Rare Movies

Celia (1989)

noreply@blogger.com (Mastermind) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:21:00 -0800

Country:

Australia |

Language:

English

An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia.
In summer, 2003, I took a class about Australian cinema. We watched films like "Walkabout", "Gallipoli" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence"; it might have thrown a wrench in the works had we watched "Celia". At the video/DVD store, I found it under the horror section, but it's only a horror flick in the loosest terms. The movie deals with a nine-year-old girl (Rebecca Smart) in 1950s Australia whose amorality and alienation from society drive her to complete madness; I think that that was the plot. Certainly it's ugly what Celia does, but seeing what the adults around her are like, I felt that I had no choice except to root for Celia.

The historical context involves the Cold War and the government's efforts to stop the rabbit infestation. As people tell Celia not to fraternize with children of communists, she grows more and more disenchanted with the world around her - after all, friends are supposed to be friends no matter what the parents' political activity. But when a cop takes away her pet rabbit, she really gets nasty (it also shows that the rabbit-proof fence that lent its name to the 2002 movie clearly didn't work in holding back the leporid plague).

So how to interpret this movie? It looks at face value like one of the many instances of a seemingly cute girl having a not so cute side (think "The Bad Seed"). One might say that the rabbits play a role similar to the ones in "Night of the Lepus" and "Donnie Darko", even though Celia's rabbit doesn't do anything. I guess that it's worth seeing, if only once.

Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)

noreply@blogger.com (Mastermind) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:32:00 -0800

Directors:

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Stars:

John Gregson, Anthony Quayle and Ian Hunter

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | War

Country: UK,

Language:

English | German (some dialogue) | Spanish

Also Known As:

Graf Spee

Set during the early years of World War II, the War in the Atlantic. The Royal Navy was fighting a desperate battle to keep the convoy routes open to keep the British Isles supplied. One great danger was the surface raiders, huge cruisers called "pocket battleships" that slipped out of German waters just before war was declared. The "Bismarck", The "Scharnhorst", The "Gneissau" and The "Graf Spee" were supplied by tanker & could strike anywhere. This is the story of how 3 lightly armed cruisers with only 6 and 8 inch guns boldly took on a powerful pocket battleship armed with 11 inch guns. They should have been blown out of the water before they could fire a single shot but ...

Pretty Good Story

The "pocket battleship" (in armor and armament, somewhere between a battleship and a heavy cruiser) Graf Spee is abroad in the Atlantic, sinking British merchant shipping. She is tracked down by three British and New Zealand cruisers and after a fierce battle takes refuge in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. In accordance with the Hague Convention, the Graf Spee's Captain Langsdorff is given barely enough time to make his ship seaworthy, without improving her fighting efficiency, before having to leave port. We aren't told exactly what her fighting efficiency is like but we learn she's taken more than fifty hits on the superstructure alone from the British 8-inch guns, and those are big guns. There are shenanigans going on at the embassies in Montevideo, in which the French and British try to force the Graf Spee to leave as soon as possible, while the Germans argue for more time. All of this is reported by an opportunistic American from a well-positioned outdoor cafe where the proprietor demands he keep ordering scotch if he's going to sit there and take up the customers' space. Langsdorff is cleverly led by the British to assume that the three cruisers waiting for him outside the harbor have been joined by several other capital ships including an aircraft carrier. The rumor has been deliberately spread by British staff (over an unscrambled phone line in a hilarious scene) and everyone believes it, including Langsdorff. The German captain takes his ship out of the harbor at the appointed time but scuttles her after ordering the crew off. The British have won the Battle of the River Plate, partly through courage and partly through intelligent use of misinformation.

Actually, considering that it's a "war movie" it's pretty good natured. The British crack jokes in the midst of battle. When a shell hits nearby and burns up some possessions, one sailor approaches another bearing a pair of charred boots on a tray and asks, "You ordered the toast?" When sailors die, they do so almost nonchalantly, with time for a brave few words like, "See to the others." As far as that goes, the film gives you a fairly decent picture of what sea duty can be like: operating the rudder from the steering aft position, for instance. (What a job!) The movie demonstrates the advantage of using real ships instead of models. The problem with model work has to do with texture. The splashes of exploding shells, for instance, send up drops of water as big as basketballs. But here there is some drop-dead gorgeous photography of ships making smoke and heeling around. Not even modern computer graphics could manage so effectively.

The Germans are treated humanely too, this being 1956 and not 1946. The Germans have a number of British prisoners aboard the Graf Spee and they celebrate Christmas together, with the captors presenting the captives with Christmas decorations. When a German officer announces to the prisoners that they will soon be released in Montevideo, he cheers along with the British.

