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MillieTheRedhead
Reviews
The Spanish Gardener (1956)
Poignant
This film puts you under a spell. It mixes characters who are almost ideals or archetypes with others that are psychologically realistic. The father is an excellent portrait of an insecure, character-disordered parent who harms his child with his intent to protect. He seems incapable of recognizing his own selfishness. Other peripheral characters seem drawn from life, Dr. Harvey, the Burtons, Maria. On the other hand, the little boy, Nicholas, and the Spanish Gardener himself, Jose, have an archetypal feel to me. Jose is almost saintly. The boy is a wish-fulfillment of an abused child. He seems to maintain clarity despite his father's gaslighting and repeatedly stands up to him quite bravely. Sadly, in real life that relationship would be a lot messier, and the father would probably be more successful manipulating and twisting the boy's mind. But frankly, I liked this better. Through the magic of cinema, you get to see a father cured of a severe personality disorder through some tough love from his son and the gentle saintliness of Jose. I thought the acting was superb. The father is chilling but ever so slightly sympathetic. The child is adorable and you feel his emotions, like a boy-child version of Barbara Stanwyck. Dirk Bogarde is wonderful as always, injecting charm and sauciness into this simplistic character. The ending ties up a little too neatly. Sure, the father might realize he was wrong about Jose, but would that really lead him to finally make all the changes his trusted physician has been suggesting for years? I read in other reviews that the book this is based on ends more tragically. Maybe I'll read it someday, but for now I'll savor the happy ending. Cinematography is quite lovely, alternating between bright colors and murky darkness.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
a little overrated but entertaining
I thought this was an entertaining film with excellent acting. Does it have anything important to say? If so, I missed it, but I still had fun. If you are interested in the narcissism of actors, I don't think they really capture that here. Other than Ed Norton's character, the rest of the actors in the play's cast seem benignly self-absorbed rather than malignantly narcissistic. When I watched, I didn't know Birdman was filmed or made to look like it was filmed in a single continuous shot, and I'm glad I didn't know. I noticed something but frankly I think it had no impact on my pleasure in the film, and I can't see how it enhanced the narrative of this particular story. Maybe made it seem more like a play, and the movie was about a play? Pretentious but harmless, I guess. I don't have any emotional investment in the Academy Awards and stopped watching the broadcast around 1998, and I generally wait at least 15 years to watch a film, so I'd forgotten this got a few Oscars. In retrospect, the plot was silly. Would shooting your nose off on stage really convince the critics of your genius? I doubt it. But the plot was a solid enough scaffold for the performances, and superb acting made the shallowly drawn characters and hodgepodge of ideas work. Michael Keaton commands every scene he's in with ease. Emma Stone's character was pure cliché, but she turned her into a human being, and she conveys a huge amount of emotion with just a slight movement of her gigantic eyes. The film looked great and was nicely paced.
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
It was OK
I just finished reading The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon, having enjoyed her TCM podcast a few years ago. I first saw Bonfire of the Vanities when it first came out during the 1990 holiday season and was being widely panned. I recall it was one of those times when the movie was just an evening activity with a friend and our choice of what to see was pretty random, so my feeling about the film was close to neutral. I read Tom Wolfe's book in 2003 and enjoyed it. Now with 33 years and a lot more context under my belt, I gave the film a second look. As Kevin Dunn's character says about Yale, "It was OK." Sure, Tom Hanks wasn't the Sherman McCoy of the book, but his acting was quite good. Although her accent was initially distracting, I thought Melannie Griffith was terrific. Like Hanks, she did not physically resemble the character in the book, but I thought her look better captured the personality of the character. I seem to remember Maria in the book had a Louise Brooks hairdo, which seemed a little too Bohemian for a high- end trophy wife, even an art dealer. Bruce Willis was weak. He has charisma but did nothing to even impersonate the character. You just get Bruce Willis in sunglasses acting drunk. Morgan Freeman was also lame. He did an awesome job playing Morgan Freeman, but we've all seen that a dozen times. The decency speech was tedious; was that in the book? I'll have to go back and look. The humor in the film was much broader and more cartoonish than the book, which made many scenes irritating. The scene close to the beginning with Willis arriving for the book party reminded me of everything that was annoying about the late 80s, and I almost abandoned ship, but after that the film held my interest. Don't expect the crisp satire and personality analysis of the novel or typical DePalma, and you'll find it passable entertainment.
