Kenneth Hyman Movies
Director Robert Aldrich took what he considered a hopelessly old-fashioned script by Lukas Heller and Nunnally Johnson and fashioned The Dirty Dozen into one of MGM's biggest moneymakers of the 1960s--and the sixth highest-grossing film in the studio's history. Lee Marvin plays Major Reisman, assigned to coordinate a suicide mission on a French chateau held by top Nazi officers. Since no "normal" GI can be expected to volunteer for this mission, Reisman is compelled to draw his personnel from a group of military prisoners serving life sentences. This "dirty dozen" includes a sex pervert (Telly Savalas), a psycho (John Cassavetes), a retarded killer (Donald Sutherland), and the equally malevolent Charles Bronson, Trini Lopez, Jim Brown, and Clint Walker. On the dim promise of receiving pardons if they survive, the criminals undergo a brutal training program, then are marched behind enemy lines dressed as Nazi soldiers, the better to overtake the chateau and kill everyone in it--including the innocent wives and mistresses of the German officers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
The Hill was unfairly subjected to ridicule by the more obtuse "critics" of 1965 who harped on the fact that it starred Sean Connery and, unlike Connery's Bond pictures, had no women in it. Bypassing these cretinous comments, it must be noted that The Hill is an above-the-norm entry in the "military prison" genre. The film takes place during World War II, in a Libyan stockade for incorrigible British soldiers. The camp's brutal Sergeant Major (Harry Andrews) puts his charges to work on grueling, monotonous and pointless projects to break their spirits. When one rebellious inmate dies due to this treatment, the Sergeant Major is reprimanded by Joe Roberts (Connery), who has been appointed as the prisoners' spokesman. The result is that Roberts is likewise subjected to the most demeaning and humiliating of prison chores -- but his spirit, and that of his comrades, is not so easily crushed. Based on a TV play by Ray Rigby, The Hill should never be seen in any form other than its dusty, parched original black-and-white; the currently available colorized version is a crime against humanity. One problem: The British dialects in the first 20 minutes are so thick that an American viewer practically needs subtitles (British critics chalked this problem up not to elocution but to poor sound recording). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Harry Andrews, (more)
- 1962
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As a child, "Baby Jane" Hudson was the toast of vaudeville. As an adult, however, Baby Jane was overshadowed by her more talented sister, Blanche, who became a top movie star. Then, one night in the early '30s, came the accident, which crippled Blanche for life and which was blamed on a drunken, jealous Jane. Flash-forward to 1962: Jane (Bette Davis), decked out in garish chalk-white makeup, still lives with the invalid Blanche (Joan Crawford) in their decaying L.A. mansion. When Jane isn't tormenting the helpless Blanche by serving her dead rats for breakfast, she is plotting and planning her showbiz comeback. Convinced that her days are numbered if she remains in the house with her addlepated sister, Blanche desperately tries to get away, but all avenues of escape are cut off by the deranged Jane. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? sparked a trend toward casting venerable Hollywood female stars in such grotesque Grand Guignol melodramas as Lady in a Cage (1964) and Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965). In addition to revitalizing the careers of Davis and Crawford, whose real-life mutual animosity came through loud and clear, the film made a star of sorts of 24-year-old character actor Victor Buono, cast as a porcine mama's-boy musical composer. Lukas Heller's screenplay was based on the novel by Henry Farrell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1962
Jackie Gleason plays Gigot, a lumbering but lovable mute Parisian derelict. Shunned by the "respectable" people around him, Gigot is beloved by the children. One of the kids, a little girl, is the melancholy daughter of an insensitive prostitute. Gigot befriends the lonely child and protects her against her wicked parent and the local constabulary. Gigot was heavily edited by 20th Century Fox prior to its release, and subsequently disowned by its director, Gene Kelly. Still, a few hilarious and genuinely poignant moments shine through in this Chaplinesque tour de force for Jackie Gleason, who not only starred but wrote the script and the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Katherine Kath, (more)
- 1961
Terror of the Tongs is a gory, garishly colored melodrama written by Jimmy Sangster in the tradition of the Fu Manchu films. The villain is "Fu" himself, Christopher Lee, here eminently hissable as the leader of a vicious Chinese Tong operating in 1910 Hong Kong. Proper London merchant Geoffrey Toone is drawn into this netherworld when his daughter is murdered by Lee's minions. Conducting a one-man war against the Tongs, Toone eventually flushes out every member of the faction...leaving only Lee to vanquish at fade-out time. Though the crimson-dominated color photography of Terror of the Tongs is the film's prime asset, the picture was originally released theatrically in black and white. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geoffrey Toone, Christopher Lee, (more)