Among the funniest scenes are those involving the blowhard American reporter. "The whole world is watching and waiting with suspense for the Battle of the Ages," or something like that. "Lays it on a bit thick, doesn't he?" asks one British listener. After a few days of this boreal oratory the reporter's voice is going and he begins to swill liquor, surrounded by a dozen glasses of scotch. "Excuse me while I get a drink," he hoarsely tells his listeners.

Withall, though, there is a tragic figure here, and that is the wounded Captain Langsdorff who has fought the good fight and is now forced to sail his ship into what he believes is certain disaster. Finch does a good job with the role, as does the script. There isn't a moment when he loses his dignity. And his courtliness seems inbred. The Brits say of him, "He's a gentleman," and, "He's a good seaman." A cheaper movie would have given Finch an unnecessary speech: "A captain belongs to his ship, just as the ship belongs to the captain. This is breaking my heart. I feel as if someone had just taken my Marzipan away." It's a genuinely sad moment when we see the coffins of the German sailors killed in battle. And although the movie ends with the victorious and quite beautiful white British cruisers sailing off into the sunset, the fact is that Langsdorff shot and killed himself shortly after these events.

99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)

noreply@blogger.com (Mastermind) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:01:00 -0800

Director:
John Frankenheimer
Stars:
Richard Harris, Edmond O'Brien and Bradford Dillman

Elderly mobster Edmond O'Brien hires a hit man to eliminate his rival. There are albino alligators, skillful chase scenes, and Chuck Connors as a one-handed psycho who can fit various deadly weapons on his stumpy arm.

Sociological Gangster satire for the pop-art age

Robert Dillon's script was considered by producer Joe Wizan to be a black comedy along the lines of Dillon's earlier one for "Prime Cut" (1972: d. Michael Ritchie). Director Frankenheimer, on returning to the USA after much time in France, was faced with a situation wherein years of bad reviews of his films were taking their toll. He accepted this project, and wanted Robert Mitchum for the main role, but the producers wanted Richard Harris, fresh from the hit film "A Man Called Horse".

Critically however, the released film was felt to be a total fiasco, many reviewers holding that it represented the director's career at rock bottom. The film's dark, bleak humour and use of caricature were considered testimony to a certain sadism on Frankenheimer's part, and evidence of his growing contempt. In later years, even the great director plays down this most unusual gangster satire.

It concerns a hitman trapped between rival gangs, and takes place in a vaguely futuristic city, which seems spatially to constantly re-define itself. It is filmed obliquely, so one is never on sure footing as to how to react. What is most interesting about this peculiarity, are the number of bizarre, surrealistic pop-culture set-pieces in a world of futile violence and rampant egos. Only despair and nihilism at the absurdity of it all enables the characters to hold on to whatever shreds of honour they can maintain although they all succumb to personal pride at the expense of everything else.

Frankenheimer directs with a stylistic over-kill at times which sits uneasily with a certain lethargic quality, although it probably guarantees the film a cult audience in the future. Perhaps the film is best seen as a failed, but intriguing attempt to reconcile the director's frequent recourse to stylization with genre-based social satire. Still, the film seems uncertain of its aims, and tends to flounder in its often considerable visual panache. The remarkable opening sequence however, is amongst the oddest ever put to film, and typifies the film's sense of comic despair. A curio.

Small Sacrifices (TV 1989)

noreply@blogger.com (Mastermind) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:50:00 -0800

Director: David Greene
Stars: Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal and Gordon Clapp

On the 19th of May 1983 Diane Downs stops at the McKenzie-Williamette-Hospital and cries for help. She is wounded on her arm and her three children are also wounded seriously. She says that a stranger shot at them but the investigation of detective Welch bring out that Diane is a liar.

Farrah Fawcett's Emmy-nominated performance is the centerpiece of SMALL SACRIFICES, a riveting, ABC mini-series based on the true story of Diane Downs, a cold-blooded woman who was sent to jail for murdering two of her three children. This teleplay presents Downs as the lonely, divorced working mother of three who appears on the outside to be a devoted and loving mother but as no qualms about putting her own needs first when the opportunity presents itself. While working at a post office, Diane begins a romance with one of her co-workers, Lew Lewiston (Ryan O'Neal)and things are going well until Diane learns that Lew doesn't like kids and has no desire to be a stepfather so Diane decides to kill her children. Fortunately, her daughter, somehow survives the brutal shooting and is taken into protective custody not only to protect her from further harm by her mother but to use her to help build a case to convict her mother. Fawcett gives the performance of her career...an icy, heartless bitch who shouts of her innocence throughout the proceedings, even though all evidence points to her and has the nerve to be baffled by the fact that her daughter wants nothing to do with her. O'Neal's role here is more in the way of stunt casting as he was Fawcett's real life romance at the time and is wasted in a thankless role, but there are two solid performances from John Shea and Gordon Clapp as the two police detectives caught in the deadly cat and mouse game of trying to slip Diane up in order to nail her for this horrendous crime. Despite it's almost three-hour length, I found this movie fascinating from start to finish, thanks primarily to a powerhouse performance from Farrah Fawcett who got the role of her career and ran with it.

