LIBEL

Olivia de Havilland and Dirk Bogarde

LIBEL (1959). Director: Anthony Asquith.

Sir Mark Loddon (Dirk Bogarde), a wealthy baronet who escaped from a POW camp during the war, lives on a huge estate with his wife, Margaret (Olivia de Havilland), and their young son. One afternoon there arrives Jeffrey Buckenham (Paul Massie), who served with Mark and was also in the POW camp. Jeffrey insists to everyone that "Sir Mark" is actually Frank Welney, another man who was also a prisoner in the camp and who looked enough like Mark to be his twin. When Jeffrey writes to the newspapers, Margaret importunes Mark to file a libel suit against the paper, leading to a highly dramatic trial and many revelations. Libel is a highly suspenseful picture that keeps throwing twists and turns at the viewer and keeps one going back and forth as to whether Mark is really Welney or not. Although you would think Bogarde [Doctor at Sea] and de Havilland [The Heiress] would mix together like oil and water, they play nicely together anyway, and both give very good performances in their different styles; Bogarde successfully etches dual roles as well. Robert Morley and Wilfred Hyde-White are also excellent as opposing council, and Massie [The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll] gives one of the most notable performances of his career as Buckenham. One of the most beautifully-played scenes is between Massie and de Havilland when Margaret confronts the compassionate (towards her) Jeffrey outside the courtroom, but their disquieting conversation doesn't quell her fears as she'd hoped. Robert Shaw has a small role as a photographer.

Verdict: Almost perfect on all accounts. ***1/2.

FILMS I JUST COULDN'T FINISH

Do you ever find yourself watching a film you don't remember and suddenly realize that you've seen it before? Even before Great Old Movies, I kept notes on virtually every movie I had ever seen for years, but at times I'll scratch my head and think to myself: "I saw this before. Why don't I remember it?" The answer is that I never took notes on films I never finished because they were either boring, really bad, or just-okay movies that were simply not my cup of tea. So I wind up watching a movie I never wanted to see all the way through in the first place all over again, sometimes giving up just where I did the last time.

To rectify that I will periodically run these posts listing movies I gave up on and why. These are not out and out reviews -- after all, I haven't watched every second of these films and I skipped or fast-forwarded through parts of them -- so these notes are to be taken with a grain of salt. And please, if somebody has seen a movie on this list that they enjoyed and think deserves a second and/or complete look, let me know!

To begin:

Larry Cohen has done some good movies and some very bad ones, but despite the presence of comic book writer/creator Stan Lee and Young and the Restless star Eric Braeden, The Ambulance (1990) just didn't hold my interest.

I'll look at British actor Paul Massie [The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll] in just about anything -- and try to avoid looking at the rather overbearing James Robertson Justice -- but Raising the Wind (aka Roommates/1961), an English comedy about roommates who are all music students, just didn't work for me.

I wanted to watch 2013's I, Frankenstein as part of a special Frankenstein week on Great Old Movies, but when I realized that this picture had even less to do with Mary Shelley's novel than most Franky films -- the monster gets involved in a war between Lucifer's demons and some demon-hunting gargoyles -- I gave up after twenty minutes. It seemed like just another slick and empty modern-day horror film with CGI visuals. Another Frankenstein (2015), with an actor named Xavier Samuel as the monster, has modern-day scientists crafting a handsome specimen that degenerates and goes on a rampage. The film uses names and concepts from the original but is hardly on the same level; I finally gave up on it.

Bewitched (2005) was a new take on the old TV series with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell as Samantha and her befuddled fella, who is actually her co-star in a television remake of "Bewitched," in which she essentially plays herself. This actually wasn't totally horrible, and I watched much of it, but I just never had any desire to get back to it. Basically another unmemorable Nora Ephron movie. It may or may not make a difference that even as a kid I wasn't that big a Bewitched fan.

Despite their many differences, I just wasn't gripped by the Spanish-language film The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) nor by its American remake, Secret in Their Eyes (2015), both of which flashed back and forth in time way too much, and seemed both too cutesy and much too contrived.  Neither of them worked for me. I gave up on both after half the running time, flipped forward to the stupid endings, and was glad I hadn't wasted another two hours watching the rest of them.

In Coherence (2013) a group of moderately interesting dinner guests with a comet overhead discover that there's a duplicate of the house -- and everyone inside it -- just down the block. This begins well, but pretty soon just talks itself to death; I watched half of it, got increasingly bored, and gave up. Stretching out a weak, derivative Twilight Zone premise to an hour and a half just didn't work for me.

