Category Archives: Tony Curtis

1980 Films, Agatha Christie, Angela Lansbury, Crime Thriller, Elizabeth Taylor, Geraldine Chaplin, Guy Hamilton, Kim Novak, Pierce Brosnan, Rock Hudson, Thriller, Tony Curtis

The Mirror Crack’d-1980

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The Mirror Crack’d-1980

Director Guy Hamilton

Starring Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson

Scott’s Review #1,371

Reviewed June 22, 2023

Grade: B+

I’m a sucker for any sort of whodunit especially based on an Agatha Christie novel. Some of her treasures like Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile have made for quality filmmaking in the crime thriller genre.

With The Mirror Crack’d (1980) director Guy Hamilton (he directed four James Bond films) collects some of Hollywood’s finest stars and creates an adaption with British authenticity and a knock-it-out-of-the-park finale twist that I didn’t see coming.

Any fans of the long-running CBS sleuth series Murder, She Wrote from the 1980s are treated to gleeful clues that the film influenced the series. Both star the iconic Angela Lansbury.

The main character and murder solver in The Mirror Crack’d is a kindly old woman named Miss Marple played by Lansbury. The actress is aged via makeup to look much older than she was at the time. Lansbury does a good job with the speech and mannerisms of one of her character’s age.

Jane Marple (Lansbury) is tickled pink when two glamorous Hollywood actresses, Marina Rudd (Elizabeth Taylor), and Lola Brewster (Kim Novak), arrive in her quaint English village to shoot a movie.

Drama is sprinkled in when it’s revealed that the two actresses despise each other.

At a welcome reception related to the film, Marina engages in conversation with a longtime fan named Heather Babcock and is momentarily distracted. Soon afterward, the fan collapses and dies, poisoned by a drink intended for Marina.

Pleasure is had by the incorporation of so many stars some way past their prime. My favorite is the dynamic duo of Taylor and Hudson as a married couple. Fans will recall that Hudson’s sad death due to A.I.D.S. in 1985 led to Taylor championing a crusade for research with which the government then refused to be associated.

Her efforts and star power led to tremendous progress to be made as the disease ravaged the world’s LGBTQ+ community.

So, any scene centered on Taylor and Hudson is heartfelt and a pure treat.

Otherwise, the cast of characters is positioned in a familiar pattern to reveal almost everyone would have a reason to kill the glamorous star. Could it be her sexy blonde rival? Or the cranky producer of the film played by Tony Curtis? Or even her hubby Jason?

Geraldine Chapman appears as Ella Zielensky who is secretly in love with Jason and has a good reason to want Marina out of the way. Especially suspicious are her trips to a phone booth to call an unknown person accusing them of murder.

The setting adds value as the small English village is cute and picturesque. Marple’s cottage is perfectly dressed with colors and patterns well suited for her character.

The Mirror Crack’d has a couple of misfires and sometimes has a television movie feel. The comparisons to Murder, She Wrote while nice are also detractors since it makes the film seem like a small screen effort.

The time is supposed to be 1953 and the characters are dressed appropriately but it doesn’t feel authentic. The real year 1980 feels more believable despite the costumes.

While it doesn’t drag a bit it also isn’t quite as good as the aforementioned Murder on the Orient Express (1974) or Death on the Nile (1978).

For a good old-fashioned detective story based on a storied author, one could do worse than watching The Mirror Crack’d (1980). Sure there are other better-produced efforts but the film is a solid, entertaining watch with glamorous stars incorporated.

1960 Films, Adventure, Drama, Epic, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Nina Foch, Peter Ustinov, Stanley Kubrick, Tony Curtis

Spartacus-1960

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Spartacus-1960

Director Stanley Kubrick

Starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons

Scott’s Review #1,250

Reviewed April 30, 2022

Grade: A

Typically, when influential director Stanley Kubrick’s name is uttered, films such as The Shining (1980), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Barry Lyndon (1975) are immediately thought of, and for obvious reasons.

The haunting, moody musical score, the long camera shots, the dark humor, and the clever camera tricks are easy to pinpoint.

Rewinding to 1960, the director was brought in to grab the reigns and direct the gorgeous epic, Spartacus, after Hollywood star Kirk Russell had unceremoniously fired the first director.

None of the previously mentioned elements are easy for me to notice and are more or less absent, but a grand battle scene in a luscious green field is very reminiscent of Barry Lyndon. This is likely because Spartacus was not Kubrick’s film entirely instead it belonged to others with more clout.

Throwing out the director issues, Spartacus is a brilliant film for many reasons. Some epics suffer from a hokey, cliched feel and can be overwrought, predictable, and tired.

