"Life during wartime" ...

Given my penchant for  1940s British movies, both of the war years and that grim post-war era, its surprising I never saw WATERLOO ROAD before. Its a 1944 Gainsborough gem set around Waterloo Road in South London, just behind Waterloo railway station and there are lots of shots of the station then and those streets and back to back houses.

I felt at times I was watching an alternative THIS HAPPY BREED or IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, as we encounter squaddie John Mills, unfaithful wife Joy Shelton (who does not register at all - it needed a Kay Walsh) and the widest of wide boys Stewart Granger (before he decamped for Hollywood) as the spiv putting the make on Mills' wife. Mills goes AWOL to track him down and that very brutal fight follows. 

Add in Alistair Sim as the local doctor, Jean Kent as local good time girl, Beatrice Varley as the worried mother and the great Alison Legatt (above)as another nagging spinster aunt (as she was in THIS HAPPY BREED). She is as under-rated as Kathleen Byron)  I loved it, directed by Sidney  Gilliat. Play it with HOLIDAY CAMP or THE WAY TO THE STARS or 2,000 WOMEN, THE BLUE LAMP, POOL OF LONDON etc.

Vote for Britain

A crucial week here in the UK, with our election on Thursday and terror attacks escalating - lets return to the glory years of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s and all those British movies we love, part of our current Lists season, and no, I may not be able to stick to 20 each - but then, my blog - my rules. Reviews of lots of these at British label.

1940s:

• Lets start with 7 David Lean, all essential: IN WHICH WE SERVE / THIS HAPPY BREED / BLITHE SPIRIT / BRIEF ENCOUNTER / GREAT EXPECTATIONS / OLIVER TWIST / THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS
  
• 4 Michael Powell, even more essential: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH / I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING / BLACK NARCISSUS / THE RED SHOES
• 2 Carol Reed: THE FALLEN IDOL / ODD MAN OUT
• 2 Basil Dearden: SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS / THE BLUE LAMP
• Asquith; THE WAY TO THE STARS
• Annakin - HOLIDAY CAMP - the post war boom starts with those new holiday camps, 1947.
• Hamer – IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY - the grim side of postwar London / KIND HEARTS & CORONETS
• Crichton – WHISKEY GALORE.

Let's throw in some Gainsborough melodramas which brightened up the war years: THE WICKED LADY, MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS, CARAVAN, BLANCHE FURY, and some Anna Neagle epics: I LIVE IN PARK LANE, MAYTIME IN MAYFAIR. 

1950s:

Often seen as a bland decade for English movies, but lots of pleasure for those of us growing up then:

• Dearden – POOL OF LONDON / THE GENTLE GUNMAN  / VIOLENT PLAYGROUND
• Crichton – DANCE HALL (by Godfrey Winn - the leisure time of factory girls, as much a social document as SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING would be at the end of the decade)
• Hurst – DANGEROUS EXILE (ditto Belinda Lee in this 1957 costumer about the son of Marie Antoinette..)
• Box – CAMPBELL’S KINGDOM (Dirk and very tough guy Stanley Baker in the Canadian Rockies (actually the Dolomites in Italy), we loved it in 1957.
• Fregonese - SEVEN THUNDERS (Boyd leads a terrific cast in 1957 wartime thriller set in occupied Marseilles - one I enjoyed as a kid)
• J Lee Thompson - NO TREES IN THE STREET / TIGER BAY / NORTH WEST FRONTIER (all 1959)
• NO TIME FOR TEARS - 3 Anna Neagle classics:
• MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER 
• THE LADY IS A SQUARE
• THOSE DANGEROUS YEARS
• WONDERFUL THINGS
• SIMON AND LAURA 
• AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY
• NOR THE MOON BY NIGHT
• OUT OF THE CLOUDS
• JET STORM - Stanley Baker pilots the plane, Richard Attenborough has the bomb, all star cast in 1959. Love it 
• HELL DRIVERS
• ALIVE AND KICKING
• THE WEAK AND THE WICKED. Glynis Johns is sent to prison and shares a cell with Diana Dors, in this delicious 1954 meller, from J Lee Thompson.
• TURN THE KEY SOFTLY. More ex-jailbirds with Yvonne Mitchell and young Joan Collins in 1953
• PASSPORT TO SHAME 
  
• EXPRESSO BONGO
• SERIOUS CHARGE
• ROOM AT THE TOP.

