Hi NP--no, the new film rehashes the premise of the first in about five seconds and that's all you need. It stands alone. And I will disagree with Number24 on one thing--the first SUICIDE SQUAD had one good thing: it introduced Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. Every time she was on screen the proceedings perked up and I kept wishing for a solo movie about her. WB/DC pretty well delivered with BIRDS OF PREY and now this.
Thank you all for your responses! I may pop along to see it this week - I tend to pick a matinee and see how many folk are there, I prefer even more to go for the John Travolta sitting alone in a theatre in Get Shorty experience these days, due to Covid.
Hmmm. did the Bond trailer get shown with it? Still trying to avoid that (in UK screenings). Some British posters may recall the Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads episode where Bob and Terry try to avoid hearing the results of a football match until they can sit down in the evening with a couple of cans and enjoy it... it's a bit like that for me, only spread out over two years or so!
This recent low-key suspense drama passed me by at the time but I caught it on UK's Classic Movies channel last night. It features Diane Kruger - with whom I'm unfamiliar - as an undercover operative of the title who works for Mossad (the sweetener for her involvement wasn't clear to me, I may have left the room at that time) and is encouraged to work in Tehran to, over time, gather information on the State. Her 'handler' is played by Martin Freeman, a name familiar to every Brit, due to his role in the original Office. This actor has had a remarkable career - he was good in The Office but you'd never imagine he'd have gone to to appear in Sherlock, the US Fargo or other reputable big screen movies, esp as his follow-up after The Office was a basic sitcom set in a hardware store - not rubbish but not great either.
The film starts off with some John Barry Bond-like music and I don't know who wrote it but they should be in consideration. It is an infiltration movie not dissimilar to Hitchcock's Notorious. You can't call it a thriller really but it is an absorbing quality effort. It doesn't play the three-card trick that most movies do to make the thing appear more interesting than it really is (the film is based on a book) but it has what so many of these current thrillers lack - authenticity. Among its jet-setting it takes you into Tehran (or appears to) and your eyes are opened to the flavour of the place. Iranians are not depicted unfavourably but the Mossad agents are shown to have a hard, ruthless side as befits their job. There isn't really a false or cheating note in the movie, which makes it unusual. The leads - indeed the whole cast - are brilliant.
Some complain about the abrupt ending which I won't reveal but if you paid attention throughout you may get it or, like me, think you do.
Thanks for the write-up NP. It's on my list to watch but I had read unfavourable reviews so had moved it down the list. You've reignited my interest, so will give it a go. I like Martin Freeman, such a down to earth, realistic actor and let's face it anything with Diane Kruger in has to be worth watching!😍
As this is now a new page, and will stay that way for the next six months (they're very long these days, it's like scrolling down the dam in the GoldenEye pre-credits) I will point out that the film @The Red Kind is referring to is The Operative, a low-key thriller set mostly in Tehran. Review on the previous page!
This movie isn't recent. In fact it may be the oldest movie ever revieved here. This is a vampire movie, in fact it's a Dracula movie in all but name. To avoid copyright they changed all the names, but especially those who've seen Coppola's Dracula movie there are many simularities. Nosfaratu is a black and white silent movie, but generally it's still effective. There are unusually many exterior shots for a movie that old and the gothic locations in Germany are put to good use. Shadows, framing and other techniques are used better than in many far newer movies. The acting style is very much of the time, but it actually works fine for the title character. The actor couldn't have had a better name: Max Schreck! Nosfaratu isn't just of historical value, I enjoyed watching it.
White it is shot in black and white, but some filters are used. Parts of the movie are even yellower than SPECTRE!
I've been a member of Netflix for a while now and i've seen a lot of films. Most recently i watched The Foreigner, with Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. Pierce is a great baddie and some fantastic stuntwork from Jackie.
Jackie Chan is a restaurant owner,whose daughter is killed in a bombing. Pierce plays a politician who is linked to a terrorist group.
Pierce does a Northern Irish accent in this. Wonder what @Thunderpussy thoughts are on it. I thought it sounded decent.
It was directed by Martin Campbell. So it was nice that he worked with Pierce again after all these years
Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"
Just to add some details- the filmmakers apparently thought that since Bram Stoker was dead, all they needed to do was change the names (eg "Dracula" to "Orlok") and they'd be ok. This opinion was not shared, however, by Mrs Stoker and her lawyer who demanded that every copy of the film be destroyed. A few copies did survive, fortunately.
