Movie Review: Mary Poppins (1964)

Genre: Musical Fantasy Comedy  

Director: Robert Stevenson  

Starring: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson  

Running Time: 139 minutes  

Synopsis: In London of 1910, practically perfect nanny Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) descends from the sky and takes the job of caring for difficult children Jane and Michael Banks. Their father George (David Tomlinson) is a pompous banker, and their mother Winfred (Glynis Johns) is pre-occupied by the suffrage movement. Mary is stern but loving, and teams up with chimney sweep Bert (Dick Van Dyke) to show the kids a magical good time and teach them about kindness.

What Works Well: This inventive musical celebrates a make-believe fantasy world by innovatively mixing animation with live action, delighting child audiences by redefining the art of the possible in special effects. The legendary musical numbers are full of whimsical energy and creative visuals, including A Spoonful Of Sugar; Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious; Chim Chim Cher-ee, Feed The Birds, and Let's Go Fly A Kite. Despite her character requiring only a limited range, Julie Andrews is a magnetic presence, oozing confidence behind sparkling eyes and unleashing a quite magical voice.

What Does Not Work As Well: Almost every scene and all the song-and-dance sequences are longer than needed, and some distractions (including the cannon-happy Admiral Boom and laugh-addict Uncle Albert) occupy too much space. The upper crust of prim and proper Edwardian England is the target of some good-natured ribbing, but otherwise this is plot-free entertainment, and even the low bar of George learning to appreciate family is ultimately undermined.

Key Quote:

Mary Poppins: Close your mouth, please, Michael. We are not a codfish.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Americanization Of Emily (1964)

Genre: War Drama Comedy Romance

Director: Arthur Hiller

Starring: James Garner, Julie Andrews, James Coburn, Melvyn Douglas

Running Time: 115 minutes

Synopsis: In London of 1944, D-Day preparations are underway. The US Navy's Lieutenant Charlie Madison (James Garner) manages logistics for Admiral Jessup (Melvyn Douglas), who is concerned that the Navy's war efforts are underappreciated. A charming womanizer and admitted coward, Charlie starts a romance with Emily Barham (Julie Andrews), a military pool driver who believes in notions of honour and sacrifice. When the ailing Jessup demands a propaganda film of the Normandy invasion, Charlie and his colleague Lieutenant "Bus" Cummings (James Coburn) are thrust uncomfortably close to the front lines.

What Works Well: The Paddy Chayefsky adaptation of William Bradford Huie's novel is full of sharp intellectual debate, delivered with cynical conviction by characters navigating the turmoil of World War Two. Themes include the contrast between the American and English perspectives on the war; the value and exploitation of service and honor as opposed to practical individual survival objectives; and the preoccupation with optics and finance plaguing the military's leadership. In a sexually liberated milieu, Julie Andrews as Emily is a bright light amidst the uniforms, representing British resilience in the face of personal loss and an American cultural invasion.

What Does Not Work As Well: The multiple competing narrative ambitions result in plot threads being abandoned for long stretches. The tonal shifts between romance, philosophizing, and outright cynicism are often jarring, with several characters recalibrating beliefs according to the whims of the script. Some of the dialogue exchanges are theatrically wordy. 

Conclusion: A whip-smart and well-rounded commentary on war's conundrums.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Tamarind Seed (1974)

An international espionage romance, The Tamarind Seed attempts to create a personal human drama within the Cold War context but suffers from excessively lackadaisical pacing.

British Home Office assistant Judith Farrow (Julie Andrews) is vacationing in Barbados to recover from a botched love affair with a married Paris-based diplomat, which followed the death of her husband. Soviet military attaché Feodor Sverdlov (Omar Sharif) is vacationing in the adjacent bungalow. Honest about being married, he initiates a friendship that blossoms into a romance, but Judith insists they do not sleep together. They return to Europe, Sverdlov promising to reconnect.

In London, British intelligence officer Jack Loder (Anthony Quayle) and his assistant MacLeod (Bryan Marshall) take a keen interest in the burgeoning relationship between Judith and Sverdlov, sure that the suave Russian is attempting to recruit the naive assistant. Also worried is British minister Fergus Stephenson (Dan O'Herlihy) and his wife Margaret (Sylvia Syms), who hold secrets that may be revealed with any Russian defection. Judith and Sverdlov pursue a romance while both the British and Russian governments are deeply suspicious that something more nefarious is afoot.

