seanmallory-1 Reviews

The Man in the Iron Mask (1977 TV Movie)

Richard Chamberlain the better King Louis XIV

[9/10 · 24 August 2010]

A fantastic sword-fight TV-movie from the famous Alexander Dumas's novel. This great movie remind me to four years before Richard Lester Three Musketeers pictures not only for the presence of Richard Chamberalin. Lester movies had a more ironic and unconventional tone but the same cure for the customs and locations, here the director is talented Mike Newell (Dance with a Stranger, Donnie Brasco) that it was more careful not to betray the spirit of the novel. Together with fidelity to the novel, another aspect that make the movie truly agreeable and he approaches again to Lester movies was the rich cast. After the co-starring role as Aramis in The Three and The Four Musketeers, now brilliant Richard Chamberlain was the main character and he proved himself to be a fine actor because he plays very well two different roles: King Louis XIV and his long lost twin brother, Phillippe. It's Richard Chamberlain who carries the entire movie and he was astoundingly charming in his screen costume, oh my God that unbelievably handsome man....I confess not hardly I saw fine Richard to enter in scenes I fell in love lost of he, He was more sexy and seductive than Musketeers protagonist Michael York and also than Leo Di Caprio that impersonates the same character in the movie of 1998. There are others connections with Lester movies in the central characters and in the actors...Patrick McGoohan (Escape from Alcatraz) was delicious as villain Fouquet and remind me to Charlton Heston Richelieu for the same elegance. The wonderful Jenny Agutter as the movie heroine Louise de la Vallière was simply most beautiful; she formed with Richard a beautifulst couple on the screen; Agutter remind me to Musketeers heroine beyond compare Raquel Welch as Constance for her fine physiognomy, fabulous hair natural but amazing in both, for the simple but elegant costume and because both have been partners on screen of Michael York (Agutter in Logan's Run, Welch in The Three Musketters). Vivine Merchant in her last apparition as Queen Maria Theresa remand me to wicked Faye Dunaway as Milady in The Four Muscketeers in spite of the diversity of the two personages: Merchant was older but was and elegant queen while Dunaway under the gorgeous courtesan dress was a coarse whore, thief and murderess; watching the movie it's not possible not think to she because Merchant wears the same costume dressed from Dunaway in the final dance in The Three Musketeers and both have the same blonde wigs and similar make-up. Others the performances are strong all around (Holm, Jourdan, Richardson, Bruce as in The Musketeers are Reed, Lee, Chaplin and Finlay).

The Three Musketeers (1973)

all for one and one for all in perfect Lester style

[8/10 · 26 April 2005]

From the Salkind's producers and director Richard Lester a marvelous adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's venerable classic cloak and dagger novel. We are in 1500's France. It's the history of the gascon D'Artagnan (Michael York), new musketeer that is earned, the trust of Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Richard Chamberlain) and Aramis (Frank Finlay) and of the Queen of France (Geraldine Chaplin) for which it recovers the necklace given to her lover English Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward). D'Artagnan and the musketeers makes to fail the plot for to compromise the Queen, giving let-down to Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) and to perfidious Milady (Faye Dunaway). Unconventional and amused adaptation of the novel of Dumas, signed from George MacDonald Fraser, that it stirs gag exited from the slapstick tradition (D'Artagnan passes under a tree: they jump twenty persons down and nobody succeeds to take it) to realistic notations able to destroy heroic mythology of the book of Dumas (not is a crash in which the duelists they respect the rules); the film was turned in Spain with to the successive "The Four musketeers-The Revenge of Milay" (exited but the following year). This movie is a super-production realized with funds Panamanians in which they melts perfectly the thoughtless sense of humour and calligraphic reconstruction of age; the costumes are wonderful than women hair styles. The Lester's direction gives to movie a pleasant climax free and easy that balances the visceral intensity of the story placed in this violent and dangerous historic period. This show was a funny mix of action, adventure and comedy; He respires a welcome breezy spirit adventurous watching the vicissitudes of D'Artagnan and her fellows between duels with swords, betrayals, conspiracies and love affaires. The choreography of the battles and duels by William Hobbs is marvelous and Michel Legrand's score also combining elements of authentic Renaissance music is a solid and right job for this film. The all-star cast is a very shining list of major stars of the 70's including Christopher Lee as grim Compte Rochefort, wonderful Raquel Welch as Constance Bonaciuex, Spike Milligan as her comic husband, Roy Kinnear as Planchet, Simon Ward as the Duke of Buckingham, Jean-Pierre Cassel as Louis XIII. All the players gives the stunning performances especially Michael York as superb D'Artagnan, Oliver Reed as charismatic Athos and great Charlton Heston in a unusual for him role as the evil Cardinal Richelieu. He was clever deliciously treacherous without overacting. There are the amusing performances by Frank Finlay as fun-loving hedonist Porthos, an absolutely comic Spike Mulligan but especially by amazing Raquel Welch as York's beautiful, but clumsy love interest. The splendid Raquel never was a great actress but was known mainly for her provoking beauty; here surprisingly she demonstrates a unsuspected comic talent; she's certainly in her finest role. On the other end of the spectrum is an icy Faye Dunaway as the calculating and seductive wicked and vicious Milady.

"The Three Musketeers" was scripted, contracted and filmed as one enormous movie, but was divided into two features to be released 8 months apart. The Salkinds are afraid of the movie's too long duration; for the film's commercial success had been better to have two movies shortest. Salkind's flippant decision to split their show into two features causes few problems to the tale's unity but this choice he showed winning because "The Three Musketeers" and the sequel "The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge" were been triumphs for Lester and the Salkind's. The split works quite well although same incongruities (Faye Dunaway's presence as the evil Richelieu's accomplice is the most lopsided, hardly showing up in the first movie and dominating the second); but finally the two chapters of the story have different tones, with a meet fun tone of the first giving way to more serious plot developments in the second when Milady tries to take one's revenge towards D'Artagnan and the musketeers.

