CARMEN JONES

 

Publicity poster for Carmen Jones (© Otto Preminger/20^th Century Fox – reproduced on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As those of you who know me well can readily affirm, I've always been mad about musicals, whether stage, screen, or both, a love imparted to me from my parents, especially my mother Mary Shuker, who introduced me when still just a small child to the wonderful shows and melodious songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Sigmund Romberg, Ivor Novello, and many more, by playing LPs of their works at home and regaling me with the engaging storylines behind each show.

As I grew older, I expanded my burgeoning musicals knowledge still further by taking in the shows and songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, Stephen Sondheim, Lorenz Hart, the Sherman brothers, Jerry Herman, Schoenberg & Boublil, and countless others, as well as adding classical music to the by-now extremely diverse array of music genres that appealed to me. And on 17 June 2018, the highly-acclaimed film version of a stage musical that I had long wanted to see, as it famously and very successfully combined musical theatre with classical music but had always hitherto eluded me, unexpectedly appeared on TV, and I was just in time to catch it. The film musical in question was none other than the incomparable Carmen Jones, based upon the 1943 stage version.

Directed and produced by the legendary Otto Preminger no less, in panoramic Cinemascope format, and released by 20th Century Fox in 1954, Carmen Jones stars Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, and Pearl Bailey, and uniquely combines the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II (he of the inestimable Rodgers/Hammerstein partnership responsible for such peerless productions as The Sound of Music, The King and I, Carousel, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and Flower Drum Song) with the sumptuous classical themes of Georges Bizet from the latter's immortal 1875 opera Carmen.

Having said that, the setting in Carmen Jones is updated from that of a cigarette factory in Spain as featuring in Carmen to an American military-run parachute-manufacturing factory during World War II. Moreover, the opera's toreador is replaced in this musical by a prize-fighter boxer. Carmen Jones memorably showcases a stunning, entirely Afro-American cast, and includes dubbing singers LeVern Hutcherson and Marilyn Horne, both possessing formal operatic ability (for although singers themselves, Belafonte and Dandridge lacked operatic training). Setting changes notwithstanding, the general storyline pays close homage to Bizet's original work.

Dandridge shines throughout in a tour-de-force performance as shameless go-getter Carmen Jones, arrested for fighting at the factory where she works, and Belafonte as naïve soldier Corporal Joe who is assigned to drive Carmen to the civilian authorities some distance away but is cynically seduced by Carmen solely as a means of escaping detention. Even though poor Joe is punished for his carelessness by being demoted to a private, he has fallen hopelessly and fatefully in love with her. Moreover, the licentious Carmen is initially taken with the idea of having Joe for herself, much to the consternation of Joe's shy but true girlfriend Cindy Lou (Olga James), but then the famous champion prizefighter Husky Miller (Joe Adams) arrives in town, and Carmen 's head, although not initially, is eventually turned, not only by the size of his muscles but also by the extent of his wealth, neither of which can Joe hope to compete with.

Doomed Joe, meanwhile, seems destined to plunge himself into one disaster after another, soon facing a lengthy sentence locked away in a military prison, so he and Carmen go on the run, leading to the petering out of their romance as Carmen, aided and abetted by her friends Frankie (Pearl Bailey) and Myrt (Diahann Carroll), selfishly seeks a better life for herself, jettisoning lovelorn Joe along the way. Passions ignite, tempers rage, and the grim shadow of impending tragedy stands silently in wait, armed and ready to deal the lethal blows at the appointed time.

Carmen Jones effortlessly transports its viewers into a heady world of lush orchestration, gorgeous singing and melodies, and a sizzling, scorching tale of fatal infatuation and torturing treachery - and all in the name of love, what else? This movie is massively recommended by me for aficionados of musicals and classical music alike, as well as for anyone who simply enjoys melodious, memorable tunes and a vibrant cinematic experience as torrid as any toreador, as pugnacious as any pugilist.

And if you don't believe me, just click here to watch an official trailer for this passionate, vivacious outpouring of raw emotion, lustful deceit, and the scintillating score of Bizet partnered with the irresistible lyrics of Hammerstein - what more could any moviegoer want?

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

LORD OF THE ELVES (aka CLASH OF THE EMPIRES)

 

Publicity poster for Lord of the Elves aka Clash of the Empires (© Joseph Lawson/The Asylum – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Earlier tonight I watched my recently-purchased DVD of a movie that I'd only learnt about a few days previously. I know of at least three different titles for it (more about which later), but its most famous one, and which featured on its official DVD, is Lord of the Elves.

