Movie Review: The Betsy (1978)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Daniel Petrie  

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones, Lesley-Ann Down, Kathleen Beller  

Running Time: 125 minutes  

Synopsis: Loren Hardeman (Laurence Olivier) is the wealthy aging patriarch of an automotive dynasty. Eager to reclaim former glories, he hires racing driver Angelo Perino (Tommy Lee Jones) as chief designer for a new fuel efficient car to be named after his great grand-daughter Betsy (Kathleen Beller). Angelo clashes with company president Loren III (Robert Duvall) and has an affair with Lady Ayres (Lesley-Anne Down). Flashbacks to the 1930s reveal Loren's frustrations with his weakling son Loren II (Paul Ryan Rudd), who falls victim to a manipulator and neglects his wife Sally (Katharine Ross).

What Works Well: Saturated with bedroom and boardroom shenanigans, a "what next" fascination settles over this adaptation of Harold Robbins' novel. Both the modern day and 1930s timelines feature lavish sets and deeply flawed but powerful men and women eager to betray each other, and director Daniel Petrie hustles the drama along by keeping the characters true to their hormone-defined intentions.

What Does Not Work As Well: The stellar cast is well above the television-level soapy plot, despite the added spice of nudity, sex, and bits of violence. Given free rein, Laurence Olivier hams-up a caricature combination of cuddly grandpa and ruthless businessman. The other performances are emotionally stilted and constrained by mechanical dialogue, exposing hollowness under the glossy hood.

Conclusion: The engine revs without memorable spirit nor purpose.



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Movie Review: 21 Days (1940)

A drama about guilt and luck with bits of romance and courtroom intrigue thrown in, 21 Days (also known as 21 Days Together) never finds a consistent tone and quickly fades.

In London, respected solicitor Keith Durrant (Leslie Banks) is about to be appointed a high court judge. His penniless brother Larry (Laurence Olivier) returns from an overseas trip and reconnects with his lover Wanda (Vivien Leigh). To their surprise her long-estranged foreign husband Henry appears and demands money. A scuffle ensues between the two men and Henry is killed.

Larry dumps the body under an archway but confesses all to Keith, who tries to help his brother cover up the incident not to harm his own career prospects. Based on circumstantial evidence the police arrest homeless drifter and former priest John Evan for Henry's murder. Despite Keith urging them to leave the country, Larry and Wanda stay in England and enjoy three weeks together as they await the trial's outcome, Larry struggling with his conscience and debating whether or not to confess.

Filmed in 1937 and shelved for being sub-par, 21 Days was released in 1940 after Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier became international stars in Gone With The Wind and Wuthering Heights respectively. 21 Days should have stayed on the shelf. This is a botched and almost amateurish drama resembling early talkie efforts, director Basil Dean unable to steer in any one coherent direction. 

None of the plot elements survive even the most cursory scrutiny. The story foundations are sketchy, as the trigger incident is a case of self-defence by Larry, and yet no one bothers to ever mention that factoid. What follows is a downward and wayward spiral of Larry and Wanda either being apart or being together, either planning to leave the country or planning to stay, and Larry either planning to confess or not, but only depending on whether the innocent accused man is convicted or not.

And even at just the 72 minutes, the film runs out of ideas. Amidst plenty of supposedly profound but repetitive and ultimately dumbfounding talk about 21 days, three months, three years or thirty years representing a lifetime together, the final third culminates in a gharrish run-the-clock-down journey to the fairgrounds, somehow Larry and Wanda concluding that cheap carnival games are the best way to evolve their romance.

Here Leigh is confined to a stock good-hearted woman caught in bad events, while the film's one shining light is a solid Olivier performance capturing a conflicted perpetual loser. Or maybe he was just grumpy trapped in an unmitigable production.



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Movie Review: Fire Over England (1937)

A historical drama, Fire Over England is a robust combination of espionage and romance set against a drumbeat of impending war.

It's the late 1500s and tensions are rising between England under Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) and Spain under King Philip II (Raymond Massey). Spain has a dominant armada, but pesky British raids increase the likelihood of full-scale conflict. Englishman adventurer Michael Ingolby (Laurence Olivier) gets caught on the losing side of a naval skirmish and is held by the Spanish. He is allowed to escape because of his father's connections, but not before starting a romance with Elena (Tamara Desni), a member of Philip's court.

