Get Low and Soul Kitchen

The film that closed this year's SIFF is a minor classic in tall tale telling. Robert Duval is amazing, as usual, as the old hermit in the late 1920's around whom swirls stories of his evil/mysterious/cantankerous ways. When he decides to clear the air, he tries to arrange a funeral party for himself (before he dies--that is, before he will GET LOW), with everyone who ever had a story, true or false, to come tell it--that is if he can get anyone to come at all. It's a juicy set up and the cast couldn't be better--especially Sissy Spacek as an old flame, and the incomparable Bill Murray who can, with the twinkle in his eye and the turn of a phrase, set the audience off in fits of giggles. He plays the funeral director who tries to help set up the "party." It's a pleasure to watch the leisurely but fascinating story unfold. My only complaint is somewhat minor---the sum of the parts is much more satisfying than the mystery's resolution. GRADE------B+

Also opening this week from SIFF----a "comedy" by the director of EDGE OF HEAVEN from several years ago, which I really loved. This new film SOUL KITCHEN is quite different, which is, of course, very good for directors to do, but unfortunately, the comedy is very silly, and consists of each major character doing the most unlikely and bizarre things---well you have to wonder if anyone in this movie has any common sense, and it annoyed me from beginning to end. GRADE-------C- (and I think that's a generous grade.)

At a recent DVD sale, I bought a copy of the slapstick comedy western from 1969--SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF! for $2.50! and while it doesn't hold up to the way I enjoyed it when I was 17, it is still a jolly, amusing effort, helped in no small part to the great timing of the wonderful cast--James Garner, Joan Hackett and Walter Brennan. Especially amusing is the running gag of how to keep a cold blooded killer (a young Bruce Dern) in a new prison without any bars on the windows and doors! GRADE-------B

HELL AND HIGH WATER (1954) was directed by the cult favorite director Samuel Fuller, and features Richard Widmark at his peak as the captain of a submarine sent to investigate a possible communist nuclear base on an island in the Arctic. There's a lot of drama, tension, action, and intrigue, and it was entertaining, if hardly electrifying. Widmark's co-star was a newcomer named Bella Darvi, and it may have been her first and last film. She could speak the half dozen foreign languages required for the part, but her English was not very coherent.
GRADE------ B

I've never been a big Frank Sinatra fan, although he's a very decent actor and singer, and my feelings are not changed by seeing the film based on the racy Broadway play called PAL JOEY (1957). Part of my problem was the illogical progression of the plot. In the first scene Joey (Sinatra) is being kicked out of town by being forced on a train by the police. What, no luggage or suitcase? Then he gets off the train, and takes a ferry (!?) to San Francisco--we're told he has NO money---and then of course gets a great job being MC at a nightclub that very night, and then manages to rent a room at a boarding house at 3:00am in the middle of the same night!!!!!!!! The room is next to Kim Novak with whom he lusts after, and must share a bathroom with...... It keeps on like this, so you have to keep swallowing a lot of contrivances. But the interesting part is how you can see that this story was really racy at the time. He meets a rich older woman (Rita Hayworth), and moves in with her as a "kept" man while she bankrolls his dream of owning his own nightclub. All I can think of is, he must be GRRREEEAAATTT in bed. Apparently his character in the play is a lot more abrasive and unlikeable, and there is a lot more sexual innuendo that was trimmed. The best part, however, is the musical score, which features some knock out tunes sung and acted with a lot of flair. They include "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," and "The Lady is a Tramp," and "My Funny Valentine." Thank god for Rogers and Hart. GRADE------B

Part of the JOHN WAYNE Collection I recently purchased was a film called HELLFIGHTERS (1968) which includes a strong cast including Vera Miles, Jim Hutton, Katherine Ross, and Bruce Cabot. The film is timely, in that it is based on a true character who traveled the world putting out oil/drilling fires and spills. I wish he (John Wayne) was around for the recent Gulf
spill. The film is watchable for that reason, but the plot gets repetitious and predictable. GRADE----- C+