George AxelrodBesprekingen

A slow, insipid beginning slowly morphs into a juggernaut of a psyco-espionage thriller. Sinatra is electric. Angela Lansbury is titan (she had me staggered). Frankenheimer helms your attention with interesting choices. “Manchurian Candidate” is a racist/anti-communist fiction from the Korean War, based on notions of Oriental despotism, Western individualism vs Eastern collectivism, & anti-immigrant anxieties over infiltration/espionage. This is something!

Well made, in a 1950s style, with humour that feels more disturbing by today's standards. Nice musical background, and a good pace. We hadn't seen Marilyn Monroe before and were quite impressed although it was very hard to understand the strong Southern accent she used as 'Cherie' in this film.

I didn't like the rodeo scenes at all, which did not look at all pleasant for the animals concerned, and I thought the hero (Don Murray) was not just naive and ignorant, but unpleasantly arrogant too; I thought the ending forced and unlikely, despite being rather predictable.

But it made a good light evening's viewing. The rating U is misleading as it's really not suitable for children.

Longer review here: https://suesdvdreviews.blogspot.com/2024/02/bus-stop-marilyn-monroe.html½

2023 movie #179. 1954. After 8 years of marriage tax lawyer Bob (Lemmon) and TV writer Nina (Holliday) get divorced but find they still really love each other. This movie made me laugh out loud, what more can you ask for from a comedy? Judy Holliday is just brilliant.

1871

This book starts strong and ends strong. A little doughy in the middle though, with what felt like a lot of details that were not necessary to the story. And overall, the whole book gave me a sense of deja vu, as though I'd read it before. But I hadn't. Weird.
The story is that of a publisher being offered the posthumous, last ever book by a world-famous author. And he gets that offer twice in the matter of 24 hours! But which offer is real, and is there an actual book written by that actual author at all? It's a muddle of a situation that Dick Sherman, the publisher, gets tangled in, and the untangling may very well be his undoing!½

2022 movie #139. 1964 Alcoholic screenwriter (an alcoholic Holden), hires a young typist (Hepburn) and, in extended fantasy sequences they act out the movie he's trying to write. Only mildly amusing but it's got Audrey Hepburn which helps.

When Dick Sherman is approached by a lovely woman to publish a manuscript by a recently deceased Author, he is not impressed. Shortly after another offer comes in, so he takes up the offer. Soon he is in over his head but will stop at nothing to find out the truth.

A fast paced case crime (story) originally written in 1950, true to the era with all the feels of vintage crime/drama. Likable characters, if a bit flawed, with plot twists and mystery. A great blend to hold your attention until the end. I recommend Blackmailer to those who enjoy hard-case crime.

Reads well, but couldn't really work out why our humble crossword book publisher Dick Sherman had to keep his hand in the game. I mean sure, there's a book that might make you slightly richer than you are now, but people are getting killed here...

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't enjoy it, just didn't love it. There were some great scenes but I really just didn't feel it enough to give it more than three stars.

Un americano, figlio dell'ex consigliere di Hitler, è a Ginevra e un banchiere svizzero lo informa che è stato nominato esecutore di un fondo di oltre quattro miliardi di dollari che mira a promuovere risarcimenti per i crimini di guerra dei nazisti. (fonte: Wikipedia)

Noel Holcroft is a foreign-born American citizen working in New York as an architect. In Geneva he meets with a respected Swiss banker who tells him he has been designated to be executor of a huge 4 1/2 billion dollar trust fund designed to make reparations for the war crimes of the Nazis. Holcroft’s father, who committed suicide in 1945, was a key Hitler financial advisor who became conscience-stricken about German war atrocities, turned against the Fuehrer, and covertly diverted Nazi funds to a secret Swiss account. Under the terms of the covenant Holcroft must locate the sons of his father’s two associates so they can jointly activate their fathers’ account. They battle the sinister forces seem to be trying to prevent them from signing the document as it is believed that it will be used to establish a Fourth Reich. (fonte: imdb)

New York. All'alba, da un taxi che si ferma sulla Quinta Strada, scende una giovanissima ed elegante ragazza, Holly Golightly. Mentre guarda le vetrine di Tiffany, la ragazza consuma una rapida colazione, prima di rientrare a casa a piedi. Fuori dal suo appartamento la sta aspettando e la raggiunge Sid Arbuck, un uomo con il quale Holly aveva avuto un appuntamento la sera precedente. Qualche ora più tardi, Holly è svegliata dal suo nuovo vicino di casa, Paul Varjak, che citofona per entrare nell'edificio. Entrato nell'abitazione di Holly per usare il telefono, Varjak fa la conoscenza del suo gatto, al quale la ragazza non ha dato alcun nome, e aiuta Holly a prepararsi per andare a fare visita a Sally Tomato, un mafioso newyorkese rinchiuso nella prigione di Sing Sing, che usa Holly come tramite tra sé e il proprio avvocato, O'Shaughnessy, per comunicarle ogni giovedì dei messaggi in codice, che la ragazza interpreta come «bollettini meteorologici» in cambio di 50 dollari a visita. Mentre Holly si avvia verso Sing Sing, Varjak è raggiunto dalla signora Failenson, la sua “redattrice”.

