which I have always found perplexing, as I find the numerous process shots in the film to be seamlessly done and very striking. Superman once again reveals his true identity to Lois, and once again he hypnotizes her into forgetting it (this is a fine romance!) There are signs of post-production tampering, as the continuity is confusing, and it's never made clear exactly why Nuclear Man kidnaps Lacy at one point. John Williams' score is excellent and there is top-notch cinematography from Ernest Day, including one especially good shot when Nuclear Man spirals his way down into an active volcano. Although this, like the previous films, is supposed to take place in "Metropolis," this is clearly New York City.

Verdict: Great battle and a lot of comic book style fun. ***.

MIDNIGHT LACE (1960)

Natasha Parry and Doris Day

MIDNIGHT LACE (1960). Director: David Miller.

Wealthy Kit Preston (Doris Day) lives in a beautiful London townhouse with her husband, businessman Anthony Preston (Rex Harrison). She hears creepy voices in the pea-soup fog threatening to kill her, and gets obscene phone calls that Inspector Byrnes (John Williams) thinks may be imaginary. Is Kit overly anxious for her busy husband's attention, or is somebody actually out to get her? If so, there are numerous suspects: Malcolm (Roddy McDowall), the maid's son, who is shiftless and threatening; Brian (John Gavin), who supervises the construction site next to the townhouse and may be overly solicitous; a weird stranger who follows Kit about (Anthony Dawson); and Tony's business associates, Charles (Herbert Marshall) and Daniel (Richard Ney). Doris Day gives one of her best performances in Midnight Lace, convincingly getting across her character's terror and nervousness throughout the movie. Okay, there are times Day rather rabidly masticates the scenery a bit -- especially when she has a meltdown on a staircase -- but her hysteria fits the character, who is so wimpy and helpless at times that you want to slap some sense into her. The other performers are all excellent as well, including Natasha Parry as Kit's friend, Peggy, and Myrna Loy, who adds some class as Kit's Aunt Bea. John Gavin, incredibly handsome in this picture, uses a British accent and is better than usual. Russell Metty's cinematography is first-rate and Frank Skinner's score certainly adds immeasurably to the tension of certain sequences. When Kit asks for bus directions to a London neighborhood, leading to her near-death, you have to wonder why such a fabulously wealthy woman would bother taking a bus in the first place! Williams and Dawson both appeared in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. David Miller directed Joan Crawford in an even better woman-in-jeopardy film, Sudden Fear.

Verdict: Smooth, solid, well-acted suspense film. ***.

THE TOWERING INFERNO

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974). Director: John Guillermin. Action scenes directed by producer Irwin Allen.

Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox each had rights to two separate novels with the same theme: "The Tower" and "The Glass Inferno" both had to do with massive fires in high-rise buildings. The two studios cooperated on one film combining aspects of both stories, thus The Towering Inferno. During an inaugural party in the penthouse of the world's tallest building in San Francisco, a fire breaks out and gets worse and worse as firemen try to cope with the disaster. People are trapped in the Promenade room as other horrible incidents occur on the floors below. As some individuals try to make their way down to the ground far below, the others at the party enact a desperate scheme to save themselves and put out the fire at the same time. Everything is hampered and things made worse by the fact that against the architect's orders a man named Simmons (Richard Chamberlain), the builder's son-in-law, saved money by ignoring the fire codes and safety procedures.

Watching Inferno today with memories of 9/11 in your head makes for a distinctly uncomfortable experience. That being said, Allen has put together a suspenseful and often terrifying movie that grips you for its full length and never lets go. Among the more gut-wrenching scenes are the one where a group tries to get past a shattered, swinging metal staircase, and the horrifying business in the scenic elevator, during which Jennifer Jones' character plunges to a grotesque death. There are a very few moments of pathos in the movie, but most of it is tension and terror. Paul Newman is fine as the architect, an ordinary man, who watches his dream project collapsing and tries to save lives, although Steve McQueen is unemotional throughout as the fire chief. William Holden is the builder, Faye Dunaway is Newman's lover, Fred Astaire is an aging con man, Robert Vaughn is a senator, and Susan Blakely is Holden's daughter, and all are fine. John Williams' score helps sustain the tension. O. J. Simpson is also in the movie,, but that's a disaster of a different kind. Guillermin also directed The Whole Truth and the first terrible remake of King Kong.

Verdict: Not exactly a pleasant experience but certainly well done. ***1/2.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE Season Four

Casting coup: Leonard Nimoy as Paris

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season Four. 1969.

Martin Landau and Barbara Bain went off in a huff and a puff and were replaced by -- in a casting coup -- Leonard Nimoy and a host of rotating females. Nimoy played master of disguise Paris, and the leading ladies included Lee Meriwether (the most frequent), Anne Francis, Sally Ann Howes, Jessica Walter, Antoinette Bower, and others. This was a solid season with many memorable episodes; among the best were: "Double Circle," in which a fake room is employed in order to get at a secret formula; "The Falcon," in which a royal family is in danger from a would-be usurper, and everything that could possibly go wrong does; and "Chico" in which a dog helps steal a stamp which conceals an important microdot. As for notable guest-stars, Luther Adler is outstanding in "Phantoms," about a purge of young artists; John Willians scores in "Lover's Knot," which features a Mata Hari-type lady spy; Pernell Roberts and Cicely Tyson are great in "Death Squad," in which a vacationing Barney (Greg Morris) is accused of murder; and a mustache-less Torin Thatcher almost steals the show in "Numbers Game," about attempts to get at a Swiss bank account. Nimoy probably does his best work in "Commandante" and "The Choice." Jason Evers and John Vernon make an impression in, respectively, the aforementioned "Double Circle" and "Falcon."