Escape from New York (1981)
Pretty good comedy
This is one of the silliest movies I've ever seen, but it certainly seems to be beloved! I think I need to approach it as a pure comedy, in which case, it sort of succeeds. First, there's the premise of Manhattan being commandeered for a prison. That would so not happen. Prisons are almost always located in charming little rural towns where people are desperate for jobs, and real estate is cheap. Speaking of which, letting the prisoners govern themselves was a wasted opportunity to enlarge the prison industrial complex. I laughed out loud when the serious female computer voice intoned the details of the penal island. More laughs ensued when Kurt Russell arrived at the intake center, and the monotone informed him, "You now have the option to terminate and be cremated on the premises." Kurt Russell is a charismatic and muscular performer, but the character of Snake seemed a little bland. Maybe that was realism. I imagine most super soldiers like to keep a low profile and quiet demeanor. I found the costume design and choreography of some of the "gritty" street scenes reminiscent of "Cats" or "Les Miz." Returning to the theory that this is a comedy, that was hilarious. The set dressing on Air Force One reminded me of "Plan 9 From Outer Space," although they did upgrade from a shower curtain to a hollow core door to protect the cockpit. Personally, I think Adrienne Barbeau is the best thing about this movie, although I don't understand why there were two women on the island. Was it a coed prison? I liked the long scene of Barbeau walking with a couple of the guys, and her cleavage really undulates. My favorite scene in the whole film was her shooting Romero and ending his annoying histrionics. There's a quote from the actor who played Romero on IMDB in which he discusses his development of the character like it was something out of the Actor's Studio. If that's not comedy, it's just embarrassing. I'm sure Ernest Borgnine didn't indulge in that kind of pompous pontificating when discussing his development of Cabbie. If you watch EFNY expecting an action movie, you'll probably be a bit disappointed because the action is rather slow moving, but I guarantee you'll get a few chuckles.
Columbo: Identity Crisis (1975)
She's shy!
Identity Crisis is a charming episode directed by the great Patrick McGoohan and featuring him as the murderer. I had to watch this twice to figure out the motive for the murder, but I gathered the murderer owed the victim a substantial amount of money and was in danger of being outed as a double agent. McGoohan and Falk had great chemistry, and there were nice performances by secondary characters like the ex-cop/bartender. There were a lot of fun moments, like an interesting scene with Columbo observing a belly dancer and, after much consideration, coming to the conclusion that she's shy based on her eyes. He learns a lot from woman's eyes (see Etude in Black), and he seems to have a particular interest in the art of belly dancing (see Publish or Perish). Columbo is very sharp in this episode, not as faux bumbling as he is sometimes written, and I liked that. I enjoyed the scene at the amusement park and Leslie Nielson as the silver fox with shirt unbuttoned to the navel under his tweed blazer. The scenes with the CIA goons trying to intimidate Columbo at the travel theme park were also entertaining. Nowadays, Columbo might have been arrested for telling the little girl she was pretty. I wondered if the scene was written to tap into paranoia about getting caught in a Lolita scenario but I'm probably just interpreting though a 21st century lens.
Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975)
But Grace, Rosie is a character in a movie
Janet Leigh is terrific as Grace Wheeler, the former musical star whose possibly delusional dream of a comeback leads her to kill her husband. She really commands your attention and conveys a very wide range of emotional responses. I was not familiar with John Payne, who played Grace's former song and dance partner, Ned Diamond, but I was impressed with his very natural acting style. Who played Pat, the choreographer of the dance numbers? I thought it was June Allyson for a minute, but I don't think it was. I liked that they used a real Janet Leigh musical from the character's golden age as a plot device. Oddly, I've never seen that one on TCM. This episode had a lot of pathos, and the aging actress living in the glorious past earned compassion rather than contempt, although I still thought it was cold hearted of her to kill her poor old husband. There was a time when someone who screened one of her own films as nightly entertainment would have elicited chuckles, schadenfreude, and a diagnosis of narcissism. Now Facebook is plastered with 40 year old photos of middle aged former rockers and prom royalty reminding the world that they used to be sexy. The subplot with Columbo being hounded about his pistol qualification was interesting and could help explain his empathy for the target of his hounding. Speaking of hounds, I find basset hounds adorable, but the scenes with "Dog" always seem like filler to me, and the scenes in this episode were no exception. I enjoyed the set dressing, particularly the gilded wallpaper in the grand staircase of the mansion, the purple couch in the screening room (later echoed by a party guest's purple blazer), and the Kelly green bed linens in Janet Leigh's bedroom. I believe this is the first time we saw Columbo in a tuxedo, and he looked quite debonair. All in all, this was a pleasing episode, one of my favorites.