Michael returns to England and his true love Cynthia (Vivien Leigh), one of the Queen's attendants. Elizabeth is surrounded by schemers and struggling with loneliness and advancing age, and resents the youth and vitality of Cynthia and Michael. But after traitor Hillary Vane (James Mason) disappears, the Queen recruits Michael to infiltrate Philip's court on a dangerous mission to identify those plotting against her.

A British production directed by William K. Howard and co-produced by Alexander Korda, the screen adaptation of the 1936 A. E. W. Mason novel is a grand yet controlled historical adventure. The film mixes history with palace intrigue and adds pinches of swashbuckling action into a lively 92 minutes. 

Fire Over England started the real-life romance (later leading to marriage) between Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and is also one of the performances that helped Leigh land the coveted Scarlett O'Hara role in Gone With The Wind. But aside from incidental significance, the film is also a well-crafted costume drama with plenty to enjoy.

The few naval warfare action scenes are more graceless than good, but once on firm ground Howard makes good use of impressive sets to recreate the competing courts of Elizabeth and Philip, with all the surrounding pomp, circumstance and hangers-on. And the script by Clemence Dane and Sergei Nolbandov maintains a reasonably good handle on the numerous characters and agendas swirling around the monarchs.

Despite the brisk pace, the film pauses for several moments of astute reflection with the Queen as she ponders her legacy with the passage of time and within the continuously shifting political realities. Flora Robson is a domineering Queen Elizabeth, and her scenes mixing wistfulness, barely contained jealousy and sly empathy are a joy. Olivier is a dashing and athletic protagonist, with evident sparks between him and the coquettish Leigh. And in relatively few scenes, Raymond Massey makes a keen impression as a hands-on King Philip, intimidating with sheer presence and sharp intellect.

Michael's uncanny ability to repeatedly outsmart and escape the Spaniards is of course well beyond far-fetched, but Fire Over England generates enough sustained heat to navigate the choppy waters.



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Movie Review: Battle Of Britain (1969)

A World War Two historical drama, Battle Of Britain recreates epic dogfights and bombing raids, but fails to generate any sense of narrative engagement.

It's 1940, and with France's capitulation to the advancing armies of Nazi Germany looking assured, Britain's Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding (Laurence Olivier) concludes all air force resources should be consolidated at home for the upcoming defence effort. After the Allies are defeated and evacuated from Dunkirk, the United Kingdom stands alone and braces for an invasion.

Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring (Hein Riess) is confident an air force bombing campaign can quickly gain command of the skies. But the British rally, aided by the superior maneuverability of the Spitfire compared to the German Messerschmitt Bf 109. In months of aerial combat including the bombing of cities, both sides endure heavy losses.

A Harry Saltzman production directed by Guy Hamilton, Battle Of Britain features numerous sequences of painstakingly staged combat in the skies. Most of the budget was invested in authentic scenes of Spitfires intercepting German bombers and engaging with Messeschmitts, as the Luftwaffe attempts to knock out radar installations and airfields before targeting London in retaliation for the British bombing of Berlin. In return the Royal Air Force musters every available fighter plane and pilot to mount a spirited defence, taking advantage of German hubris and strategic mistakes to inflict heavy losses on the attackers and Göring's pride.

Unsurprisingly the combat scenes grow quite repetitive. Scenes of planes catching fire, exploding in mid-air or hurtling to the ground become tiresome with incessant recurrence, as do the visuals of pilots killed in cockpits or air crews attempting to bail out of flaming bombers.

And outside the combat scenes, Battle Of Britain stutters and stalls. Despite an overlong running time of 132 minutes, the strategic, tactical and personal contexts are either sketched at rudimentary levels or missing altogether. The on-the-ground interludes are haphazardly assembled with no regard for flow. In a case of quantity over quality, a cast featuring a who's who of British acting talent fails to create a single memorable character or worthwhile storyline. Michael Caine, Robert Shaw, Christopher Plummer, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Michael Redgrave, Patrick Wymark and Ralph Richardson (among many others) get a few glib lines each in poorly defined roles as airmen, squadron leaders or commanders, all to no effect. And as pilots masked and belted into their cramped cockpits, all the actors are essentially undifferentiated.

Some of the attempts to create human stories are laughably inept, including a clunky marital tiff between Plummer and Susannah York. Ian McShane receives what should have been the one good moment involving family sacrifice, but his chapter drops in and out with no meaningful setup or follow-through, losing all impact.

