Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2004
Synopsis
Crack torepedo-boat Captain Tyrone Power is detached from his beloved fast ships andassigned as second-in-command to Dana Andrews on a submarine. Power complains about thetransfer a little bit, but then sucks it up -- duty, don’t you know. Tensions between the two menmount over the same woman (haven’t we had enough of that particular plot?), but they put asidetheir differences as they tail a Nazi freighter to a hidden base. There are good special effects here,but the romant...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 31st, 2004
Synopsis
Marlon Brando plays a German pacifist who fled his country at the outbreak of the WWII,and is living in comfortable seclusion in India. The British authorities blackmail him into takinga mission. Assuming the identity of an SS officer, he must board a blockade runner (captainedby Yul Brynner) and disarm its scuttling charges so it can be captured by the Allies. Needlessto say, nothing works out quite as it should.
Even running over two hours, this is a taut thriller...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 29th, 2004
Synopsis
The most notable aspect of the evergreen series’ sixth season was the replacement of LarryLinville’s Frank Burns with David Ogden Stiers’ Winchester. The transition happens over thecourse of a double-length season opener, with Burns’ misadventures and ultimate reassignmenthappening off-screen, while Winchester arrives to be, so the poor sap thinks, a temporaryreplacement. Still plenty of strong writing, and jabs of deadly seriousness permeating through thecomedy.
...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 9th, 2004
Synopsis
The crew of jaded Robert Mitchum’s destroyer is bored. Their craving to see some action,any kind of action, is answered when they encounter a U-Boat captained by the disillusioned CurtJurgens. From this point on, the entire film consists of the battle between the two brilliantcaptains, each one anticipating the other’s moves.
The fact that Jurgens, thoroughly sick of the war and the Nazis, is so sympathetic has an oddeffect on the film’s suspense. On the one hand, t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 27th, 2004
Synopsis
King Xerxes of Persia marches on Greece with his vast army. Greece’s city states are asquabbling, disunited bunch, but Athens and Sparta lead the way to co-operate against thecommon enemy. King Leonidas of Sparta (Richard Egan) must hold the pass of Thermopylae,but Spartan politics mean he has but 300 men to stand against Xerxes’ thousands. So begins oneof the most famous battles of antiquity.
The battle scenes are entertaining and easy to follow, though hardly eart...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Spencer Tracy arrives in the research department of the “Federal Broadcasting Company”to install a computer. He is sworn to secrecy by the president of the network, however, and soresearch head Katherine Hepburn and her co-workers assume they are to be made redundant.Sparks are clearly flying between her and Tracy, however, even if this romantic tension remainsvery much an undercurrent to their witty banter. Also on the scene is Gig Young, Hepburn’srather callow and thought...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Paul (Paul Gegauff) and Esther (Danielle Gegauff) have, on the surface, a fine marriage. Thesurface cracks open for us almost immediately, however, as we see that the reason why thismarriage is “fine” is that Esther submits completely to Paul, and becomes whatever he desires.When he suggests that they sleep with other people, she complies, and begins to forge an identityof her own, one that Paul disapproves of. He reacts first with sarcasm, then with every-increasingmental ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 1st, 2004
Synopsis
World War II is in full swing. A constant stream of pilots is needed in Europe, and trainingfacility in Manitoba is helping meet that demand. Men from all over the world come here to bemolded, in six weeks, into pilots. Among them is Australian Russell Crowe. Living nearby isChristianne Hirt, whose husband has been overseas for two years. She and Crowe meet at adance, and despite good intentions and an awareness of how fleeting their time together is, theyfall in love.
...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Bloodthirsty pirate Henry Morgan (Robert Stevens) is starving Jamaica by seizing almostany ship that tries to make it there. He seems impregnable in his fortress on the island of Tortuga.Privateer Captain Bart (Ken Scott) arrives to find some way to defeat Morgan. His journey to theCaribbean is complicated somewhat by the presence of stowaway Meg (Leticia Roman), aspririted...er... wench... who has dreams of being a lady.
You always thought My Fair Lady would...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 22nd, 2004
Synopsis
Though not Blake Edwards’ best films, these are the movies with which he is most stronglyidentified, and the role of Inspector Clouseau was a career-defining move for Peter Sellers. Attheir best, the movies are fine exemplars of inspired slapstick.
The Pink Panther started it all off, and no one knew what a phenomenon Clouseauwas going to turn out to be. Edwards and Sellers (the trivia track informs us) rewrote the partlate in the game to turn the character i...