Down by Law (1986)
Hasn't aged well
When this came out, it was considered the height of cool, and I'm sure I saw it on a date and pretended to like it. That's how it was back in the 80s. I remember a friend telling me about a guy she met at a bar who thought this was the worst movie he'd ever seen. I should have dated him. The three leads have a lot of charisma and more than adequate acting ability. The female characters are a reminder of the casual misogyny that permeated le cinema in the 1980s. Ellen Barkin screams, cries and breaks things for 10 minutes before completely disappearing from the plot. Billie Neal, a Black actress, is totally nude for her entire speaking role. That might have seemed cutting edge at the time, but it feels "problematic" today. There were no nude scenes featuring the white male hipster stars, who were all considered pretty sexy at the time. The white women were allowed to wear lingerie but were still stripped of their dignity. Barkin, as previously mentioned, depicts a caricature of a borderline girlfriend. Nicoletta Braschi, the Roberto Begnini character's wife, is the "madonna" archetype and we have to watch Begnini and Braschi dance for 3 minutes to show... What? Italians are loving, earthy people? The whole film is a micro-aggression. On the positive side, the cinematography is excellent.
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (2022)
Rambling and ultimately a little shallow
Midnight Cowboy is one of my all time favorites. I've loved it since I first saw it as a teenager, and repeat viewings have only made me appreciate it more. I've also read the novel by James Herlihy multiple times, getting something new out of it each time as age and new experiences give me new perspectives and interpretations. I was therefore disappointed with the documentary, which seems to take Midnight Cowboy as a starting point to recap the entire 1960s in a ramshackle and sloppy manner. At one point, I thought to myself, "Boy they threw in everything but the kitchen sink," and then the topic of British kitchen sink dramas was introduced! I saw the doc a few months ago but I'm reviewing it today after reading a book, Shooting Midnight Cowboy, by Glen Frankel, which I believe was the inspiration for this documentary. The book is terrific, offering exhaustive detail about the novel, the development and making of the film, casting, costuming, etc. But in a coherent, well edited format. It's interesting that a 400 page book can manage to be thorough yet succinct, while a 2 hour documentary needs to rely on a lot of padding and still missed some interesting content that was in the book. The title is pompous. There are lots of talking heads, some connected to Midnight Cowboy and others not. For instance, Lucy Sante is featured prominently and really doesn't add anything substantive. For the first hour or so, I got the feeling she didn't even know the film was based on a novel, although I think later she did mention Herlihy. I didn't get much out of a handful of "cool" people opining on their impressions of the movie and the seedier side of New York. The interviews with Jon Voight and others who were actually involved in the film were better. There was also a lot of stock footage that was at times misleading, as it appeared to be from the 70s, 80s, 50s, whatever, just to give a visual to the sledgehammered message that New York used to be sleazy and scary. The section on Michael Childers seemed tacked on at the end, and I felt it shortchanged his creative contributions, depicting him as John Schlesinger's muse/boy toy who saved him from misery in a rather cloying and condescending way. I'm also a bit tired of the solemn, American Masters approach to biography, which insists on wallowing in the artist's insecurities and character flaws. I guess John Schlesinger was tortured. Of course he was! Artists tend to be "troubled" and "tortured" people. They sublimate. It's not a tragedy! Interestingly for me, the director, Nancy Buriski, also made a very good documentary, The Loving Story. It was much more focused and reliant on original black and white footage. Some people found it boring, but I thought its lack of sensationalism gave it depth and highlighted the fact that a couple of quiet, ordinary, non-tortured people did something really extraordinary and important. There was a confidence to that documentary that this one lacked. If you're interested in the topic, read Shooting Midnight Cowboy and skip this doc.