Verdict: No Cinnamon, but still lots of spice. ***.

DIAL M FOR MURDER

Anthony Dawson and Grace Kelly  

DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954). Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

Margot Wendice (Grace Kelly) is married to former tennis bum Tony (Ray Milland), but after she senses a certain change in her husband she falls in love with the American writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). The viewer learns early on that Tony basically married Margot for her money, and has no intention of losing it if she divorces him in favor of Halliday. What to do? What to do? He runs into an old acquaintance of his (Anthony Dawson) who has seen better days and offers him a proposition. But the best laid plans ... Based on a play by Frederic Knott (who also wrote the screenplay), Dial M for Murder can be talky and a bit stage bound at times --- there is even an intermission [as if between acts] even though the film is under two hours long -- but it has its cinematic moments as well, although the pivotal sequence isn't handled with as much Hitchcockian inspiration as one might have hoped for. The second half drags a bit, with characters talking too much about things we and they already know. A trial sequence is filmed so cheaply that it's almost comical. However, the movie is very well acted by Kelly, Milland, and Dawson; Cummings is more than adequate; and John Williams nearly steals the picture as Chief Inspector Hubbard. As British mysteries go it's no Witness for the Prosecution, but it is quite entertaining (if a bit improbable at times), and it's fun to see how the villains will be ultimately out-witted. I believe this was Hitchcock's one and only experiment with 3-D.

Verdict: Smooth if unspectacular Hitchcock. ***.

ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY SEASON 1

A malevolent doll from the 5th episode

ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY Season 1. 1968.

After the telefilm proved a success, Rod Serling was given the go to turn Night Gallery into a weekly series, but apparently the network wasn't confident enough to order too many episodes, so the first season is pretty short [It was rotated with two other series on Wednesday night]. The series features macabre stories in the genres of horror, fantasy, suspense, and science fiction. Each of the six episodes features two or more stories. First, the good: "The Dead Man" is a Poe-esque tale about a young fellow whose body can instantly develop any illness or condition, including death. The trouble is that he has a yen for his doctor's wife...  Carl Betz, Jeff Corey and Lousie Sorel give very good performances in this. "Make Me Laugh" is an amusing black comedy about a mediocre stand up comic who only wants to make people laugh, to his ultimate regret; Godfrey Cambridge is excellent as the comic. "Clean Kills and Other Trophies" features an outstanding performance by Raymond Massey as a truly hateful, racist hunter who goads his more sensitive son (Barry Brown) into hunting deer with him. The wind-up is predictable but satisfying. "Paula's Voice," about a man haunted by his dead wife's shrill voice, is really just a quick gag of an idea, but Phyllis Diller proves surprisingly wonderful as the awful, nagging spouse.

Other segments are well-acted but merely mediocre or worse, stories about sinister dolls (with a fine John Williams performance), a Titanic survivor who is a flying Dutchman (an outstanding John Colicos), and a doctor's black bag from the future, among others [There are no black bags today let alone in the future!]. "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar," which boasts a fine performance by William Windom (and great support from Diane Baker, Burt Convy and John Randolph), is meant to be a poignant study of a man's mid-life crisis, but some of his actions make him unsympathetic and the whole thing just doesn't work. And what to make of "The Nature of the Enemy" in which a lunar expedition is attacked by -- get this! -- giant white mice. There's no point wondering how the mice can breath on the airless moon, as the story, while played straight, is another quick gag [the moon is made of green cheese, remember?] but it certainly is a tale that's not worth the time it takes to present it, as well as one of Serling's all-time most disappointing scripts.

This truncated season was followed by two more full seasons.

Verdict: Truly a mixed bag. **1/2.

TO CATCH A THIEF

Kelly and Grant in To Catch a Thief

TO CATCH A THIEF (1955). Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

John Robie (Cary Grant), who used to be a thief known as the Cat before becoming a hero in the resistance, is suspected of a new series of burglaries on the Riviera, especially by his former comrades. Annoyed by the whole situation, he decides to track down the real culprit by getting close to potential victims, such as wealthy American Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and her beautiful daughter Frances (Grace Kelly), with whom he gets very close. While this may lack the intensity of other Hitchcock, movies, it is also smooth, well-made, and full of fine acting and wonderful dialogue [courtesy of John Michael Hayes]. Grant and Kelly are as wonderful as ever, as is Landis, and John Williams -- one of Hitch's favorites -- is as usual on the money as insurance man Hughson. Playing the daughter of one of Robie's old associates, Brigitte Auber may have been younger than Kelly but the latter pretty much blows the former out of the water. All this and a nifty car chase sequence, too.

Verdict: Hitchcock treading water maybe, but who treads water with more -- pun intended -- grace? ***