Battle Of Britain is all about flying hardware, hearts and souls forgotten on the ground.



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Movie Review: A Little Romance (1979)

A romantic comedy and drama, A Little Romance explores a wistful young love against scenic European backdrops.

In Paris, young teenager Daniel Michon (Thelonious Bernard) is a big fan of Hollywood movies. He meets American teenager Lauren King (Diane Lane), who is studying in Paris where her stepdad Richard (Arthur Hill) has a corporate position. Lauren's mother Kay (Sally Kellerman) is already eyeing a potential fourth husband and draping herself all over pretentious movie director George de Marco (David Dukes).

Daniel and Lauren start dating and fall in love. They meet dapper elderly gentleman Julius Edmund Santorin (Laurence Olivier), who claims to be a retired diplomat but is hiding his own secrets. Lauren is immediately fond of Julius, but Daniel is skeptical about the old man's tall stories. When Daniel falls foul of Kay and Richard announces he is relocating the family to Houston by the end of summer, Lauren and Daniel decide to make a run for Venice to kiss under the Bridge of Sighs, and they turn to Julius for help.

Director George Roy Hill takes a break from productions featuring superstars and instead tackles a small bittersweet romance about star-crossed young lovers. An adaptation of the 1977 novel E=mc2 Mon Amour by Patrick Cauvin, A Little Romance casts an alluring spell by mixing two smart teens, humour, some chasing around Europe, a couple of arguments, and a pursuit of forever idealism. A train ride and a bicycle race are thrown in for good measure.

Inspired by one of Julius' flowery life tales, an appropriate consummation target is set for 13 year old Lauren and 15 year old Daniel: a kiss at sunset in a gondola under a Venetian bridge, with church bells ringing. This is enough to trigger a cross-border adventure from France to Italy with a stop in Verona, where Romeo and Juliet receive a nod. Hill captures plenty of scenery but stays on the right side of travelogue territory.

Complementing the romance and humour, Lauren's parents introduce traces of drama and tension by frantically wondering where their daughter disappeared to and instigating a search, with doubts swirling around Julius' true intentions once his identity is revealed.

Diane Lane's screen debut is an immediate revelation, and she quickly establishes herself as the heart of the film with a mature performance. Thelonious Bernard in his one and only significant screen role struggles mightily against an uneven character, oscillating between mannerisms stolen from Hollywood movies, romantic sensibilities, a horrible wardrobe, and a bit of a mean streak and quick temper. The contrast between Lane's comfortable acting and Bernard's thrashing means she often looks older and acts calmer, and the chemistry between them is iffy at best.

Laurence Olivier is top billed, although his role is very much a secondary enabler. He is undoubtedly charming, but leans towards overplaying the elegant and well-traveled Monsieur with an unlikely story for every occasion.

A Little Romance celebrates first love as a dreamy adventure, where awkwardness and courage combine to take on the adult world - with a little help from a crafty friend.



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Movie Review: Wuthering Heights (1939)

A drama and romance, Wuthering Heights is an engrossing story of personal trauma wrapped in a visual feast, but cannot escape the source material's overclocked emotions.

On the storm-swept Yorkshire moors, traveler Mr. Lockwood (Miles Mander) takes shelter at the secluded estate known as Wuthering Heights. He finds the owner Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) dour and barely welcoming. After Lockwood encounters a woman's ghost, the long-serving housekeeper Ellen (Flora Robson) recounts the history of the family.

Heathcliff was an orphaned young boy living on the streets of Liverpool when he was brought to the estate by the owner Mr. Earnshaw (Cecil Kellaway). Heathcliff bonded with Earnshaw's young daughter Cathy, but had a strained relationship with her brother Hindley. They grow up together, and when Hindley (Hugh Williams) becomes master of the house he badly mistreats Heathcliff, whose relationship with Cathy (Merle Oberon) blossoms into a full-fledged romance.

But she is caught between her genuine affection towards the untamed Heathcliff and her desire to join upper-class society, with wealthy neighbour Edgar Linton (David Niven) offering his love and the opportunity for a lush life. Cathy wishes for Heathcliff to make something of himself, and then she makes a life-altering decision with far reaching consequences.

