Kaleidoscope (1966)

Plot:  Comedy/Crime Caper. A Rich Gambler helps Scotland Yard ruin a Global Narcotics Kingpin
Stars:  Warren Beatty, Susannah York

An Arabesque/Charade knock-off.  Set in “Swinging London” we get the standard 60's comedy/caper tropes: a clever/suave hero, villains in tuxedos, sexual banter, opulent Casinos, and lavish technicolor. The whole thing ends with a long chase and a happy ending. The supporting British actors - Clive Revill and Eric Porter - are a real positive.

Problems? The script/story is extremely thin and can barely fill the short 104 minute run-time. To stretch out the action, we get some very long Poker games (card players  may consider that a plus).  And York is beautiful & funny - but given little to do.

Best Scene:  The Scotland Yard Inspector blackmails Beatty into helping the Police
Worst Scene:  A way-too-long, meaningless poker game between Beatty and a minor character.

Warren Beatty.  No serious acting is required and while he's no Cary Grant - Warren is sufficiently charming and "cool". Per his biography, Beatty took the undemanding role to save his energy for Bonnie and Clyde.

Summary:  A critical and box-office flop, the film sank like a stone in 1966, and hasn’t been heard of since. But Kaleidoscope isn’t that bad.  It’s a fun/frivolous 60’s caper – but utterly mediocre. ** 1/2

All Fall Down (1962)

Plot: A family feuds over their worthless, good-looking son and his love affair with an older female border.
Stars: Warren Beatty, Angela Lansbury, Karl Malden, Brandon De Wilde

An overly familiar Inge family drama with some good acting, All Fall Down has a great first 15 minutes as we follow Berry-Berry’s (Beatty) antics in seedy Key West. However, once the film moves to Cleveland it becomes Berry-Berry boring. The focus shifts to the parents (Lansbury/Malden) and De Wilde. Only the Eva Marie Saint-Beatty affair livens things up. The ending is abrupt. There’s nothing really wrong with the script, we’ve just seen it all before: the dysfunctional family, the coming-of-age writer, the dissolute son, the alcoholic Dad, etc.

Acting – Acting honors go to Eva Marie Saint for her portrayal of an old maid (age 31!) in love with Berry-Berry. De Wilde is surprisingly effective and carries the movie. Poor Angela Lansbury (12 years older than Warren) is stuck with another Old Mom role. Beatty does well at being the lady-killer/drifter, who likes to hit women, less well when dramatics are called for.

Most Annoying thing:  That damn name:  Berry-Berry.  Why not Kumquat? At least its one word.

Best Scene:  De Wilde goes to a downscale Key West bar, is hit on by a Stripper, and gets kicked out once its known he's Beatty's brother. 

Summary: Too bad All Fall Down didn't stay in Key West and focus on Bad-Boy Beatty. He should have been the lead actor - not De Wilde. But that movie wasn’t made. Instead, we get a well-done family drama. Unfortunately, those kinds of movies bore me and All Fall Down seemed very old hat. A box-office failure, probably due to its downbeat nature and hollow conclusion. Rating **1/2

The Fortune (1975)

Plot: A Comedy. In the 1920's, two scam artists try to bilk a millionaire heiress out of her fortune.
Stars: Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Stockard Channing

Man, what a mess!  Only 88 minutes long with only 8 amusing minutes. Not only are Channing, Warren and Jack borderline adequate -the movie lacks everything that makes a successful comedy:  good jokes, clever slapstick, likable characters, plot movement (we spend 30 minutes in a California Bungalow), or a decent supporting cast. The leisurely direction is surprising given the short run-time.  Good things? Jack’s three-stooge’s haircut. Plus, the 1920’s set design is excellent.

Somewhat similar to Ishtar
An unfunny comedy with Beatty and a famous co-star, written by a successful female writer, and riffing off an old-time movie genre (here, Screwball comedy - with Ishtar, the Road Pictures).  The only difference is the budget.

Summary:  This "forgotten film" is best forgotten. Rating *

A Place in the Sun (1951)

Plot: Based on Dreiser's An American Tragedy.  A young man is torn between his factory-worker girlfriend and a lovely debutante.
Stars:  Montgomery Clift, Shelly Winters, Elizabeth Taylor, Raymond Burr
Best Quote: Men are so disgustingly prompt. I think they do it just to put us women in a bad light.

I'm shocked at how highly rated this is (7.8 IMDB rating).
Yes, Liz Taylor is impossibly lovely. Yes, Clift gives a great performance.  And yes, they make a great couple. But the Monty-Liz relationship is only about 25% of the movie - the rest is pure melodrama. Mostly its about Monty working in a factory, his relationship with Winters, her murder, and the trial/conviction. And I didn't care that much.  The whole story seemed sluggish and predictable.

Those Puzzling Oscars
Given the stodgy direction and bland screenplay, the Oscar wins are amazing. That Stevens' won over Kazan’s Streetcar is even more incredible. Were politics involved? And how did Winters ever snag a “Best Actress” nomination?! Meanwhile, Liz Taylor - the 2nd best thing in the movie - got bupkis.

Why am I supposed to care about these Characters? 
Clift gives it a good try. But George (his character) is a weak-willed, amoral loser. Greedy, and desperate to "get ahead", he breaks the rules (don't date the factory girls), stupidly gets Winters pregnant, and then tries to kill her. If  Lee Marvin had played him, would anyone sympathize?  And Winter's character is no prize. A drab whiner, she feebly tries to get an abortion, then blackmails George into marriage*.  In fact, she’s so unlikable, she's forgotten the minute she dies.