Blackmailer was first published in 1952 and, if you didn't know that, you wouldn't have guessed it. The plot revolves around a publisher, Dick Sherman, of a small little-known publishing house, who often gets stuck entertaining authors' wives. Jean Dahl visits him and offers to sell him the last unpublished manuscript of a now-deceased but famous author, Charles Anstruther, who appears to be like Hemingway, a big game hunter, a traveler, a legend. Dahl "had thick, honey-colored blonde hair that she wore a little longer than this winter's styles dictated." She wore a beaver coat and a little black dress. Sherman thinks the whole thing is quite strange and thinks it over. An agent, Max Shriber, then sends him a letter offering to sell the same book. The whole thing is quite preposterous.
Turns out that Sherman ten years earlier, had dated Janet Whitney, who was now Hollywood's brightest, sexiest star. Between Whitney and Dahl, Sherman's head is spinning around. Ten years earlier, he had fallen for Whitney, but you know even then that she was going to be a big star. "She was a beautiful girl with soft, dark hair, greenish eyes, and a wide, exciting mouth" and "driving, compelling ambition." She had left him behind and never looked back.

It gets even crazier when two hoods follow Dahl to Sherman's apartment and tear the place apart looking for something. Tearing the place apart even includes stripsearching Dahl. With his head still spinning, Sherman sees both Dahl and Whitney at a party thrown at a mansion and bodies and blackmail start flying around.

Although it doesn't necessarily sound like much of a plot, it is a damn good book that is very hard to put down. The voice that Axelrod uses to narrate works quite well, an innocent man who can't quite comprehend what he has gotten mixed up in. Throw in movie starlets, mysterious dames, mean hoods, and rich people who have two-way mirrors and recording devices all over their houses and you have the makings of something real interesting. There are great fight scenes in the book and mysterious parlor games played at parties with the lights out. There is intrigue and mystery here.

Noel Holcroft sta per firmare l'ordine di esecuzione per il mondo. I figli dei nazisti sono diventati adulti ma lui trasmetterà la loro eredità in due miliardi e mezzo di odio, e basterà una sua firma perché questo avvenga. L'ingente somma era stata a suo tempo versata dal generale delle SS Clausen, disgustato dal regime nazista e morto a Berlino in un bunker nel 1945. Lo scopo era riscattare i crimini del terzo reich. Ma quando il figlio dell'uomo viene informato della somma, la sua vita viene sconvolta del tutto.

Some American soldiers are captured in Korea and brainwashed.

Clever story, shot well. The dialog, acting and music are all quite good as well. I wasn't sure what to expect from a Frank Sinatra movie (this is the first I've seen), but I'm pleasantly surprised. The 2004 remake could hardly have been more pointless.½

Breakfast at Tiffanys by Lynn Lorenz is a stand-alone novella written for the “Blockbusters” series at Amber Quill Press (stories with movie titles) and has nothing to do with the Truman Capote book or the Audrey Hepburn movie. Its strengths include a vivid setting in New Orleans two years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and two appealing young characters, an interracial couple, who are trying to survive the dangers of life on the streets. It’s a simple story about the start of a romance, which builds towards a moment of trust in which Tony confides in Scott about his past. Fortunately, the story isn’t too gritty or depressing, and it maintains a consistent tone of hopefulness and romance.

Scott is a white kid living in a homeless shelter in New Orleans and waiting tables at a diner owned by Tiffany, a sympathetic black woman. He adds each day’s pay to his small savings account, but one night a street thug robs him. Another guy drives off the thug but keeps Scott’s money. It’s Tony, a black kid and survivor of a horrible hurricane ordeal in the Ninth Ward. He lives on the streets and is desperate for money, but guilt forces him to seek out Scott and return Scott’s earnings. The two experience a strong mutual attraction, and cautiously but hopefully embark on a relationship.

Val for AReCafe

Substance: The basic story-line makes points about the frantic anti-Communism of the time (post-WW2 to post-Korean-War) and plays on the McCarthy accusations and hearings. Anything else will spoil the fun.
The romance between Ben and Rosie happens too quickly in the film; I presume the book is a bit less abbreviated.
Style: Suspenseful and dramatic at the time (1962), the plot now looks obvious and the acting histrionic. However, the flash-backs to the brain-washing are superbly contrived, and Angela Lansbury is magnificent.

NOTES: Yes, McCarthy was bone-headed and grand-standing, but there really were Communists in the government at the time - and afterwards.
FWIW, if you don't have an intimate acquaintance with the layout of a particular large auditorium, there is no way you can find a path from one place to another without a map or a lot of back-tracking. Dramatic license at work.

