Overlong but exciting Cold War thriller that gets off to a terrific start when a young tourist calls the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with a startling revelation. This leads Sam Hollis (military intelligence), Lisa Rhodes (press attache), and Seth Alevy (CIA bureau chief) on a mission to discover the secret behind a mysterious Soviet facility known as the Charm School. DeMille preserves the mystery as long as possible, then substitutes a certain moral ambiguity to keep things interesting. Peppered with the author's usual invigorating dialogue. And it's all set against a finely detailed and realistic portrait of the USSR.
****
Overlong but exciting Cold War thriller that gets off to a terrific start when a young tourist calls the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with a startling revelation. This leads Sam Hollis (military intelligence), Lisa Rhodes (press attache), and Seth Alevy (CIA bureau chief) on a mission to discover the secret behind a mysterious Soviet facility known as the Charm School. DeMille preserves the mystery as long as possible, then substitutes a certain moral ambiguity to keep things interesting. Peppered with the author's usual invigorating dialogue. And it's all set against a finely detailed and realistic portrait of the USSR.
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**** Basically Dudley Moore doing a drunk act for 97 minutes, but it's an awfully funny act. He plays a super-rich playboy (emphasis on the "boy") whose family has decided to cut him off from his $750 million inheritance unless he marries the woman of their choice. Then he meets a penniless waitress (Liza Minnelli) and falls in love. The excellent supporting cast, especially Minnelli and Geraldine Fitzgerald as Arthur's ruthless grandmother, is topped by John Gielgud, whose sarcastic yet infinitely mature Hobson, Arthur's old English gentleman valet, grounds Arthur and the entire film. Gielgud snagged an Oscar for his performance, as did the theme song, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can do)," performed by Christopher Cross. Director/writer Gordon died the next year, at 44. **** A man becomes obsessed with the strange, suicidal woman he is asked by her husband to keep an eye on, a woman who may be the reincarnation of an ancestor who herself committed suicide years before. Clever and atmospheric French mystery, with obvious supernatural overtones, heavily weighted toward the psychological aspect of the case: the man -- lonely, insecure, and desperate -- latches onto the woman as his one shot at happiness. The authors effectively capture the man's contradictory and often self-defeating state of mind while providing some startling twists along the way. The basis for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and also published under that title, though the original title is more apt. **** Japan-bashing at a mile a minute. When a beautiful young woman is murdered at the Los Angeles headquarters of a powerful Japanese corporation, the L.A. cops send in super-sleuth John Connor, their resident, if semi-retired, expert on Japan. His Watson, a Special Liaison officer with only rudimentary knowledge of his suspects, tells the story, which hinges as much on the subtleties of Japanese culture as the dangerous naiveté of American government. Oh, yes, Crichton bashes America, too, often just by comparison. An exciting, thought-provoking, opinionated thriller, with plenty of plot twists and two of the author’s most engaging characters. Made into a film in 1993, starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. **** Taut thriller starring Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, ex-CIA operative, whose seventeen-year-old daughter is kidnapped while on a trip to Paris. He has 96 hours to find and rescue her before she disappears into the criminal underground forever. You’ve seen all this before, just generally flabbier and lazier. Here all the clichés and stereotypes of the genre are used to good purpose: to strip away the fat. What’s left is a lean, hard tale of a man with the skills to battle evil on its own turf and the uncompromising drive to do so. Neeson, who has to carry the plot, gives a terrific performance, imbuing Mills with an inner conviction to match his physical prowess. For all his cold-bloodedness, we never forget that Mills is exactly what he tells his daughter he was, when he worked for the CIA: a man who prevents bad things from happening. **** Mae West is ultimate bad girl Lady Lou, the singer in a Gay Nineties saloon that stands next door to a church mission run by a very young Cary Grant. He wants to save Lou's soul; she wants to corrupt his. Meanwhile, a girl tries to commit suicide, a counterfeiting ring kicks into operation, a criminal escapes, and a woman is stabbed to death. All in just 66 minutes. Given all that happens, you might think the movie is fast-paced, but it isn't really until the very end. On the other hand, it doesn't need to be: West is racy enough on her own. She's intelligent, witty, poised, and buiguilingly self-confident, and the film is as bawdy as it is delightful. The shortest movie ever to be nominated for Best Picture. **** Hammett's first novel, featuring the Continental Op, a detective with the San Francisco-based Continental Detective Agency. Called to the town of Personville, the Op finds his client murdered and the town, known locally as Poisonville, in the grip of rampant crime and corruption. He decides to clean it up, by pitting the various factions against each other. A labyrinthine plot and a body count that quickly rises to obscene proportion pull the reader into a nightmare world of murder and mayhem that even the Op finds difficult to resist. Hammet is "so hardboiled," Dorothy Parker wrote in The New Yorker, "you could roll him on the White House lawn.” Red Harvest is Exhibit #1. Based on four linked stories from 1927 and 1928, originally published in Black Mask. **** Investigative reporter Irwin Fletcher, while working undercover to expose drug operations on a California beach, is approached by a wealthy man with an unusual offer: he wants Fletch to kill him. Comic mystery based (loosely) on Gregory Mcdonald's novel works on its own more obvious level, with Chevy Chase giving an ingratiatingly funny performance as Fletch. Plenty of laughs and a legitimate mystery to hold it all together. Strong supporting cast including Tim Matheson, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Joe Don Baker, and Geena Davis in a small role as Fletch's assistant. Forgettably followed by Fletch Lives in 1989. **** Pre-Code romantic comedy-drama starring barely-18-year-old Marian Marsh as Margie, whose girlish dreams of marriage are assaulted by life on the poorer side of the big city and shattered when her older sister announces she wants a divorce. “I’ve made up my mind,” Margie says, “that any time I hand myself to a man for life, it’s cash on delivery” — a sentiment that doesn’t sit well with love-struck boyfriend Jimmy (Regis Toomey), but finds favor with rich playboy Raymond (Warren William). Rife with unpunished immorality and snappy dialogue. Grim and fascinating, yet also funny and fast-paced.
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