Movie Review: When A Stranger Calls (1979)

Genre: Suspense Horror  

Director: Fred Walton  

Starring: Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Colleen Dewhurst  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: While babysitting for the Mandrakis family, teenager Jill (Carol Kane) receives a series of menacing phone calls from a mysterious man asking her if she has "checked the children". The evening ends badly, but Jill survives. Seven years later the assailant Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley) escapes an asylum and proceeds to stalk the lonely Tracy (Colleen Dewhurst), pursued by retired detective John Clifford (Charles Durning). 

What Works Well: The opening 20 minutes feature a simple but effective premise: incessant phone calls with one question terrorizing a babysitter in a large and mostly dark house. Carol Kane capably carries this unsettling sequence, interacting with nothing but the phone as she gradually comes to terms with the danger closing in. Director Fred Walton's smooth camera work and interesting perspectives heighten the suspense.

What Does Not Work As Well: Unfortunately, the rest of the movie falls well short. Kane drops out of the middle 50 minutes, as the focus shifts to Curt Duncan (fatefully almost sympathetic) antagonizing Tracy (a context-free woman-in-danger), with private investigator Clifford puffing behind, exerting plenty of effort with little to show for it. The climax abruptly shifts gears with another clunk as Kane reappears to almost save the day, but the damage caused by the choppy structure and large plot gaps is non-recoverable.

Key Quote:

Curt Duncan: Have you checked the children?

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Movie Review: License To Drive (1988)

A teen adventure comedy, License To Drive is much better than it needs to be thanks to a sympathetic Corey Haim performance and a sharp script.

16 year old high school student Les (Haim) can't wait to get his driver's license in order to impress his alluring classmate Mercedes (Heather Graham). Les' Dad (Richard Masur) and pregnant Mom (Carol Kane) fully expect him to pass his driving test at the first attempt, as do his friends Dean (Corey Feldman) and Charles (Michael Manasseri). Despite acing the driving portion of the exam, Les flunks the computer test.

Unable to deal with the humiliation of failure, Les conveniently forgets to tell his friends that he still does not have a license. Instead he smuggles his grandfather's blue Cadillac out of the garage when his parents are sleeping, and embarks on a date with Mercedes, which extends to a joyride session with Dean and Charles. Mercedes is soon consuming too much alcohol, while Dean eggs Les on towards more adventures with unexpected consequences.

A star-making vehicle for Haim, who really was 16 years old, License To Drive captures the young actor at his peak and helped to propel "the two Coreys" to the height of teenage stardom. It would all end in drug-drenched tragedy for Haim, but here his instinctive talent and easy screen charisma are fully on display, and undeniable. He lifts what would otherwise be a routine teen flick to an enjoyable romp through a combination of mischievous innocence and adorable winks at the audience.

Director Greg Beeman wisely recognizes the talent at his disposal and makes the film all about Les. The would-be romance with Mercedes, the spiky friendships with Dean and Charles, the awkward relationship with slightly goofy parents and the relentless pursuit of a driver's license all start and end with Les in the middle of his own world.

In what is essentially a slightly less dangerous version of Risky Business, all of Les' adventures are also patchy, underdeveloped and sometimes icky, including resolutions where Mercedes ends us passed out drunk, stuffed in the trunk of a car and then exploited by Dean as he takes revealing pictures. In 1988 these events were still considered somehow funny for a teen-oriented comedy film.

Helping the film rise above forgettable is a stronger than usual supporting cast bringing the secondary cast to life. This was Graham's first credited screen role and she shines as the unattainable high school crush who is suddenly available. Richard Masur and Carol Kane ensure that Les' parents are more quirky than usual, while Feldman and Manasseri are believable as the friends who make sure trouble is around every antic.

License To Drive exploits the unspoken joke that licensed or not, Les is a naturally talented ace driver behind the wheel of that Cadillac. The film finds the fun it seeks riding along with its young star, but in retrospect is tinged with the sadness of a talent lost too soon.

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Movie Review: The Last Detail (1973)

A slice-of-life drama about fleeting friendships and the oppressive responsibilities of military life in a civilian context, The Last Detail is an unforgettable low-key road trip.

