2017 WRAP UP PART 1

I've got a stack of notes for films I've watched over the last few months, all of which I fully intended to write individual reviews for. But it's become increasingly apparent that that's not going to happen, especially now that I'm headed into an extremely busy time of the year, a period in which my writing time will most likely be severely curtailed. So in the interest of playing catch-up and clearing some of this material off of my desk, I'm going to try to provide short, capsule reviews of these films. We'll see how successful this is. I'll take the films in chronological order beginning with:

BARBARY COAST (1935), an early Howard Hawks film set in San Francisco during the California Gold Rush. Miriam Hopkins is a gold-digging woman come west to marry a rich miner only to find out he's dead. With no prospective husband and in need of a means of support, she takes a job as a roulette wheel operator in the Bella Donna casino, a shady business run by crime boss Chamalis (Edward G. Robinson). Hopkins doesn't mind fleecing the customers until she meets straight-arrow prospector Joel McCrea. She falls in love with the too-good-to-be-true miner and the two decide to leave San Francisco. Trouble ensues. With Walter Brennan as a toothless coot named "Old Atrocity" and Brian Donlevy as Chamalis's main enforcer, BARBARY COAST is good, old-fashioned fun. Thumbs up.

CAPTAIN NEMO AND THE UNDERWATER CITY (1969), is a lackluster British science fiction/fantasy film. The best thing about this film is the design of Nemo's submarine, The Nautilus. Robert Ryan looks pained and strained in the role of Nemo (he's no James Mason), while Chuck Connors has little to do other than play a square jawed hero. Nemo's no villain, he only wants to be left alone in his city beneath the sea and he wants Connors and the other members of his party to remain with him rather than return to the surface and tell the world about Nemo and his city. Connors, a U.S. Senator is determined to return to the surface world. That's what passes for conflict in this slow moving sunken adventure. The film has the look and feel of an Irwin Allen production but without the bombast and giant undersea monsters. Connors was considered to play the part of Doc Savage in a proposed 1960s film, a project that never saw the light of day. His lovely co-star in CITY, Luciana Paluzzi, would have made a good Pat Savage. Or, better yet, some smart producer should have signed Connors and Paluzzi to play Aquaman and Mera in either a television series or movie. This proves how bad and boring CAPTAIN NEMO AND THE UNDERWATER CITY is because while I was watching it with part of my brain, another part was busy playing casting director for an imaginary project. Thumbs down.


More to come.