Thursday, February 27, 2020
Funeral in Berlin (1966)
Ex-con turned British spy Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) is sent to Berlin on a mission. He must find Soviet intelligence officer in charge of the Berlin Wall, Colonel Stok (Oskar Homolka) and make him defect from his position. Palmer is tasked to concoct an elaborate escape out of Berlin for Stok with the help of his contact Johnny Vulkan (Paul Hubschmid) and hires criminal mastermind Otto Kreutzmann (Gunter Meisner) to help him. In the meantime Palmer becomes enamored with the beautiful Samantha Steel (Eva Renzi), an Israeli spy sent to hunt down a former Nazi. This target holds the secret documents that reveal where jewels stolen during WWII are hidden. Things get really complicated for Palmer when he's double-crossed, important figures in the mission keep dying and the true identity of the Nazi is revealed.
Directed by Guy Hamilton, Funeral in Berlin (1966) is the second of the Harry Palmer spy films starring Michael Caine. He also appeared in The Ipcress File (1965) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967) and the character was revisited with two more films in the 1990s. Funeral in Berlin was shot on location at a time when crossing the Berlin Wall was met with a lot of red tape or was highly dangerous to do illegally. Funeral in Berlin is the least interesting of the three Harry Palmer films I've seen. Mostly due to a lack of character development and the numerous double-crossings make the plot difficult to follow. However, one could watch all three Harry Palmer films back to back and enjoy them immensely. Caine is so friggin' cool as Harry Palmer with his neatly pressed suits, combed back hair and thick rimmed eyeglasses.
Funeral in Berlin is a Cold War spy thriller that is not as captivating as the other Harry Palmer films starring Michael Caine but still delivers enough intrigue to be worth a viewing. I read that Akim Tamiroff was supposed to play Colonel Stok and I can't help but think it would have been a better movie with him in it!
Funeral in Berlin (1966) is available on DVD from Paramount. You can purchase a copy at my MovieZyng store.
Thank you to Allied Vaughn for sending me a copy of Funeral in Berlin (1966) for review.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
The Great McGinty (1940)
Dan McGinty's (Brian Donlevy) life had a meteoric rise and fall and now he finds himself on the other side of things. Working as a bartender in a banana republic he entertains a drunk American banker Tommy (Louis Jean Heydt) and his gal pal (Steffi Duna) with his life story. Told in a flashback, we follow McGinty has goes from being a hobo to the governor of his state. At first he's hired by Skeeters (William Demarest), the right hand man to crooked mobster known as The Boss (Akim Tamiroff), to vote under assumed names in a rigged election. McGinty, wanting to make an extra buck, votes a whopping 37 times impressing The Boss who takes him under his wing. McGinty is transformed into a mayoral candidate complete with a new wife Catherine (Muriel Angelus) and her two children. McGinty is along for the ride until things get complicated. He finds himself falling for Catherine despite their strictly business arrangement, for family life and pushes back when The Boss makes certain demands of McGinty once he's governor.
The Great McGinty (1940) is Preston Sturges directorial debut. Up until this point he had been a screenwriter working on dialogue and adapting screenplays. Sturges wrote The Great McGinty, originally entitled The Story of a Man. The story goes that Paramount offered him $10 for his original script but Sturges refused to sell it unless he could direct the film as well. This was a brilliant career move. The film went on to be a box office hit and won Sturges an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. He went on to direct a dozen more films including The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942) and Unfaithfully Yours (1948). In his film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943), Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff reprise their roles as McGinty and The Boss.
The Great McGinty is a charming picture. It's lighthearted approach to the rather heavy topic of political corruption and morality makes this a big spoonful of medicine you want to take. Donlevy is fantastic as the stubborn vagabond with a heart of gold. If you know me, you know that I simply adore Akim Tamiroff and will watch him in anything. The Boss is a plum role for Tamiroff and he gets a lot more screen time than he usually does in a film and he has some great conflicts with Donlevy that are just fun to watch. And of course William Demarest is at his best as The Boss's sidekick schemer. I was sad to read that this was Muriel Angelus's final film. She plays Catherine McGinty with grace and charm and left Hollywood after that to return to the theater. The wardrobe in this film especially McGinty's flamboyant suits and Catherine's fabulous gowns were designed by the great Edith Head.
Kino Lorber Classics recently released The Great McGinty (1940) on Blu-ray. This edition includes a brand new 4K master restoration which looks fantastic. It also includes English subtitles (which I mention because I use these all the time), audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan and Kino Lorber Classics movie trailers.
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Thank you to Kino Lorber for sending me a copy of this set for review.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Bombshells and Dollies
Inspired by the look of classic pin-up queens and movie stars like Lauren Bacall, Hedy Lamarr, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Ava Gardner, etc., modern day pin-up models embrace the aesthetic of a bygone era. They embody a classic feminine beauty, there is also an acceptance of all women regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, body shape or whether they have tattoos or not. The vintage lifestyle extends beyond hair, makeup and clothing to music, cars and of course classic movies.
The new documentary Bombshells and Dollies, directed by Daniel Halperin, chronicles the 2015 Viva Las Vegas 18 pin-up competition. Viva Las Vegas is a weekend long Rockabilly festival held every year in April. Over 25,000 vintage enthusiasts travel to Las Vegas every year for live music, car shows, burlesque shows, Tiki parties, bowling, dancing and much more. Twelve women compete to be chosen as Miss Viva Las Vegas. Five competitors are chosen by judges, one is chosen by those five, and the audience chooses the other six. In Bombshells and Dollies we get to meet each of the 12 competitors as well as other Viva Las Vegas regulars, organizers and the vintage pin-up queen herself Dita Von Teese. The pin-ups are from around the world: the U.S., Canada, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. One of the competitors, Miss Victory Violet, is one of my favorite vintage models on INstagram and I was excited to watch the documentary to learn more about her.
The documentary follows the competition up until the winners are chosen: best wardrobe, best hair, best makeup, second runner up, first runner up and Miss Viva Las Vegas. The interest in 1940s and 1950s style and even WWII era culture is discussed at length. For those classic film fans who are interested in vintage looks and have interest in or have been to Viva Las Vegas themselves, this documentary is a must watch. There are a few classic film references and one of the competitor's outfits was even inspired by something Linda Darnell wears in My Darling Clementine (1946).
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