Bizarre: (Wikipedia 2011-12-09) "In 1998, software engineer C.J. Silverio noted that several long passages of the novel seemed to be borrowed, almost word for word, from Robert Graves' 1934 novel I, Claudius. Forensic linguist John Olsson judged that "There can be no disputing that Richard Condon plagiarized from Robert Graves." 1. ^ Lara, Adair (4 October 2003). "Has a local software engineer unmasked 'The Manchurian Candidate'? Menlo Park woman says author Richard Condon plagiarized.". San Francisco Chronicle. http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-10-04/entertainment/17512034_1_silverio-richard-.... Retrieved 4 March 2011.

Interesting: (Amazon 2011-12-09) Claims the film was withheld by Sinatra for 25 years after Kennedy's assassination in 1963, but see this review at http://www.bookrags.com/research/the-manchurian-candidate-sjpc-03/

"The film received mixed reviews and mixed reactions—it was picketed in Orange County for being left wing and picketed in Paris for being right wing—but its original and gripping delineation of the lone gunman and his preparations for the murder of the president, so close to the actual death of Kennedy, propelled it into a kind of obscurity. Over the next 15 years it was difficult to see the film, increasing its aura and, as the amount of contradictory information mounted on the death of Kennedy, the work seemed prophetic not only in foreseeing a president murdered, but in foreseeing a political atmosphere that could make any conspiracy seem imaginable."

This is the script of the play as it ran in 1952 with the original cast, including Tom Ewell as Richard Sherman.

Thirty-eight years old and married for seven years, Richard Sherman's wife and boy leave him alone with his vivid imagination for the summer. What no one was expecting is that a new girl has taken the upstairs apartment for the summer and Mr. Sherman can't stop thinking about his waning youth or his marriage, which has become so comfortable.

Funny, charming and not as innocent as the movie. Not to compare it to the movie, which I really love, but the whole play takes part in the Sherman's apartment, with Sherman's fantasy scenes played out with "dream lighting" and actors offstage providing the inner dialogue. Also, the relationship with the girl upstairs is more complicated.
Some of my favorite characters in the movie, such as the janitor and Sherman's boss, are only referred to here, but the brusque psychiatrist has a bigger part.

If you like the movie, you'd like the play.

Denne herlige og fullkomne komedien er basert på Truman Capotes berømte roman med samme navn. I rollen som Holly møter vi sjarmerende Audrey Hepburn, og rollen er som skapt for nettopp henne!

Holly lever et meget ustrukturert liv og hennes drøm er å finne en Manhattan-millionær som hun kan gifte seg med. Hun sjarmerer alt og alle, og ingen kan unngå å bli besnæret av hennes fortryllende kvinnelighet. Heller ikke forfatteren Paul som flytter inn i leiligheten over Hollys ...

Nokså raskt flettes Pauls liv inn i Hollys liv, og så er også han hjelpeløst forelsket i henne, selv om han ser at hun er noe destruktiv som type. Like fullt appellerer hennes hjelpeløshet til hans beskyttertrang. Men Holly er ute etter noe annet enn en fattig forfatter. Hun vil gifte seg til rikdom. Drømmen er å ta for seg på Tiffany, en juvelerbutikk og et sted som får alle hennes negative tanker til å forsvinne på et blunk. For Tiffany er inkarnasjonen av lykke og vellykkethet i Hollys verden.

Sjelden har jeg sett en film etter å ha lest boka den er basert på, og erkjenner at filmen har sin helt egen eksistensberettigelse. Regissøren har også tatt seg noen kunstneriske friheter, uten at det gjorde noe som helst. Audrey Hepburn er ganske enkelt helt ubetalelig i rollen som Holly! Ikke til å undres over at denne filmen nevnes som en av 1001 filmer man bør se før man dør!

Link til boka:
http://no.librarything.com/work/6776186/41840056

Another short and sweet reprint from Hard Case Crime, Blackmailer follows the machinations surrounding the last book by a Hemingway-like author who has recently died. Axelrod, who is perhaps better known for his work as a screenwriter ( The Seven Year Itch, The Manchurian Candidate, and Breakfast at Tiffany's) has a style that is almost entirely action and dialog. Blackmailer is notable among the Hard Case Crime for the use of several pieces of "spy equipment". By the time the reader reaches the end, they might start to feel a little bit cheated by the gimmicks Axelrod used to obfuscate the plot. Good for Hard Case Crime completists, but might be better passed over for better fare in the series from Block, Westlake, or Collins by casual readers.

Brilliantly imagined and exquisitely executed.

2007

Region 1 (NTSC) In slipcase with Roman holiday and Sabrina

115 minutos

A busy cover and good strapline: "He could make the tastiest cheesecake". The chef offers a bespectacled man a cigarette surroudned by gals.