At the U.S. Naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, Signalman Billy "Badass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and Gunner's Mate Richard "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) are given a new assignment: escort 18 year old prisoner Seaman Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid) by train and bus to Portsmouth Naval Prison. Meadows has been convicted of attempting to steal $40 from a charity jar, and sentenced to a ridiculous seven years because he targeted the favourite charity of the naval base commander's wife.

Badass and Mule hatch a plan to make the most of the trip to break the dull monotony of life on the base. They plot to deliver Meadows to Portsmouth as quickly as possible and then spend a week living it up. But Badass starts to feel sorry for the goofy, oversized kleptomaniac Meadows, and decides to give the kid a good time to make up for what he will lose while serving his sentence. Badass and Mule prolong their stay in New York and then Boston, and introduce Meadows to alcohol and women, while helping him build up his assertiveness.

Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Robert Towne, The Last Detail is an understated piece of quintessential 1970s film making. The story of a prison escort detail triggering a road trip cannot be any simpler. The layered theme of psychological confinement holding back all three men emerges slowly, and finally takes over the film with unusual potency.

Stylistically Ashby bathes the film in harsh tones, browns, yellows and whites dominating many of the scenes to represent the unmistakably bleak outlook for all three men. From nondescript cheap motel rooms to characterless diners, the film crawls along an uninspired America surviving through one day just to get to the next similarly joyless day.

And traversing this terrain is one man in handcuffs and two men just as confined in their careers. Meadows cannot help his kleptomania and will be paying the price behind bars for a long time. Badass and Mule are prisoners of their own making. Lifers in the Navy, now stuck inside a military machine but on land and away from any war, their prospects are more grim than anything Meadows faces: at least he gets variety in locale and a release to look forward to. They get nothing except more of the same.

The road trip is a brief escape for all three men, Meadows getting his first introduction to drinking, chanting with hippies, whoring and generally being purposelessly loose. Badass and Mule enjoy the freedom of breaking some rules away from the eyes of authority and doing good by being bad. The three men form a bond of friendship anchored by sailing outside the lines.

Jack Nicholson dominates the film as the anti-authoritarian man reluctantly resigned to a life under the thumb of authority, but seeking every opportunity to bend the rules. Otis Young allows Mule to be a counterbalance, a sailor more invested in the daily regulations of his career but gradually allowing his resistance to crumble. Randy Quaid delivers one of his finest career performances as the clueless Meadows, a man-sized boy with his fate already in the hands of others. Carol Kane, Nancy Allen and Gilda Radner appear in small early career supporting roles.

The Last Detail momentarily challenges all the small details in the inconsequential lives of three men, but the vast emptiness of soul confinement is an overpowering, if quiet, force.



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The Movies Of Carol Kane

All movies starring Carol Kane and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Carnal Knowledge (1971)

The Last Detail (1973)





Dog Day Afternoon (1975)





Annie Hall (1977)





When A Stranger Calls (1979)

Ishtar (1987)

The Princess Bride (1987)





License To Drive (1988)





Scrooged (1988)





Four Christmases (2008, uncredited)





The Bounty Hunter (2010)

The Sisters Brothers (2018)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Princess Bride (1987)

A fantasy romance comedy, The Princes Bride rides a wave of seductive cheekiness and delivers for both adults and their kids.

Grandpa (Peter Falk) visits his sick grandson (Fred Savage) and reads to him The Princess Bride. The story is set in medieval times, in a land ruled over by the evil Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) and his brutal head henchman Count Tyrone Rugen (Christopher Guest). Buttercup (Robin Wright) is a beautiful young woman who loves to ride her horse. She falls deeply in love with her farm boy Westley (Cary Elwes), but they are separated when he goes off to find his fortune. Word arrives that Westley has been captured and likely killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Humperdinck chooses Buttercup to be his bride, but his real intent is to start a war for personal gain. Humperdinck hires master criminal Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) and his gang, consisting of the giant Fezzik (Andre the Giant) and master swordsman Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), to kidnap Buttercup, kill her and blame the death on a neighbouring kingdom. A mysterious masked man in black gives chase, eventually disposing of Vizzini, rescuing Buttercup and escaping into the scary Fire Swamp. The masked man turns out to be Westley, coming back to reclaim his true love. But Humperdinck will not give up easily, and the lovers will need to overcome captivity and torture to seal their destiny.