A laudable attempt to create a more cerebral and character-centred story about the human cost of the Cold War, The Tamarind Seed falls into the cracks between too much plot and not enough momentum. Director Blake Edwards (Andrews' husband) adapted the Evelyn Anthony book and should have streamlined the narrative and jettisoned more of the clutter. The central romance is often suspended in time and space as marginal characters and events swirl around the lovers, too many conniving agents, officials, diplomats, wives, girlfriends, ex-lovers and henchmen getting in the way.

The Cold War's disruptive impact on the most basic of human pleasures is an intended theme, but the love affair proceeds at a glacial pace and along a ponderous and repetitive path. Both Andrews and Sharif are game for their roles and advance a welcome photogenic maturity into the discourse, but their conversations too often spin in the same cycle of Sverdlov seeking to advance to the lovemaking stage and Judith resisting.

On the margins they veer into unconvincing and muddled compare-and-contrast debates about capitalism versus communism, Sverdlov often tediously pontificating about the essence of the Russian character. The legend of a condemned Barbados slave and the shape of the Tamarind tree seed take on profound symbolism of the eye-rolling variety.

When the discourse evolves to the possibility of an actual defection, the multiple layers of lying and deception render all commitments suspect, undermining any investment in the characters' real motivations. By the time some action sparks to life late in the third act, intelligence officer Loder essentially becomes the most influential character with Judith and Sverdlov reduced to pawns in their own game.

Bond series veterans Maurice Binder and John Barry contribute the classy title sequence design and evocative music score. Both promise more than the film can deliver, as this Russian spy is licenced to merely talk, love, and philosophize.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Hawaii (1966)

A historical epic about Christian missionaries, Hawaii aims for a spectacular scope but has to settle for competently stodgy.

It's 1819 in New England, and the strictly idealistic Calvinist Reverend Abner Hale (Max von Sydow) heeds the call from Hawaii's Prince Keoki (Manu Tupou) and volunteers for a Christian mission to the islands. The Reverend Dr. Thorn (Torin Thatcher) insists that Abner first get married, and connects him with the eligible Jerusha (Julie Andrews), the daughter of church member Charles Bromley (Carroll O'Connor).

Jerusha is still nursing a heart broken by whaler Captain Rafer Hoxworth, who loved her and abandoned her. After a brief and awkward courtship she agrees to marry the stiff and clumsy Abner. They travel to Hawaii on an arduous sea journey including traversing the Magellan Strait. Upon arrival they are welcomed by Keoki's mother Malama (Jocelyne LaGarde), the local ruler considered sacred by the natives.

As per tradition to preserve the purity of bloodlines Malama is married to her brother Kelolo (Ted Nobriga), one of many examples of adultery and incest that Abner immediately starts raging against. Jerusha is more patient and teaches Malama how to write, while Abner builds his first church and slowly starts to exert influence, although changing deeply entrenched local customs proves difficult. Abner and Jerusha start a family, but further complications arise when Captain Hoxworth (Richard Harris) appears in Hawaii and reinitiates his romantic pursuit of Jerusha.

An adaptation of one chapter from James A. Michener's 1959 book, Hawaii is ambitious in scope and proficient in execution but hamstrung by dry subject matter and an aloof protagonist. The beautiful scenery and grand Elmer Bernstein music score ensure a base level of entertainment. But the story of humourless missionaries browbeating locals into redefining themselves as worthless sinners is grating.

While Julie Andrews receives top billing after achieving stratospheric success in The Sound Of Music, Jerusha is very much the secondary character. Instead the script by Daniel Taradash and Dalton Trumbo chooses Reverend Abner Hale as the focal point. His uncompromising view of the world and Bible-thumping attitude defines the fire and brimstone style of proselytizing, and makes for an exceptionally dour central character. Three hours is a long time to spend with anyone, but three hours with Abner are more than enough to capitulate and buy whatever he is selling just to avoid his continued wrath.

Relatively unknown at the time, director George Roy Hill replaced Fred Zinnemann and was himself reportedly fired and rehired several times during the course of the troubled production. To his credit, Hill does tease out the agonies (including loss of culture and rampant diseases) experienced by the natives due to the missionary invasion, and raises questions as to whether the locals ultimately benefited from welcoming and trusting the social and religious fundamentalists.