The Secret Fury (1950)
My EEG probably spiked during the last 5 minutes
This entertaining little noir with two of the mid 20th century's great actors in the lead roles was extremely intriguing. A woman about to be married is told she is already married, and she doesn't remember how it happened, whom she married, etc.!! I'm pretty sure I've had a nightmare with that plot. There were a lot of really creepy moments when she met various characters who cheerfully insisted they'd been present at the wedding. I felt a mix of fear (that she was really mad) and rage (that these creeps were gaslighting her big time). Claudette Colbert is a warm actress who conveys a range of emotions effectively. Robert Ryan is a good guy in this one but retains the brooding quality that always makes him so appealing. I always enjoy movies with psychiatric/mental health plots. In this case, psychiatry is presented as benign, but the misplaced confidence in the bogus assessment techniques is comical and a good reminder that what we're doing now will probably be thoroughly discredited and good for ironic chuckles in a few decades. I loved when the young doctor asks the older one, "are these techniques infallible?" and she reassures him that they almost always are. Right. In this case, I think they were able to determine that Colbert's character was not a murderess based on an EEG that didn't show "mountains of secret fury." I agree with other reviewers that the ending is quite poor. It was definitely a surprise, but only because a completely idiotic and implausible motivation was introduced for one of the characters. I'm not impressed by a surprise ending unless I can go back and find some foreshadowing I missed. In this case, I could only find one possible exchange that foreshadowed something, but it was weak. Fortunately, the denouement ended abruptly with an equally unlikely elimination of villain. I watched The Secret Fury while cooking dinner, and it was a perfect background entertainment; just don't expect a noir masterpiece.
The Loved One (1965)
Bird, born of egg....
The first time I saw The Love One, I ranked it among my favorite movies, but oddly it lost a little magic on repeat viewing. The element of surprise might have been particularly key to my enjoyment, and I think a little Robert Morse goes a long way. Nevertheless, a lot of The Loved One is quite funny, and the commitment of the actors to their often ridiculous characters is impressive. For me, this is one of the rare films that provides far more pleasure than the book that was its source (the other one I can think of is The Graduate). I found the book, by Evelyn Waugh, rather sour and unpleasant; the movie is much more fun, although still a black comedy for sure. I thought Milton Berle's scene was hilarious. He was truly one of the greats. Anjanette Comer is a unique and lovely presence. Rod Steiger and Liberace performed with a deadly serious manner that served the material well. I could swear that was Robert Taylor in the King Chicken ad but can find no confirmation anywhere.
Millie (1931)
I'd Rather Be a Geranium??
There's a party scene with Frank McHugh leading the mostly inebriated guests in a rousing tune while dancing nimbly and waving a handkerchief. I believe the lyrics are "I'd rather be a geranium instead of a Jack and Jill!" I could have it wrong, but this was not a song I was able to find by googling the lyrics. What does it mean? Was he pretending to be gay, or maybe he was gay? This was pre-code after all. Overall, pretty entertaining with a good cast, including Joan Blondell and Lilyan Tashman as gold diggers. I thought the story was good until the end when Millie's ex boyfriend, who seemed like a relatively decent guy, starts seducing her daughter (out of spite??), who was a very naive little drip, I guess kind of like Millie on her wedding night, come to think of it.
