StevenKeys

Charlie to Paulie aghast: "I had to do the right thing (mailed Barney his end)"

The summer wind is baking the Big Apple where three men, a shifty waiter (Roberts), an alimony-owing maître d' (Rourke) and "hotshot locksmith" from the Bronx (McMillan)," team-up to rob a safe in Manhattan, only its planner aware it's a mob box, yet, even he not keen to its police payoff contents. When a detective arrives (Kehoe) and just as quickly departs, falling down an elevator shaft, theft turns into felony murder. The upside, their take is "150 large" and the cop is wired for sound, his cassette a bit o' leverage when the owner closes in (Young).

An urban tale of young bravado and middle-aged angst subject to a community code as old as the Etruscans. An MGM / UA production (Koch Kirkwood) (121m), Pope was penned by its basis author, Bronx-born Vincent Patrick at direction of Brooklynite and Gaelic literature enthusiast, Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand). Could be called black comedy if not so moving at times, a mood that quickly turns jaunty on composer David Grusin's hearty Irish-Italian score.

Stars Mickey Rourke as Charlie Moran, he red-lining on responsibilities: an angry ex-wife (Ipanema) with custody in son and car (tickets), a 3rd cousin who won't "grow up" and girlfriend now expecting. Paris' Bob le flambeur (56) is his kindred spirit, both a "sense of honor," panache for picking ponies, not above robbing the rich and held in high esteem by peers. Eric Roberts gets top-bill as Charlie's side-kick and heist planner, malaprop Paulie ("artificial inspiration") is son of his father (Bosco), a hustler who went on the street to buy a race horse (Starry Hope) and hopes his goombah will help (Musante) "if things go sour." Marone! Arthur Seaton (Saturday) (60) is Paul's match, each "knowing how to spend it" and playing by their own rules but paying dearly when flagged for a foul.

Mickey and Eric are the players, Ken and Geraldine the heart. McMillan is Barney, the "Irish hard-on" who did a stretch and now repairs clocks, cracking safe when he can. A wife (Miller), disabled son and cataracts coming, his trust in Charlie ($) is inspiring, platform scene with Nora a tear-jerker. Page plays Mrs Ritter, Walter's feisty but loving mother who scrubs floors and sips whiskey ("good for the system"), an act nearly as remarkable as the other Miss Page (Red Shoes), bringing Gerry the film's only Oscar nom, winning one next year for her sentimental Trip to Bountiful. Support comes in Daryl Hannah as Chuck's leggy live-in from Maine, willful, impulsive and fed-up with his "tribal loyalties;" Burt Young is Little Italy duce Bed Bug Eddie Grant whose methods are cruel but streets the only ones safe for "kids and old ladies;" crooked cops Emmet Walsh & Tom Carlin are on the Grant plan ($) so then frantic to find Bunky's tape; Joe Grifasi is investor Jimmy Cheese (horse) (Breslin) and Val Avery is Bed Bug's right hand Nunzi who's all thumbs ("Charlie!").

Long a favorite setting of producers for its wealth of possibilities, the New York tale has been told in many voices: Marty, Midnight Cowboy, Do the Right Thing, King Kong, Dog Day, The Dark Corner, French Connection, Gold Diggers, Annie Hall, West Side Story. No heist film is more colorful or personal, Pope singing its saga in keys humor ("You woke her!"), horror, suspense and surprise. Groundhog Day's John Bailey (ASC) captures the Village vogue, casting by Bonnie 'Midnight Run' Timmerman is on the money and legendary local Frank Sinatra is the music motif. Listed 'No Watch' by the PC police (slang), don't be "stunatz," choose art and live happier (4/4).

An introverted camera operator and cheesecake click fills his London apartment with fantasies in film while keeping hidden a criminal alter-ego he abhors but is unable to stop or seek its therapy. When a kindly co-tenant recognizes his gifts, then the problem and offers that help, Mark faces a dilemma, either stay on the destructive path that could claim Helen's life or find courage to break the cycle and see that justice is done. Should be a film school favorite, its 101 minutes enough to keep a classroom busy all semester. Directed by Michael Powell who, with Emeric Pressburger (Archers), was responsible for famous features The Red Shoes (48) & Black Narcissus (47) but this shocker stalling his career as critics pounced and viewers passed, only years later receiving praise for its story (Marks), camera (Heller), acts and being the first horror movie to cross the line.

Why so poorly received? It's a disturbing film, in scenes, though, just as captivating in others, like its non-identical twin, Hitchcock's Psycho. One then wonders why Al's spawn escaped the slings & arrows of critics? Though one day it will look a master stroke, America wasn't quite ready for cruelty in color (Eastman), still preferring the protection of b&w against red-blooded realism. As well, the director of The Birds had a skill for smoothing sharp edges with emery board in camera (Burks) and charm (Bates). The best theory why Tom bombed, Studio leverage. PT (Ap) (60) would beat Psycho (Je) (NY) to the stab, premiering ten weeks sooner (UK), yet, when distributor A-I-P bailed on Anglo-Amalgamated, Paramount had 15 months (Sep 60) to leave the first, indelible mark on minds of US movie-goers who'd had their fill of freak boy by the time Tom hit town (Nov 61). Landing second on the continent never makes news, unless your name was Amerigo Vespucci (1499).