Grandma's Boy (2006) was an alleged comedy about a not-so-young man who must move in with his grandmother and her two female roommates. During the first half hour or so I admit I laughed once at a vulgar business involving a bathroom and somebody's mother, but mostly this was unfunny and dull, with uninteresting characters and actors aside from the "old" ladies. I gave up on this pretty quickly.

I gave up on Roger Corman's cheapjack imitation of Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) starring a miscast Richard Thomas, after about twenty minutes. It does feature a spaceship with what appear to be massive mammary glands underneath, for those who care.

I gave up on #Horror (2015) about a quarter of a way into the running time as I found the style of the movie to be completely off-putting, and who wants to spend ninety minutes with a pack of annoying "mean girls." A 48 Hours episode that dealt with the true story that influenced this movie was way more gripping.

Ghosts of Hanley House (1968) has the usual group of people trying to stay overnight in a haunted house with a hatchet murderer, but the production values for this are so abysmal I gave up on it pretty quickly. Speaking of horror, I also tried to watch Vampira: The Movie (2006), a documentary about actress and horror host Maila Nurmi, who appeared in the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space. Although the film features a lengthy interview with the "star" herself, I didn't get past the first third because, frankly, I didn't find Nurmi and her tenuous connection to the likes of James Dean all that interesting.

More to come, I'm afraid.

THE AVENGERS Season 4

Emma Peel as queen of the Hellfire Club

THE AVENGERS (season four/1966).

The Avengers began life in 1961 as a man named John Steed (Patrick Macnee, who lasted through all seven seasons) helps "avenge" the murder of Dr. David Keel's (Ian Hendry) wife; the two men then went on to have several more adventures. Keel was replaced by Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) for seasons 2 and 3, the episodes for which appeared to be on tape and rather low-tech in nature. With the 4th season, The Avengers was on film, became a very slick show, and best of all starred Diana Rigg [No Turn Unstoned] as the jumpsuit and leather-clad Mrs. Peel, who retained her femininity while apparently excelling in every form of combat known to man -- or, rather, woman. This was the first season in which the British series was shown in the U.S. on the high-rated ABC network. The show tried to maintain a balance between quirky, tongue-in-cheek humor and stories that had genuine suspense and excitement. Often the show would go over the line and descend into camp ["The Girl from Auntie" being a prime example, and as bad as the lowest camp episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). On the other hand, many of the episodes were quite smart and entertaining: "Death at Bargain Prices" features a bomb inside a department store; athletes are hypnotized into committing crimes in "The Master Minds;" a murder-for-hire outfit masquerades as a dating service in "The Murder Market" (with Patrick Cargill of Inspector Clouseau and Suzanne Lloyd);"A Touch of Brimstone" features Emma caparisoned as a black queen in the Hellfire Club; and a bunch of pseudo-feminist slayers take orders from a marionette in "How to Succeed ... at Murder." We mustn't forget the "Man-eater of Surrey Green" with its monster plant. Other memorable episodes include "The Gravediggers"  with Paul Massie; "The Cybernauts" with Michael Gough; "The Hour that Never Was;" "Two's a Crowd;" "The House that Jack Built" with its weird, twisting domicile; "The Danger Makers;" and "A Sense of History." The show was generally very well directed and edited with many exciting fight scenes, and Mrs. Peel took on female opponents more than once, especially in "Murder Market" (two gals go after Emma at the same time) and "How to Succeed at ... Murder."

Verdict: Peel and Steed make a lively and sophisticated duo. ***.

THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL

Paul Massie in Edward Hyde mode

THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL (1960). Director: Terence Fisher.

"That's what your kind of woman wants from a man -- complete and utter freedom from shame!"

In this excellent variation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Dr. Jekyll (Paul Massie) in 1874 London, seeking to isolate man's evil nature, takes a formula that transforms him into a man who is younger and handsomer [and sans beard] instead of the usual ugly Mr. Hyde. This, of course, only makes him more dangerous. Wolf Mankowitz' screenplay adds a love triangle consisting of Jekyll, his wife Kitty (Dawn Addams), and his friend and her lover Paul (Christopher Lee); this turns into a quadrangle when handsome Hyde enters the picture and tries to romance his own, unsuspecting wife. This very classy horror film is possibly the best film put out by Hammer studios and boasts one of Terence Fisher's very best directorial jobs. Massie is simply superb as the two sides of the hero, with excellent support from pretty Addams and the highly-striking Chris Lee. Fine romantic score by David Heneker and Monty Norman.One wishes the characterizations were a bit more finely-tuned but the actors make them come alive in spite of it. The under-rated Fisher also directed a very good version of The Hound of the Baskervilles and many other movies.

Verdict: Absorbing -- and done with fine acting and great flair. ***1/2.