Shameless Self Expression

Caren Pistorius got up a little late this morning and is now rushing to drive son Gabriel Bateman to school before heading in for work herself. Meanwhile, a disturbed man (played by Russell Crowe) has just murdered his ex and her new lover and set the house on fire. These two characters will intersect – literally – and get into an argument. She says he failed to move when the lights turned green, he thinks she’s rude for honking her horn at him. This is only the beginning of a very bad day for Pistorius, who now becomes the target of Crowe’s rabid fury. Jimmi Simpson appears briefly as a sympathetic associate of Pistorius who is also unfortunate enough to have an encounter with Crowe.   Russell Crowe enters his slumming exploitation movie phase with this 2020 film from director Derrick Borte ( “The Joneses” ) and screenwriter Carl Ellsworth ( “Red Eye” , “Disturbia” , the remake of “Last House on the Left” ). Absolute garbage, it’s the biggest mistake Crowe has made since the i...

A film about three men from the American Air Rescue Service, as two Air Rescue Service teams stationed at Ashiya Air Base in Japan head out to rescue a group of Japanese civilians who were shipwrecked during a typhoon. Richard Widmark is an embittered, Japanese-hating Air Rescue Service Lt. Colonel, with Yul Brynner a Master Sergeant of Japanese-American ethnicity, and George Chakiris is the nervy Air Rescue Service co-pilot. In flashbacks we learn that Widmark was a WWII POW who spent time as a prisoner of the Japanese, and had a doomed romance with journalist Shirley Knight. Paramedic had his own romantic experiences during WWII as an Army guy in North Africa who falls for a French-speaking Algerian Muslim (played by French actress Daniele Gaubert).   An Air Rescue Service film starring Yul Brynner, Richard Widmark, George Chakiris and Shirley Knight seems like it should’ve made for a damn fine adventure/disaster film. Instead, this cheap-looking 1964 Japanese-American co-pro...

Susan Strasberg stars as a young wheelchair-bound woman to see her estranged father in France. He’s not there but her stepmother (Ann Todd) insists he’ll be back in a few days and she’s welcome to stay. It doesn’t take long at her father’s villa for Strasberg to start experiencing weird, somewhat sinister things that greatly unsettle her – including insisting that she saw her father’s dead body – though no one seems to believe her except rough-hewn chauffeur Ronald Lewis who helps her try to figure out what is going on. Christopher Lee plays a French doctor and friend of the family.   Fourth-billed Christopher Lee called this 1961 Seth Holt ( “The Nanny” , “Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb” ) film one of the best films Hammer Films ever produced. I’m not in agreement with him on that, but there are enough good elements here to give it a (mild) recommendation. Methinks Mr. Lee was just glad he wasn’t playing a literal monster for a change here. Scripted by Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangst...

Two smug university roommates (Farley Granger and John Dall) strangle a mutual friend with the rope of the title. Simply because they could, and they felt superior to him. Then they throw a party in their apartment for friends and colleagues, with the body chucked into a chest that they use for a table during the party. They even invite the victim’s father (Cedric Hardwicke) to the party. The two smug pricks also invite their old university professor (James Stewart), whose theories about intellectual superiority/inferiority have unwittingly inspired their unlawful, violent deed. Joan Chandler plays the girlfriend of the deceased.   When Sir Alfred Hitchcock swings and misses, it’s still generally worth a look anyway. So it is with this 1948 failed experiment from The Master resembling somewhat the real-life Leopold and Loeb murder case. The film flopped and even Hitch himself felt it didn’t quite come off, but this long-take exercise still has enough charms to be worth a gander...

Stewart Granger (and his not terribly flattering wig) stars as Italian violinist Nicolo Paganini who falls for wealthy woman Phyllis Calvert and earns the ire of foppish soldier Dennis Price. Jean Kent plays aspiring singer Antonia Bianchi, whilst Cecil Parker plays Paganini’s manager and friend, and Felix Aylmer appears briefly as a composer who offers Paganini a Stradivarius if he can play a supposedly near-impossible piece on the spot.   A very serious, imperious-looking Stewart Granger is actually rather good as Italian violinist Paganini in this solid 1946 biopic from director Bernard Knowles (more known to me as a cinematographer on several early Hitchcock films like “The 39 Steps” and “Sabotage” ). Critics didn’t take favourably to this one, but I rather like it. I don’t believe a moment of it to be remotely true of course, but if taken as more of a Stewart Granger film than an accurate biopic, it does the job just nicely. Yes it’s a bit silly that Stewart’s Paganini get...