"Shreck" was the actor's real name and is more or less "fright" in English. "Grauens" in the subtitle I'd say is "dread". If Higgins reads this he can correct me!
For some unexcusable reason I didn't see this western classic inntil last night. It starts with Hondo (John Wayne) coming in from the wilderness with a dog and carrying a saddle and a rifle. He finds a farm where a woman and her young son, the husband is unaccounted for. The peace treaty with the Apaches has been broken by the whites and the Apache are om the warpath again. I don't want to give away much more of the plot, because unlike many westerns Hondo isn't formulaistic (speiling?).
John Wayne plays half Apache and his relationship to the woman and the Apache tribe is interesting. So is the woman's relations with the Apaches and their chief. The locations, cinemography and music is also good. Hondo is easily probably among my top westerns now.
Another western classic I've neglected to watch for far too long. This is a John Ford movie starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp. It felt strange watching Fonda as an upstanding hero after knowing him best as the evil Frank in "Once upon a time in the west", but in real life he was cast as Frank because of his history of playing morally upright characters.
This is yet another version of the famous gunfight at OK Corral. Earp actually told John Ford the story of that gunfight back in the 1920's, but Ford decided to print the legend. But this doesn't make it a bad film, not at all. I enjoyed watching it a lot and "My darling Clementine" deserves its status as a classic. I want to mention the gunfight especially. It's wonderfully shot and I love how the scene is shot without a single note of music.
Two classic Westerns there Number24. I first got into Westerns when I was at university and Hondo and My Darling Clemetine were two of my early favourites. I haven't seen either of them in a really long time, and I'd love to go back and rewatch them. But there's so many films on my watchlist at the moment! Luckily both are fairly short (especially Hondo as I recall) so I should be able to slot them in sometime.
Yesterday I watched LE SAMOURAI (1967), a classic French crime thriller starring Alain Delon as Jef Costello, a laconic assassin who makes a kill at the start of the film, and then spends the rest of it evading both the police and the people who hired him. Very stylishly lensed, with minimal dialogue (I think it was 10 minutes before a single word was uttered in the film). Good build of suspense as well, I particularly enjoyed the chase scene on the Paris metro as the police try to track the slippery Jef.
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,848MI6 Agent
We have a member called @Le Samourai. I think his avatar was taken from the film. Not seen him on here in a good while.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
The Liquidator, 1965 (but not released til late 1966), a Boysie Oakes adventure
Based on a book by John Gardner, outrageous title song by Shirley Bassey (over animated credits), and co-starring Jill St John (so that's three of ours). Director is Jack Cardiff, whom I've never heard of, apparently better known as a cinematographer.
A darker than usual spyspoof, revealing the unspoken truth of the double oh job is nothing but top secret government sponsored assassination.
Rod Taylor (The Birds) stars as Boysie Oakes, played as a big dumb American despite all the dialog telling us he is English. (the actor is actually Australian)
Jill St. John on the other hand speaks with a posh English accent. Unlike Diamonds Are Forever, her character is revealed to be smarter than originally thought as the film reaches its end.
Best performance of all is Trevor Howard, as Oakes's cruel bullying boss. This character really drives the plot, recruiting Oakes for his job, dominating his new life, and ultimately responsible for the crises in the last half of the story. He seems to have an encyclopedic awareness of all that goes on, acts instantly with terrifying efficiency, yet is motivated by emotion (his jealousy over Jill St John) and has a made a huge mistake from the get-go in even hiring Oakes, a mistake he still hasn't noticed by the last scene.
wikipedia says the film has never been released on dvd, so lets review this plot setup with massive spoilers:
The British Secret Service decides it needs a top secret assassin to quickly eliminate spies and defectors without their existence having chance to become a scandal. Howard is ordered to find such a man, and remembers a tank sergeant he met in WWII who he witnessed kill two Nazis at close range. (Oakes did it nearly by accident, but in doing saved Howard's life). Howard then reintroduces himself to Oakes, now a small town barkeep, and bullies him into accepting this new top secret job, baiting him with a fabulous new big city bachelor pad and promise of "a bit of crumpet on the side". Howard is always seen accompanied by his secretary St John, whom is the bit of crumpet Oakes really fancies but Howard repeatedly goes into a rage (controlled yet frightening) whenever he catches them together.