The Night Walker (1964)
Stanwyk and Taylor Reunite, Castle Triumphs
I considered myself a fan of Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, and William Castle, yet this one escaped my knowledge until yesterday. I thought it was a real treat, probably not what Stanwyck envisioned for her cinema swan song, but thoroughly entertaining and a little creepy. As a woman of a certain age, I enjoyed watching a film in which both leads were in their 50s and attractively seasoned by life. Stanwyck aged a little better than Taylor, but I've heard he was a 3-5 pack a day smoker, so some acceleration of the aging process is to be expected. Stanwyck's figure remains impeccable. She was never voluptuous, and her sleek physique served her well into old age. The fashions are a bit frumpy, but I think that was the case for all ages in 1964. Considering the options, Stanwyck looked chicer than we've a right to expect. One of the secondary characters sported a hairdo that seemed to have been close to mandatory the year this was made. My mother graduated high school in 1964, and 298/300 female students in her yearbook have the bouffant with the flip at the bottom, a look that flatters no one, with the possible exception of young Jane Fonda. It even added a touch of frumpiness to Marilyn Monroe. Lest we think the late 60s killed that kind of conformity, 298/300 female students in my 1984 yearbook still wore their hair parted in the middle and feathered about 6 years after Farrah Fawcett introduced the world to that look. I'm proud to say I defied conformity in the hair department, which unfortunately put some constraints on my sociosexual development. I was glad the hair and makeup department for the Night Walker didn't force Stanwyck to sport the flip, although they still indulged the early 60s urge to sculpt with hairspray. Nobody gets histrionically emotional like Barbara Stanwyck, and here she took it to the next level with screams of terror. A few have faulted her screaming, but I thought she carried it off nicely. William Castle's clever promotional gimmicks have overshadowed his artistry, but his oeuvre stands the test of time even without them. In fact, I would have liked The Night Walker better without the silly intro about dreams.
Life Begins (1932)
Grand Hotel on the Maternity Ward
This film follows several women on a maternity ward for what we'd now call high risk pregnancies. There's an older mother, a reluctant party girl about to have twins, a frail convict, a woman who previously lost a baby at birth. It's kind of like Grand Hotel or the Love Boat in a maternity ward setting, although the filmed action seldom moves off the ward. It's definitely pre-code; more than one mother seems to have no father involved, and the talk is pretty frank. It includes a lot of familiar faces from 30s pre-code cinema, including Loretta Young as the fragile murderess, Aline MacMahon as a nurse, and Glenda Farrell as a hard-core dame whose maternal instincts are eventually awakened. It was nice to see Frank McHugh in a somewhat atypical role of a worried father. Eric Linden was a real treasure. His emotional vulnerability bordering on hysteria worked well here. Some aspects of 1930s maternity care wouldn't fly today, but perhaps we've lost something in the sterile world of modern medicine. Tears flowed despite some of the tragedies and turnarounds being easy to predict. The babies were cute.
Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder (1978)
a feminist episode?
I was fascinated to learn that the writer, Robert Blees, also wrote the screenplays for the Douglas Sirk version of Magnificent Obsession and for Autum Leaves. He seems to have great empathy for women and their emotional experience in a man's world. I was not familiar with Trish Van Devere but really enjoyed her portrayal of Kay. She had a real classy wholesome beauty. Striving for success among men gave her an interesting approach to Columbo, a particularly feminine form of assertiveness. A few reviewers faulted Kay for sleeping with her boss (the murder victim) to get ahead, but back in the day, an ambitious woman probably wouldn't even get a peek at the glass ceiling if her boss didn't at least want to sleep with her. I found the meeting in the limo with Flanagan very realistic. Although she had made some poor decisions, one of Kay's main transgressions was trying to move into her former boss/lover's office too soon after getting his job (temporarily and presumably until they found a suitable man to fill it). Unseemly behavior for a woman, but it might have been viewed as appropriate leadership behavior in a man. Sadly, I speak from fairly recent experience and have to admit this episode was a little traumatic for me and may be the only Columbo episode in which I was rooting for the murderer! I don't think she and Valerie were actually lovers, although there may have been a mild hint of the homoerotic in their friendship as there often is in close friendships, especially when there is a power differential. I think Kay and Valerie connected over the pain of striving for success. Kay feels for Valerie but is also frustrated with her stereotypically female weakness. Her approach to comforting Valerie is a little masculine, and she doesn't feel she has the luxury of tears herself. Really brilliant and subtle. Did the creators of this episode have any of this in mind? Maybe not, but they achieved it, and the unconscious product is what separates genuine art from craft in my book. So this episode for me transcended its serial TV drama format. What about Columbo's role in it? Pretty standard Columbo approach for the most part, but standard Columbo never disappoints. There were a couple of dopey moments, like when Columbo plays with the console for an interminable amount of time leading to commercial. It was an unpleasant foreshadowing of the more mentally deficient persona he adopted in the 1989 series.