Directed by Joseph Lawson and released in 2013, Lord of the Elves is somewhat of a curiosity in terms of slotting comfortably into any well-established movie genre, because it seems unsure of whether to be a prehistory-themed docu-drama or a swords-and-sorcery fantasy. Instead, it opts to be both, at the same time, which makes for very unusual viewing to say the least. Suspension of disbelief is very highly recommended here, that's for sure!

Set 12,000 years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores (but actually filmed in Cambodia), this movie is nothing if not novel in that it focuses upon that island's fairly recently-discovered species of fossil mini-human Homo floresiensis, Flores Man, but which on account of its diminutive stature has become popularly known colloquially as the hobbit. Also represented here are the rock men, the name given in this movie to a second, larger species of fossil human, Homo (formerly Pithecanthropus) erectus or Java Man, plus a third species, the so-called giants, which in reality is our very own Homo sapiens or Modern Man. These species in turn represent three separate human empires that as far as this movie's plot is concerned are traditionally in conflict with each other, thus explaining its alternative title of Clash of the Empires. So far, so prehistoric.

But then we very swiftly and entirely unexpectedly switch from watching a film about competing fossil hominins to one that plunges headfirst into epic fantasy (or as epic as this low-budget Asylum-produced movie can stretch to) when we discover that the rock men ride around on giant winged monitor lizards that except for not breathing fire are basically dragons, and are even referred to as such by various characters in the film. And somewhere midway between fossils and fantasy straddle the likes of some earthbound but no less gargantuan monitor lizards that could chew up a real-life Komodo dragon with a single bite from their venomous teeth, plus a rampaging hairy rhinoceros that was clearly inspired far more by the woolly rhinoceros of Ice Age Eurasia than by this tropical southeast Asian region's native hairy rhino species, the Sumatran rhinoceros. There are also two immense, venom-spraying, cannibalistic spiders that are not recommended viewing for anyone with an aversion to arachnids.

The basic storyline for Lord of the Elves tells how the peace-loving, plant-eating, earth goddess-worshipping hobbits (in the H. floresiensis usage of this name, but which are also, confusingly, the elves referred to in one of this movie's titles) are regularly hunted down and seized as food by the rapaciously-carnivorous dragon-riding moon-worshipping rock men. (Incidentally, these latter entities exhibit a most unsightly, ill-fitting dentition of long pointed teeth that are decidedly unlike any human chompers that I've ever seen, and which make them look far more like vampire extras from Salem's Lot than anything known from the fossil record!)

Anyway, following one such incident, three brave hobbits are able to convince some of the equally carnivorous but rather more civilised sky-worshipping giants to join them on a hazardous quest into rock man territory in order to locate and free their recently-kidnapped hobbit kin - during which the afore-mentioned leviathanesque lizards and mega-spiders make their prodigious presence well and truly felt.

The only famous name to appear in Lord of the Elves is Christopher Judge (of Stargate SG-1 TV fame), who plays noble warrior Amthar, one of the giants who assist the hobbits in their bold quest. In terms of acting ability, Judge stands head and shoulders above the others metaphorically speaking too. The CGI monsters are by and large effective - the spiders a little too effective, to be honest - but overall this movie in my opinion never recovers from its fundamental identity crisis.

This in turn may possibly stem from the fact that Lord of the Elves was originally intended to be entitled Age of the Hobbits, the term 'hobbit' succinctly conveying both prehistoric and fantasy connotations. In 2012, however, Warner Brothers, who at that time was promoting its forthcoming trilogy of official Tolkien-sanctioned hobbit movies, was not best pleased about this title, and eventually commenced legal action against The Asylum on the grounds of trademark infringement, which resulted in the release of Age of the Hobbits being temporarily blocked. Following a title change, however, albeit to one that was still decidedly Tolkien-reminiscent, it was released in 2013.

Lord of the Elves is certainly a strange little movie (under 90 minutes long) in my view. Yet for me this is actually part of its charm, together with just enough action and sufficient monster moments to entertain.

