Movie Magazine International Blog

By Monica Sullivan “The Automat”, now in release in America, talks about a time when the country was dominated by the company that served simple, tasty, delicious food..  At its height it was a very important part of American culture.  The food was good, and filling, and people loved it.  They liked to eat food and meeting their friends at the automat.   When I first saw Doris Day's movie called “That Touch of Mink” with Cary Grant, Gig Young, Audrey Meadows, and John Astin, I didn’t know how close the automats were to being over.  It was a funny movie and is always a lot of fun to watch on the tube.  One of the main characters worked in an automat.  Tha would be Aurey Meadows.  The automat served a larger function than just food for a long, long, long, time.  The fact that the automats are long   gone now does not mean that people have forgotten them.  Far from it.   The automat was known for serving good, sol...

By Monica Sullivan What is it about James Garner that everyone loved so much?  He was good-looking, sure, but so are a lot of other actors who come and go without eliciting a fraction of the affection everyone felt for Garner.   Early in his career at Warner Brothers, executives would complain because Garner wasn’t in every single episode of “Maverick”.  The producers explained that Brett and Bart were brothers, so James Garner would turn up some weeks and Jack Kelly would appear in the other episodes.  The executives seemed to feel it was okay if Jack Kelly was around, but why couldn’t Brett be front and center all the time?  In every frame, even? I felt (and still feel) the same way.  Whenever I see a Bart only episode listing, I wince and watch something else.  But if James Garner is listed, there’s no way I’m switching the channel.  In “Support Your Local Sheriff” and “Support Your Local Gunfighter”, Garner plays a guy who’s on his way ...

By Monica Sullivan Ask Dr. Ruth is a strange hybrid of a movie, rather like Dr. Ruth herself.  It has an intriguing introduction: an animated sequence that suggested what young Ruth’s life was like as a child and an adolescent.  There is also footage of the town where she grew up before the Nazis took over and decimated her family.  Ruth was among a group of children who escaped the fate of their families.  The rest of the movie shows how Ruth eventually found true love, plus fame and fortune and all the rest of that stuff as a sex therapist.  Dr. Ruth fans will love it, others will be indifferent to it.  Anne Frank fans will dig in for their umpteenth reading of “The Diary of a Young Girl”.  One of the members of Movie Magazine met Dr. Ruth and thought she was weird.  That comes through in this documentary.  You can see it in the reactions of talk show hosts and their guests. © 2016 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 05/01/19 Movie Magazine ...

By Monica Sullivan “Mike Wallace is Here” tells the story of the “60 minutes” star who spent most of his career commenting on and analyzing the news.  News was his life, as it would be for his son Chris, 71.  Mike Wallace began his television career in 1949 with the police drama “Stand By For Crime” as Lieutenant Anthony Kidd.  That same year he was master of ceremonies on “Majority Rules” a quiz show which lasted two years.  In 1951 he was a moderator on “Guess Again” another quiz show and that same year he was a co host on “All About the Town” which lasted until 1952.  He was also a panelist in “What’s in a Word” in 1952.  Then he became the emcee on “Who’s the Boss” as well as being the emcee on “The Big Surprise.”  “The Mike Wallace” interviews followed in 1957 and 1958, then he moved on to “Who Pays” in 1959, “Biography from 1961-1964 and then many years of “60 Minutes”.   My problem with the career of Mike Wallace is that most of these ...

By Monica Sullivan In the 1960’s, Life Magazine used to run articles about what was happening down South and for a Catholic school kid in California, the articles were a horrifying shock.  One of the articles featured John Lewis, who was nearly killed when a policeman tried to break up a peaceful march by cracking his skull open.  I couldn’t imagine him surviving such a blow, but survive he did and he outlived many of his contemporaries, many of whom were much bigger and stronger than him: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, and yet he endured.  He spoke at the March On Washington, and after watching many other documentaries and not finding any footage of John Lewis, I was surprised to find one of his speeches in Dawn Porter’s new film, “John Lewis: Good Trouble”. I was also unfamiliar with the ins and outs of his troubled relationship with the late Julian Bond when John Lewis was campaigning against him for the Congressional seat he now holds.  Bond’s histor...

