Our Mother's House (1967) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

Plot Summary - Dirk Bogarde stars in this very strange, unusual British film about seven seemingly fatherless children whose mother dies and the kids, not wanting to get sent to the orphanage, bury her in the garden and continue to live on, attend school, etc. without telling anyone about her death. They build an odd shrine in the garden complete with her bedroom furniture and hold "Mother Time" prayer meetings - actually, more like seances as the oldest daughter (Pamela Franklin) contacts the mother and relays advice to the kids! The bunch start to go out of control a bit, forging mom's signature and cashing her weekly "check" at the bank, and dealing out harsh punishments like cutting off the long hair of the eight-year old-ish daughter. When the girl gets ill after the brutal haircut incident, they won't call a doctor - but the middle girl (family leader actually) gives the scoop that they actually have a father, a real beast apparently, and one of the boys contacts the man. Arriving on the scene one Charlie Hook (Bogarde), cockney horse-race gambler with a passion for women and hard drink. He takes over the family, the kids start to run wild, the middle daughter completely doesn't trust him - and with good reason as he secretly starts taking money out of the mother's savings account.

Review - Okay, this movie IS kind of weird and strange, but it's quite well done and memorable. I have seen this quite a few times before, but not in a number of years - I still remember that hair cutting scene, poor girl. The film has a sort of dark, gothic feel to it - school uniforms and large, rundown Victorian house adding to the atmosphere. Okay - what's with Dirk Bogarde's Moe-like haircut in this - seriously though, he's great as usual. Though Charlie isn't meant to be any kind of father figure, he comes across as really having a ball with these kids - I believe because Dirk Bogarde himself enjoyed making this film and working with the kids, it really does come across. Mark Lester appears in this film in the role of cute little stuttering Jiminee, expert at forging signatures! A memorable little music tune runs through this film that I still remember weeks later. Rating - 9/10 stars

The Servant (1963) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

Plot Summary - Unusual UK drama about a well-to-do young bachelor, Tony (James Fox), just returned from Africa, who hires a live-in manservant named Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) to work for him in his newly acquired London apartment. Barrett, seemingly the perfect gentleman's gentleman, takes pride in his cooking (especially his souffles), is knowledgeable on decorating (so advises on the decoration process for the new digs), is well groomed and well dressed. But as the film progresses, you oh so subtly see a sort of dark side to Barrett. Soon a conflict arises between Barrett and Tony's rather bitchy fiancee (Wendy Craig) who is really pretty rude to Barrett and wishes he could "live out". Barrett brings his "sister" Vera (Sarah Miles) in as the new maid, but it's pretty obvious that she's not exactly sisterly towards him - meanwhile, sexy Vera seduces vulnerable Tony and he's completely smitten, but when Vera and Barrett get caught in the act together, in Tony's bedroom no less, they are sacked. Barrett is not one to give up easily and soon has begged and lied his way back to work as Tony's manservant - and soon a very odd relationship has developed between the two men as the roles of master and servant have seemingly flipped.

Review - Filmed in black and white, with interesting, stylish photography (a number of shots taken into mirrors, stuff like that). Dirk Bogarde gives a great performance in this film - well, he's always good! One of my favorite actors - and very handsome to look at, I must say. The print of this, as screened on TCM, looked very good. Rating - 9/10 stars

Doctor in the House (1954) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

Plot Summary - British comedy following the adventures of handsome, young Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) and his five years as a medical student at St. Swithins Hospital, London. From his arrival for his first term at medical school, lost, late to his first lecture, but soon shown the ropes by three students who keep returning year after year from failing their exams. These return students are more interested in girls, football, and the local pub than actually becoming doctors, it seems. Simon acquires living quarters at a boarding house where he is chased by the landlady's daughter, an aggressive and beautiful blonde - our Simon wants none of that so moves in with the three fellows into their messy rooms, complete with female fiancee of one of the guys who seems to share the bathroom. As our men progress through the school years we see them deal with practicing on patients, exams, women, stern doctors, and an even sterner nurse in the form of Sister Virtue. His friends try to find Simon a girl, he's more interested in his studies but does go out on a few failed dates, finally actually ending up liking a pretty nurse named Joy.

