Effie

This is the only Warren William Perry Mason movie I've seen so far, and I thought it was a lot of fun! It gallops along at a breakneck pace, partly thanks to its super-kinetic (and rather disorienting) editing. William and Dodd bring a really delicious tongue-in-cheek camaraderie to the roles of Perry and Della, while Mayo Methot (was she already married to Bogart?)has a lot of fun with the small part of Florabelle. The coroner is not to be missed, by the way!

It is fascinating to see what a different interpretation of the character of Perry Mason William gives; he seems to be drawing as much on his previous performance as Philo Vance as on anything in the books. Naturally, this makes him nothing at all like Raymond Burr's Mason. (And he's in San Francisco, by the way, not Los Angeles.) I certainly missed the gravitas and moral authority that Burr gave the part, but William is hilarious and highly professional, pulling off a performance not unlike that of a drunken tightrope walker working without a net with aplomb and smooth daring-do.

The murder (of Errol Flynn, no less!) is incidental.

Flynn's first starring role in Hollywood! This is a lavish, knock-you-silly gorgeous production with a solid, book-based plot, packed with action, salt water, swordplay AND hordes of pirates "celebrating in pirate fashion" (!). Flynn and de Havilland spark as they spar in the best love-hate mode, and this time, when she inadvisedly condescends to him in his slavery, his pride is as involved as hers. Suave, deadly French pirate captain Rathbone's betrayal of Flynn makes their thrilling, fated-from-the-start duel very satisfying indeed. The icing on the cake -- Flynn at his slim, youthful, sexy freshest, so beautiful he breaks your heart!

I saw this British version of "Gaslight" for the first time on TNT a few days ago. I was expecting the Ingrid Bergman-Charles Boyer version, so I was surprised!

While nowhere near as good as the later, Hollywood version, this is still a good melodrama. It is visually dynamic -- the director uses a lot of camera movement, some of it quite psychologically compelling. The sets and costumes are excellent. The supporting actors are quite good. There is a highly effective, dramatic sequence in which we cut back and forth between the husband on a date with the maid at a music hall (and wasn't that interesting to see?) and the detective back at the house with Bella.

The leads suffer from being kept at a stage-like distance most of the time. We are rarely allowed a close-up, so there is a lack of intimacy to the performances. The solid but hardly thrilling performances made me appreciate just how brilliant Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer were.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to me was the chance to see how the classic Hollywood system transformed the property. The British version is good; the Hollywood version is great. Hollywood restructured the story to focus on the wife, Bella/Paula, and her relationship with her handsome, abusive husband. We see her suffer the horror of her aunt's murder (the husband's aunt in the British version); grow up and fall in love; suffer the torment of alternating cruelty and kindness from her husband. Hollywood surrounds the leads with skillful, endearing character actors; brings us into the emotional lives of the characters intimately; links the detective hero to the story through the aunt; and serves up a truly electrifying ending. I expect the British version was closer to the original play, but I don't know. Whatever liberties Hollywood took with the story, if any, were absolutely justified by the results!

This is an excellent adaptation of the book, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. Frank Merrill's classically handsome features and lithe, muscular body make him a fine Tarzan visually; his vine-swinging and elephant riding are unparalleled in the movies; and the script allows him to be the refined, educated Tarzan of the books, at least intially (until he loses his memory.) This is an exciting serial, full of action and with great sets and scenery. The only question is: why a tiger? But the mistake is a charming one, since it echoes the one ERB himself made in initially putting tigers in Africa himself.

What a disservice to a great character! The nutty TV charm of Mr. Bean is left behind in Merry Olde England in this transfer to the big screen. The script would have to be improved to qualify as slight; the jokes, such as they are, are abominably crude, painful and ugly; the only scenes that remotely feel like real Mr. Bean take place at an amusement park. The rest is junk. Spare yourself -- especially if you haven't seen the TV show. See the TV show instead!