Baby M (TV 1988)

noreply@blogger.com (Mastermind) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:25:00 -0800

Director: James Steven Sadwith

Starring: JoBeth Williams, John Shea and Bruce Weitz

Which are more important, the rights of a mother to keep the child she loves or the rights of a childless couple who have asked that mother to bear a child for them?

This is just one of the many emotional issues raised in this compelling three-hour drama telling the true story of a child custody battle which became one of the most controversial US court cases of the 1980s.

When Bill and Betsy Stern ask MaryBeth Whitehead to bear a surrogate child for them, it seems a perfect arrangement. But little do they realise that MaryBeth will refuse to surrender her new born daughter. There are no laws governing surrogacy and

when MaryBeth goes on the run with the baby, the Stems are forced into a traumatic court case to fight for custody of the daughter they have grown to love so dearly. But even more crucial are the rights of Baby M herself, a child growing up with two names, two homes, a child torn between two loving families.

Running time 3hours 8 minutes
I watched this film for the first time in June 2001, towards the end of my senior year of high school for my Child Development class. After seeing this movie, I did some research on the "Baby M" case, and this movie is about as accurate as it gets. While most true-account films tend to stray from the real story, this one was taken directly from the court records of Ocean County Courthouse, Toms River, Ocean County, New Jersey.

This made-for-TV film is about a couple, William and Elizabeth Stern, a New York City couple who cannot conceive a child, and consult an organizationfor surrogate parents. They soon meet Mary Beth and Rick Whitehead, a Brick Township, Ocean County, New Jersey family with two pre-teen children, Tuesday and Ryan. Mary Beth agrees to carry the Sterns' child and will accept $10,000 in exchange for the baby. Mary Beth assumes she can easily give up the baby, but it becomes impossible for her to let go of the child she names "Sarah," even though the Strerns name her "Melissa." Legal battles ensue over the infant and who she really belongs to.

The reason my teacher showed my class this film was because this case happened to take place close to home for us. I have been living in Ocean County, New Jersey since 1985, and this film took place close to home. Toms River is about 40 minutes from me, and Brick is another 10-15 minutes away from there. The film was shot almost entirely on location in Ocean County, and the trial takes place at our county courthouse. I was living in a town about 20 minutes from Toms River (Lacey Township) at the time this case was happening, so it's almost a given to know about this case, as it is one of the most remembered cases in recent years that I can recall happening so close to home.

The acting in this film was superb, and this movie was extremely upsetting. However, it was also excellent in showing how much goes into a custody trial. It is probably one of the better made-for-TV movies I have seen, and I'm certainly glad I saw it in class. I highly recommend this to anyone if you can possibly find it. This is a heartwarming and toucig story of love for a child, or love that went too far.

Rare Movies

Celia (1989)

Celia (1989)

Director:
Ann Turner

Director:

Stars:
Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie and Victoria Longley

Stars:

Country:

Language:

Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)

Pursuit of the Graf Spee(1956)

Directors:

Stars:

Genres:

Country: UK,

Language:

Also Known As:

99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)

Director:
John Frankenheimer
Stars:
Richard Harris, Edmond O'Brien and Bradford Dillman

Director:

Stars:

Small Sacrifices (TV 1989)

Director: David Greene
Stars: Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal and Gordon Clapp

Baby M (TV 1988)

Rare Movies

Celia (1989)

Celia (1989)

Director: Ann Turner

Director:

Stars: Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie and Victoria Longley

Stars:

Country:

Language:

Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)

Pursuit of the Graf Spee(1956)

Directors:

Stars:

Genres:

Country: UK,

Language:

Also Known As:

99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)

Director:John FrankenheimerStars:Richard Harris, Edmond O'Brien and Bradford Dillman

Director:

Stars:

Small Sacrifices (TV 1989)

Director: David GreeneStars: Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal and Gordon Clapp

Baby M (TV 1988)

Director:
Ann Turner

Stars:
Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie and Victoria Longley

Director:
John Frankenheimer
Stars:
Richard Harris, Edmond O'Brien and Bradford Dillman

Director: David Greene
Stars: Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal and Gordon Clapp