Review - Slapstick-ish comedy includes a skeleton on the bus and rescue of the school mascot (hideous stuffed gorilla) through the streets of London. Amusing, entertaining film boosted up by wonderful Dirk Bogarde, one of my personal favorites. Amusing comedienne Joan Sims appears in the tiny cameo role of nurse "Rigor Mortis", hehe. Filmed in Technicolor, with lots of location scenes in London - the print, as screened on TCM, looked nice. An enjoyable watch, I haven't actually seen this one in many years. A fun romp. Rating - 8.5 to 9/10 stars

The Soloist (2009) Film Review - Jamie Foxx

Plot Summary - Los Angeles Times reporter Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), hanging in Pershing Square, meets a homeless man named Nathaniel (Jamie Foxx) who talks to himself in nonsense streaming sentences and plays the violin on the streets of L.A., and it turns out he was once a music student at Julliard, several decades before. Lopez decides to devote his weekly column to this man, tries to find out what lead him to this down and out state, and tries to help him. After the first column, a reader sends Nathaniel her cello, Lopez finds him a shelter where the instrument will be safe, and eventually finds him a small apartment. But what he really wants to do is help cure Nathaniel of his mental illness/schizophrenia, though an unwilling Nathaniel makes that a hard nut to crack.

Review - Nicely photographed in the L.A. streets, including some interesting and colorful overhead tracking shots. Interesting story and very well acted by all - Jamie Foxx is particular good in this film. The scenes of Skid Row are odd, kind of scary, colorful, dirty and realistic looking. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Fragments (2008) aka Winged Creatures - Film Review

Plot Summary - In a Southern California town, a gunman enters a diner/coffee shop and shoots victims at random; those left living through the ordeal are left living fragmented lives - stress and shock seemingly leading this small bunch to odd behavior patterns. First there's tween-age Annie (Dakota Fanning), struggling with the death of her dad in the incident, as she and her friend Jimmy (Josh Hutcherson) hid under the table they were eating at - - after the shooting, Annie becomes a religious fanatic, Jimmy won't talk. Then there's Charlie (Forest Whitaker), gunshot to the neck, wanders out of the hospital and straight to the Indian casinos where he begins a lucky gambling streak shooting craps. Waitress Carla (Kate Beckinsale) wasn't hurt physically in the incident, but begins to chase after the doctor who tended to the victims afterwards, who by coincidence was in the diner 20 minutes before the shooting. Meanwhile, Doc is busy sneaking drugs into his girlfriend's food to give her migraine headaches (huh?!).

Review - This film is well done and was fairly interesting, though the tale ended up being confusing with segments of the story that just never made sense or were explained. The film benefits from having a fine cast of actors and the style and on-location scenes look good. The plotline switches between the different characters and their reactions to this tragedy. The film also features Jackie Earle Haley as Jimmy's dad (pretty small role) and Jennifer Hudson as Charlie's daughter. Reasonably good, though flawed. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