1960s:

The new boys and girls and directors hit town:

• VICTIM
• A TASTE OF HONEY
  
• A KIND OF LOVING (above right)
• THE L-SHAPED ROOM (Leslie Caron joins the seedy Notting Hill bedsit set, 1962)
• WEST 11 (Di Dors also in Notting Hill bedsit land with gay Alfred Lynch, in early Winner 1963)
• TWO LEFT FEET (Young Hemmings and Michael Crawford shine)
• SOME PEOPLE, 1962 charmer about Bristol teenagers, with Hemmings again.
• THE BOYS - fascinating 1962 time capsule
• THE LEATHER BOYS - another early gay British saga, 1964, below)
  
• BILLY LIAR
• THE SERVANT
• DARLING (above right) - Julie and gay pal eye up the waiter .... both get him.
• THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES
• I WAS HAPPY HERE
• THE KNACK
• THE SYSTEM - perfectly 1964 as England began to swing ...
• THE WORLD TEN TIMES OVER - 1963 Soho saga
  
• A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
• HELP!
• THE PLEASURE GIRLS - 1965 Kensington girls, gays too!
• SATURDAY NIGHT OUT
• NOTHING BUT THE BEST
• REPULSION
• ACCIDENT.

SWINGING 60s:

• TOM JONES
• WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT?
• MODESTY BLAISE
• BLOW-UP
• SMASHING TIME
• HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH
• DEEP END
• PERFORMANCE.

All covered in detail at British/London labels. 

Dame Vera

We were celebrating those veterans like Olivia DeHavilland and Kirk Douglas turning 100 - here is another one: Dame Vera Lynn.

Watching the 1980s British TV series WISH ME LUCK (now on dvd) about the French resistance in World War Two and the work of British female agents in France - more on that later, we enjoyed it at the time - there is a passing reference to popular wartime singer Vera Lynn. The series ran from 1987 to 1990 and is of course set in the 1940s, and yet Vera Lynn, now a Dame, is still here at age 100 and has a new album in the charts and its a big seller. 

So here are congratulations to "The Forces Sweetheart" with that rich popular voice and those songs like "We'll Meet Again" which certainly boosted morale during that time of conflict. 

In 1952 she became the first British artist to score a Nr 1 hit in America, a decade before 'The British Invasion'. She has been described as "as much the voice of the Second World War as Winston Churchill".

I loved her in the movies

Another enjoyable addtion to the Christmas gift list is Robert Wagner's new book I LOVED HER IN THE MOVIES, his recollections of all the great actresses he knew and worked with, decade by decade, starting with the 1930s.

Whatever one thinks of Wagner as an actor, he is fairly lightweight and agreeable (insufferable movie snob Martin will probably think he should be a shoe salesman too, like his judgement on Kerwin Matthews) and, like Dirk Bogarde in England, Wagner knew everyone (he and Natalie visited the Bogardes in the South of France on one of their European trips). Unlike his contemporaries Jeff or Tab Hunter, Wagner was a Hollywood kid, growing up there - he went to school with Norma Shearer's son, so knew Norma well in her later retired years, and he dated Gloria Swanson's daughter, and writes affectionately about Gloria, she was not like Norma Desmond at all.

We also get affectionate tributes and stories on Irene Dunne, Rosalind Russell, Crawford, Davis (Natalie played her young daughter in THE STAR and she and Wagner were friends for a long time), Stanwyck, Loretta Young, Katharine Hepburn (whom he knew through friendship with Spencer Tracy with whom he co-starred twice), Claudette Colbert and Jean Arthur. He certainly moved in the right circles! 

There's also Lana Turner, Greer Garson, Susan Hayward (very helpful to the novice actor on WITH A SONG IN MY HEART, left), Ida Lupino, Jennifer Jones, Claire Trevor, Betty Grable, Ann Sheridan, Joan Blondell, Lucille Ball, Linda Darnell and Gene Tierney, the impossible Betty Hutton, as well as characters like Thelma Ritter, Maureen Stapleton and Eve Arden. Wagner knows too how difficult it was for actresses to maintain long careers ...