The rebellious Thracian Spartacus (Russell), born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus (Ustinov). After training to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion.

As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers increase as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they intend to cross the sea and return to their homes.

Spartacus is grand, sweeping, cinematically great, and everything else you’d expect from a 1960s Hollywood epic with enormous stars of its day. Looking beneath the surface, the film is riddled with interesting tidbits like bisexuality, homoeroticism, and violence more in tune with an art film or modern war film than the safety of a film made during this time.

Particularly noteworthy is that Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay. One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee’s investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.

After the release of Spartacus, it marked the beginning of the end of the Hollywood Blacklist for Trumbo and other affected screenwriters.

Thank goodness.

In a famous scene, recaptured slaves are asked to identify Spartacus in exchange for leniency; instead, each slave proclaims himself to be Spartacus, thus sharing his fate.

The suggestion is that this scene was meant to dramatize the solidarity of those accused of being Communist sympathizers during the McCarthy era.

Besides the political importance, Spartacus also showcases a beautiful romance between Spartacus (Russell) and Varinia (Jean Simmons), a gorgeous slave girl. The tenderness and authenticity are palpable as many of their early scenes involve no dialogue but only longing and expression through both actors’ eyes.

I celebrated the connection between the actors who are at the forefront of much romance. Russell carries the film with a calm, masculinity that easily makes him heroic and likable.

He is the charismatic good guy who has been wronged and ill-fated.

A sequence oozing with machismo and homoeroticism occurs when evil Crassus (Olivier) is bathed by his slave boy Antoninus (Tony Curtis). He seductively explains that while sometimes he prefers snails, he also likes oysters too. The implication is that he is bisexual, brazenly so, and expects the youngster to become his sex slave.

The warmth of the bathtub and the luxurious atmosphere are juxtapositioned against the proximity and touch of both male characters.

In 1960, this scene was way ahead of its time.

The conclusion of Spartacus is melancholy and surprising. The expectation might have been to happily see Spartacus and Varinia ride off into the sunset having bested the cruelty of Rome.

This doesn’t happen and the film is all the richer for it. There is pain and despair as there were in real life. Wisely sparing complete doom and gloom, the ending is satisfying as one major character is allowed to escape a deadly demise and conjure ahead with their life.

Spartacus (1960) is one of the greats. It has muscle, texture, and many below-the-surface nuances ripe for discussion. It’s a must-see for many reasons.

Oscar Nominations: 4 wins-Best Supporting Actor-Peter Ustinov (won), Best Art Direction-Color (won), Best Cinematography-Color (won), Best Costume Design-Color (won), Best Film Editing, Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

1959 Films, Billy Wilder, Comedy, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis

Some Like It Hot-1959

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Some Like It Hot-1959

Director Billy Wilder

Starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis

Scott’s Review #388

60010910

Reviewed March 26, 2016

Grade: A

Considered to be one of the best comedies ever made, Some Like It Hot is a funny, outlandish, yet controlled film, that never teeters too over the top or dives into outrageous camp, but rather is well written, well-acted, and contains great chemistry between the stars.

In a nutshell, it is a film where all of the elements simply come together just right. In film comedy, this is a very rare event to happen. Rather, typically we are treated to formulas or retreads of past successes.

Some Like It Hot feels refreshing and brilliant.

The film was also monumental in paving the way to the eventual elimination of the hated Hays Code, which put many restrictions on American films from 1930-1968.

Some Like It Hot pushed the envelope in important ways, leading to a spike in creativity and art within the film industry that lasted mainly throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

For that, it is a masterpiece.

Down on their luck, broke, and needing work, Jerry and Joe (Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis) are struggling jazz musicians who seek out a meager existence in snowy Chicago. Having witnessed the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, they go on the run from the assailants, who have seen them, and pose as Josephine and Daphne, dressed in drag.

This leads to one humorous situation after another as they take the bus from Chicago to Miami with an all-girl musical band, a slumber party of sorts, led by boozy starlet Sugar Kane (played by Marilyn Monroe), who serves as the band’s vocalist and ukulele player.

Once arrived in sunny Miami “the girls” both find romantic entanglements, with Sugar and rich millionaire, Osgood Fielding III, with obvious comic antics ensuing. Josephine poses as a male Shell Oil Junior in an attempt to woo Sugar with his assumed riches in the oil business.

What makes Some Like It Hot work so well, for starters, is that it does not go too far over the edge to make it seem campy, nor does it play it too straight if you will. The balance is perfect and that makes the film rich with natural, fresh comedy.

Director Billy Wilder chose wisely to film in black and white, thereby avoiding Lemmon and Curtis looking ridiculous with colorful, bright makeup. This was toned down and muted so that it allowed for more believability.