Columbo: An Exercise in Fatality (1974)
The bleeding edge of the fitness craze
The first time I tried to watch this one, it was on a DVD that started skipping, so I missed some major plot points. When I eventually got to see it, I revisited some scenes, and as is often the case with Columbo, this one grew on me with repeat viewing. I was not familiar with Robert Conrad before watching this and was in fact picturing William Conrad when I read the cast and wondering how he got cast as a fitness guru. I was intrigued by Robert Conrad's physique. In clothes, he looks almost stocky, like a comic book superhero shoehorned into gaberdine. Stripped down to his red shorts, he didn't appear to have much fat on him. He made quite an impression, and I'll never confuse him with William Conrad again (with no disrespect intended to either actor). Back to An Exercise in Fatality. I thought the title was excellent. Conrad is a mercenary villain and in keeping with that, Columbo appears to take great pleasure in bringing him to justice. The plot itself is fairly standard with the usual elaborately staged alibi, this one involving spliced recordings of phone calls. There were a lot of good peripheral characters. The ex-wife of the murder victim was touching. I liked the foreshadowing of her depression and eventual accidental/intentional overdose. Nowadays it might seem a little glib but in the early 70s depression was still pretty stigmatized so I appreciated the sympathetic portrayal of her day drinking, nibbling on sandwiches, and seeming overall kind of out of it. Supposedly bereaved characters in movies are often depicted as well-groomed and dressed and functioning normally. I do wonder why Milo Janus's bikini-clad secretary/girlfriend appeared to be drinking multiple glasses of vodka before work while her boss went through his exercise routine. She didn't seem depressed, and I wondered if her drinking habits would be developed further as a plot point, but I think it may just have been a continuity lapse. I'm guessing the scene was not originally meant to take place in the morning, but something happened in editing. I liked seeing Columbo exercising vigorously. He's probably hiding some muscle under that raincoat. Overall, an episode as solid as its villain's physique.
Columbo: Any Old Port in a Storm (1973)
Warm flavor notes with a smooth finish
Donald Pleasance is one of the more appealing Columbo villains, and the acting is excellent overall in this one. Even minor characters command the viewer's attention appropriately. Although this didn't occur to me until the scene when he rejects Julie Harris's love, Pleasance's character (Adrian Carsini) seems "coded gay," with his passionate love for wine accentuating his aesthetic sensitivity and difference from his brother Rick, in particular, who is referred to repeatedly by other men as a superb athlete and a ravenous eater. Although it was certainly the mid-70s, post Stonewall etc. Columbo movies of this period hew to the traditions of classic Hollywood in many ways, and coding was more in keeping with the tradition than an overtly gay character would have been. The rapport between Columbo and Adrian is quite charming, so the gay subtext, if there is one, doesn't seem intended to promote the negative stereotypes of the era. I tend to enjoy episodes in which Columbo either empathizes with or really dislikes the killers. As in this one, he's more sympathetic when the murder is committed for emotional reasons rather than for financial gain or status. Adrian's love for wine is romantic, he bids for the rare wine at the auction so "no one else can have it," and he pampers his wines, appreciates their beauty, etc. Although he appreciates the status of being man of the year among his oenophile pals, his true joy is savoring and sharing his wines.
That said, the murder of Rick was one of the more grisly ones in the series. He's left unconscious to suffocate in a wine vault, and I believe the medical exam indicated he died on Tuesday after being locked in the wine vault on Sunday! Maybe I missed something, but the relocation of the giant wine bottles when Adrian pulled the body out a week later suggest Rick was conscious and struggled a bit before succumbing. Yikes! As with most Columbos I thought there were some plot holes. For instance, wouldn't a standard post-mortem indicate Rick had only been in the water for a day or two rather than being in the water since he died in a supposed scuba accident? They could pinpoint the day he died but not how long he'd been in the water? Unlikely.