The 1950s saw him pals with Doris and Debbie, the young Marilyn, Janet Leigh, June Allyson, Jean Peters, Joan Collins, Angie Dickinson, Debra Paget. He was at Romanoffs that famous 1957 night when Jayne Mansfield usurped Sophia Loren's debut (left) - he later played Loren's husband in De Sica's THE CONDEMNED OF ALTONA in 1962 and writes very affectionately about her, and also Capucine (Cappy) from THE PINK PANTHER, There were some difficult ladies too - Shelley Winters for one! 
Joanne Woodward and Glenn Close also come in for some respectful praise, and of course there's Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews and Natalie. 

Wagner, now in his mid-80s parlayed his looks into a long career on film and television. He was good enough for Olivier for his TV CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF in '76. Its always fun seeing him as PRINCE VALIANT in that wig! His first memoir PIECES OF MY HEART is an agreeable read about it all too. 
He was a 20th Century Fox boy and Natalie was a Warner Bros girl, so he got to know Jack Warner well too - and is hilarious about the abuse Warner heaped on Judy Garland (who would have been so ideal for GYPSY in 62 with Natalie), and he also recounts Vittorio De Sica's hilariously rude comment on Raquel Welch who was driving them mad with her delays on THE BIGGEST BUNDLE OF THEM ALL .... Star gossip does not get much better. As he says: "Movies and TV go on forever - only the delivery system changes ...".

Kay

Another favourite lady, I see a theme here .... Kay Kendall, a patron saint of The Projector, as per the posts on her, at label. 

LONDON TOWN is a perfectly dreadful British musical from 1946 - trying to copy the Americans who were doing this kind of thing so much better.  It stars a comedian Sid Field, who has not aged well at all and looks terribly dated now - give me Arthur Askey any time - with a very young Petula Clark as his daughter, and Kay - just 18 here - is the ingenue, a young showgirl. The film was a huge flop and practically sunk her starting career, the Forties fashions do not suit her at all, but one can see her emerging talent - she went back to being a showgirl, with her sister - but seven years later she got that role that defined her, the trumpet playing model in GENEVIEVE. (She had already done bits in DANCE HALL, IT STARTED IN PARADISE and more). 

GENEVIEVE was followed by favourites like THE CONSTANT HUSBAND, SIMON AND LAURA, QUENTIN DURWARD, then thankfully Cukor, Minnelli and Donen got her in her prime for their delicious treats, they knew how to showcase stylish ladies -
 she went to Hollywood for LES GIRLS (above, with Gene Kelly) taking pal Gladys Cooper's corgi June with her for company (right); THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE teamed her with new husband Rex Harrison (and Angela Lansbury and Sandra Dee, below) and is sheer bliss too, she looks sadly frail in ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, her last film, she died of leukemia in Sep 1959, aged 33. 

I have been to that nice churchyard in Hampstead, where her stylish headstone is just right. (See previous posts at label). As a stylish comedienne she was compared to Carole Lombard, and was a friend of Dirk Bogarde's, and a favourite of Monica Vitti - see post below. Lots on LES GIRLS at label.

"That'll be the day"

A western double bill, for late autumn afternoons. Only the best western ever: John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, and a routine oater from 1949 MASSACRE RIVER, only of interest now for teaming of the young Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun - see previous on them, below, or at labels.

We have written about THE SEARCHERS here before, and my 2010 appreciation on Jeffrey Hunter is at 'Jeff Hunter 1' label. Looking at Ford's classic again (I also have it on Blu-ray, as Martin would say) it is a timeless American Classic and the climax is as emotionally stunning as the end of CITIZEN KANE or CASABLANCA. Maybe they are the Top Three American Movies Of All Time?  Its certainly in my Top 10 (along with my other favourite western JOHNNY GUITAR)

The images and the scenery - did Monument Valley ever look more iconic? - stun one again, as does Ford's narrative, Wayne is superlative, Jeff Hunter has his best ever role as halfbreed Martin Pawley - he and Natalie are so poignant together, a perfect Fifties pair, Vera Miles excels as ever, and grown men cry when Ethan picks up Debbie at the end ....

Ford has some amusement too with Wayne's son Patrick and the regulars are all here from Ward Bond down. The early sequence when the settlers realise that Scar is about to attack is chilling and brilliantly done too, as is the scene where Ethan and Martin meet Debbie again in the wigwam with those scalps. Ford orchestrates it all perfectly, as per previous reports; and of course that line of Wayne's "that'll be the day" which gave Buddy Holly the title of one of his best songs ... Max Steiner's score is one of his most evocative and complements the images perfectly. 
Ethan Edwards is racist towards the Indians and the depiction of them may be problematic for some now, though Ford 'atoned' for that with his CHEYENNE AUTUMN in 1964; the squaw Martin gets married to is despatched rather heartlessly. 

