As Leo Durocher noted, rotten guys wind up with the best looking women - or something to that effect. It has been said of this minor film effort that Cary Grant had no on-screen chemistry with his co-star, the gorgeous Laraine Day...hmmn...trying to think of one of his films, in which he did have chemistry, biology or any other natural science, with his female counterpart. Maybe he should have been in some westerns with Randy Scott and we would have seen the missing rapport. Day's eyes are like shimmering jewels - I wonder what she saw in old Leo? A few distracting head-scratchers: why does the G.O. priest not find it strange that Joe's mother would write to him in Greek if Joe can't read the language? Why does Joe flee from the gambling parlor with the stolen loot if he only wants to make sure that it is returned to the charity? Why does Dorothy need to show him how to knot his tie? The muddled character development makes for some unneeded confusion.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy
(1989 TV Movie)
Engaging Docudrama
4 October 2005
This oddball flick showed up on late-nite programming fairly often in the early 90's. The demise of the Soviet Union--and it's loss as a defense industry boogie-man--has made red-scare films pretty passé. This effort by screenwriter Brian Phelan attempted to walk the line between bashing the Russkies and revealing US intelligence gathering techniques.
I found the film interesting for the latter aspect, as I once worked aboard the ferret planes depicted orbiting the Soviet coastline. Overall, I found the script in some cases surprisingly accurate in certain details about comint interception practices. Of course, there are the almost obligatory instances of scenery chewing for dramatic emphasis: notably the scene in the ops center where the resident linguistic "expert" has to interpret a communication intercept of critical importance, as if there is only one such person on station.
The actual details of what happened that night over Sakhalin Island will probably never be fully laid out in public. Wild speculation has been put forward by several authors as unvarnished truth. From my own experience, which definitely included the use of airborne surveillance aircraft to intentionally provoke Soviet air defenses, I have to think that was a major element in the affair that was never, for obvious reasons, fully examined. The political climate of Washington at that time, the eagerness of hotshot intelligence officers to boost their own careers at the cost of lives on the other side of the globe also goes a long way toward explaining the reckless decision-making portrayed in the film.
I found the film interesting for the latter aspect, as I once worked aboard the ferret planes depicted orbiting the Soviet coastline. Overall, I found the script in some cases surprisingly accurate in certain details about comint interception practices. Of course, there are the almost obligatory instances of scenery chewing for dramatic emphasis: notably the scene in the ops center where the resident linguistic "expert" has to interpret a communication intercept of critical importance, as if there is only one such person on station.
The actual details of what happened that night over Sakhalin Island will probably never be fully laid out in public. Wild speculation has been put forward by several authors as unvarnished truth. From my own experience, which definitely included the use of airborne surveillance aircraft to intentionally provoke Soviet air defenses, I have to think that was a major element in the affair that was never, for obvious reasons, fully examined. The political climate of Washington at that time, the eagerness of hotshot intelligence officers to boost their own careers at the cost of lives on the other side of the globe also goes a long way toward explaining the reckless decision-making portrayed in the film.
The Searchers
(1956)
Wayne's Best
6 December 2004
I know the Quiet Man, or Red River are often cited as the top film roles of John Wayne, but, I've always thought that this was his most inspired and watchable performance. At the same time, I have to think that the movie was stolen from him by a couple of sparkling supporting actors, namely, Henry Brandon as the menacing Chief Scar, and Ken Curtis in a marvelous turn as a leering, guitar-strumming snake-in-the-grass quite unlike anything you would have seen on Gunsmoke. John Ford did a masterful job of pulling emotions such as these out of the lesser characters in this great film. One notable exception: Wayne's son Patrick turns in a wasted, wooden performance typical of that brand of industrial nepotism.
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