I liked the comic touches in this one, the conversation with the janitor about whether Mr. Rick would have wanted everyone to go back to work, the swimsuit clad dancers grooving in the vicinity of Miss Stacey and her buddies. The scene in the restaurant had both humor and tension. The actress who played Miss Stacey was poignant. I don't know why she wore pantyhose with her swimsuit; she seemed to have a good figure. I saw that Mirassou Winery was the location for the Carsini Winery scenes. I see they have a pinot noir currently selling for $9.99, truly more worthy of the Marino Brothers.
Columbo: How to Dial a Murder (1978)
Makes Skinner look like Carl Rogers
This is possibly my favorite Columbo so far. It actually created an atmosphere of tension and suspense, which frankly most Columbos don't even aim for. Of course, I knew Columbo would not be killed since the DVD has a few more episodes after this one, and the series came back for a couple of encores, but there were moments that sent a shiver up my spine, like the scene at the Spahn, er I mean Callahan ranch, the one when the murderer is about to feed the dogs chocolate, and of course, the final denouement at the pool table. I also thought the murder itself was fairly horrifying, and the training session with the dummy triggered a flashback to Kolshack The Night Stalker, a show that terrified me as a child. Faceless dummies always have a touch of the unheimlich for me, even (or especially) when they're being torn apart by zombie dobermans. I always enjoy episodes with evil psychologists; I hope by the time I've watched the entire series I'll have a blueprint for a lucrative career. Nichol Williams character is a behaviorist who today would be wowing them on the TED talk circuit with his psychobabble. It was refreshing to have Columbo face an opponent he seemed to dislike after a run of relatively sympathetic perpetrators. Usually, when the murderer tries or succeeds at eliminating a witness in addition to the main victim, you can be fairly confident Columbo will relish catching the creep. As a psychologist myself, I thought Columbo really got shortchanged on the personality analysis, and I therefore hope this psychologist loses his license to practice in addition to his freedom. Young Kim Cattrall was quite lovely and stylish. I wonder if the creators of the series experienced a formative trauma related to tennis or tennis players. Tennis often seems to be a symbol of decadence in this series, or maybe tennis was just super popular in the 70s, like TikTok is now.
Vigil in the Night (1940)
Masochistic Personality
I agree with another reviewer on this one. The premise was so ridiculous that it was almost enraging and for about the first half of the movie I wanted to see Carole Lombard suffer and get busted because she was such an idiot. Who needs a martyr like that, especially after the sister told her how much she hated nursing and didn't want to be a nurse?! This would be a good example of masochistic personality disorder, if the American psychiatric association hadn't eliminated that diagnosis from the DSM a couple of decades ago. I wonder if one of the rationales for nixing it was that it was a disorder almost exclusively observed in Hollywood movie characters. Despite these significant misgivings, Carole and the drama eventually won me over, and I have to admit I shed a few tears near the end when the nurses were bravely fighting the epidemic sickening the children of the village. I was nevertheless satisfied when Peter Cushing gave Carole a good dressing down. She responded by demonstrating her covert narcissism and repressed hatred of her sister with a pompous speech, then waltzed off into the figurative sunset with her soon to be doctor husband. It's a strange one, but I'm glad I saw it. Carole Lombard was a real treasure. Interesting that the "selfish" sister was played by Anne Shirley, the brat from Mildred Pierce.
Columbo: Last Salute to the Commodore (1976)
Atypical Columbo
About 20 years ago a study came out suggesting that patients about to have surgery should be warned that they would be experiencing pain afterwards. This led to better pain management than when patients were reassured that the pain wasn't going to be that bad. I don't know if those results were ever replicated, but I think the findings of this study are relevant more broadly. For instance, I have been warned by numerous reviews on imdb and elsewhere, that "Last Salute to the Commodore" is one of the worst, possibly the worst episode of Colombo ever. So I went into watching it with extremely low expectations and therefore ended up mildly enjoying it. I agree it's weird, and some of the scenes are just plain annoying, such as the one in the boat yard when Colombo starts screaming and everybody's screaming to be heard over the industrial noises in the background. That seemed gratuitously irritating, but other odd scenes were amusingly absurd. It almost seemed like Robert Vaughn's character had been written for Patrick McGoohan. Was the original plan to have McGoohan both act and direct? For instance Robert Vaughn said something like "I like my findings preliminary," and when asked "Smoke?" answered, "Erratically." That sort of quirkiness seemed out of character for a character played by Robert Vaughn.