It is only once Oakes has accepted this seductive new lifestyle he is told what his new job will actually be. Oakes however is not the natural born killer Howard thinks he is, and resorts to hiring a gangster hitman to carry out his own orders without telling his boss, while continuing to enjoy all the benefits of his new job and flirting with St John.
First half of the film establishes this premise. Second half is the crisis, precipitated when Oakes and St John take an unannounced weekend trip to Monte Carlo to consummate their mutual lust away from the eyes of their overbearing boss. Things get very complicated from here, and I really have no idea what precisely is going on, except Oakes does stumble into the middle of an actual spy-plot in which he must act to save the world. The photography of the Riviera is more beautiful than anything we've seen in a Bondfilm for decades, and there is a dangerous looking fight scene on the hood of a car tipping over the edge of a switchback.
The dark satire that makes this so unique:
In our Bondfilms, our hero has a near identical job, but we are never led to believe a top secret government assassin is anything less than heroic. Kills Bond makes early in each film are usually in self defense, and the bulk of the film builds the case the big baddy is so dangerous to the future of civilization as we know it his death is in the interest of all. So we cheer when Bond kills.
Whereas in this film, the concept is introduced when Howard's boss argues the existence of foreign spies within England would be an embarrassment if revealed to the press (or even the elected government), thus due process is better avoided. Only Howard, his boss, and the man he is to recruit shall know what is happening. Then once Oakes is hired, Howard's boss tells him he has no idea of what he is talking about from this point on. And of course, those kills Oakes must make are all done by the subcontracted hitman, to various harmless looking individuals we have no reason to wish to see killed, and are presented as nothing but coldblooded arbitrary murders. Then there is Howard's attitude, which generates only antipathy towards the official giving the orders.
This story is so clever, both in its dark satire and its telling, how is it when Gardner got the job of writing Bond continuation novels he cranked out such bland unimaginative product?
I must say I cant imagine where this premise goes from here, it seems so cynical it should be a one shot. But Gardner wrote eight volumes and four more short stories of Boysie Oakes adventures, and an ongoing film series was planned until the spymania fad waned.
In the coincidence(?) department: The black and white precredits is a flashback to Oakes making his first two kills (!) Double coincidence: in this precredits, Trevor Howard is introduced in one of those public lavatories in the middle of a street (!!) So somehow it anticipates the precredits sequences of both the "funny" and serious versions of Casino Royale!
wikipedia claims this has never been released on dvd. If you don't mind dodgy Russian video streaming sites, it may be found here on ok.ru (you may wish to use an incognito browser)
Thanks @caractacus potts I will look that up - although currently I have too many projects on the go so goodness knows when it'll be. Has @Silhouette Man seen The Liquidator? Isn't he big on Gardner? Halliwell's gives it one star. I see Lalo Schifrin scored the film and those British stalwarts Wilfred Hyde White, Eric Sykes and Derek Nimmo are cast listed. Jack Cardiff was Oscar nominated as director for Sons and Lovers, which also brought Trevor Howard his only nomination. Quote: "Fairly lively James Bond spoof which is never quite as funny as it imagines."
JURASSIC PARK (1993). No need to say anything about this movie that everyone already knows; it's one of Steven Spielberg's (and John Williams') best pieces of work.
Caught a couple of interesting films this weekend. First up was John Frankenheimer's SECONDS, from 1966 (the year that saw your very own Hardyboy enter the world). This involves a middle-aged banker who gets the opportunity to fake his own death and, through the miracles of plastic surgery and a strict physical regimen, become Rock Hudson. It sounds like a comedy, but it's actually a creepy, Twilight Zone-ish morality fable about being careful what you wish for, aided by James Wong Howe's claustrophobic cinematography and Jerry Goldsmith's eerie score.
Next was an Amazon Prime original, VAL, as in Kilmer. Once a big star but now rendered largely mute by throat cancer, Kilmer looks over the decades of home movies he made as well as clips from his films. I'm personally surprised by how many of them I've seen and by the fact I always took VK for granted--but he actually was a good performer. Here's hoping for a miracle to bring him back. . .