MASSACRE RIVER on the other hand is pure studio dross, but a very rare film. I had ordered the dvd only to see it crop up on our Western channel, otherwise known as TCM uk. This must be where Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun got pally, as per my previous on them, and the various reports on their longtime relationship, despite their marriages, and some scurrilous rumours, but there are lots of photos of them together - just like Cary and Randy. 
They share a tub in this and one can see the chemistry between them. Calhoun was an ex-con who got into the movies, mainly rememered now for his two with Monroe and with Hayward in WITH A SONG IN MY HEART. Madison continued in westerns and dramas - both were filming in Europe by the early Sixties, Calhoun in the rather good COLOSSUS OF RHODES by Sergio Leone, so maybe they were meeting up then too. 

THE SEARCHERS though will live forever. 

Till The End Of Time, 1946

Here's a doozy - another 1940s dream factory product - see SINCE YOU WENT AWAY below - and also featuring Guy Madison, here in the lead (as opposed to the minute or two of his debut as the marine in SINCE YOU WENT AWAY in 1944). This one, by Edward Dmytryk, is another about soldiers returning from the war and settling into civilian life, but is a lighter version of THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, also 1946

Three former marines have a hard time readjusting to civilian life. Perry can't deal with the loss of the use of his legs. William is in trouble with bad debts. And Cliff can't decide what he wants to do with his life, although he gets encouragement from war widow Pat Ruscomb.

Here we have Guy, Robert Mitchum and Bill Williams (sans legs). I like that perfectly Californian Spanish style home Guy returns to, showing that comfy Forties California middle-class milieu - dig those automobilies!- and the film focuses on him a lot - we see him in bed quite a bit, he jitterbugs with the girl next door, and tries to help his buddies, though his parents get annoyed at his lack of direction and choosing a career to settle in, but hey, he's a young hunky ex-marine. 

Dorothy McGuire is ideal (apart from smoking a lot) as the war widow he falls for. She was later the perfect wife and mother in FRIENDLY PERSUASION, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, A SUMMER PLACE, SUSAN SLADE etc). Mitch doesn't have much to do here. More Guy at label. 
As a 2003 review on IMDB put it: I would make the case that Guy Madison may be the best-looking young man to ever star in a feature film, and this is his best one. There are moments where his totally unselfconscious looks are just jaw-dropping. His acting, on the other hand, can be described charitably as "natural"; but I wasn't expecting Lawrence Olivier. Guy was an early find of legendary Hollywood agent Henry Willson, who would later "discover" a tall young man whom he renamed Rock Hudson.

Since You Went Away, 1944

This perfect wartime drama was never on my radar or never showed up on television in the decades I have been watching, so seeing it or the first time is rather good now. Another perfect 1940s Hollywood Dream Factory creation, by producer David Selznick and directed by John Cromwell, shot by Lee Garmes and music score by Max Steiner; it really showcases Jennifer Jones (soon to be Mrs Selznick) after her success in THE SONG OF BERNADETTE in 1943. 

Like MRS MINIVER in '42 about those plucky Brits, this one focuses on the American home front and those women left at home (it starts with a closeup of those home fires burning) while their menfolk are overseas, some will not return ....

Plucky wife Claudette Colbert tries to hold it all together for her daughters Jennifer and teenage Shirley Temple (rather endearing here). 
Of course she has the requisite large comfy home (as in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES) and the married folk have single beds, and a devoted black maid/housekeeper/cook - yes, its Hattie McDaniel. Theres Agnes Moorehead as a bitchy neighbour - a stretch for Agnes - and the great silent star Nazimova too. The grumpy paying guest is none other than Monty Woolley (THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER) and sterling Joseph Cotton is the family friend and ex-beau of Claudette's Anne. No extra-marital shenanigans here! 

Two young guys stand out: Robert Walker plays Monty's nephew who is shipped overseas and has a lot of screen time with Jennifer (they were married then..., their son Robert Walker Jr became an actor too, popular for a while in the 1960s)  and just for a minute or two, Guy Madison - a real marine - as a marine here who certainly makes an impression, it launched his career after the war. (See my main post on him, below, or at label). 