By Monica Sullivan If you are a late night movie buff, here’s the deal: There is no cure.  But you really aren’t looking for one, are you?  What you need is hard core information about late night stars.  Has McFarland Book Publishers got the book for you: “Killer Tomatoes” by Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner. “Killer Tomatoes” is an essential buff’s book.  The cast includes: Lucille Ball, Lynn Bari, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Gloria Grahame, Jean Hagen, Adele Jergens, Ida Lupino, Marilyn Maxwell, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Claire Trevor, Marie Windsor and more.  Ann Sheridan, for example, was SUCH a hard-boiled presence throughout her career that her early death deprived us of her voice and insights.  Extensive interviews cover that gap here. Filmographies for each are included, and there are over 80 stills of these tough women with their male and female costars.  Laura Wagner is one of the more perceptive contributors to Classic Image...

Monica Sullivan  This charming film from Czechoslovakia, a surprise hit at international film festivals, is inspired by the Nick Carter detective stories which enjoyed a vogue at the turn of the twentieth century. "Adele Hasn't Had Her supper Yet/Dinner For Adele" is about a man-eating plant, some early flying machines, a mad scientist, a sane scientist, a delightful strudel of a girl who makes terrific strawberry dumplings, a fat detective and, last but not least, the famous slender detective Nick Carter whose motto is "Always prepared!" How do they all fit together?  Hopefully, a shrewd American distributor will acquire the video rights, so more viewers will have the fun of discovering Adele all over again. Adele is the animated plant.  The wonderfully capable Czech actor Michal Docolomansky plays Nick Carter. © 1997 - Monica Sullivan Movie Magazine International

By Monica Sullivan The world has restored its lost innocence so many times throughout recorded history that I always worry what the hell is meant by that meaningless phrase "a more innocent time".  A more unconscious time, maybe?  A more oblivious time?  In the case of the quiz show scandals of the late fifties, I'm inclined to think so.  Advertisers who had already drummed real or imagined commies out of the television industry, were quick to realize that enormous ratings meant increased sales of their products.  It was a short hop from that realization to their decision to dictate programming content.  What was cheaper to produce or more profitable than a game show?  But you couldn't have just anyone guessing who was the world's fastest land animal, it had to be someone that consumers would tune in to watch week after week.   Big surprise. The quiz shows were rigged so they would seem like real contests, not scripted entertainment.  ...

By Monica Sullivan For music lovers who don’t know any better, girl bands tend to be a supplement to a study of the real bands, conducted and staffed by men.  “The Girls In The Band” is an illuminating film about real bands conducted and staffed by women.  Once upon a time, Ina Ray Hutton was one of those band leaders.  She was not a musician but she knew how to assemble and organize a good band, and she could dance, which added to her group’s appeal. During the forties, when many male musicians were serving in the military overseas, great girl bands were welcomed and appreciated onstage.  Offstage, they faced the same problems as the men, suspicion and all the assorted pitfalls of one night engagements.  Some chose to remain on their touring buses when they weren’t performing: it was easier than dealing with racial bigotry, and endless hassles with hotels and restaurants.  After the war, a number of gifted female musicians chose to leave their bands an...

By Monica Sullivan Not too many people know about "The Slipper and the Rose" and that's a shame.  To be sure, there's a surfeit of "Cinderella" movies on video shelves competing for our attention, but this version has always been among my favorites.  It was originally released at 146m., an uncomfortable length for children, and reissued in 1980 at 127m.  The late 1970's were not a particularly receptive time for musicals, unless they reinvented the genre, like "Saturday Night Fever", "Grease", "Rock'n'Roll High School", "All That Jazz", "The Blues Brothers" or "Fame."  "The Slipper and the Rose" was definitely a musical out of its time. There's much to appreciate in Bryan Forbes' valentine to the classic fairy tale, though.  For one thing, there's Richard Chamberlain as Prince Edward.  Then in the swashbuckling phase of his long career, Chamberlain is clearly ha...