I watched T2 TRAINSPOTTING last night, and enjoyed it. Revisiting a classic film with a sequel two decades later is probably a recipe for disappointment in most cases but I didn't feel that with this film. I think Danny Boyle and all the cast did a fine job with it, and it included John Barry's '007' theme in one scene, so extra points awarded for that!
Now, I caught a bit of Alfie on telly the other night (I assume that's the viewing @Joshua caught) and it's a brilliant film, great script, smoothly directed by Lewis Gilbert (who of course went on to do three Bond films, plus the Caine movie Educating Rita in the early 80s) and most of the soundtrack is not Cilla but that swingy, cheeky jazz theme that accompanies the cockney lothario on his man-about-town conquests.
I loved this film at a teenager but as a diffident young lad Caine's bold as brass approach to the ladies had its appeal. As a middle-aged man however I must confess I just couldn't stand watching it. As a lad, you know he's riding for a fall and there'll be a payoff at some point but that's not really what you take away from it. It's like enjoying James Bond with his fine clothes, cars, martinis and women and thinking, yeah, but for all that he risks death or many occasions and doesn't have any mates. You don't, do you.
In about every scene our hero Alfie is just going around being an arse like it's the best thing in the world. He's played by a handsome, charismatic actor we like, so that's alright then. It's a bit like watching a lad going around being rude to waiters and his expecting us to admire it.
I don't rebuke you for liking Joshua - though you doesn't specify why - and I liked it myself so I can't talk, but with a lot of things maybe it helps to be younger to appreciate it, like heavy drinking is said to be a young man's game!
One thing I took away this time - Alfie cynically treats the Julia Foster character as a 'cracking little standby and she knows it' but she herself has her own standby in the form of the hapless, lovelorn bus conductor. This reminds me of an episode of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother which deals with the subject of having certain people 'on the hook' - namely, someone who carries a torch for you and is sort of on the back burner in the back of your mind, mixing metaphors a bit. Without making any effort or pre-meidated intention, you sort of wind up taking advantage of them. But it doesn't always work out how you think.
The book Alfie by Bill Naughton (I think) is a great read but subtly different from the film. He seems a less witty, more two-dimensional character. He doesn't seem as intelligent as Caine. If a film were made about him, you wouldn't be tempted to see him as a role model.
There was a sequel written some years later by Naughton. In this the writer seemed to want to emphasise that the character was possibly a bit thick, to suggest he's not some kind of hero. It's a disconcerting read because in this he seems to be in his late 20s while in the original book he seems early 30s but on the verge of single middle age, getting a bit faddish in his ways without realising it. It's also disconcerting to learn that the character seems to be in the same groove he was in the last book, and hasn't learned much. It's like meeting an old friend only to find that while the conversation slips back into the same patterns, nothing has really moved on.
These kind of sequels can be disillusioning - it was the same with Stan Barstow's sequels to A Kind of Loving, though it's possible that's the point of them - the author revisits them not just as a cash cow, another trip to the well, but because he's realised the theme has been misinterpreted, or he himself as cause to reappraise things.
This Korean movie won the best movie Oscars - that's how good it is! The director also made Snowpiercer - a different, but very good movie.
It's about a poor family living in a cellar who gets the idea of working for a rich family to make money. The family has little relevant formal education and experience and the rich family's employees are very competent, so they have to used deciet and tricks to replace them. The first half is mostly a comedy, but half way into the movie ...... say no more 😏
Social and economic class devides is a shared motif with Snowpiercer, even though it's done very differently. Look for the very deliberate use of architecture, especially stairs. "Parasite" is also very inspired by Hitchcock.
If you only watch one Korean movie this year, it should be Parasite. In fact you can do a lot worse than Parasite if you only watch one movie in 2021!
Comments
Hi NP--no, the new film rehashes the premise of the first in about five seconds and that's all you need. It stands alone. And I will disagree with Number24 on one thing--the first SUICIDE SQUAD had one good thing: it introduced Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. Every time she was on screen the proceedings perked up and I kept wishing for a solo movie about her. WB/DC pretty well delivered with BIRDS OF PREY and now this.
Thank you all for your responses! I may pop along to see it this week - I tend to pick a matinee and see how many folk are there, I prefer even more to go for the John Travolta sitting alone in a theatre in Get Shorty experience these days, due to Covid.