With Max von Sydow in full preacherman mode, it is left to Andrews to prove she can handle dramatic roles. She effortlessly passes the test in the two key scenes, first Jerusha explaining to Abner intimacy's place in marriage, and much later awakening him (somewhat) to the power of love over dogma.

Native Tahitian Jocelyne LaGarde earned an Academy Award nomination for her one and only screen role as Malama, who injects much needed spirit whenever she is on the screen despite LaGarde not knowing any English and reciting her lines phonetically. As Abner will spend a lifetime learning, sometimes what matters is not what needs to be said, but how the message is conveyed.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

The Movies Of Julie Andrews

All movies starring Julie Andrews and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Mary Poppins (1964)

The Americanization Of Emily (1964)

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Turn Curtain (1966)

Hawaii (1966)

The Tamarind Seed (1974)

10 (1979)

Victor/Victoria (1982)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Sound Of Music (1965)

An epic musical drama and romance, The Sound Of Music is a flawlessly executed old-fashioned celebration of love and hope blossoming in the most unexpected places.

It's the 1930s and free-spirited music-loving Maria (Julie Andrews) is struggling to fit in as a nun-in-training at an abbey on the outskirts of Salzburg. The Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood) asks Maria to try life as a governess instead, helping the family of widower and distinguished navy veteran Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and his seven children.

A staunch Austrian nationalist living in an impressively grand mansion, the Captain is a strict disciplinarian who fires governesses for fun. Maria has to work hard to introduce affection and joy through music to the lives of his children. They vary in age from 16 to five, with the eldest Liesl (Charmian Carr) starting an amorous relationship with telegram delivery boy Rolfe (Daniel Truhitte).

The Captain comes back from a trip to Vienna with his wife-to-be, the very rich Baroness Elsa von Schraeder (Eleanor Parker), as well as family friend and musical talent spotter Max Detweiler (Richard Haydn). Despite frequent verbal sparring the Captain and Maria start to fall in love, much to the consternation of the Baroness. But then the dark shadow of Nazi Germany, as represented by local collaborator Herr Zeller (Ben Wright), starts to descend on Austria, threatening the family's new-found happiness.

An adaptation of the 1959 Broadway show with music by Richard Rogers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, the film is directed by Robert Wise with an eye to perfect framing and glossy postcard-style visuals. The story is loosely based on the adventures of the real-life von Trapp family as recounted in a book written by one of the daughters, and carries enough stranger-than-fiction drama to propel the film's 174 minutes. Despite musical repetition creeping into the last hour, The Sound Of Music never drags and effortlessly breezes by.

With a voice carrying immense range and crystalline beauty, Julie Andrews unleashes inexhaustible energy as Maria. Her wide-eyed, pragmatic and stand-your-ground portrayal of a young woman venturing into a new world of marble columns and grand estate rooms is a large part of the film's appeal. Maria cannot help but speak her mind, a trait she is keenly aware of, and as it turns out her outspokenness is exactly what is needed to puncture Captain von Trapp's aloofness. Christopher Plummer has a lot less to do as the Captain, but creates the cold canvass on which Andrews pours her warmth.

Despite the story, the acting, the sweet children and the menacing Nazis, The Sound Of Music is first and foremost all about the music, and the soundtrack is one of the all-time classics in the history of cinema. Yes, the tunes and lyrics are simplistic, cutesy, hummable and laser-targeted at parents and their younger children. But songs like Do-Re-Me, Sixteen Going On Seventeen and My Favorite Things are undeniably catchy and adorable, and immediately evoke Wise's lush visuals of the breathtaking Austrian countryside and Salzberg's idyllic appeal. And Wise does find some exquisite emotional highlights through the music. The Captain's rendition of Edelweiss to his family is an affecting moment, while the Something Good duet is a pure expression of mutual love.

The Sound Of Music casts a family-friendly magic spell, and the film's sense of pure enchantment is easy to love.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Victor/Victoria (1982)

A gender-bending comedy romance with some music, Victor/Victoria finds laughs by poking sharp fun at traditional masculine and feminine roles.