If you'd like to watch an official Lord of the Elves trailer to visit the warring Flores folk and the ferocious fauna confronting them, be sure to click here.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

 

THE PIT (aka TEDDY)

 

Publicity poster for The Pit (aka Teddy) (© Lew Lehman/Amulet Pictures/Ambassador Films Distributors/New World Pictures/Embassy Home Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

I've just watched one of the weirdest movies that I have ever seen, after having first heard about it just a few hours earlier when it was mentioned in a video collectors group on Facebook of which I'm a member. Apparently a cult film in Canada where it was made, it's variously entitled The Pit or Teddy, was directed by Lew Lehman, and released in 1981. Its plot is virtually indescribable, but here goes anyway.

The Pit focuses upon a lonely, friendless, 12-year-old 'problem child' named Jamie Benjamin (played in superbly unsettling style by Sammy Snyders) living with his parents but shunned by the townsfolk who consider him creepy and not right. He is certainly disturbed psychologically, showing an unhealthy, blatantly voyeuristic interest in nude women, particularly his latest in a long line of live-in child minders, a pretty young psychology student named Sandy O'Reilly (Jeannie Elias), who plans on studying him for her research, and upon whom Jamie swiftly develops a major crush.

Other than Sandy, however, Jamie talks almost exclusively to his teddy bear, Teddy. So far, so strange, but here is where it gets much stranger. For when they're alone, Teddy talks back to Jamie, with an eerie voice (think Ted, but Twilight Zone Ted). Obviously, this is all in Jamie's head, we assume – until one scene comes along where Sandy has just made Jamie's bed for him while he's out somewhere, then absentmindedly says "Bye, Bear" to Teddy as she closes the door, leaving the room empty, whereupon Teddy slowly turns its head and looks at the door! Spooky! Yet nothing is ever made of this bizarre subplot strand, leaving the nature of Teddy unexplained, which is itself weird.

Instead, much of The Pit is devoted to Jamie's bizarre discovery in the nearby forest's floor of a huge deep dark pit – an enormous hole down inside which four (previously five) flesh-eating troglodyte/troll monsters live. Jamie tries feeding them chocolate bars to make them his friends, throwing the bars into the pit, but when the trogs ignore them he buys them meat from the local butcher out of his small amount of savings, which is much more to their liking. But what happens when his savings run out, and his determined if dismal attempts to snatch a cow and catch some chickens all end in hysterical but abysmal failure? Why, ask Teddy for advice, of course, which Jamie duly does – and Teddy helpfully suggests that Jamie should feed to the trogs all of the people who have been mean to him!

So that is precisely what Jamie does – luring, leading, or in one case lugging the victim along in her own wheelchair through the forest till they reach the pit and fall into it. And here's another strange thing – the pit is ginormous, yet no-one ever seems to notice it until it's too late. Eventually the local cops realise that the populace is rapidly diminishing, and when Jamie ties one end of a thick rope to some trees and throws the other end of it down into the pit so that the trogs can escape and find their own food, things swiftly become very messy indeed.

The Pit is a truly oddball, offbeat movie that is billed as a horror flick. Yet apart from the accidental but grisly fate that befalls poor Sandy (with 'fall' being the operative word!) and a few very brief gory moments towards the end, it's played much more as black comedy than anything else (not counting the highly uncomfortable voyeur scenes early on in the movie). Even its accompanying music sounds as if it has been lifted from a Carry-On film at times, especially in the scenes where Jamie is bringing his victims to the pit, during which the background music veers dangerously towards 'Yackety Sax', the well known piece of music that always accompanied the inevitable chase scene at the end of every episode of The Benny Hill Show back in the day. Added to all of this is a series of delightfully dry quips delivered straight to camera in totally deadpan manner by Snyders as Jamie.

Speaking of whom: I won't reveal how The Pit ends other than to say that Jamie gets his just deserts in the most fitting if unexpected of ways. Oh, and did I mention that after Sandy's dreadful albeit unintended demise, a devastated Jamie keeps seeing her as a ghostly blood-drenched apparition who sternly admonishes him when he tells lies in order to draw the scent away from him when the police come calling and starting asking awkward questions about her unexplained disappaearance?

Quite frankly, I am totally unsure what to make of The Pit, as it seems to have sampled and sewn together into a veritable cinematic patchwork quilt all manner of influences and themes from an array of very different movie genres. I've read an interview with this film's writer, Ian A. Stuart (click here), who seemingly had in mind a very different storyline for it, in which all of the weird stuff, including the trogs, were intended to be imaginary, just figments inside Jamie's twisted mind, but apparently Stuart was over-ruled, and the trogs were incorporated as real entities instead.

The Pit is very much a make-of-it-what-you-will movie, and also very much a Marmite movie (you'll either love it or hate it) – that's for sure!