Directed by Rob Reiner and breezily written by William Goldman, The Princess Bride is part romance adventure, part swashbuckler, and all clever satire. The package could not be any more perfect, as the film delivers action, thrills, laughs and pure first love for younger audience members, while maintaining a glint-in-the-eye edge of evil wit for their parents.

The overarching theme of true-love-will-conquer-all hovers over the film like an exquisite rainbow, and at the heart of the movie Robin Wright and Cary Elwes deliver honest performances full of heroism underpinned by the conviction that no matter what, they belong together. But The Princess Bride shines because of the diversity of interesting characters and sub-stories, and Goldman excels in creating a world of colourful scoundrels and side kicks. The charismatic Inigo Montoya carries a major revenge sub-plot of his own, and Mandy Patinkin has rarely been better as Inigo forces his way into a co-lead role with Buttercup and Westley. The transformation of Inigo and the giant Fezzik from bad guys to good allies is another strong anchor theme in the film, and the two also provide a steady stream of humour.

And our heroes have not one, not two, but three villains to contend with. Humperdinck may be the head antagonist, and he emerges as a paper tiger, a man equal parts unearned power and distasteful cowardice. More potent is the darkly menacing Count Tyrone, a heartless torturer with a well-earned reputation for ruthlessness. Meanwhile, in a relatively brief but unforgettable role, Wallace Shawn creates in Vizzini an inconceivably irritating criminal, a short man ruling over his gang with smarts until he outsmarts himself in a cerebral confrontation with the masked man in black. Billy Crystal and Carol Kane show up in small and campy comic relief parts.

Reiner respects the setting of his story and does not shy away from some mildly disturbing scenes of torture, and adds blood when necessary to emphasize the outcome of key sword battles. As a counterbalance and to relieve any mounting tension, a large part of the film's charm resides in the frequent returns to the grandson's bedroom, as he starts out full of skepticism but gradually warms up to all the thrills and yes, smoochy romance that the story being read by grandpa has to offer. For the young and old alike, The Princess Bride casts an immaculate magical spell.

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Movie Review: Annie Hall (1977)

A ground-breaking romantic comedy, Annie Hall set a genre standard that has rarely been matched. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton sparkle as the perfect example of opposites attracting each other, and both deliver career defining performances.

The film is narrated by Allen in the role of Alvy Singer. An insecure Jew born and raised in Brooklyn and now working as a stand-up comic in New York City, Singer recounts his on-again, off-again relationship with girlfriend and aspiring singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Although they share little in common, Singer and Hall find a unique chemistry between regular bouts of sparring and bickering.

Twice divorced and turning forty, Singer is obsessed with issues of life and death, sensitive about being a Jew, condescending towards the views of others, and unapologetically pessimistic. Hall is cheerful, transparent, self effacing, and a demon driver. They argue about education, sex, smoking pot, life in New York, and social engagements, but nevertheless enjoy being together more than being apart, until the relationship appears to reach a dead end.

Allen populates Annie Hall with colourful characters in relatively small but memorable roles, including Tony Roberts as Alvy's only friend, Paul Simon as the main competition vying for Annie's attention, Carol Kane as Alvy's first wife and Shelley Duvall as a one-night stand. They drift in and out of the wobbly orbit being travelled by Alvy and Annie, adding touches of quirky humour.

Annie Hall is filled with daring touches of humour drawn from original film-making techniques, including Allen continuously breaking the fourth wall to address the audience, and a scene where sub-titles are used to convey what Alvy and Annie and really thinking, a totally separate conversation from their actual exchange of dialogue. Alvy and Annie in their present forms frequently drop in on episodes from their past, and one scene is entirely animated.

In another stylistic triumph, Annie Hall evokes the pace of real life thanks to Allen using long takes to allow scenes to develop and breathe, the camera of cinematographer Gordon Willis an unobtrusive and casual observer of unfolding human interaction, editor Ralph Rosenblum prominent due to his lack of activity. Characters stumble over their thoughts and sometimes over each other's words as they would if there were no cameras around, with the humour stemming from recognizable wit rather than cinematic sarcasm.

Annie Hall's influence extended beyond the screen and helped shape the cultural landscape of the mid to late 1970s. Keaton's wardrobe ignited a radical fashion trend and Allen's commentary on life and death framed societal engagement. At the core of the movie are two compellingly irresistible characters: despite their up and down relationship, they would have been most welcome guests at any dinner party.

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