Lavishly produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by William Wyler, Wuthering Heights adapts the front end of Emily Brontë's classic novel. This is a story of a love so intense it starts rubbing shoulders with enmity. Jealous possessiveness, revenge and careless disregard for others are among the weapons deployed in a scorched earth struggle. The overheated fervor is a large part of the romantic sizzle, but the behaviour of both Heathcliff and Cathy often suggests bipolar disorders.

With sterling black and white cinematography courtesy of Gregg Toland and dazzling sets recreating a harsh corner of the English countryside, the film looks magnificent. Both the exterior landscapes and household interiors create immediate and transformative moods. The contrast between Wuthering Heights' increasingly ramshackle condition and the sparking Linton mansion, hosting eloquent balls with fashionable gowns and swish music, brings Cathy's existential dilemma into sharp relief.

Alfred Newman's music score is grand with Cathy's theme particularly evocative, although towards the end it is overused to distraction.

Wuthering Heights was Laurence Olivier's debut in Hollywood. He delivers a performance full of menace, whether as a lumbering stable hand brooding through the household or in his later incarnation as a man determined to claim what he believes is his. Olivier's Heathcliff only projects happiness when Cathy expresses her love to him, which she does frequently only to also push him to be something he is not.

Merle Oberon is less impressive, and in her more dramatically emotive scenes retreats into wide-eyed expressions more suited to the silent area. The cast also includes Geraldine Fitzgerald as Edgar's sister Isabella who gets caught up in the impulsive crossfire, Donald Crisp as the local doctor and Leo G. Carroll as a loyal family servant.

Wuthering Heights explores the tension between genuine organic affection and tempting societal status, and the price of pursuing personal change and forcing change in others. The outcomes are as jagged as a countryside exposed to blustery winters.

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Movie Review: The Prince And The Showgirl (1957)

A romantic comedy that fails on both counts, The Prince And The Showgirl is a monumentally dull waste of talent.

It's 1911 in London, and members of the royal family of Carpathia, a fictional Balkan country, arrive to witness the inauguration of a new British monarch. Charles (Laurence Olivier), the Prince Regent of Carpathia, is ruling the strategically important nation until his 16 year old son King Nicolas (Jeremy Spenser) achieves adulthood. The Dowager Queen (Sybil Thorndike), Charles mother-in-law, is the other key member of the delegation. British civil servant Northbrook (Richard Wattis) is assigned to satisfy Charles' every demand. The Prince goes looking for female companionship for the night, and picks unknown American stage actress Elsie Marina (Marilyn Monroe) to join him for a private dinner and romance at the Embassy.

Elsie resists the Prince's stiff and insensitive romantic advances, but nevertheless gradually starts to develop an affection for him. Meantime, she also gets wind of political turmoil back in Carpathia, with King Nicolas seemingly involved in a plot to overthrow his father. As the day of the inauguration arrives, Elsie believes she has survived her interactions with the royals, but she soon finds herself in the company of the Dowager Queen attending the grand ceremony, and then playing peacemaker between the Prince and the young King-to-be.

Produced and directed by Olivier, The Prince And The Showgirl is an adaptation of the 1953 play The Sleeping Prince. The film effectively locks itself into the Embassy of Carpathia for 115 endless minutes, with characters swinging in and out of rooms for no particular reason other than to introduce some camera movement. There are a few touristy scenes related  to the inauguration event, and these could have been lifted from any British travel advertorial.

Fundamentally, the film never comes close to a convincing romance between Charles and Elsie. He is a boorish lout looking for a one-night floozy, she is suddenly much savvier than a ditzy showgirl. Elsie only starts to express some feeling for the Prince when he overloads her with alcohol, and at no time does he actually do anything to deserve any sympathy. What remains is a stiff Olivier performance playing a cartoonish villain, and a game Monroe doing all she can to match her co-star in the acting department, but it is all for naught. Not even a hint of a spark breaks through the listless Terence Rattigan screenplay.

The subplots related to the political turmoil in Carpathia and the family intrigue swirling between the Prince, the King and the Queen are neither properly developed nor remotely successful as comedy.

The Prince And The Showgirl incessantly attempts to milk a single joke about how to properly address the various members of the Carpathian royal family. The simple answer is to summarily send them all back to Carpathia, unaddressed.

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Movie Review: The Boys From Brazil (1978)

A Nazi-hunting thriller with science fiction overtones, The Boys From Brazil is an entertaining romp through the world of outlandish conspiracies. The film is far from perfect, but nevertheless wildly successful.