By Monica Sullivan David Shields’ new book “Still” looks at the past as if it were a fresh, undiscovered country.  His viewpoint is that a pristine still is more evocative of its era than a scratchy dupey print of the same period.  By that logic, a remark I once heard about Theda Bara (“She works better in stills”) would eliminate most of her work from scholarly consideration.  So…the pictures in “Stills” are breathtakingly gorgeous but try to see the movies anyway, flawed though they may be.  After seeing a still of Elsie Ferguson from her heyday, I finally was able to watch “Scarlet Pages” from 1930, which was not her heyday, but well worth a look.  For a very long time I waited for 1929’s Jeanne Eagles “The Letter” to crop up sometime, anytime, somewhere, anywhere.  When it finally did, it was worth waiting for.  The print quality was not the best, but to see and hear 1929’s best performance (sorry Miss Pickford, but “Coquette' wasn’t it) was unfo...

By Monica Sullivan When 1992's "Strictly Ballroom" became an international hit, exhibitors were eager for MORE offbeat Australian movies that would do as well.  "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" fit the bill.  Who would ever imagine Terence Stamp, the Oscar-nominated, impossibly gorgeous "Billy Budd" in Sir Peter Ustinov's superb 1962 film of the same name, would EVER play a drag queen named Bernadette?  And yet, Stamp, who initially resisted the idea, discovered that Bernadette was a role he was destined to play.  The camera is not overly kind to Stamp at 55, yet he invests the role of Bernadette with dignity, elegance, intrigue and mystery, all the qualities of a great diva.  Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, too, are terrific as fellow divas Mitzi A.K.A. Tick and Felicia A.K.A. Adam.  The three of them hit the road in the title character, an outdated bus.  Along the way, Bernadette discovers romance, Tick experienc...

By Monica Sullivan For my 12th birthday, I was treated to a brunch at the Cliff House.  It was special and beautiful and even though I considered my childhood over by the age of five, I was convinced that no one else would consider me a kid in the sixth grade!  The attractions of the Cliff House and Playland at the Beach were always rooted in the past, though.  Not my past, the long ago past.  The Fun House and Laughing Sal and the Giant Slide were slipping away from me at a time I thought they would go on forever. Director Tom Wyrsch's new film on The Cliff House and The Sutro Heights captures that sense of "Look close feel everything, this world will be gone before you know it."  The clever title cards remind us that we're not in the nineteenth or twentieth century.  Unfortunately for the first half of the feature two park rangers give us the facts as if we were on a guided tour. Then, suddenly, we arrive at 1903 when we see a batch of adorable childr...

By Monica Sullivan It was the last Saturday night in November, 1933, exactly one month before Christmas.  The body of one of the best and brightest young men in San Jose had just been found and his two confessed killers were in jail, awaiting trial.  Only there was no trial.  The town's angry citizens tried and executed the defendants that night and California governor Sunny Jim Rolph praised their actions as he justified his own decision not to send in additional protection for the prisoners.  This may sound like the plot for more than one movie, and it has, in fact, been filmed at least twice before.  (German emigre director Fritz Lang first chose the story for his 1936 American film debut, "Fury")  The San Jose lynching of 1933 was never interpreted better than by the soon-to-be-blacklisted director Cy Endfield in 1950.   "Try and Get Me" is a little-known film noir classic, focusing on Frank Lovejoy as an ordinary man with no money and no p...

By Monica Sullivan If you enjoyed Jeremy Irons' performance in Barbet Schroeder's vastly overrated "Rcversal of Fortune", or even if you didn't, you might enjoy seeing him in "A Chorus of Disapproval", directed by Michael Winner.  Michael Winner began his career in 1957 by directing "This Is Belgium".  Strapped for funds, he shot much of the travelogue in the British suburban town of East Grinstead.  He achieved fame and fortune with the American-made "Death Wish" movies, but his early work on films like "The Jokers" and "I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name" reveal a remarkable feeling for sharp satire that he seldom exploits.   Winner was a good choice to direct Sir Alan Ayckbourn's "A Chorus of Disapproval", a charming satire about the antics of an amateur suburban theatrical troupe.  Like many other Ayckbourn works, including "The Norman Conquests", the satire is in-hous...

