This is a fun and sometimes funny British horror-comedy. Jittery Brit comic Frankie Howerd plays a conceited and under-employed actor, invited by Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend) to give a performance at his house. I shan’t tell you what happens, except to say it’s supposed to be scary, and supposed to be funny, and isn’t much of either, but it is a good time.

Co-written by Clive Exton, who wrote the very good 10 Rillington Place, and Terry Nation, who wrote for the original Doctor Who and the original Avengers (Steed & Emma Peel, etc). Directed by Peter Sykes, who’s also an original Avengers alumnus.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

And now for something completely different: made by the Society for Assisting Lepers, this is a short documentary on leprosy. It’s a disease that attacks the body in all different ways, leaving some of these people so mildly deformed you’d barely notice, while others look like the Elephant Man. Whatever the exterior, they’re people inside, and the film shows them talking, laughing, living, and especially, praying.

There’s a lot of prayers and scriptures and religion crammed into the film’s 20 minutes. For all their worship of an almighty god, it’s a god that’s certainly forsaken these people.

That’s my takeaway, but probably wasn’t the message the moviemakers intended.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

George Peppard plays a dashing American who’s inexplicably shot at by a little kid, whose family immediately hires Peppard as the boy’s nanny. So obviously, nothing here makes any sense.

There’s spy stuff, and a paycheck for Orson Welles as a mysterious and uninteresting bad guy.

Written and directed by people I’ve never heard of, based on a novel I’ve never read, the movie’s music is bombastic, so’s the acting, and the opening theme song is sung in French.

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦

Fictionalized backroom backstabbing politics, in England 35 years ago, makes for a dynamite 4-episode miniseries. Based on a novel by Michael Dodds, who was a high-level mucky-muck for Margaret Thatcher, it’s the story of a disturbingly likable high-level mucky-muck named Francis Urquhart, who’ll do anything to control the wheels of power.

House of Cards is softly reminiscent of Breaking Bad, in that Urquhart is a bad guy, inarguably, but roguishly relatable. Like Walter White, you’re soon rooting for him and never stop, but along the way he’s revealed more and more blatantly as someone truly rotten.

Written with savage sparkle by Andrew Davies, it’s funny but dark and always getting darker.

Ian Richardson (from Brazil, and “Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?”) plays Francis Urquhart, and you’ll never be able to see him in anything else without remembering this. If my phone could ring, I’d want Urquhart humming “Ride of the Valkyries” as my ringtone.

You might well think that this is among the best shows ever made for television. I couldn’t possibly comment, except to say yeah, it is.

Verdict: BIG YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Having never seen the original, my wife and I watched the first half-dozen episodes of this Americanized remake ten years ago, and found it less intriguing with each installment. Re-watching it now, after seeing the original, only makes it worse.

Kevin Spacey stars; I’ve never liked him, and this provides no reason to reassess.

In the original, Urquhart’s monstrosity was revealed in bits and pieces for the viewer to assemble. In this version, he’s called Underwood (like the deviled ham, which seems appropriate for Spacey) and he’s a monster from the first moments. Where’s the fun in that?

I gave up after six episodes, again.

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦

… and out of alphabetical order …

Mystery and sometimes sci-fi writer John D. MacDonald wrote Cape Fear and The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything, and he wrote this brooding study of small town corruption, in which everyone’s dirty or crazy.

Ed Harris, Blair Brown, and Richard Jordan star, and everything oozes sticky money in the Everglades, where a rich bastard wants to fill in part of the bay to create an artificial island for development.

It’s subtle and a little slow like real life, telling its story its way, not the way such stories are usually told. All the characters have messy backstories that seem real, and the criminal stakes are local, not national or global, so it feels like it could happen anywhere because it happens everywhere.

A movie unjustly forgotten, and not to be missed.

Verdict: YES.

11/24/2024

House of Ghosts (2012)
House of Ghosts (2017)
The House of Mirth (2000)
The House of the Seven Gables (1940)
… plus schlock, shorts, and surprises …

Now accepting movie recommendations, especially beginning with the letter ‘I’.

Illustration by Jeff Meyer. No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff. 

Neverending Film Festival
← PREVIOUS           NEXT →

itsdougholland.com
← PREVIOUS           NEXT →