I enjoyed having young Mac on board and getting to see Bruce Kirby's character play a bigger role than usual. This episode broke from the formula in that we didn't see the murder committed, so we got a little bit of a plot twist. I found the educational bits about sailing mildly interesting. I like that Colombo typically teaches you something about some kind of subculture or area of endeavor in each episode. I thought the absurd and goofy tone was okay for one episode and it seemed that this might have been a significant episode in some way. I wonder if there had been a plan to end the series with this one. I think I read somewhere that McGoohan had been asked to take over for Peter Falk in the season following this one and refused. If there was some dissatisfaction among the creatives involved, could the bizarreness of the episode have been a little bit of "up yours" to the powers that be? The final scene with Colombo rowing the boat into the horizon with a melancholy rendition of "This old man" playing made me think it was perhaps a last salute to Colombo... but fortunately no.
Columbo: A Deadly State of Mind (1975)
evil shrink with a fabulous tan
As a psychologist, I'm interested in the depiction of psychologists and psychiatrists on Columbo. They're generally using their knowledge for foul purposes. Psychiatrists and psychologists often decry their displacement in the field by licensed social workers, counselors, and nurse practitioners, but so far I don't think anyone's examined the role of Columbo in the demise of the power and prestige of the head doctors. There's an academic paper in there for some charlatan.
George Hamilton as Dr. Collier, like a previous psychiatrist/murder depicted by Gene Barry, is having a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient, and therein lies both the emotional and practical drama of this episode. Poor Lesley Ann Warren (Mrs. Donner) has been reduced to an infantile state by Dr. Collier's masterful hypnosis and seduction skills. The murder is accidental and defensible, but I think the implication is that Dr. Collier needed to hide his relationship with his patient to protect his reputation and get his book finished, therefore losing any sympathy he might have gotten from Columbo. Nowadays he'd be big on the TED Talk circuit and on the bleeding edge of psychedelic psychopharmacology research.
I initially found this episode slightly unengaging, I'm not sure why, since the performances were excellent. I found myself admiring the upholstery at the beach house, particularly the pair of orange chairs; superb set dressing. I also liked Dr. Collier's house with the heavy wood and Spanish medieval touches, it conveyed the mix of hipness and prestige that a psychiatrist of his ilk would want to convey. Ms. Donner's apartment décor was a bit tacky and the apartment seemed much more luxurious than the balcony on the outdoor shots suggested, but she was supposed to be a fragile histrionic borderline so no real objections to that esthetic choice by the set designers. Costume design was also delightful. Highlights include Mrs. Donner's white leather suit and the bright green scarf and dark suit worn by Dr. Borden (Karen Machon) in the outdoor scene on the college campus. I've got to learn to tie a scarf like that.
I enjoyed the party scene at Dr. Collier's house. The drunk intellectuals seem a little condescending when they first invite Columbo to join them, but there's a subtle shift and a few seem eager for his approval as the conversation progresses. Having been a member of numerous gatherings of tipsy eggheads, I thought that was very realistic, nicely written and acted. Intellectuals tend to be pretty insecure and crave the approval of the working class.
The denouement was clearly foreshadowed by the near hit and run of the blind man, but the final confrontation was nevertheless fun and satisfying. I have a soft spot for Fred Draper.
Back from Eternity (1956)
Avoid the window seat
I have not seen the original in a while, but I remember liking it quite a bit. I see that many people compare this newer version unfavorably to the original, but I think they are perhaps equally good if different. I adore Robert Ryan and feel he can really do no wrong as an actor. He was perfect as the pilot and seemed a bit of a precursor to the Denzel Washington character in "Flight" in the gravitas and pathos he conveyed in the role of an alcoholic but highly skilled pilot who can fly drunk better than most of his peers can fly sober. It's a terrific story, and I always cry at the end of both versions when the elderly couple insists on staying behind with the condemned criminal. Of course, I'd like to think my husband and I would act like them in a similar situation, although sadly we'd probably end up acting more like Gene Barry and Phyllis Kirk. Another reviewer pointed out the lack of grieving for the lovely and able stewardess. It did seem like people should have been a little more horrified about her shocking death.