De Luxe Annie (1918) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - Silent crime melodrama. Julie and Walter Kendal (Norma Talmadge and Frank Mills) - she a sweetheart, wife and mother - he, a man interested in theories on crime, the causes and effects. Walter believes that a sudden shock can lead a person to a life of crime - his theory is about to be tested. One night he sets out to track a couple of baddies known as De Luxe Annie and Jimmy (Eugene O'Brien), who like to pull con games such as the "Old Badger" game and "De Luxe Book" game, on innocent victims. Walter undercover, arrives pretending he's interested in purchasing a deluxe edition of a classic book from Annie - the con underway, as Jimmy shows up pretending to be an angry husband wondering why a man is alone in the apartment with his wife; Jimmy asks for hush money to keep it out of the papers. Meanwhile, Julie at home has a nightmare her man is in trouble - so she heads over to help him, ends up knocked out from a fight with the bad people, then out into the night with amnesia - no memory of her past! Next thing you know she's cleaning rooms at a lodging house and happens to be cleaning up Jimmy's room, where she tries to steal a pile of dough and a watch - but he arrives to catch her holding his goods, and deciding she'd make a good little partner for his schemes, he recruits her to join forces with him to pull the De Luxe book game. So Julie heads into a life of crime, but still has vague notions in her head of a different past - she pinches a brooch she feels should be hers (and it was!), and in an action-packed finale Jimmie and Julie escape via ice skates to keep the hounds from tracking their scent, ending up at her own, forgotten house. Meanwhile hubby Walter has become aware that his wife has no clue who she is, and is pulling crimes - and he seeks to help her get the operation she needs to restore her memory.

Review - This is a worthwhile watch, a very melodramatic plot-line typical of the time period this film was made. There was some interesting photography and editing I noticed - one interesting shot I'm remembering is the superimposed image of Talmadge as Julie in one corner while she is having her nightmare. The print had some nitrate decomposition during one reel. Norma Talmadge, in this film, kept reminding me of current day actress Natalie Portman - very similar look. She does a very good job in her part in this film, I thought. AFTER NOTE: Okay - I recently saw the British film "Easy Virtue (2008)" and one of the actresses in this, Charlotte Riley, really did look exactly like Norma Talmadge - and now that I think of it, she was in the recent Brit version of Wuthering Heights, which I saw about a month before Cinecon 45 - it was her that I was reminded of while watching "De Luxe Annie". Rating - 8/10 stars

The Bride Comes Home (1936) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Screwball comedy love triangle. Grown-up wealthy girl Jeannette (Claudette Colbert) has to go to work 'cause her daddy's out of money. Her friend Jack (Robert Young) has just inherited three and a half million dollars and decides to start up a magazine - "The Man" ("for the working man") - with his brooding bodyguard Cyrus (Fred MacMurray) - hired for the last two years to finish all the fights that Jack starts. With a major crush on attractive Jeannette, Jack hires her to be Cyrus' assistant on the magazine. Cyrus thinks of her as just a rich society girl taking a job on a lark - so he treats her rough by giving her time-waster idiot tasks to complete, like counting names in the phone book. When he finds out she actually needs the job to eat - he feels bad, but the damage is done - she hates him. Well, in the way of all filmland - since she hates him, you just know they'll end up a couple. And so it is - despite all their bickering, they soon declare their love for each other. With plans to be married the next afternoon, she arrives at his bachelor apartment in the morning to find it a big, cluttered up, dirty mess. While she's cleaning up, Cyrus arrives early with the Minister (who is on a very tight time schedule) - but she's all dirtied up in housecleaning attire, won't marry him until she gets cleaned up, and a huge fight breaks out cancelling the marriage plans. Friend Jack steps in to lay claim to his longtime love - and, catching her on the rebound, she is convinced into marrying him. Now follows a wild race, screwball finale - with Cyril and Jeannette's dad racing on motorcycle to get out-of-town and to the home of the Justice of the Peace before Jeannette ends up married to the wrong fellow. Luckily Jeannette and Jack are in the process of being married by the slowest, most long-winded Justice of the Peace on record.

Review - With Claudette Colbert in the lead, it would be hard for this to not be a pretty good film - especially when you add on Robert Young and Fred MacMurray as her co-stars. The film is a nicely done romantic comedy with a bit of the screwball to it - - it is, oddly, a rarely seen film. One thing I must say though, I grew up on Fred MacMurray and Robert Young as father figure types being a young sitcom fan who spent lots of time watching old shows like "Father Knows Best" and "My Three Sons" - so it's still kinda hard for me to see these guys as romantic lead figures! The Justice of the Peace is amusingly played by Edgar Kennedy - and yes, he does his famous slow-burn in this. Rating - 8/10 stars