Sabotage Agent aka The Adventures of Tartu (1943)

Another UK made, WWII, British secret agent dons a Nazi uniform and romances a beautiful girl film. Known in the UK as  The Adventures of Tartu, but released in the US under the more banal title Sabotage Agent, the film stars then recent Oscar winner Robert Donat as British Captain Terence Stevenson, a chemical engineer who do to his expertise in his field, his fluent German, and having grown up partially in Romania, is recruited by his government for a special assignment. Stevenson is to assume the identity of a Romanian chemist and fascist Captain Jan Tartu, recently secretly murdered by the Romanian resistance, and con his way into Czechoslovakia's famous Skoda Works plant to sabotage a particularly deadly new poison gas the Nazi's are developing there. Donat gets to have extra fun in the film not only because he gets to romance the beautiful Valerie Hobson (who looks a lot like 'Toyota Jan') but because he gets to play in essence two characters, the noble Stevenson, and his cover persona as the flamboyant playboy Tartu.

This movie works well, Donat's performance is obviously the best thing it has going for it but there are more twists and turns here then I'd expected, multiple cases of mistaken identity, and Glynis Johns in full sympathetic mode gets to make a noble sacrifice for the cause of freedom. Somehow the ridicules coincidence laden script succumbs to the cast and crews efforts to earnestly plow thorough it, the results strain credulity but are still plenty entertaining. Before writing this review I did a little Google searching on the Romanian experience in the second World War, and that's about as crazy as this movie, I recommend checking both the film and the history out.  ***

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)

The third and final Night at the Museum movie re-treads the well established ground of the first two films, museums exhibits come to life at night, there's a problem regarding the magic tablet the allows this, and humorously embarrassing things happen to Ben Stiller, only this time its set mostly in London. I didn't much mind the repetition, or the uber-reliance on formula, the variations of the basic theme here were adequate. Though what was most enjoyable about the movie for me was the sense which I felt it exuded that more then anything it was an excuse for friends to get together and have one last go at the franchise, that it didn't have to try that hard because it was a farewell film, and the cast had already been well endeared to the viewer. There are a few new additions to the cast as well, most notably Rebel Wilson whose purpose was largely just to rife, and kind of homage the 'I'm the new popular pudgy comedian thing' that Jonah Hill's presence in the previous film seemed there to emphasize. This movie was also the final screen appearance of both Mickey Rooney and (depending on how you count) Robin Williams, and its the latters presence that further hones the films sense of sentential parting. It does what it does as you'd want it to be done. ***

Escape from Hell Island (1963)

Escape from Hell Island is not a good movie. Besides that even its name is problematic, especially given the way its three act structure plays out. Now presumably Hell Island is Cuba, which the films hero Capt.. James (Mark Stevens) helps a number of people escape from in the first half hour of the movie. However the movie then goes on for an additional 50 minutes, including a stay on Key West  which Capt. James eventually leaves to sail a ship to Bermuda. So might Key West also be considered a potential Hell Island? I mean the Capt. leaves there on a boat, and I suppose the drinks there are overpriced and that might be something worth escaping from. The bad guy (Jack Donner) later takes over Jim's boat, so in a sense the boat becomes a Hell Island? It's so confusing. Perhaps the movie should be called Fleeing the Islands of Hell, or even Beyond Escape from Hell Island. However even with a name correction you'd still be left with what for the most part is a very weak movie, with only one really satisfactory sequence, the standoff for the boat at the end. So maybe watching the last 20 minutes of this might be worth your time, over all though *1/2.

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Kind Hearts and Coronets is an almost perfect black comedy. Set at the turn of the 20th century the plot is taken loosely from the 1907 novel  Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by British author Roy Horniman. The story concerns Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini (Dennis Price, excellent), the son of the black sheep of the prestigious D'Ascoyne family. Louis mother (Audrey Fildes) had angered her family when she married for love to an Italian opera singer (also played by Price), but the man died young around the time of the birth of their only son. Though Louis's mother tried for years to enlist her family's help for herself and her son she was consistently rebuffed, she made due with what little she had, raised Louis, and when he came of age tried again to get her family's aid in assisting her son to get into a good profession, all to no avail. Her final request, to be buried in the family crypt, was also refused, and this last indignity prompted her son to set about on a murderous quest to eliminate the eight heirs who stood in his way to assume the family dukedom.

This dry comedy is carried very effectively by lead Dennis Price, who is so good in it that its an utter shame that he didn't go on to have a more successful career. Looking into Mr. Price it seems his major obstacles were likely his drinking, gambling, and tax problems, he was also a homosexual but so were many of Britain's greatest actors. The film has good supporting players, including Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood as Price's too competing love interests, character actor Miles Malleson also appears as a very polite hangman. But its Alec Guinness who pulls out all the stops playing a total of 9 D'Ascoyne family members, including a woman. Kind Hearts and Coronets is a jewel of a film, a stand out even amidst the golden period of post war British comedies. It's a rare comedy that warrants four stars, but this one does. ****

Geraldine Ferraro: Paving The Way (2013)

Documentary on Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011), the New York congresswoman who in 1984 would become the first woman in U.S. history to run for the vice presidency on a major party political ticket. Of course this democratic ticket (headed by former vice president Walter Mondale) would lose horribly to Ronald Reagan's 49 state re-election landslide, still Ferraro was an interesting and accomplished woman, and the fact that she was on the ticket a historic game changer. This film was directed by Ferraro's daughter Donna Zaccaro. ***

And the Oscar Goes Too.... (2014)

Documentary feature on the Academy Awards, its history, some notable moments, what its like to win an award, that kind of thing. Basically what you'd expect it to be, satisfactorily entertaining. ***

Ministry of Fear (1944)

It seems like there a lot of these WWII, British or qusi-British, espionage, man on the run features, (notably Man Hunt and Night Train to Munich) and it seems like they should get old, but they are generally pretty good quality and I've developed kind of partiality to this interesting little period sub-genera. It helps of course that Ministry of Fear was based on a Graham Green novel, so with that kind of source material your already half way there, plus this is directed by Fritz Lang so another big plus. The plot concerns a war refuge organization, and its charity bake sales, that have been compromised by the Nazi's, as in who would think to look for Nazi spy's using an anti-Nazi organization for cover. Ray Milland plays a man recently released from a prolonged stay at a mental hospital who accidently stumbles on at first questionable seeming, and later outright nefarious goings on involving said group. Of course given that Milland just got out of 'the nuthouse' (the reason for his stay there is reveled during the course of the film) people aren't likely to listen to him. Milland amasses a few allies, including a love interest played by Marjorie Reynolds, but some of them may not be what they appear. Not as good as Man Hunt or Night Train to Munich, but Ministry of Fear is still quite watchable. ***