The events are set in the present. In Paraguay, young American Nazi hunter Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) stumbles onto a nefarious plot. Nazis old and young are gathering under the direction of the one and only Angel of Death himself Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) to launch a new evil scheme. Mengele orders the death of 94 men in nine different countries, all about 65 years old and with nondescript careers as civil servants. Before he is silenced, Kohler is able to send a garbled warning message to esteemed but aging Vienna-based Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), but the reasons behind the planned assassinations remain a mystery.

With help from his sister Esther (Lilli Palmer) and a Reuters reporter, Lieberman tries to understand what Mengele is up to and why, as seemingly random men start to die across Europe. Meanwhile, Eduard Seibert (James Mason), the head of security for the Nazi plot, identifies Lieberman's meddling as a risk and demands that the killings stop to avoid attention, but Mengele refuses to comply and pushes ahead. Gradually, Lieberman uncovers elements of an extravagant plan decades in the making, involving a former Nazi prison guard (Uta Hagen), an ominous teen-aged boy, cloning on a large scale, social engineering, and another attempt by the Nazis to dominate the world.

An adaptation of the Ira Levin book directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, The Boys From Brazil has a terrifically imaginative plot, filled with large holes but breathless enough to overcome them with ease. The film enjoys a galloping pace and two larger than life characters in Mengele and Lieberman. Schaffner delivers an exhilarating mix of action on three continents, conspiratorial plotting, and pauses for commentary about a world beginning to forget the horrors of the past, thereby creating an opportunity for evil forces to regroup.

While the return-of-the-Nazis central plot packs a punch, the film turns out to be most prescient in its introduction of human cloning as a viable development. A good 20 years before science caught up, The Boys From Brazil factually presents the technology, its capabilities and potentially far-reaching implications. That ground-breaking scientific discoveries may first be used by dark forces for nefarious causes comes as no surprise.

For all the gloss, the film has clunky patches. The action and murder scenes are relatively poorly executed, almost suggesting that Schaffner sent out the second unit when his main stars were not involved. And there is a set-piece involving a fight between two old men, complete with howling dogs itching to get in on the action, that dances along the line between ridiculous and hilarious. Head of security Seibert's firm attempts to derail Mengele's plot places him on the same side as Lieberman, and tips the balance against the antagonist, who now has to cover his rear flank while pushing ahead with the plot.

Nevertheless, the presence of Olivier, Peck and Mason easily overcomes the ponderous moments. The stalwarts have fun with their entrenched characters, Olivier picking up an Academy Award nomination and Peck earning the Golden Globe equivalent. Both men ham it up, but the outrageous plot deserves men who can tackle the weight of history, and the stars deliver.

The Boys From Brazil carries a wild warning within a rollicking thriller, and delivers it with Samba panache.

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Movie Review: Pride And Prejudice (1940)

An adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride And Prejudice is an enchanting romance, combining sparkling touches of humour with clever commentary about men and women engaged in pitched battles of attraction across class lines.

The time is England circa 1830, and the village of Meryton is abuzz with news of the arrival of the rich and eligible Mr. Bingley (Bruce Lester), his sister Caroline (Frieda Inescort) and his even more rich and more eligible friend Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier). Particularly interested in the newcomers is Mrs. Bennet (Mary Boland), who is raising five girls, and none of them are yet married.

Mrs. Bennet: Look at them! Five of them without dowries. What's to become of them?
Mr. Bennet: Yes, what's to become of the wretched creatures? Perhaps we should have drowned some of them at birth.

Mr. Bingley quickly sets his eyes on eldest daughter Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), and that relationship flourishes. But Darcy carries the condescending attitude of the very rich, and although he expresses interest in wooing the headstrong Elizabeth Bennet (Greer Garson), she wants nothing to do with his arrogance.

Elizabeth: At this moment it's difficult to believe that you're so proud.
Mr. Darcy: At this moment it's difficult to believe that you're so prejudiced.

Darcy and Elizabeth dance around their mutual attraction, often clashing and repelling each other. Meanwhile there is trouble in the Bennet household, where due to the lack of male heirs the estate is being inherited by the distasteful Mr. Collins (Melville Cooper). He also sets his eyes on proposing to Elizabeth. But a ruinous scandal appears to strike the family when younger sister Lydia (Ann Rutherford) runs off with an unscrupulous military man, seemingly destroying Elizabeth's chances of ever finding happiness.