Paris, 1934. Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) is an unemployed and starving classically trained soprano singer in a city looking for edgier and more decadent entertainment. An accidental meeting with recently-fired and openly gay nightclub host Carroll "Toddy" Todd (Robert Preston) results in a brainstorm: Victoria will pretend to be the exotic Polish Count Victor Grazinski, an expert female impersonator and cross-dresser performing as the sultry Victoria. The ruse works and soon Victoria is the toast of the town.

American nightclub owner and businessman King Marchand (James Garner) is visiting Paris with his girlfriend Norma (Lesley Ann Warren). King has gangland contacts and so travels with bodyguard "Squash" Bernstein (Alex Karras). King catches the glitzy show featuring Victoria and is hopelessly infatuated, and just as stunned when she is revealed to be Count Victor. King refuses to fully believe that Victoria is a man, and sets out to find out the truth, unleashing a knock-on series of sexually confused events.

Written and directed by Blake Edwards and featuring one of his wife Julie Andrews' finest roles, Victor/Victoria celebrates love across gender divides. With a lovingly recreated Gay Paree between the two wars providing the perfect backdrop, the film dives headfirst into murky waters where inner souls attract and traditional gender roles are hopelessly muddled.

The premise of a woman pretending to be a man who impersonates women in order to launch a successful cabaret act tests the limits of what a movie can explain. Edwards just about gets away with it, although Andrews passing herself off as a man rarely carries conviction. But beyond the labels, this is a story of connections and friendships, and Edwards' message is one of love. The heterosexual Victoria and homosexual Toddy form a strong bond based on a business partnership, the very hetero King jettisons the over-sexed Norma and is hopelessly attracted to Victor whether or not she is Victoria. Before all emotions are sorted, even the bodyguard Squash will get in on the act.

Surrounding the central theme is some cheap Clouseauesque comedy, and Edwards is unable to exercise the necessary restraint to trim the fat, especially in the second half as the film extends to a flabby 132 minutes. The few musical routines are serviceable but also repetitive and far from memorable.

Julie Andrews helps the movie through the rough patches and is laser focussed on keeping Victoria a rational character through the comic sexual mayhem. Robert Preston gets the showiest role, and revels in the freedom of portraying a man who could care less about what others think. Lesley Ann Warren is also humorously flamboyant, but disappears from the film for a long stretch.

Victor/Victoria is a fun frolic through the weird world of human magnetism. Whether you come as you are or as you want to pretend to be, Cupid's arrow is pointy.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: 10 (1979)

A sex comedy about the mess men can create at the midpoint of their life, 10 achieves laughs but also dawdles for too long in obvious territory.

Beverly Hills-based music composer George Webber (Dudley Moore) arrives at a full-fledged mid-life crisis after his 42nd birthday. Neither his lover Samantha Taylor (Julie Andrews) nor his friend and co-composer Hugh (Robert Webber) can help. Things get worse when George stumbles onto the wedding of Jenny (Bo Derek), and is immediately infatuated with the stunning young bride, whom he rates as an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.

George starts to drink excessively, abandons Samantha and follows Jenny to a Mexico honeymoon resort, where he befriends Don (Brian Dennehy) the bartender. George stalks Jenny on the beach, fantasizing about an unlikely romance and trying to work up the courage to conjure up a meeting. Meanwhile, Mary Lewis (Dee Wallace) is a lonely woman at the same resort, and she sets her sights on George.

Cast as the almost mythical subject of a middle-aged man's lust, 10 catapulted Bo Derek from obscurity to superstardom. Her braided cornrow hairstyle and skin-coloured one-piece swimsuit became instantly recognizable and much-copied, and she was immediately appointed as the newest Hollywood sex symbol.

With Derek dominating the headlines, the film itself is almost, but not quite, irrelevant. Director Blake Edwards does not help his own cause by flubbing the pacing, somehow contriving to extend the flimsy story to over two hours.

Almost every scene and idea is tediously stretched beyond what is necessary, the initial laugh always drowned in a chorus of prolongation. George walking across the hot sand is funny; but not after the first 30 seconds. George tumbling down an embankment and attempting to climb back up is maybe funny; but not after many minutes of panting and gasping. George and Samantha missing each other's phone calls is amusing the first couple of times; by the fifth round, the joke is truly spent.