Hmmm. did the Bond trailer get shown with it? Still trying to avoid that (in UK screenings). Some British posters may recall the Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads episode where Bob and Terry try to avoid hearing the results of a football match until they can sit down in the evening with a couple of cans and enjoy it... it's a bit like that for me, only spread out over two years or so!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The Operative
This recent low-key suspense drama passed me by at the time but I caught it on UK's Classic Movies channel last night. It features Diane Kruger - with whom I'm unfamiliar - as an undercover operative of the title who works for Mossad (the sweetener for her involvement wasn't clear to me, I may have left the room at that time) and is encouraged to work in Tehran to, over time, gather information on the State. Her 'handler' is played by Martin Freeman, a name familiar to every Brit, due to his role in the original Office. This actor has had a remarkable career - he was good in The Office but you'd never imagine he'd have gone to to appear in Sherlock, the US Fargo or other reputable big screen movies, esp as his follow-up after The Office was a basic sitcom set in a hardware store - not rubbish but not great either.
The film starts off with some John Barry Bond-like music and I don't know who wrote it but they should be in consideration. It is an infiltration movie not dissimilar to Hitchcock's Notorious. You can't call it a thriller really but it is an absorbing quality effort. It doesn't play the three-card trick that most movies do to make the thing appear more interesting than it really is (the film is based on a book) but it has what so many of these current thrillers lack - authenticity. Among its jet-setting it takes you into Tehran (or appears to) and your eyes are opened to the flavour of the place. Iranians are not depicted unfavourably but the Mossad agents are shown to have a hard, ruthless side as befits their job. There isn't really a false or cheating note in the movie, which makes it unusual. The leads - indeed the whole cast - are brilliant.
Some complain about the abrupt ending which I won't reveal but if you paid attention throughout you may get it or, like me, think you do.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Thanks for the write-up NP. It's on my list to watch but I had read unfavourable reviews so had moved it down the list. You've reignited my interest, so will give it a go. I like Martin Freeman, such a down to earth, realistic actor and let's face it anything with Diane Kruger in has to be worth watching!😍
As this is now a new page, and will stay that way for the next six months (they're very long these days, it's like scrolling down the dam in the GoldenEye pre-credits) I will point out that the film @The Red Kind is referring to is The Operative, a low-key thriller set mostly in Tehran. Review on the previous page!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Nosfaratu - eine symphonie des graues (1922)
This movie isn't recent. In fact it may be the oldest movie ever revieved here. This is a vampire movie, in fact it's a Dracula movie in all but name. To avoid copyright they changed all the names, but especially those who've seen Coppola's Dracula movie there are many simularities. Nosfaratu is a black and white silent movie, but generally it's still effective. There are unusually many exterior shots for a movie that old and the gothic locations in Germany are put to good use. Shadows, framing and other techniques are used better than in many far newer movies. The acting style is very much of the time, but it actually works fine for the title character. The actor couldn't have had a better name: Max Schreck! Nosfaratu isn't just of historical value, I enjoyed watching it.
White it is shot in black and white, but some filters are used. Parts of the movie are even yellower than SPECTRE!
I've been a member of Netflix for a while now and i've seen a lot of films. Most recently i watched The Foreigner, with Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. Pierce is a great baddie and some fantastic stuntwork from Jackie.
Jackie Chan is a restaurant owner,whose daughter is killed in a bombing. Pierce plays a politician who is linked to a terrorist group.
Pierce does a Northern Irish accent in this. Wonder what @Thunderpussy thoughts are on it. I thought it sounded decent.
It was directed by Martin Campbell. So it was nice that he worked with Pierce again after all these years
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
Just to add some details- the filmmakers apparently thought that since Bram Stoker was dead, all they needed to do was change the names (eg "Dracula" to "Orlok") and they'd be ok. This opinion was not shared, however, by Mrs Stoker and her lawyer who demanded that every copy of the film be destroyed. A few copies did survive, fortunately.
"Shreck" was the actor's real name and is more or less "fright" in English. "Grauens" in the subtitle I'd say is "dread". If Higgins reads this he can correct me!
