THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE IFFY (13)

THE GOOD:  "EAST OF EDEN"  One of my favorite films that has stood the test of time, it was directed by Elia Kazan and loosely based on the second half of a John Steinbeck novel by the same name and also, it made James Dean a star and garnered him an Oscar nomination. (Kazan was also cited and Jo Van Fleet did win the award for Best Supporting Actress.)  Others in the cast included Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Richard Davalos and Burl Ives.  But it is Dean's breakout performance that set this movie on it's ear. (Ironically, it is the only film that Dean saw in it's entirety before his untimely death.)   James Dean was one of a kind and that shows in this remarkable film.





THE BAD:  "BARBARELLA"   Roger Vadim' s attempt to exploit his wife's beauty and sexiness as well as stretch the boundaries of taste, was a disaster.  Jane Fonda playing the title role has her tongue firmly planted in her cheek, but to no avail.  John Phillip Law (as an angel, no less), David Hemmings and Milo O'Shea try their best with the preposterous script about a female astronaut in the 41st Century who is beset by all manner of reasons to get her as naked as possible.   The special effects (long before CGI) are amateurish and downright embarrassing.  Skip it of watch it and laugh as the absurdity.















THE IFFY:  "ROPE"  An experiment by Alfred Hitchcock is an interesting idea but doesn't quite work.   The premise: what if the entire movie had no cuts but one continuous shot.  (Since film had to be changed in the camera, there are occasionally pans to a black frame and then back to the action.)
James Stewart and Fraley Granger along with John Dall lead the cast in this fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb case.  And it is worth a look see.  But, I long for that Hitchcock panache without this gimmick.

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