Additionally, the subtle edginess of the film impresses me with each passing watch.  Some Like It Hot got away with a lot in 1959, keeping in mind the restrictions of the day,  and that knowledge gives it a groundbreaking quality.

There is an air of homosexuality throughout and the final line of the film is my favorite allowing for a thought-provoking interpretation.

When Daphne reaches her breaking point with Osgood’s romancing and yanks off his wig professing in a state of exasperation, “I am a man!!” only to hear Osgood’s startling reply of “Well, nobody’s perfect”, is clever dialogue.

Did Osgood know all along that Daphne was male? Will he marry ‘her’ anyway?

Who wouldn’t have blushed gazing at Monroe’s skin-colored and quite revealing outfit? It gave the impression that she was nude, and how funny is the physical comic timing of Lemmon and Curtis together.

Bumbling around in stockings, heels, and dresses, attempting to be feminine, but never really succeeding, but somehow making all of the other characters think that they truly were women is great.

Curtis was reportedly quite uncomfortable in drag and it shows on camera, but this works out well as it gives Josephine a natural awkwardness.

Lemmon went all out in his costumes and his energy comes across.

In my opinion not looking her best, slightly plump and tired looking, Marilyn Monroe still gives the film added life and charm, and who is not mesmerized viewing her on stage singing “I Wanna Be Loved By You”?

To think that Monroe died only three short years later is sad and an appreciation of her career in the final stages.

A risqué, laugh-out-loud, funny treat, Some Like It Hot resonates with me and did so with audiences upon release in 1959.

Comical, smart, and highly influential, the film is a must-see for fans of film comedy done honestly and free of standard cliché.

A blueprint for all smart comedies to follow.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Director-Billy Wilder, Best Actor-Jack Lemmon, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (won)

1997 Films, Bridget Fonda, Crime Drama, LisaGay Hamilton, Michael Keaton, Pam Grier, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Robert Forster, Samuel L. Jackson, Scott's Top 100 Films, Tony Curtis

Jackie Brown-1997

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Jackie Brown-1997

Director Quentin Tarantino

Starring Pam Grier, Robert Forster

Top 100 Films #92

Scott’s Review #356

60010514

Reviewed January 9, 2016

Grade: A

Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997) is a fantastic film and one of the few to have a solely female lead (Kill Bill Volumes I and II are the others) and successfully re-launched star Pam Grier’s and Robert Forster’s careers after too many years on the sidelines.

The film is heavily influenced by Grier’s earlier films in the 1970s blaxploitation genre. Jackie Brown is one of the more obscure Tarantino films, but is brilliant nonetheless and filled with slow, plodding, yet tremendous scenes.

Grier plays the title character, Jackie Brown, a flight attendant for a small Mexican airline who smuggles money into the United States from Mexico to supplement her income. When she is caught and threatened by the Feds to aid them in catching a much larger fish, she plots to use both sides to her advantage and walk away with the money.

Jackie develops feelings and a sweet relationship ensues with Max Cherry, a bondsman played by Forster.

Mixed in with the plot is Tarantino staple, Samuel L. Jackson, as Ordell Robbie, a crooked drug smuggler, Robert De Niro as Louis, a former cellmate of Ordell’s, and Bridget Fonda as Melanie, a dizzy stoner girl.

As is always the case with Tarantino films, Jackie Brown contains a stellar cast just chomping at the bit to deliver the best performance they can with the help of rich and crackling dialogue written for them.

The writing is always fantastic in Tarantino films and the number of plot twists and turns in Jackie Brown is great.

My favorite scene by far is the scene involving the transfer of money that takes place in the local Mall. Rich with flavor and atmosphere it is a marvel. Jackie and Max engage in small talk at the food court before the transfer is to take place- Jackie then goes to a fitting room where the “switch” will occur.

Throughout this sequence, the tension is incredibly high and the film turns into a nail-biter.

Tarantino, not one to focus on a romantic storyline, gives Jackie Brown a uniqueness as the film features the respectful and delicious romance between Jackie and Max. This adds layers to the mainly bloody and crime-laden film. To counter this relationship is the volatile relationship between Louis and Melanie, which ends in tragedy.

I love how the film is set in Los Angeles. Sunny, bright, with a stuffy and superficial element to the action, mixing the beach and the hot weather with a crime story, manipulation, and double-crossing works so well.

Giving aging Hollywood stars a deserving comeback, Tarantino weaves a complex, but adventurous and well-paced, crime drama featuring veteran actors who deliver the goods, Jackie Brown is a treasure in a world of other Tarantino treasures and is a must-have for all of the director’s fans and fanatics.

Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actor-Robert Forster