Walker went on to that other perfect '40s  wartime romance, Minnelli's THE CLOCK with Judy, in 1945; his other standout role being Bruno in Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN in 1951 (the year he died aged 32, one of Hollywood's sadder stories,).      .

Its emotional and compelling and overlong, and you may require a hanky to wipe away a tear or two - there may be rather too many lush close-ups of Jennifer (one of the few stars who did not appeal to me). Its a great Hollywood creation from that Golden Age, up there with MRS MINIVER and MEET ME IN ST LOUIS.  I liked the cutaway shots of the two cats watching the humans too. 
What is fascinating now is how these wartime dream factory creations create such a cosy glow at a terrible time where dreadful things were happening in Europe with the concentration camps in full swing .....

Summer re-views: Errol and Ty swash and buckle ...

Another look at the 1935 CAPTAIN BLOOD, Errol Flynn's first starrer and he looks spectacular here, not even in his prime yet (that would be ROBIN HOOD, ELIZABETH & ESSEX and THE SEA HAWK); and its Olivia De Havilland's fourth movie .... she was certainly busy throughout the 1930s. Curtiz's actioner is still  joy now, 81 years later - and its 44 years since I saw Olivia in person at London's BFI, back in 1972 - its fantastic she is still here at 100. as per label. 

Falsely convicted of treason, Dr. Peter Blood is banished to the West Indies and sold into slavery. In Jamaica the Governor's daughter Arabella Bishop buys him for £10 to spite her uncle, Col. Bishop who owns a major plantation. Life is hard for the men and for Blood as well. By chance he treats the Governor's gout and is soon part of the medical service. He dreams of freedom and when the opportunity strikes, he and his friends rebel taking over a Spanish ship that has attacked the city. Soon, they are the most feared pirates on the seas, men without a country attacking all ships. When Arabella is prisoner, Blood decides to return her to Port Royal only to find that it is under the control of England's new enemy, France. All of them must decide if they are to fight for their new King.

As with many pictures from the 1930s, the film is chock-filled with corny characters who provide colour. Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill are hissably evil, and Olivia - 19 here - is delightful.
This is a stunning and very likable action film--and head and shoulders above all other Hollywood pirate movies - apart from Errol's THE SEA HAWK in 1941. It also has a rousing Erich Wolfgang Korngold score. 

We also love the 1942 SON OF FURY, a Tyrone Power costumer at 20th Century Fox, with the young Gene Tierney making an impression as that South Seas girl.  I first saw this as a kid, in the late Fifties, at a Sunday afternoon matinee revival and loved it then. George Sanders is marvellous too as the hissable villain (he and Ty duelled again in 1958 when filming SOLOMON AN SHEBA, when Ty had his fatal heart attack, at age 44). 

Cheated out of his estate by his sadistic uncle, young Benjamin Blake goes to the South Seas to make his fortune so he can return to claim his birthright. 

This is simply a great actioner, Ty and Sanders are perfectly cast, as is Elsa Lanchester in that small role as the streetwalker who helps our hero. Directed by John Cromwell, and it looks as lush (even in black and white) as those great Fox movies. 

Summer re-views, briefly

WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED. Gilliam Armstrong's 2014 documentary on Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly, which we have mentioned here a few times before (Costumes label). The documentary, based on Orry's lush memoir which I enjoyed a lot, has taken its time appearing here, in fact in has not yet, but I got the Australian (Region 4) dvd, which plays perfectly on multichannel players. 

Its a fanciful conceit, with an actor playing Orry, who seems to be rowing a boat a lot of the time, but then we get all the clips: Orry's costumes for CASABLANCA, GYPSY and his three Oscar-winners: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, LES GIRLS (where Kay, Mitzi and Taina look divine in his creations), and of course Marilyn's still daring costumes for SOME LIKE IT HOT. Orry continued up to 1964, so we get Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury talking about his costumes for their 1963 IN THE COOL OF THE DAY - one I have never seen and can't get now, so thanks for the clips. 

Bette Davis also reigns supreme here, with those costumes Orry did for JEZEBEL, MR SKEFFINGTON, NOW VOYAGER, THE LETTER etc. 