Incidentally, while watching Sammy Snyders playing Jamie, I was somewhat distracted for a while, because I knew that I'd seen him somewhere before – he had a very distinctive face when young – but I just couldn't place where. Then suddenly, about half way through the movie, the very tuneful theme song from the 1979 TV show Huckleberry Finn and His Friends abruptly popped into my head (click here to access it), a show that I'd watched from time to time when first screened. And then it hit me – Snyders was the actor who had played the young Tom Sawyer in it! So now you know!

If you'd like to watch an official trailer for The Pit aka Teddy to see what you make of this Canadian curiosity, please click here. Or why not go one better and do what I did? Click here to view the entire movie while it's available to watch for free on YouTube.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

 

Another publicity poster for The Pit aka Teddy (© Lew Lehman/Amulet Pictures/Ambassador Films Distributors/New World Pictures/Embassy Home Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

 

FROM SELKIES TO SPACE VAMPIRES - FLEXING A SIX-PACK OF MINI-REVIEWS!

 

A selkie or seal woman coming ashore and removing her seal skin to attain human form (public domain)

I've been watching far too many movies lately to be able to write full-length reviews for all of them, so here instead is a veritable six-pack of mini-reviews that cover a deliberately diverse array of films viewed by me lately.

Incidentally, I'd originally planned to include here a mini-review of Barry Manilow's musical film Copacabana The Movie, so that I could then entitle this collection 'From Manilow To Manticore, And More!' but I later decided to give the latter movie a full review of its own (click here to access it) – a sad loss indeed to rhyming alliteration!

 

 

Publicity poster for The Happiest Days of Your Life (© Frank Launder/London Films/Individual Pictures/British Lion Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE

On 3 April 2021, courtesy of the wonderful Talking Pictures TV channel devoted predominantly to vintage British movies, I watched the 1950 film The Happiest Days Of Your Life.

Directed by Frank Launder, it stars such stalwarts of staunchly British comedy movies from that time period as Alistair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Grenfell, and Richard Wattis. A playful post-wartime farce, its storyline revolves around a governmental oversight whereby a girls' school helmed by their redoubtable headmistress Miss Muriel Whitchurch (played by Rutherford) is mistakenly billeted with a boys' school helmed by an equally no-nonsense headmaster, Wetherby Pond (Sim), followed swiftly by the comedic chaos and personality clashes that inevitably ensue between staff (and pupils) from the two schools.

It's all very charming, mannered, old-school (pardon the pun), and so very British, epitomized by Joyce Grenfell's golly-gosh portrayal of the gauche Miss "call me Sausage" Gossage. The Happiest Days Of Your Life is set in a genteel land long since vanished, and barely recognisable now even to me, who loved this movie so much when I first saw it many years ago but gazed at it today as if I were watching another world entirely, which if truth be told I was.

An appraisal of this delightful film featuring a number of clips from it can be viewed here on YouTube.

 

 

Publicity poster for Mary and the Witch's Flower (© Hiromasa Yonebayashi/Studio Ponoc/Toho – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER

On 8 March 2020, I watched a thoroughly delightful Japanese animated movie on Film4 (a movie-specific TV channel here in the UK).

Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the film in question was Mary and the Witch's Flower, the first Studio Ponoc animated movie and originally released in 2017. This was the English-dubbed version, featuring the voices of Kate Winset and Jim Broadbent among others, and judging from the excellent production values, its creator, Studio Ponoc, could offer the legendary Studio Ghibli a run for its money in the future.

The storyline is quite involved, but basically features a red-haired girl, Mary, who discovers a clump of magical blue flowers named fly-by-night in a wood near her great-aunt's home, as a result of which she becomes the focus of highly unpleasant attention from a witch's university, Endor College, hidden high amid the clouds, and from whom these flowers were stolen long ago by a young red-haired witch who bore a striking resemblance to Mary... The movie is a bit slow to start with, but once Endor College appears in the story, it's full steam ahead all the way.

Click here to view a very colourful official trailer for this animated movie on YouTube.

 

 

My official VHS video for The Secret of Roan Inish (© John Sayles/Jones Entertainment Group/Skerry Productions/The Samuel Goldwyn Company/First Look Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH

On 27 December 2020, I watched the long-owned but never previously watched official VHS video of a very unusual, magical, yet little-known movie entitled The Secret of Roan Inish.