That both films boast an odd title and male lead whose polite, creative persona masks a parentally-fostered, demonic psyche (Mark's dad made his boy subject to experiments in fear), is pretty amazing. But it's the distinctions PT has with Al's masterpiece in terror giving it a depth, dimension that today makes it most unique among slasher cinema: 1) a love story that's both taboo and touching; 2) a killer who refuses to hide behind the insanity defense; 3) an intellect (Rosan: "scopophilia (or) morbid need to gaze") that presages today's all-consuming culture.

Karl Böhm of the Sissi trilogy (55) (Josef) stars in a brilliant performance as felonious film fanatic Mark Lewis: smart, subdued, sinister and sick by-product of bad parenting but has an angel in his building played by the actress with the famous name, Anna Massey who's in her breakout role that nobody saw. Co-stars Jack Watson as Insp Gregg and Powell friend Moira Shearer in an unexpectedly expressive act as vivacious model, Vivian. Gee, Vicky, we hardly knew you!

There are movies you can watch every year (Midnight Run) and then there are movies you give yourself more time to ponder (2-3 yrs) (Raging Bull). Peeping Tom is the latter, but with every successive watch the beauty will over-take the beast and you'll wonder why you waited so long to return. Has "a quality" that classic fans will quickly spot and never forget (3.5/4).

The year is 1910, the place, London, where "the age of men" is edict as King Edward sits the throne. One of those men is George Banks, a fifth generation accountant with wife and two impish children living well at 17 Cherry Tree Lane, though, a crisis is taking shape: the Banks are without a nanny, Jane & Michael driving babysitters out the door. As mother is a full time suffragette and brawny servants are unwilling to deviate from their duties, a capable nanny is a must. Enter father who moves to fill the breach by composing a help wanted, but before he can finish it, the kids submit their own version that dad tears and tosses into the fireplace where later a gust of wind will lift up the chimney and into possession of cloud-sitter Mary Poppins who puts them right, drops to earth and steers her umbrella to 17 Cherry Tree, gaining entrance and the position.

I won't mince words, I didn't like Mary Poppins, finding it insufferable, even as I watched with anticipation, having seen it as a child and recalled with fondness its songs we sang spontaneously. It made basis author Pam Travers (1899-96) decades long rejection of Walt Disney's offer to buy rights to her story (61), prophetic (believed it wouldn't translate), later revelations that seem to support her earlier objection, particularly in cast. Media critics, however, heaped praise on the Buena Vista production (139m) which urged five (5) Oscar wins and big box office.

Julie Andrews stars in her film debut just months before captivating the world as another nanny in The Sound of Music (65), Mary, though, void of the joy, imagination that endeared Maria to millions. When not barking orders, M. P. is conjuring unearthly powers from where, we're never told. Fantasy needs a basis, yet, there is no magic ring (Hobbit) or pantheon of gods (Clash of Titans) only a cloud and powder puff. Laughter leading to levitation? Writers (Walsh DaGradi) might just as well have had a pearl fall out Jane's ear each time the admiral fires, it makes about as much sense. Even so, Julie won the Oscar over likes of Gardner, Kerr (Iguana), Reynolds (Molly), Hepburn (Lady) & Caron (Goose). Dick Van Dyke co-stars as the chimney sweep with happy feet. His TV show (61-66) put DVD's talents on weekly display, movie producers focusing on his physical feats, here, song, dance and cockney speak like Bert was molding clay in his mouth, its origin Prof Rex, Burbank!

Glynis Johns is Winny Banks but barely a mother, putting politics first, Karen Dotrice & Matt Garber are the kids and new wave in anti-cute, Reginald Owen plays senile seaman, Adm Boom, Hermione Baddeley & Reta Shaw are the help with cameos from Jane Darwell, Elsa Lanchester, Art Treacher & Ed Wynn as airborn Uncle Albert. David Tomlinson is the real star in Poppins, often cast a cad but here the father / husband who sees his orderly world turned upside down by the new face, forcing him to change because, well, he's a man, his kindred spirit across the Pond in St Louis (Meet Me) (Ames), over-worked, under-loved. Bob Stevenson directs (Jane Eyre) with a Sherman bros' score (O) that brought me back, their Chim Chim winning Best Song, though, I'd've tabbed Spoonful.

One can't feel too happy writing a negative review about a film featuring two of their favorite stars of the 60s, but as Lt Lubinsky would've said, "When you're a (critic), you're a (critic) (The Killers)."