PeterWarnes

And has anyone noticed the way the Sidney and Richards figures in this film anticipate Fonda and Redgrave in "Julia"?

The film itself is very handsome, in a less-than-dynamic sort of way. (How could any film with Robert Young and Ann Richards as 2/3rds of its central trio be described as "dynamic"?) The screenplay is good, though, and Sidney is first-rate.

The theatrical version of Hellman's story was notable for a flashy early appearance by Montgomery Clift (as the ambassador's son). Not a huge success, but acclaimed nonetheless. Frankly, the writing's better for the screenplay.

There's a lot, too, to be said for the sort of noir-flavored, female-centered drama that Hal Wallis and (frequently) William Dieterle produced in this era. "Love Letters," for instance, "The Accused" ... That plus the Hellman style make an intriguing (as well as intrigue-filled) combination.

The star of the 1966 stage musical "It's a Bird ...It's a Plane...It's Superman!" wasn't Jack Cassidy, it was Bob Holiday (in the double role of Superman/Clark Kent). Cassidy was the featured comic villain.The situation was that Cassidy was so right for his role, he stole most of the attention from Holiday.

Let me say, too, that it's wrong to approach this material expecting the Superman of the Salkind movies. It's closer, in attitude, to pre-Tim Burton "Batman" or the '60s "Thoroughly Modern Millie." In other words, jokey and silly and not a little racist. Only the problem, in this case, was a central uncertainty whether to parody its source material or to revere it.

Can't speak to this particular TV adaptation. I do, however, love several of the songs in the stage version -- notably "You've Got Possibilities" and "Oo-oo, Do You Love You!"

And here, all I remembered of "Angel Baby" was Mercedes McCambridge as a lady evangelist offering her wisdom to poor misguided George Hamilton. That plus, of course, a *quite* young Burt Reynolds playing a thuggish local lad.

Believe me, watching this crew was a spiritual experience...

This film, written and directed by the *auteurs* of "Howard the Duck," is probably quite miserable. And yet, and yet ... look at the cast-list! In a phrase: oodles of "cachet."

The comments of Vince-5 capture much of this. One should also note, however, that Huyck and Katz's heroine is named after the star of "Children of Paradise" and that that movie marquee reading "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" alludes to a beloved, late-'40s Cagney melodrama (director: Gordon Douglas; source material: Horace McCoy).



Sounds ideal, all-in-all, for a double-bill with "Deathdream"...

In partial response to the note of gbrumburgh-1:

(SPOILER ALERT)

Donahue and Dee supposedly go off to see "King Kong," right? Could there be a reason why director/screenwriter Daves chose that title rather than, say, "Terror of Tiny Town" or "The True-Life Adventures of Perri the squirrel"? Could the choice be, um, symbolic?

Perhaps it was a catch-phrase of the period.

We read in Proust about "faire cattleya." Perhaps, in 1959, that's how impudent girls referred to what they did: "Going to see 'King Kong.' "

"Death Rides A Horse" is NOT about hubba-hubba between saturnine Lee Van Cleef and Law as the film's blue-eyed male ingenue. Uh-uh. No way. "Real men" -- and what are westerns, if not the story of "real men"? -- just don't DO such things. What's more, the fact that Van Cleef spends significant screen time stripped to the waist is ENTIRELY beside the point. It must have been HOT that week! And that title, translatable as "From Man To Man" ... doesn't it have to do with hats? Don't cowboys give each other hats?

Rather than dwell on such disturbing images, perhaps it's best simply to listen to Morricone's music and to remember Crow's line in the MS3TK version of "Master Ninja II": "Oh, sure! Take advice from long time bachelor Lee Van Cleef!"

There are those who would do so in "a New York minute" ...

Ah, the glowing cloud! The swirling paperweight!

I've always had an affection for "The Trollenberg Terror" -a.k.a.- "The Crawling Eye." It occupies a perfectly decent niche between "X The Unknown" (Jimmy Sangster writes science-fiction in the '50s) and "The Abominable Snowman" (Forrest Tucker faces fear in a handful of ... snow), and I won't hear a word against it.

Still and all, there *is* one inadvertently funny moment (SPOILER ALERT) which no one seems to have commented upon. It's the finale, the Venusians have been fire-bombed, the Earth has been saved yet one more time, and the protagonists are finally able to emerge from their mountain bunker. And what, as the interplanetary barbecue proceeds apace, does heroine Janet Munro say?

Unless memory deceives, what she says is: "Let's step out for a breath of -- fresh air!"

I have a misty, none-too-clear memory of having watched this when it appeared on TV. SPOILER The main thing which stuck with me, though -- the "touch" which marked this as Capote's take on the story -- was that, when Sanders as Lydecker ended up in the apartment with the gun, what he did was shoot the face off the painting of Radziwill's Laura. As if, in other words, he were revenging himself against the image which haunted them all.

Blam! Thud! Wow, man, what an *inspiration* . . . .