Hondo (1953)
For some unexcusable reason I didn't see this western classic inntil last night. It starts with Hondo (John Wayne) coming in from the wilderness with a dog and carrying a saddle and a rifle. He finds a farm where a woman and her young son, the husband is unaccounted for. The peace treaty with the Apaches has been broken by the whites and the Apache are om the warpath again. I don't want to give away much more of the plot, because unlike many westerns Hondo isn't formulaistic (speiling?).
John Wayne plays half Apache and his relationship to the woman and the Apache tribe is interesting. So is the woman's relations with the Apaches and their chief. The locations, cinemography and music is also good. Hondo is easily probably among my top westerns now.
My darling Clementine (1946)
Another western classic I've neglected to watch for far too long. This is a John Ford movie starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp. It felt strange watching Fonda as an upstanding hero after knowing him best as the evil Frank in "Once upon a time in the west", but in real life he was cast as Frank because of his history of playing morally upright characters.
This is yet another version of the famous gunfight at OK Corral. Earp actually told John Ford the story of that gunfight back in the 1920's, but Ford decided to print the legend. But this doesn't make it a bad film, not at all. I enjoyed watching it a lot and "My darling Clementine" deserves its status as a classic. I want to mention the gunfight especially. It's wonderfully shot and I love how the scene is shot without a single note of music.
Two classic Westerns there Number24. I first got into Westerns when I was at university and Hondo and My Darling Clemetine were two of my early favourites. I haven't seen either of them in a really long time, and I'd love to go back and rewatch them. But there's so many films on my watchlist at the moment! Luckily both are fairly short (especially Hondo as I recall) so I should be able to slot them in sometime.
Yesterday I watched LE SAMOURAI (1967), a classic French crime thriller starring Alain Delon as Jef Costello, a laconic assassin who makes a kill at the start of the film, and then spends the rest of it evading both the police and the people who hired him. Very stylishly lensed, with minimal dialogue (I think it was 10 minutes before a single word was uttered in the film). Good build of suspense as well, I particularly enjoyed the chase scene on the Paris metro as the police try to track the slippery Jef.
We have a member called @Le Samourai. I think his avatar was taken from the film. Not seen him on here in a good while.
Yes indeed. In fact, when I first saw the cover art of the Criterion edition I immediately recognised the image from our Le Samourai’s avatar.
Le Samourai is an excellent film. I haven't seen it for more than 30 years, but I remember suddenly understanding how important silence was in a film.
The Liquidator, 1965 (but not released til late 1966), a Boysie Oakes adventure
Based on a book by John Gardner, outrageous title song by Shirley Bassey (over animated credits), and co-starring Jill St John (so that's three of ours). Director is Jack Cardiff, whom I've never heard of, apparently better known as a cinematographer.
A darker than usual spyspoof, revealing the unspoken truth of the double oh job is nothing but top secret government sponsored assassination.
Rod Taylor (The Birds) stars as Boysie Oakes, played as a big dumb American despite all the dialog telling us he is English. (the actor is actually Australian)
Jill St. John on the other hand speaks with a posh English accent. Unlike Diamonds Are Forever, her character is revealed to be smarter than originally thought as the film reaches its end.
Best performance of all is Trevor Howard, as Oakes's cruel bullying boss. This character really drives the plot, recruiting Oakes for his job, dominating his new life, and ultimately responsible for the crises in the last half of the story. He seems to have an encyclopedic awareness of all that goes on, acts instantly with terrifying efficiency, yet is motivated by emotion (his jealousy over Jill St John) and has a made a huge mistake from the get-go in even hiring Oakes, a mistake he still hasn't noticed by the last scene.
wikipedia says the film has never been released on dvd, so lets review this plot setup with massive spoilers:
The British Secret Service decides it needs a top secret assassin to quickly eliminate spies and defectors without their existence having chance to become a scandal. Howard is ordered to find such a man, and remembers a tank sergeant he met in WWII who he witnessed kill two Nazis at close range. (Oakes did it nearly by accident, but in doing saved Howard's life). Howard then reintroduces himself to Oakes, now a small town barkeep, and bullies him into accepting this new top secret job, baiting him with a fabulous new big city bachelor pad and promise of "a bit of crumpet on the side". Howard is always seen accompanied by his secretary St John, whom is the bit of crumpet Oakes really fancies but Howard repeatedly goes into a rage (controlled yet frightening) whenever he catches them together.