Directed by John Sayles and released in 1994,  it is concerned with a fishing family who moved years ago to the Irish mainland following evacuation from their original home on a tiny, now-abandoned offshore isle called Roan Inish – Island of the Seals – named after the number of seals seen on and around its shores. During their move, however, the youngest member, a baby named Jamie, floated away on the sea in his coracle-like cot and was lost.

The movie's story follows his slightly older sister Fiona's visits to the isle, what she finds there, and, interwoven throughout, the traditional local fishing lore and in particular the legends of the selkies or seal people, supernatural shapeshifting seal entities who assume human form when they remove their seal skins, and from whom her family is supposedly descended several generations ago on her father's side. No famous stars feature in it, but, like I say, this is a magical and even mystical film, well worth watching.

An official trailer for The Secret of Roan Inish can be viewed here on YouTube.

 

 

Publicity poster for Onward (© Dan Scanlon/Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

ONWARD

Viewed on 6 June 2020, just over 3 months following its official release, Onward is a newish Disney/Pixar animated movie directed by Dan Scanlon.

It is set in a fantasy world full of mythical entities such as centaurs, elves, mermaids, pet dragons, fauns, flying unicorns, etc, but one in which they have largely forsaken magic for the rather more mundane, science-driven lifestyle that we humans are all too familiar with. However, two teenage elf brothers, the older and exceedingly extrovert Barley Lightfoot (voiced exuberantly by Chris Pratt) and the younger introverted Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland), defy their town's modern-day traditions and set forth upon a perilous magical quest. Their goal is to discover a phoenix stone, whose power will enable their deceased father to return for just one day to see how his sons are and talk with them.

Although I cannot fault this movie in terms of its stunning animation, and the humour displayed in particular by various supporting characters, most notably a tattooed female manticore named Corey (Octavia Spencer), Onward proved too much of an emotional trial by fire to be truly enjoyable for me, as their profound desire to be united with their late father resonated only too intensely with my own regarding my late mother. In short, I was glad to have seen Onward, but I was also glad when it was over.

An official Onward trailer can be viewed here on YouTube.

 

 

Full cover of the official VHS video for Not Of This Earth (1995 version) (© Terence H. Winkless/Roger Corman/New Horizons/Concorde Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

NOT OF THIS EARTH (1995 version)

On 11 December 2020, I watched the second, 1995, remake of the original, 1957 Roger Corman sci-fi movie Not Of This Earth.

Directed by Terence H. Winkless, it stars Michael York as the laser-eyed alien in human form scouring Earth for as much of our species' blood as he can procure in order to send it back to his planet in the hope of saving his own species from extinction. All very compassionate, except that he shows precious little of this fundamental commodity for his human victims, whom he first blinds, then exsanguinates, then incinerates. What a charmer! Basically, he's a space vampire with fiery accessories.

Corman served as executive producer in this remake, and also in the previous, 1988, remake. This newest one has the edge in terms of SFX, as well as some injected humour and more monsters.

Click here to view (at least at the time of my writing this mini-review) the entire movie for free on YouTube.

 

 

Official DVD for Hotel Transylvania (© Genndy Tartakovsky/Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation/Sony Pictures/Imageworks – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA

Having heard so many good reports about it from so many friends, on 3 February 2019 I bought a double-disc Hotel Transylvania DVD, containing the original movie and its first sequel in this ongoing computer-animated comedy film franchise. After watching the original later that same day, I can see why it attracts such praise – it is an absolute delight!

Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and released by Sony Pictures in 2012, Hotel Transylvania, as its name suggests, centres upon a spooky hotel established by monsters and run specifically for holidaying monsters to stay there, safe from persecution from humans, but then one day a human youth inadvertently finds his way inside, resulting in absolute mayhem. Hilariously funny, this zany movie is crammed with so many visual jokes and puns that I defy anyone to spot them all on a single viewing, plus a rollercoaster-paced story, NO MUMBLING!! from the voice cast (hurrah!!), and, above all else, absolutely first-rate, top-notch animation throughout.

Many congratulations indeed to Sony Animation, which often gets unfairly overshadowed by the likes of Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks. The animation of Dracula (voiced delightfully by Adam Sandler) in particular is absolutely sublime, the fluid grace of his movements with an abundance of exquisite curls, curves, and curlicues resembling the very best of Art Nouveau in animated splendour. Loved it! Now for Hotel Transylvania 2.

Click here to watch an excellent official trailer for Hotel Transylvania on YouTube.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!