The Lester's Musketeers films are very and original fine entertainments.

Supergirl (1984)

the girl of steal against Faye Dunaway: the worst witch never made

[3/10 · 17 March 2005]

From the Salkinds brothers, the same producers of "Superman" saga, comes the first and, for the moment, last adventure of the new heroine coming from DC comics: was Supergirl: the Superman's cousin. The movie is one of the worst superhero's pictures never made; director Jeannot Szwarc give very bad work, as on the hand we would expect from a subscriber to the flop like he. The screenplay by David Odell is really silly and campy; the history is absurd and full of holes. The plot: Kara(Helen Slater)is a blond young girl from Argo city. Argo is a fragment of the planet Krypton in "innerspace"; the survivor Community is powered by the Omega Hedron, a spherical powerful object invented by city's founder Zaltar(Peter O'Toole). Superman's cousin Kara is shown by Zaltar how to use Omegahedron to help inspire her art. But an insect she animates causes chaos and accidentally sucks the Omegahedron down a warp vortex. The magical sphere end up on Earth and falls into the clutches of a evil witch Faye Dunaway....sorry Selena(played by Faye Dunaway). Selena is a second-rate sorceress that lives in a converted amusement park with her sidekick Bianca(Brenda Vaccaro); the witch is studying black magic with the aid of her old boyfriend Nigel(Peter Cook); Nigel is a local math teacher and warlock. The eccentric Selena really is little more than a clumsy charlatan but she is really crazy and megalomaniac; her dream is nothing less than world domination! While Selena plans to use the sphere's powers to rule the world; Kara steals an experimental spaceship and on Earth, becoming Supergirl: the girl of steal; now the long-blond-tressed Kara enrolls in a girl-school as a brunette using the name Linda Lee, while searching for the Omegahedron in her spare time wearing the familiar costume of her cousin Superman. Selena is at that age where she's not the spring chicken; she develops lust for the handsome school gardener Ethan and spikes his beer with a potion that will make him fall for the first woman he sees and of course this women is Supergirl; she and Selena come into conflict. In the final crash the witch invoking the Burundi wand, she screams "Power of Shadow... Appear!" and she summons a huge demon. "Power of Shadow... Destroy her!" Flying up to confront the demon, Supergirl is captured in its grasp and it starts crushing her. Using her amazing strength, Supergirl frees herself from the demon and using her super-speed, Supergirl circles Selena and the wind she creates lifts Selena before the demon; Supergirl summons her inner strength to turn the tables and make the demon eat witch. Magically, the demon with her bore food and Bianca all fade away through the mirror to the Phantom Zone. Of course good triumphs over evil and Kara returns to Argo City with the Omegahedron. The movie's special effects aren't bad and the Jerry Goldsmith's score is wonderful. The majors guilty of this box office flop are Szwarc and Odell but the acting is another problem for this movie although the all-star cast. Nineteen year-old Helen Slater in her first film appearance is a perfect choice as Supergirl; she looked like she had jumped right out of the pages of the comic books for Supergirl, she's charming rather than sexy, graceful and convincing in the flying scenes with her little costume and her nice blonde hair. Supporting cast members include the completely wasted Peter Cook, the annoying Brenda Vacarro, a embarrassed Mia Farrow, as Kara's mother, the very attractive Hart Bochner that was quite good under trying circumstances and Peter O'Toole, who's always fun to watch when he overacts. All obviously were phoning it in for the paycheck. Faye Dunaway's acting is the worst in the movie. She is mostly dreadful as the wicked would-be witch Selena, it certainly wasn't all Faye Dunaway's fault, since she just got stuck with a terribly written character, but she was over-the-top hamming and overplays outrageously. Her character is idiot, boring and silly and Dunaway chews her ridiculous lines with unjustified gusto because her Selena remains the lamest and worst of all the villains from the Superman-related movies. Selena was the baddest evil witch of all time, with scenery-chewing of unimaginable proportions notwithstanding this Dunaway vamps like a enormous peacock but one thing is sure that she is not a charming and imperious witch like the glamorous Anjelica Huston in movie The Witches. Dunaway is really ungraceful and unattractive as a grotesquely middle-aged women that know some magic, gesture wildly, utter some made-up 'abracadabra' bullshit. She looks awful like a true classic witch from tales; with horrid red curly wig and a make-up that make her features coarse and more vulgar she seems a man in drag . But really Dunaway is the only reason for watch this movie because her camping is so over-the-top and her appearance is so bad than she becomes fascinating to watch in its terribleness. She likes herself in a way very narcissistic; I kept waiting for her performance to finally says -I ready for my close-up Mr. Demille-. But truly even cheeky Brenda Vaccaro as her accomplice Bianca reacts with comically exaggerated expressions over Faye's plans for world domination and her defines a horrid human being. There are few moments where Dunaway is really really ridiculous: when she was trying painfully to seduce the muscle-man Etahn; when she was prepare a love-potion with a spider and a hazel's shell but especially in the final when she rolls one's eyes and make terrible smirks and laughs. After her tour-de-force of overacting, her irritating wry faces and ways affected poor Dunaway end up really badly: a horrid monster bites evil Faye's head off. It's a just punishment for Dunaway's crimes against humanity, acting and fashion and it's a great relief for the audience.