Anastasia (1956)

A former Russian general (Yul Brynner) leads a team searching for the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, or at least someone they can pass off as her. The royal family was executed ten years earlier and if a survivor could be found, ten million pounds would be in play. And maybe something more.

The film is based on the story of Anna Anderson, one of many pseudonyms of a troubled woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess in the early 1920’s. While some details from her story are depicted here, the movie is mostly fictitious. Interestingly, during production the filmmakers learned that Anna Anderson was still alive and rushed to get her consent. In the end, no one remotely close to the Romanovs even considered Anna's claim (see quote), the body of the real Anastasia was positively identified, and DNA analysis finally proved Anna was not related. But back to the film.

This was Ingrid Bergman’s big return to Hollywood, so to speak. I touched on this when I covered Indiscreet and will once again recommend the video. Furthermore, she never set foot in the US as the entire production was produced in Europe. She was forty one playing the 27 year old Anna, and while that wasn’t a problem, it was noticeable. Yul Brynner played the Yul Brynner part. He would also star in The King and I and The Ten Commandments the same year and his career was off with a bang.

Here's an amusing side story: Actress Helen Haye played Ansatasia's grandmother in a BBC television adaptation and the producer instructed casting to hire her. They assumed a typo and instead hired the better known and less age appropriate Helen Hayes.

Hints are dropped throughout that Begman’s Anna truly is the Grand Duchess, but also of the problems with her claim. Or his claim, as she is a mostly unwilling (or at least resisting) participant in the General’s plan. And the ending provides some ambiguity on this matter. But for the most part, Anastasia provides the pomp and pageantry one would expect from a 1950’s 'A' picture from a major studio. Lavish sets, costumes, and an excellent supporting cast (including Mrs. Howell eight years before casting off). It holds your interest but I don’t expect it to stick in my memory. AMRU 3.

"I claim categorically that she is not Anastasia Nicolaievna, but just an adventuress, a sick hysteric and a frightful playactress. I simply cannot understand how anyone can be in doubt of this. If you had seen her, I am convinced that you would recoil in horror at the thought that this frightful creature could be a daughter of our Tsar."

Bob le flambeur (1956)

Bob is a gambler with a checkered past and a heart of gold. After a run of bad luck, an opportunity too good to pass up convinces him to try one last caper. Things don’t go as planned.

Influenced by John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle, it bears structural similarity to Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing as well. In fact, Kubrick stopped making crime films because, he thought, the best one had now been made.

Young model Isabelle Corey was cast in her first role. While quite beautiful, at sixteen she wasn’t much of an actress. And she would never become one as her career ended after five years. This was a pretty provocative role for a middle teen, but this is France we are talking about. Roger Duchesne had a more interesting story. After a fair number of forgettable films, his career was cut short when he was jailed for collaborating with the Nazis. This was a return after thirteen years, but would do only one more film. He was pitch perfect as the older, somewhat wiser gambler.

Bob le flanbeur is on the short list of a large number of famous filmmakers and critics favorite films. While enjoyable, I found it short of the two caper films mentioned above. But subtitled films with complex stories can be hard to fully take in. The text draws your attention away from the cinematography and performances, and the nuances that go along. I give it a 3.5 but I will rewatch it. There are things I missed.

Death Curse of Tartu (1966)

An archaeology professor, his wife, and four students visit a forbidden native burial mound in the Florida everglades. There, the ghost of the witch doctor Tartu transforms into animals to kill them.

Let’s get this out of the way. This is a very amateur production. I cannot stress that enough. For context, it comes in just ahead of the almost unwatchable Manos: The Hands of Fate. But while I will not knock it for what it could not do, I will for what it should have been. And it should have been vaguely interesting. Want to build tension? Have the characters walk slowly through the tall grass. Excitement? Have them walk quickly through the tall grass. While the acting and dialog were poor, the film suffers because frequently the characters say nothing at all. There are plenty of spaces for robots to crack wise about the nonsensical story, which was sorely missing. This is a dull movie, a fault I cannot abide.

So, let’s get on with goofing on the film, shall we? The four students (conveniently, two couples) decide to “roast some marshmallows” away from professor square and his wife. Instantly, the two women are in bikinis and making out with their fully clothed partners. Then the women do that one dance that all young people in the 1960’s know, until Tartu, in the form of a shark, eats some of them. The remaining woman screams and is instantly back into her normal attire.

There are many examples of low budgets and poor storytelling, like when the characters hide behind Tartu’s plainly visible sarcophagus before finally seeing it. Also, night scenes are normally shot “day for night”, where they film in daylight then tint to add a nighttime illusion. This effect is frequently unconvincing in low budget films, but here they forgot the tinting step. You wouldn’t know it was night had the actors not said so. It’s telling when you learn that filming was completed within a single week and the script was written in an afternoon, and your reaction is, what took them so long?

Writer/director William Grefe would go on to make some pretty average films and even did work on Live and Let Die. Death Curse of Tartu was never going to be a good film, but there were lost opportunities to make it interesting, or at least make sense. And it should have been twenty minutes shorter. AMRU 2.

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Anne (Barbara Parkins) moves from a small town to New York City to chase her dream of doing office work. There she falls for a lady’s man, and makes friends with singer Neely (Patty Duke) and pretty no-talent Jennifer (Sharon Tate). Their lives go in unexpected directions and their paths occasionally cross. The one thing that ties them together is their love of dolls. Pills, that is. Dolls are pills. Dolophine, specifically.

Perkins’ pretty Anne is the moral center of the film. Not swayed by fame, she steers (mostly) clear of the pitfalls that trap her friends. Twenty year old Patty Duke took the controversial role of the pill-popping prima donna hoping it would help the public see her as an adult. She did mostly TV in the years following so it's unclear how well that worked.

I’ve known something of Sharon Tate’s story since forever but I wouldn’t have been able to pick her out of a lineup. She was quite striking. She appeared in fifteen episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, so I must have seen her at some point. Judy Garland was initially cast as an older, ruthless star but the substance abuse story element played itself out in real life. Judy would beat Sharon to the grave by 49 days. And so it goes.

The story of who was cast, what happened, and how much of a jerk director Mark Robson was may be a more salacious story than the Jacqueline Susann story itself. Many big names were offered roles only to turn them down, horrified by the script. You could go down a serious rabbit hole with behind the scenes stuff. On screen, however, the film is mildly interesting, soap-opera adjacent, and very 1960’s. AMRU 3.

"Boobies, boobies, boobies. Nothin' but boobies!"