As directed by Robert Z. Leonard, Pride And Prejudice does everything right in adapting the book to the screen. The story is simplified, entire characters and events from the novel are deleted, and the narrative is streamlined to fit into a compact package that clocks in at just under two hours. The primary focus is maintained on Elizabeth and Darcy, although the secondary characters contribute plenty of entertaining support.

The screenplay by Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin is based on the Helen Jerome dramatization for a stage production, and the crisp dialogue exchanges contribute to a film where clever wit comes to the fore. Leonard also does a remarkable job of expanding the film's scope with numerous locations, settings and outdoor scenes, creating a rich visual experience to complement the exuberant dresses on display. The wardrobe design deserves a special mention, as Pride And Prejudice is a showcase of women's fashions from around 1830. The hats and dresses are memorable for their ridiculous sizes and flourishes, often dwarfing the actresses.

The story celebrates women's independence, as represented by the proud, headstrong, outspoken and exceptionally smart Elizabeth. A remarkable character for 1940, never mind 1830, Elizabeth stands up for herself and for her family, and is willing to give up a very rich potential husband unless she is assured that he will marry her for all the right reasons. Greer Garson brings Elizabeth to life with a winning combination of civil strength and self-belief. Laurence Olivier is more stiff, in keeping with Darcy's rigid adherence to the rules of behaviour manufactured for the most wealthy.

Elizabeth: Oh, if you want to be really refined, you have to be dead. There's no one as dignified as a mummy.

All around Elizabeth are others who are more traditionally engaged in the courtship dance of the times, and the film shines in portraying the ridiculous protocols, customs and attitudes of English men and women looking for their life mates. In a class-obsessed society, the upper classes want to look down their noses at the middle class riffraff, but can't help but follow their hearts even if it means holding their figurative noses to mingle with ordinary folk.

Caroline Bingley: Entertaining the rustics is not as difficult as I feared. Any simple, childish game seems to amuse them excessively.

Pride And Prejudice is a brisk romp through the world of romantic quests in difficult societal terrain, a place where eras change, but the complexities and pitfalls stay the same.

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Movie Review: Sleuth (1972)

A battle of wits between two determined men, Sleuth adapts Anthony Shaffer's play to the screen, with twists and turns galore and two bravura performances from Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.

Andrew Wyke (Olivier) is a rich and playful author of murder mysteries. A lover of games and puzzles, Andrew lives in a large and isolated estate in rural England. He invites Milo Tindle (Caine) for a visit and a chat. Milo is carrying on an affair with Andrew's wife Marguerite, and Andrew would like to discuss the matter. Milo is from an immigrant family and owns a couple of fledgling hairdressing salons as he tries to scrap his way up England's social ladder. Andrew can barely conceal his disdain for Milo's unworthiness as a rival for Marguerite's affection.

Nevertheless, Andrew convinces Milo that while he would be pleased to have Marguerite out of his hair, she has expensive tastes, and both men can benefit by staging a fake break-in and robbery. Milo would steal Andrew's expensive collection of jewelry valued at £250,000, and Andrew would claim the insurance money. Milo buys into the plot, putting on a clown outfit, breaking in and stealing the jewels in a fake heist orchestrated by Andrew. But Andrew's plan has an unexpected twist, and soon Inspector Doppler arrives at Andrew's estate, investigating Milo's sudden disappearance.

Sleuth is an enjoyable cerebral romp, as Andrew and Milo engage in a thrust and counter-thrust battle to settle an individual contest and also to score points in the greater battle of the classes. There are plenty of surprises as the games get ever more dangerous, and each man has to guard against the next block and sly counter-attack. But the film does stretch credibility, both in the robustness of each individual prank and then in attempting to layer too many antics. Men as smart as Andrew and Milo should not be falling for some of the more obvious deceptions, and for all the haughtiness on display, the film over-invests in its own wit.

Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, working from Shaffer's own adaptation, does not try too hard to release the film out of its stage origins. Other than the opening introduction in the front yard maze and a few other scenes at Andrew's front door, most of the movie takes place inside Andrew's palatial playhouse. The action does move within a few rooms, but this is very much a stage-bound film for its 138 minute duration.