Other talking heads include the notorious Scotty Bowers, and it rehashes all the Cary Grant and Randy Scott gossip and pictures. In fact, Orry gets sidelined for a while while the documentary focuses on Cary, who "roomed" with Orry when they were both young and starting out. But then legendary tightwad Cary always needed someone to pay the rent, hence all those years sharing houses with Randolph .... between their many marriages.

JANE EYRE - the Franco Zeffirelli 1996 version. There have been a lot of Janes around, the 1944 one with Orson and Joan Fontaine is still the one to beat for me, with delicious roles for Agnes Moorehead and Henry Daniell - but this Zeffirelli one is a nicely paced (if rather hurried at the end) version, with Charlotte Gainsbourg a suitably very plain Jane indeed (unlike Janes Joan Fontaine or Susannah York)  but William Hurt (so ideal in films like BODY HEAT or KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN) all wrong here and hardly making any impression, 

It is all grimly Victorian and Franco as usual ramps up the supporting players: a very severe Geraldine Chaplin and Amanda Root (PERSUASION) at the Lowood Orphanage; Fiona Shaw as Aunt Reed, Billie Whitelaw as Grace Poole, Joan Plowright as Mrs Fairfax, Samuel West, and two sadder appearances: Richard Warwick (whom I knew slightly) silent here in his last role as the manservant, the year before he died (he also pops up in Zeffirelli's ROMEO AND JULIET and HAMLET); and poor Maria Schneider as the madwoman in the attic ..... a worthwhile but low-key JANE then.  

JOE MACBETH, 1955. This re-view goes way back to the Fifties, as I first saw this when I was a kid in Ireland, but it made a vivid impression - though I would not have the got Shakespeare part then. It is a modern gangster version of MACBETH, by Ken Hughes, almost impossible to see now, (so thanks Jerry.) Paul Douglas is impressive as usual, and one of our Projector favourites, Ruth Roman, is as ever terrific as Lady M. Its a British production, so supporting cast includes Bonar Colleano, Gregoire Aslan and Sid James. I was pleased to see it again, and to get it on a flash drive. Its more entertaining than that dreadful recent Michael Fassbender version which nearly drove me screaming from the practically empty multiplex ...

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS. For real horror you can hardly beat Leonard Kastle's 1969 chiller, which I first saw as a supporting feature back then. My pal Stan and I were both gobsmacked by it, I can't even remember what the main feature was. 
I had not seen it since then but it lingered in the memory. so its good to see it again now on dvd.  Seems this could have been Scorsese's first feature,but he was replaced. It is a bleak tale of a murderous rampage by two seedy killers: the obese nurse and her scuzzy boyfriend (Tony Lo Bianco) as they plot to fleece lonely widows whom he romances and lets them think he is going to marry them, while she, posing as his sister, tags along in the background. Once seen, it is not easily forgotten. The film is made by the marvellous Shirley Stoler (1929-1999) as the malevolent Martha - she also pops up in KLUTE and is terrifying again as that Nazi concentration camp commandant in SEVEN BEAUTIES in 1975 .... (whom prisoner Giancarlo Giannini has to romance in order to survive - we raved about it, at Italian label). Her 40+ credits also include THE DEER HUNTER.  
It is not violent by today's torture porn standards, but once seen it is not easily forgotten as we enter than downbeat world of cheap motels and diners. It is Kastle's only credit. 

Orry, Ingrid, Tab documentaries .....

Documentaries on movies and movie-makers don't seem to turn up here in the UK. We first mentioned Australian director Gillian Armstrong's film on Australian gay costume designer Orry-Kelly, WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED, here 6 months ago back in February, when that lush coffee table tome WOMEN I'VE UNDRESSED was published, based on his memoirs and costume designs for all those classic Hollywood movies of the Golden Age, from CASABLANCA to SOME LIKE IT HOT, with those dresses for Bette (as in JEZEBEL, see below), Marilyn, those LES GIRLS etc. See Books label for more on that.)

I now find the documentary opens in Los Angeles today, but I have also found and ordered an Australian dvd (Region 4 - my first, which should play ok on the multi-region blu-ray/dvd player) which should arrive in a week or so. More on that then, meanwhile here's the trailer:

Also mentioned last year was that documentary based on Ingrid Bergman's home movies, with narration by Alicia Vikander using Ingrid's text. This is now finally being issued here in English in September, and we have pre-ordered it.

But where is that Tab Hunter documentary, TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL, which Tab - now 86 - introduced here last year ago at the LGBT Film Festival at the BFI.