And Dudley Moore is afforded far too much drinking time, with scene after scene of George chugging back the alcohol and stumbling around in a drunken stupor in a desperate attempt to reverse his age.

She may not know the first thing about acting, but here the better moments almost always feature Derek, whether running on the beach in slow motion or matter-of-factly exposing George to the generational gap that he will never be able to traverse. Edwards fully commits to the world of adults with plenty of nudity, and the bedroom scenes, once they arrive, carry the requisite awkward edge. Ravel's Bolero (Jenny's favourite lovemaking soundtrack) enjoyed a massive worldwide revival.

The rest of the cast members are capable but hampered by the excessive focus on George. Julie Andrews as Samantha is the grounding mechanism that George refuses to hold onto, but she disappears for long stretches from the second half. Brian Dennehy and Robert Webber provide robust support but both deserved more screentime, as did Dee Wallace.

The theme of middle-aged angst is run thoroughly through the wash-dry cycle, but Edwards appears oblivious to George's life of immense privilege. His emotional troubles are the embodiment of the ultra rich and comfortable finding something - anything - to whine about between trips in the Rolls-Royce.

10 enjoys its moments at the expense of the wayward male mind, but while Bo Derek may have briefly been the world's 11, the film scores a more mundane 6.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Torn Curtain (1966)

A cold war military espionage thriller, Torn Curtain succeeds in creating and exploiting plenty of enjoyable tension. It is also the only Alfred Hitchcock film to feature 1960s era superstars like Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. With Hitchcock reportedly ill at ease directing a method actor, Torn Curtain benefits from a Newman performance in which he never appears relaxed, and his agitation helps to propel the drama.

Professor Michael Armstrong (Newman), an American rocket scientist, plans his defection to communist Eastern Europe while attending a conference in Copenhagen. Complications arise when his fiancee Sarah Sherman (Andrews) boards the same plane to East Berlin, and decides to join him behind the Iron Curtain. Armstrong claims to be disgruntled by the US military's cancellation of the rocket program that he was working on, and appears eager to join the esteemed East German physics researchers at the University in Leipzig.

Armstrong's real motive, however, is to steal the latest East German anti-missile science secrets and return to the US as quickly as possible. Visiting a remote farmhouse to connect with the underground network that will aid his escape, Armstrong has a messy encounter with Gromek, an East German secret service agent. Suspicions are quickly raised, and Armstrong and Sherman have a very limited opportunity to steal the valuable military intelligence and flee, a frantic journey which includes a nerve wracking bus ride from Leipzig to Berlin and an equally nail-biting escape from a ballet theatre.

Hitchcock directs Torn Curtain with the pace of a spiral turning in on itself, the first half hour languid in the build-up to the defection, the action picking up and becoming unrelenting once the drama moves behind the curtain. The final half hour is breathless, Michael and Sarah just half a step ahead of the East German police and special agents as they throw their fate into the hands of the underground network to tear through the curtain and return to the west.

The locations standing in for Eastern Europe (mostly in Denmark, West Germany and the Universal Studios back lot) are grand, bleak, and threatening, Hitchcock finding the balance between a closed society's desire for achievement and its obsession with state security.

The highlights include a memorable struggle of brutality between Gromek and Armstrong (incongruously helped by the farmer's wife); and later a battle of old fashioned wits between the East German Professor Lindt, with Amstrong goading him into revealing the secrets of the Soviet Bloc's missile technology. Newman is fittingly grim as he carries the weight of shifting betrayals.

In a performance mainly composed of solidarity, Andrews is primarily reactive, first astounded that her fiance is apparently a traitor, then standing by her man and helping him try to achieve a seemingly impossible mission.

The supporting cast of mainly European character actors carries a large load with grace, and Hitchcock reportedly turned his attention to working with them once the relationship with Newman and Andrews soured. The standouts include Hansjorg Felmy as the head of East German security and Gunter Strack as the professor who helps to engineer the defection. Ludwig Donath has a short but memorable turn as Professor Lindt, an East German Einstein-type with a yappy attitude, while Wolfgang Kieling says few words but leaves a lasting impression as Gromek the goon.

Torn Curtain may lack the shock value and innovation of Hitchcock's most celebrated works, but it remains a robust thriller with a tight narrative and a satisfying dose of thoughtful excitement.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.