Monica Sullivan Imagine that you started grade school with some really cute kids almost half a century ago.  Over the years, at regular intervals, the kids kept you up to date on their lives: they stopped being cute in their teens, they got married, they had kids, they got divorced, they got back together again or they fell for someone else.  Their parents got sick and/or died, they changed professions, they lost their confidence, they cheated on their spouses and everyone including the kids and grandkids were furious about it.  All these details, unredeemed by insight or literary shadings, are the foundations of gossip. I loved "28 Up" when it came out.  It was directed by Michael Apted when he was 42 and his impressions of the kids were very different.  He’s 71 now and rightfully proud of the series despite the inevitable law of diminishing returns.  A 56 year old pensioner is just not as gripping as kids and young adults with their entire futures ahe...

By Monica Sullivan When we watch old movies on the late show, one of the questions that comes to mind is, “Are any of these actors still alive?”  For fans of films made in the 1930’s and 1940’s, the answer to that question is usually no, with a few exceptions among the youngest members of the cast.  One of the busiest actors of that era was Warren William who specialized in playing smartly-tailored rogues.  John Strangeland has written an absorbing biography “Warren William Magnificent Scoundrel of Pre-Code Hollywood” for McFarland Publishing Company, revealing a wealth of fascinating details about this sensitive, thoughtful actor.  “The Mouthpiece” made Warren William a star in 1932.  Vincent Day was a part that demanded both flamboyance and restraint.  Edward G. Robinson and other Warner Brothers actors had turned down the role, which only made it all the more appealing to Warren William.  Interestingly, Robinson did appear in a 1955 remake, “Ille...

By Monica Sullivan Fans of Charlie Chan (and there are more of them than you may think) are a fairly discrete group.  Whenever there is even a whisper of a rumor to reactivate the series, focus groups pounce on the prospect as if it were the worst idea ever.  Why didn’t a Chinese actor play Charlie Chan?  He did in Chinese language Chan films.  Doesn’t the series reinforce racial stereotypes?  Read the books or watch the movies.  Charlie Chan is a clever, patient investigator.  Whenever he senses resistance to his polite, persistent methods, he tells the resisters to cut it out with quiet, firm courtesy.  Charlie Chan doesn’t cut corners, brawl or rely on car chases to catch killers.  He disarms them with tried and true techniques so unobtrusive, they’re barely noticed.  Earl Der Bigger’s novels are precise, colorful and entertaining.  The 20th Century Fox films tried to capture their flavor and usually succeeded, thanks to sharp...

By Monica Sullivan “Film Noir.”  The words, meaning “black pictures”, come from French movie critics, enraptured by low budget black and white American productions of the 1940’s and 1950’s.  In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, film noir festivals became brisk money makers for archives, repertory theatres, video and DVD distributors plus countless late night broadcasters and cable programmers. Unsurprisingly other copyright holders of vintage European titles wanted to get in on this profitable phenomenon.  Michael Keaney’s “British Film Noir Guide” from McFarland Publishers provides noir buffs with an illustrated guide to noir efforts across the pond.  One of Keaney’s favorites (and mine) is “Black Narcissus” which shows the struggle of 5 nuns to keep their faith in Calcutta.  The film is not a pro or con argument about nuns.  It shows how women cope with their emotions in a different environment with a very different climate.  The leader o...

By Monica Sullivan I can think of few movie gangsters I admired as much as Charles McGraw.  He was the real deal.  Larger than life, riddled with conflict, blessed with a sandpaper voice and a face to match, McGraw was born to play film noir. “Charles McGraw: Biography Of A Film Noir Tough Guy” by Alan K Rode reveals the difficult personal life of McGraw as a backdrop to his long successful career.  McGraw’s vulnerability was alcohol.  It led to his accidental death in 1980 after 77 movies during a 35 year film career.  Marie Windsor told me in an interview conducted during the 1990’s: “I loved working with Charlie McGraw on ‘The Narrow Margin’ and no, he wasn’t drinking.  I want you to know that.”  Anyone who watches Charles McGraw’s carefully shaded performance as Walter Brown will see a character bursting with resentment at his job and grief over the violent death of his partner. Being a hard-drinking tough guy on screen was one thing, playing...