It is only once Oakes has accepted this seductive new lifestyle he is told what his new job will actually be. Oakes however is not the natural born killer Howard thinks he is, and resorts to hiring a gangster hitman to carry out his own orders without telling his boss, while continuing to enjoy all the benefits of his new job and flirting with St John.
First half of the film establishes this premise. Second half is the crisis, precipitated when Oakes and St John take an unannounced weekend trip to Monte Carlo to consummate their mutual lust away from the eyes of their overbearing boss. Things get very complicated from here, and I really have no idea what precisely is going on, except Oakes does stumble into the middle of an actual spy-plot in which he must act to save the world. The photography of the Riviera is more beautiful than anything we've seen in a Bondfilm for decades, and there is a dangerous looking fight scene on the hood of a car tipping over the edge of a switchback.
The dark satire that makes this so unique:
In our Bondfilms, our hero has a near identical job, but we are never led to believe a top secret government assassin is anything less than heroic. Kills Bond makes early in each film are usually in self defense, and the bulk of the film builds the case the big baddy is so dangerous to the future of civilization as we know it his death is in the interest of all. So we cheer when Bond kills.
Whereas in this film, the concept is introduced when Howard's boss argues the existence of foreign spies within England would be an embarrassment if revealed to the press (or even the elected government), thus due process is better avoided. Only Howard, his boss, and the man he is to recruit shall know what is happening. Then once Oakes is hired, Howard's boss tells him he has no idea of what he is talking about from this point on. And of course, those kills Oakes must make are all done by the subcontracted hitman, to various harmless looking individuals we have no reason to wish to see killed, and are presented as nothing but coldblooded arbitrary murders. Then there is Howard's attitude, which generates only antipathy towards the official giving the orders.
This story is so clever, both in its dark satire and its telling, how is it when Gardner got the job of writing Bond continuation novels he cranked out such bland unimaginative product?
I must say I cant imagine where this premise goes from here, it seems so cynical it should be a one shot. But Gardner wrote eight volumes and four more short stories of Boysie Oakes adventures, and an ongoing film series was planned until the spymania fad waned.
In the coincidence(?) department: The black and white precredits is a flashback to Oakes making his first two kills (!) Double coincidence: in this precredits, Trevor Howard is introduced in one of those public lavatories in the middle of a street (!!) So somehow it anticipates the precredits sequences of both the "funny" and serious versions of Casino Royale!
wikipedia claims this has never been released on dvd. If you don't mind dodgy Russian video streaming sites, it may be found here on ok.ru (you may wish to use an incognito browser)
Thanks @caractacus potts I will look that up - although currently I have too many projects on the go so goodness knows when it'll be. Has @Silhouette Man seen The Liquidator? Isn't he big on Gardner? Halliwell's gives it one star. I see Lalo Schifrin scored the film and those British stalwarts Wilfred Hyde White, Eric Sykes and Derek Nimmo are cast listed. Jack Cardiff was Oscar nominated as director for Sons and Lovers, which also brought Trevor Howard his only nomination. Quote: "Fairly lively James Bond spoof which is never quite as funny as it imagines."
JURASSIC PARK (1993). No need to say anything about this movie that everyone already knows; it's one of Steven Spielberg's (and John Williams') best pieces of work.
4/5
Caught a couple of interesting films this weekend. First up was John Frankenheimer's SECONDS, from 1966 (the year that saw your very own Hardyboy enter the world). This involves a middle-aged banker who gets the opportunity to fake his own death and, through the miracles of plastic surgery and a strict physical regimen, become Rock Hudson. It sounds like a comedy, but it's actually a creepy, Twilight Zone-ish morality fable about being careful what you wish for, aided by James Wong Howe's claustrophobic cinematography and Jerry Goldsmith's eerie score.
Next was an Amazon Prime original, VAL, as in Kilmer. Once a big star but now rendered largely mute by throat cancer, Kilmer looks over the decades of home movies he made as well as clips from his films. I'm personally surprised by how many of them I've seen and by the fact I always took VK for granted--but he actually was a good performer. Here's hoping for a miracle to bring him back. . .
What? Better than Taza, Son of Cochise? Surely not...