A Place in the Sun vs. An American Tragedy
And yet, the movie is much better than the novel.  We're spared Dreiser's ham-fisted prose and sluggish never-ending plot**. Instead, Stevens keeps the meat of the story and cuts out the first half of the book, most of the trial, and almost all of George’s “born again” Christianity***.

 He also changes Dreiser's “Moral”. The novel is as an attack on Capitalism. Impressionable George is so dazzled by the Bourgeois he’s led to murder. Under socialism - Dreiser believed – this wouldn’t happen. In the movie, its more about George wanting super-hot Liz Taylor over dowdy Shirley Winters. That Liz has some $$$, doesn't hurt though.

Summary: I suppose you couldn't film Dreiser's awful novel**** better than A Place in the Sun.  But the sizzling Elizabeth Taylor- Montgomery Clift pairing can't overcome the dullness of the story.

Notes:
*At no time is adoption mentioned, although that would've allowed Winters to stay single and not be burdened with a kid.
** Per Mencken: "..a vast, sloppy, chaotic thing of 385,000 words - at least 250,000 of them unnecessary".
*** Having Commie Ann Revere play the Bible-thumping Mom must have been a Stevens’ inside-joke.
**** - The real tragedy is I read all 859 pages.

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Stars:  Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow,  Clift Robertson
Plot. After his entire CIA "Section" is murdered, Redford tries to stay alive. And, because its the 1970's - the killers aren't KGB, they're with the CIA! Other main characters? Emotionally damaged "civilian" Faye Dunaway  and slimy CIA bureaucrat Clift Robertson.

Analysis. Robert Redford was on a roll in 1975, not only did he star in the critically acclaimed All the President's Men,  he teamed up with Sidney Pollack to produce this -still popular- film. Two hours long, its an above-average spy/political thriller, helped by all-star cast, and hurt by an overly talkative script and some extremely implausible characters and situations* .  Redford goes from scooter-driving bookworm to James Bond in a flash**, while the professional assassins alternate between incredible brilliance  and mind-numbing incompetence.

The film's "Morality" is questionable.
Paid killer Von Sydow is presented as such a super-nice guy and uber-professional - you'd let him baby-sit your kids, Meanwhile, CIA guy Robertson (trying to protect the USA) is profanely told off by Redford***  Not much acting is required but everyone does well enough. Dunaway and Redford are too low-key to generate much heat, but make a very attractive couple.

Best Scene:  Redford fights a professional hit-man in Dunaway's Apartment.
Worst Scene: We spend 10 minutes seeing Redford going to work on  a scooter, getting lunch and hobnobbing with his co-workers. Since all these people are killed immediately after, and that's disclosed in the trailer, why waste our time?

Notes
* -  For example. Dunaway leaves a dead body in her apartment,  falls in love with Redford 8 hours after he kidnaps her, and has no problem finding Robertson at massive (and Top secret) CIA HQ.
** -  Redford is so good with a gun and his fists/wits, Von Sydow offers him a job as a professional assassin.
*** - Redford smugly tells Robertson that he's finished. Why? Because Redford's told the whole story to the  New York Times, who (unlike the US Government) is completely trustworthy!

Lilith (1964) - Rossen

Plot: Set in a Rich Sanitarium,  an occupation therapist becomes obsessed with a beautiful mental patient called Lilith**.  
Stars:  Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, Kim Hunter, Peter Fonda, Gene Hackman
Best Quote:  If I Die, it will be Warren Beatty who Killed me - Robert Rossen

Movies about crazy people attract three kinds of fans (i) crazy people (ii) people fascinated by crazy people and (iii) people who see crazy people as a metaphor for society.  Unfortunately, I'm none of these (I’ll ignore my Wife and assert my sanity) and found Lilith a bit of a slog.

At 114 minutes, it’s outrageously padded out and digressive. Did we really need a picnic, bike ride, mentally ill spiders, an unfaithful wife, a town fair, and pony ride? However, it becomes more interesting when we focus on the main plot: the seduction of Beatty by Seberg.  The direction by Rossen is good - and the B&W photography exquisite – but Lilith is really an actor’s movie, and it needed much better lead actors.

Acting:  We can start with Hackman – I’ve never seen him worse.  He’s miscast as a bland Babbitt with a paunchy stomach and a bad southern accent.  Warren Beatty is, well, adequate.  He doesn’t embarrass himself, but his performance is an inch deep. The same is true of Jean Seberg.  Her face glows with beauty, but she’s more naughty UCLA co-ed - then a siren luring men to death/insanity.  There’s not much chemistry there.  OTOH, Peter Fonda is surprisingly good as the suicidal twit.

Most Risqué Scene (for 1964): Beatty finds Seberg in a Lesbian tryst, throws out her lover, calls her a “Dirty Bitch” and then closes the barn door for a literal “roll in the hay”.

Dullest Scene: We spend 5 minutes on Beatty walking up to the Sanatorium and having a job interview.

Summary: More interesting than good.  Justly forgotten –it needed more energy/depth, and better acting. I wouldn’t bother unless you like the Stars.

** -  In 19th Century German/English Literature "Lilith"  is a long-haired seductress  

Murder My Sweet (1944)

A Short review.  Well-done film noir based on Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely.  Well directed ( I love Marlowe first seeing "Moose" in a window reflection), and full of Chandler's witty dialogue, I can't be more enthusiastic.  Why? Dick Powell.  He's a mediocre Marlowe and lacks the necessary toughness.  Other flaw? The move tries to cram too much of the book's convoluted plot into 95 minutes.  I lost track of who was beating up Marlowe  -and why.  The supporting cast is good, with  Esther Howard as the standout.  She's boozy "Jessie Florian" and she's a hoot..  Rating ***