Mankiewicz does add some cinematic energy by interjecting frequent quick cuts of the many colourful mechanical automatons who witness, sometimes noisily, the intellectual struggle between Andrew and Milo. An interesting device, it gets rather old with over-use.

The acting from Olivier and Caine is superb, but also clearly theatrical. Olivier in particular frequently falls back on over-the-top, stage-appropriate mannerisms, his loud voice, arm waving, and at times, panicked running around perfect for the context but not exactly subtle.

Caine is more subdued, and more than holds his own against his illustrious co-star. With a more controlled performance to convey Milo as a man struggling against Britain's rigid class structure, Caine registers a strong impact when he does finally unleash seething anger and frustration, Milo seeking a measure of revenge against the invisible attitudes that hold immigrants back. That Laurence comes from British acting royalty while Caine is the combative cockney kid adds a distinctive sub-context to the film.

Sleuth is a grand contest between egos, where stylish humiliation is the objective, and the game does not end until that final, sharp sting.

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The Movies Of Laurence Olivier

All movies starring Laurence Olivier and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Fire Over England (1937)

Wuthering Heights (1939)

21 Days (1940)

Rebecca (1940)

Pride And Prejudice (1940)

The Prince And The Showgirl (1957)

Spartacus (1960)

Khartoum (1966)

Battle Of Britain (1969)

Sleuth (1972)

Marathon Man (1976)

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

The Betsy (1978)

The Boys From Brazil (1978)

A Little Romance (1979)

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Movie Review: Marathon Man (1976)

A dark action thriller with an old Nazi unleashing new evil, Marathon Man unspools a tale of conspiracy laced with torture, brought to life by a phenomenal cast in top form.

A fatal traffic accident forces the notorious Nazi Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) to come out of his hiding place in a South American jungle. In New York, Thomas "Babe" Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a university graduate student of history, and also a long-distance runner training for the marathon. His brother Henry "Doc" Levy (Roy Scheider) pretends to be an oil company businessman but actually works for a secretive government "Division" headed by Peter Janeway (William Devane), responsible for collaborating with surviving Nazis. The father of Babe and Doc, a distinguished historian, killed himself when his sons were children after being hounded by Senator McCarthy's communist witch hunt.

Szell travels to New York to try and retrieve a fortune in diamonds. Meanwhile, Babe starts a relationship with foreign student Elsa (Marthe Keller), while Doc runs into a series of strange murders and finds himself the target of assassination. Szell is paranoid about his safety, and attempts to eliminate everyone who may threaten him and his hidden treasure. This sets him on a collision course with Doc, and ultimately Szell kidnaps Babe to try and uncover Doc's intentions. Thrust into a world he knows nothing about, Babe can only rely on himself, and unexpectedly calls on his running skills to survive a one-man wave of Nazi terror in the heart of New York City.

While on close examination the plot of Marathon Man is full of some rather large holes, director John Schlesinger assembles a bleak film filled with a growing sense of purely corrupted villainy. The William Goldman script, based on his own book, maintains a strong focus on the characters of Babe, Doc and Szell. The scenes of violence and confrontation, when they arrive, carry a high potency factor due to the elevated blood and gore quotient, but also thanks to the hard investment in character development.

Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman elevate Marathon Man from a potentially hokey thriller to a superior, engrossing experience. Olivier is eerie as Dr. Szell, a surviving Nazi with expertise in dental torture. Olivier's performance is cold, emotionless and mechanical in its intensity, an old man incongruously conveying single-minded determination to get his hands on his treasure. Everything that made the holocaust a terrifying travesty is packed into his eyes, including the callous disregard for any amount of human suffering.

Hoffman, in his last performance as a student-type, is all about the fragility that resides in a scarred soul. Babe (the nickname an obvious reference to a man-child) has never really moved past his father's suicide, and Hoffman's performance is a complex condensation of a growing up process that now has to catch up with history. Hoffman tentatively unleashes Babe to chase his first romance, and he will soon have to deal with learning the true identity of his brother and just how much evil lurks out in the real, non-academic world.

Roy Scheider rounds out the principal cast, and he gets a James Bond-type role, an agent in the shadowy world of obscure government departments but here toiling on unglamourous and distasteful files. Doc has dealt with his father's death by embroiling himself into a world of subterfuge, and Scheider exudes a world weariness emanating from a life of too much lying to himself. William Devane is perfect as the distastefully oily head of the "Division", Janeway thoroughly committed to his job, having long since lost the edge between right and wrong.