It wasn't the last film I have seen, but I would like to mention it anyway.
'Alfie' (1966?) Starring Michael Caine. It was an interesting film, if slow. For those who have not seen it I can recommend it.
What's it all about?
Without true love we just exist.
👍. Hal David was one of the best. Glad you got that!
I watched T2 TRAINSPOTTING last night, and enjoyed it. Revisiting a classic film with a sequel two decades later is probably a recipe for disappointment in most cases but I didn't feel that with this film. I think Danny Boyle and all the cast did a fine job with it, and it included John Barry's '007' theme in one scene, so extra points awarded for that!
Where you thinking in a Cilla Black voice when you wrote that?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glpIgnmKrZc
Now, I caught a bit of Alfie on telly the other night (I assume that's the viewing @Joshua caught) and it's a brilliant film, great script, smoothly directed by Lewis Gilbert (who of course went on to do three Bond films, plus the Caine movie Educating Rita in the early 80s) and most of the soundtrack is not Cilla but that swingy, cheeky jazz theme that accompanies the cockney lothario on his man-about-town conquests.
I loved this film at a teenager but as a diffident young lad Caine's bold as brass approach to the ladies had its appeal. As a middle-aged man however I must confess I just couldn't stand watching it. As a lad, you know he's riding for a fall and there'll be a payoff at some point but that's not really what you take away from it. It's like enjoying James Bond with his fine clothes, cars, martinis and women and thinking, yeah, but for all that he risks death or many occasions and doesn't have any mates. You don't, do you.
In about every scene our hero Alfie is just going around being an arse like it's the best thing in the world. He's played by a handsome, charismatic actor we like, so that's alright then. It's a bit like watching a lad going around being rude to waiters and his expecting us to admire it.
I don't rebuke you for liking Joshua - though you doesn't specify why - and I liked it myself so I can't talk, but with a lot of things maybe it helps to be younger to appreciate it, like heavy drinking is said to be a young man's game!
One thing I took away this time - Alfie cynically treats the Julia Foster character as a 'cracking little standby and she knows it' but she herself has her own standby in the form of the hapless, lovelorn bus conductor. This reminds me of an episode of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother which deals with the subject of having certain people 'on the hook' - namely, someone who carries a torch for you and is sort of on the back burner in the back of your mind, mixing metaphors a bit. Without making any effort or pre-meidated intention, you sort of wind up taking advantage of them. But it doesn't always work out how you think.
The book Alfie by Bill Naughton (I think) is a great read but subtly different from the film. He seems a less witty, more two-dimensional character. He doesn't seem as intelligent as Caine. If a film were made about him, you wouldn't be tempted to see him as a role model.
There was a sequel written some years later by Naughton. In this the writer seemed to want to emphasise that the character was possibly a bit thick, to suggest he's not some kind of hero. It's a disconcerting read because in this he seems to be in his late 20s while in the original book he seems early 30s but on the verge of single middle age, getting a bit faddish in his ways without realising it. It's also disconcerting to learn that the character seems to be in the same groove he was in the last book, and hasn't learned much. It's like meeting an old friend only to find that while the conversation slips back into the same patterns, nothing has really moved on.
These kind of sequels can be disillusioning - it was the same with Stan Barstow's sequels to A Kind of Loving, though it's possible that's the point of them - the author revisits them not just as a cash cow, another trip to the well, but because he's realised the theme has been misinterpreted, or he himself as cause to reappraise things.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Something told me you'd get that one! 😀
If anyone has a heart it’s you, Barbel 🙂
😁😁😁 That shouldn't be a surprise, surprise!
Parasite (2019)
This Korean movie won the best movie Oscars - that's how good it is! The director also made Snowpiercer - a different, but very good movie.
It's about a poor family living in a cellar who gets the idea of working for a rich family to make money. The family has little relevant formal education and experience and the rich family's employees are very competent, so they have to used deciet and tricks to replace them. The first half is mostly a comedy, but half way into the movie ...... say no more 😏
Social and economic class devides is a shared motif with Snowpiercer, even though it's done very differently. Look for the very deliberate use of architecture, especially stairs. "Parasite" is also very inspired by Hitchcock.
If you only watch one Korean movie this year, it should be Parasite. In fact you can do a lot worse than Parasite if you only watch one movie in 2021!