Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Nugget Reviews - 5


Clash of the Titans ( 1981 ) 14k 


The son of Zeus undertakes a perilous quest to rescue Andromeda from her fate of being a sacrifice to Kraken, the sea monster. Harry Hamlin, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Claire Bloom, Ursula Andress, Susan Fleetwood, Judi Bowker. MGM. Directed by Desmond Davis. 

Clash of the Titans is most notable for being the final film of special effects animator Ray Harryhausen. Here he demonstrates his talent by creating a giantic sea monster, Kraken, a mechanical owl, Medusa and Pegasus, the flying horse. The film includes a stellar cast but the screenwriter didn't really give the star attractions much to do. Great fun overall! 

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Money From Home ( 1953 ) Elctr.


A two-bit gambler promised to fix a horse in an upcoming race in order to dodge a mobster who is after him. His cousin, a veterinarian, ends up being the stooge who will act as jockey. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Richard Haydn, Marjie Millar. Paramount Pictures. Directed by George Marshall. 

Money from Home was sub par to Martin and Lewis' other hits although it did have the added bonus of being in color and 3D. Alas, it seems as though the writers intentionally slacked off on developing any plot because of that. Highlights include Lewis' Cyrano De Bergerac act, an ants-in-the-pants sequence at the country club and of course, Marjie Millar is stunning. 

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Ma & Pa Kettle on Vacation ( 1953 ) 14k 


Pa Kettle is given an envelope by a passenger on an airplane en route to Paris which, unbeknownst to him, contain secret government papers. He aids U.S Embassy agents in catching the spies who are after the document. Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Ray Collins, Sig Ruman, Oliver Blake. Universal Pictures. Directed by Charles Lamont. 

Oo la la, the wonders of the Ozark are off to see Pareee in this little gem. It's hard not to love a comedy that features spies, and this one has some particularly funny moments. Ma Kettle literally gets a "shakedown" from Sig Ruman, the enemy agent, and Pa has a difficult time trying to get the police to chase him to a jewelry store. 

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Another Man's Poison ( 1951 ) 14k 


A mystery writer murders her husband and buries him in the muddy pond outside of her English estate; when her husband's partner shows up unexpectedly she must not only hide the truth but find a way to dump him as well. Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Emyln Williams, Anthony Steel, Barbara Murray. Angel Productions. Directed by Irving Rapper. 

Bette Davis plays her usual biting self here. She is a successful author, an accomplished rider, and owns a secluded castle in England, so what does she do? She hits on her secretary's fiancee of course! Never satisfied.... Although the film seems suffocatingly stagy at certain points it does boast some great banter between Merrill and Davis and an excellent mystery-themed setting. There is a nice twist at the end as well. 

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Town on Trial ( 1957 ) 18k


A gung-ho police detective turns a small town upside down in his investigation of the "Lover's Lane" killer...a murderer who strangles his victims with ladies pantyhose! John Mills, Charles Coburn, Barbara Bates, Derek Farr, Alec McCowen, Fay Compton. Columbia Pictures. Directed by John Guillermin. 

An exceptional little thriller, tautly directed and featuring some fine cinematography. Its dreary setting only adds to the suspense and the film keeps you guessing to the end. Charles Coburn is wonderful as Dr. Fenner, our number one suspect, and John Mills excels as Superintendant Halloran. It was too bad a series was not made on his character. 

COMING SOON : The Nugget Reviews are going to have their own page! Hopefully this way we can squeeze in more ratings. We get so far behind on writing reviews to all the films we watch, at the rate we are going it will take us three years just to cover the films we saw last month.

4 comments:

  1. I like your nugget reviews! I may have to try my hand at short-and-sweet stylings myself sometime, as my own reviews take me hours and hours, and I'm also falling behind.

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    1. Looks like us film buffs just watch toooo many movies. "So little time, so little time.."

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  2. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of "an exceptional little thriler".

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