Jason's Blog, page 178

De Lillos

Illustration of Norwegian band De Lillos for a review in a Norwegian music paper, late 80s.

Dressed To Kill

Michael Caine is a therapist, Angie Dickinson is one of his clients, Dennis Franz is a sleazy cop and Nancy Allen is the call girl who is witness to a murder. Directed by Brian De Palma.

Ah, they don't make movies like this anymore... Over thirty years old, it's still quite a powerful film. De Palma is riffing on Hitchcock, especially Vertigo and Psycho (including the psychiatrist who explains everything in the end). It has some great set pieces: the museum scene, the elevator scene and the subway scene (later improved upon in Carlito's way). De Palma could possibly be criticized for also copying himself; the opening and ending of the film is very similar to Carrie. The first shower scene (yes, there are two!) must have given him the idea to his later film Body Double.

Caine and Dickinson are good in their roles, but the film really belongs to Nancy Allen, very appealing as the witness. Franz is a lot of fun as the cop. De Palma originally wanted Liv Ullmann in the Dickinson role, but she turned it down. Too bad, since Ullmann in a De Palma film really would have been something, and it's probably too late now...

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Michael Caine and Steve Martin are a couple of con men on the French riviera. Also starring Glenne Headly, directed by Frank Oz.

Michael Caine lost a lot of credibility in the eighties for doing all kinds of crap movies, but between the films taken for the paycheck he did some good work, like this film. It has a classy direction by Oz and a good script. Both Caine and Martin are very good. The film is possibly a bit off balance, the way the early scenes with Martin as the idiot brother, «not mother?» are really funny, and then the rest of the film doesn't quite reach those same heights. Also, a little nitpick: They couldn't find a French actor for the Inspector role, instead getting an English actor who's faking a French accent?

Dead Mickey

The Ipcress File

A slightly more realistic James Bond, Michael Caine is Harry Palmer, ladies' man, gourmet cook, classical music lover and arrogant and insolent secret agent. Plus he wears glasses! It's one of those films that starts with a scientist being kidnapped (always a good start!), and it's up to Caine to get him back. Directed by Sidney J. Furie.

It's a great film that has not dated. Visually, the film is very inventive. The camera is often put in the lower, crooked angles that Orson Welles liked to use in Citizen Kane, looking up at the characters, the wide screen images are carefully composed. Particularly, there's a fight scene on a set of stairs, seen through a red phonebooth that is amazing. The producer of the film, Harry Saltzman, really should have kneeled down and kissed the feet of the director. But did he? No, he hated the look of the film and barred the director from the editing room. There were two sequels made the two next years, that I'd like to see, but I doubt they will be quite as good as this film.

Sleuth

A game of cat and mouse between rich crime writer Laurence Olivier and hairdresser Michael Caine who's having an affair with Olivier's wife. Based on Anthony Shaffer's play, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

I was disappointed by this film. It has some of the same problems as Wait Until Dark, that all the dressing up and theatrical shenanigans might work well on stage but less so on the screen. There's a certain cleverness, but the film lasting more than two hours, it just got a bit silly and tiresome in the end. It's just hard to believe in the characters and care about what happens to them. Also, the identity of the police inspector was not that difficult to guess.

Walking the dog

I screwed up this strip. The angel should have had a white dog, not a black one.

Some books I've read 4

Prince Valiant, vol. 3: 1941-42

A bit surprised by how much I enjoy this series, particularly how unironic it is. Beautiful drawings, of course.

Killshot by Elmore Leonard

Satisfyingly unpredictible, but maybe not Leonard's best book.

The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Van Ronk

A very funny and wellwritten memoir about Greenwich Village and the folk revival in the 60s. I didn't really know that much about his music, but his name always pops up in Bob Dylan books; he was also one of the faces in No Direction Home, the Scorsese film.

Jack Kerouac, Selected Letters: 1940-1956

Very interesting to read. This is only the first half of his letters, but already you can see the rise and fall of his friendship with Neal Cassady, from writing long confessional letters to towards the end of the book going «why don't you write me anymore?» There's helpful biographical text by editor Ann Charters between the letters, putting them in a context.

Jack Kerouac - King of the Beats by Barry Miles

An interesting biography. It doesn't paint a pretty picture of Kerouac, though, the way he and his mother treated his wives as maids and the way he ignored his daughter. Also, of course, the almost incestuous relationship he had with his mother. So, okay, the guy wasn't perfect. Reading biographies about artists you admire, you find out very few of them are.

Buz Sawyer, vol. 1 by Roy Crane

Less fun than the Captain Easy Sundays book, the whole spirit of adventure sort of missing. Only looking at the drawings, I find them more appealing than the ones by Milton Caniff, but Caniff wrote better stories and characters. However, I thought Terry and the Pirates also got less interesting during the war years. It's a bit annoying how the quality of the images gets worse in the second half of the book. Shame on you, Fantagraphics!

Currently reading:

Jack Kerouac, selected letters 1957-1969.

His days on the road mostly over, and an alcoholic by now, he for the most part stayed at home with his mother. Writing letters about going to Japan or Europe, but then not doing anything.

On my bedside table, waiting to be read:

Off the Road by Carolyn Cassady, The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac, Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, Touch by Elmore Leonard, Chronicles by Bob Dylan

An old strip

Michael Caine

Got some new Michael Caine films and will re-watch some other ones. First: Gambit. Caine gets help from Shirley MacLaine to steal a priceless statue from Herbert Lom. Directed by Ronald Neame.

It's one of those romantic heist films from the sixties. I found it to be better than Topkapi or The Thomas Crown Affair. Made in 66, it still has a stylish and timeless feel. If it had been made just two or three years later, it would probably have looked more dated today. Seen with modern eyes it might be a bit slow, but the actual heist part towards the end is genuinly exciting and unpredictable. I had a hard time guessing how it would end. Caine is cool as a cucumber and MacLaine does her kooky thing. That they have fallen for each other by the end is maybe the one thing in the film that doesn't feel earned.