FILM

Rip It Up, Issue 52, 1 November 1981, Page 28

FILM

William Dart

The Mirror Crack'd

Director: Guy Hamilton 'Stars on 35 mill' have another stab at an Agatha Christie whodunnit. Although proceedings are more fun than what we experienced on the Orient Express or the Nile, with tighter pacing in the script department this could have been much better. After all, did not Guy Hamilton direct Goldfinger, perhaps the snappiest of all the James Bond epics? Mirror gains most of its momentum from the various star turns. Rock Hudson does a nice Cary Grant role, Tony Curtis seems to have aged about fifty years since his last film, Liz Taylor and Kim Novak are agreeable sparring partners and Edward Fox's Scotland Yard movie buff tends to steal the thunder from Angela Lansbury's Miss Marples a much more understated character study than one would expect after her flamboyant outing in Death on the Nile. The Four Seasons Director: Alan Alda As Vivaldi's Spring chugged away on the soundtrack and the camera swept over blossoming landscapes, I steeled myself for what seemed likely to be a dreary film. Having got his characters introduced in the Spring section, Alan Alda got to grips with the film in the Summer sequence when one of the three husbands brings a newly acquired mistress along for the communal holiday. Despite obvious parallels with

Cassavetes' Husbands, Alda's film (which he scripted himself) is more traditional in format, with its reassuring portrait of the American middle-classes coping with the modern American nightmare of ageing. A thoughtful film, with some of the best ensemble playing seen on New Zealand screens for some time. The Postman Always Rings Twice Director: Bob Rafelson James M. Cain's famous novel of guilt-edged passions in the thirties was an interesting project for the director of such varied films as Five Easy Pieces, Head and King of Marvin Gardens. He has classy performers with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, evocative settings with stylish camera work from Sven Nykvist. The only thing that stands in its way is the earlier 1946 Tay Garnett film which, in spite of its hedging around all the steamy sexuality, is a much more effective piece of cinema. Jessica Lange's utterly believable and human Cora still doesn't register as magically as Lana Turner's icily unruffled performance although John Garfield's particular brand of granite-hewn machismo is less interesting than Nicholson's more rounded portrait of Frank. Where Rafelson does score is in the greater depth with which he sketches the Cora's duped husband a marvellous and resonant performance by John Colicos. In the Garnett version, Cecil Kelleway presented him as a quaint and doddery old English gent a twodimensional cardboard sketch. Shogun Director: Jerry London Handsomely mounted, but ultimately tepid historico-drama from the uninspired pen of James Clavell. The direction is appropriately pedestrian and performances are soporific the only entertainment being gained from listening to the leading lady struggle with English. Battle Beyond the Stars Director: Jimmy T. Murakami With the production talents of Roger Corman in the credits, one can be assured of stylish campery, and this delightful cocktail of galactic nonsense is just what we need to brighten our cinema screens. Flashy and trashy. Just what the doctor ordered.