Marathon Man is most famous for elevating the dentists chair to a full-on torture experience, Dr. Szell repeatedly asking the cabalistic question "Is it safe?" as he readies his dainty dentist tools to inflict unimaginable pain. The unspoken horror is that no city with a rampaging and tenacious Dr. Szell can possibly be safe.

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Movie Review: Rebecca (1940)

An opulent adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel, Rebecca is a masterpiece of understated suspense. Alfred Hitchcock constructs an intricate psychological thriller built upon mysterious past events haunting the promise of the present.

In Monte Carlo, a young and naive woman (Joan Fontaine), working as a travel companion to the insufferable Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates), meets the rich but troubled Englishman Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier). Maxim is the master of the extravagant and expansive Manderley estate, and also a widower, having recently lost his first wife Rebecca in a boating accident. After a whirlwind few days of romance, Maxim asks the young woman to marry him, and she agrees.

Now known as the Second Mrs. de Winter, the young woman arrives at Manderley to find a massive mansion, still dominated by Rebecca's personal belongings, and full of servants who remain unusually faithful to their dead former mistress. In particular, the stern housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) appears obsessed with Rebecca, and makes no secret that the Second Mrs. de Winter is not worthy of the title. Rebecca's cousin, the sleazy Jack Favell (George Sanders) makes a surreptitious appearance at Manderley, raising more questions about the past. As her dream life starts to turn into a nightmare of awkwardness and fear, the Second Mrs. de Winter learns that while Rebecca was glamorous and sophisticated, there was much more to her life and death, and the true story of Maxim's anguish is significantly more complicated that it first appeared.

Rebecca was Alfred Hitchcock's first American project and his first film working with producer David O. Selznick. It is a grand production filled with larger than life people, places and events, coming together in a collision of hopes and anxiety. The story provides the perfect frame for Hitchcock to fill in exquisite touches of lurking evil.

From the opening scene of a destroyed and abandoned Manderley, and working with gleaming shades and shadows of grey and black, Hitchcock fills the film with unforgettable images that collectively contribute to pure dread. Maxim resisting an invisible force encouraging him to jump to his death in Monte Carlo; a dog guarding the door to the chambers of the dead Rebecca; Mrs. Danvers appearing and disappearing with ghost-like abilities, the better to strike a chill in the soul of the overwhelmed Second Mrs. de Winter; a weather-beaten old man appearing unexpectedly out of a waterfront cabin: Rebecca is a treasure trove of ominous master strokes. Hitchcock was nominated for a Best Director Academy Award, but had to be satisfied with winning Best Film, the only time one of his movies captured that honour.

Rebecca boasts three celebrated living characters, and a fourth who is dead. Maxim is the hot-tempered catalyst, but generally he is the eye of the storm, with the furious winds circulating around him. Olivier's performance becomes the foundation of the movie, but not it's most sparkling element. Joan Fontaine, in her breakout performance, is simply stunning. Her nameless heroine deals with love, an overwhelming new environment, hostile and mysterious people and surroundings, and an idealized image of a dead woman that is almost impossible to compete with. Fontaine finds the space where despair creeps in on aspiration, and places her performance perfectly in the arms of a turmoil that the Second Mrs. de Winter can either succumb to, or seize and convert to her advantage, should she ever find the courage.

But it is Mrs. Danvers who emerges as the most unforgettable character in the movie. Judith Anderson creates an icy personification of obsessed passive aggressiveness, a stern, unblinking look on her face revealing the agitation created by continued service to a dead woman. Anderson's physical appearance is ancient and otherworldly, a woman displaced in time and space, not playing with the rules of the present, and therefore free to set her own parameters about right and wrong. Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson were all nominated for Academy Awards.

The fourth and most dominant character is Rebecca herself, an invisible presence who dominates the lives of Maxim, his new wife, Mrs. Danvers, and all the hallways of Manderley. Rarely has a dead characters exerted such an omnipotent pull on a movie, but here Rebecca and her letter R are everywhere: in Maxim's thoughts, on the stationary, on the napkins, on the embroidered beddings, and in Mrs. Danvers' soul.

Rebecca haunts Manderley, a mansion mistress surviving her own demise. Evicting her will require an innocent young woman without a name to vanquish a name without a woman.

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