Drive A Crooked Road (1954)

Although a fairly lightweight film noir (which viewers may already suspect is the case when they see Mickey Rooney in a lead role), Drive A Crooked Road is an enjoyable, if predictable, bit of entertainment that benefits from a couple of the main performances being much better than I expected.

Rooney plays Eddie Shannon, a car mechanic/occasional racer who spends a lot of his workday being ribbed by his workmates about his lack of experience with women. That looks set to change when he meets Barbara (Dianne Foster), who seems to take a real liking to him. Barbara then introduces Eddie to one or two others (including Steve, played by Kevin McCarthy) and it isn’t long until Eddie is being invited to assist with a criminal plan that will rely on his outstanding driving skills. 

While it isn’t a big surprise to see that this was directed by Richard Quine (a dependable helmer with a few gems in his filmography), it is slightly more unexpected to see that Quine worked on the screenplay with Blake Edwards, adapting a story by James Benson Nablo. It is also unexpected to realise that the screenplay isn’t very good. This is a film that works because of the main characters, not because of any great plotting or snappy dialogue. I enjoyed it, but it isn’t a classic noir I would rush to recommend to others.

Rooney is fun in his role, a sweet sap you just know is going to be manipulated by those around him. He still feels more like Rooney than a fully-developed character though (a style that suited him well throughout most of his career). Foster does well in the lone central female role, believable as a potential femme fatale or as someone just as manipulated as Eddie, depending on how you view the journey of her character. But it’s McCarthy who lifts the movie, entering the action like a breath of fresh air, believably persuasive and charming before showing himself as equally believable when threatening or mistreating those who try to go against him.

While the runtime is a shade over 80 minutes, I expected this to be even shorter. It’s barely a film, often feeling more like a 4-page comic book storyline, but there’s enough to enjoy for those who aren’t looking for any kind of gold-plated classic. I had fun with it, largely due to the performance of McCarthy, and I suspect other film fans will get some enjoyment from it, even if it’s more disposable and forgettable than many other crime films from the period.

6/10

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Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toymaker (1991)

It's crap.

There. End of the review. I'm done with this series, at last.

You want more? Some elaboration? Well, only if you promise not to burst out laughing while I describe the basic premise. Alright, you don't have to promise, but just try your best.

Young Derek (William Thorne) stops speaking right after he sees his mother's boyfriend killed by a Christmas toy that was delivered to their house. His mother (Jane Higginson) obviously wants her boy to get all better. Not realising that the death was caused by a toy, she takes him to the local toymaker (Joe Petto, played by Mickey Rooney . . . . . . . . . . Joe Petto . . . . . . . get it?) and tries to buy him a small piece of well-balanced mental health. That doesn't work as well as she'd hoped. Meanwhile, more people are killed by toys, but in such a way that the cause of death usually remains a mystery or is deemed an accident.

Using a movie clip from the previous movie to tenuously link it into the franchise (and there's also a fleeting appearance from Neith Hunter, playing Kim once again), this is a standalone Christmas horror movie that had the potential to be a lot of fun. Imagine the possibilities for nastiness in a story that involves someone deliberately creating killer toys? A yuletide Silver Shamrock. Unfortunately, the potential is never realised, thanks to a pervading sense of laziness, a lack of any decent gore (apart from one moment that features some eyeball trauma), and a move to focus, instead, on another main plot element that is so silly that it completely undoes the third act.

The acting is competent, I guess, from most people onscreen, although Rooney really goes over the top at every opportunity, and he's matched by the actor playing his son (Brian Bremer). Brian Yuzna and Martin Kitrosser wrote the script, with the latter also directing the silliness, and Screaming Mad George is on hand to provide some special effects, which is a great shame as his talents are just as wasted as the initial premise.

Like many other horror franchises, this is one that didn't have any reason to exist. It limped along after the first movie, and we can all just hope that this fifth movie remains the last of the sequels.

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Deadly-Better-Initiation-Toymaker/dp/B002P8LKCM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386860173&sr=8-2&keywords=silent+night+deadly+night

The Fox And The Hound (1981)

The Fox And The Hound is a great Disney movie that just falls short of being a real classic because it all feels a bit "been there, seen that". Yet it's still a very sweet movie with wonderful animation and some moments of heartache and fear that will still affect young children.

With three directors involved and lots of writers, the film follows the standard Disney formula almost to the letter but you can't really blame those involved for being set in their ways when it proves a winner time and time again. This particular tale is apparently based on the book by Daniel P. Mannix but, as is so often the way with Disney adaptations, there are very few similiarities between the book and the end result onscreen.

A small fox is hidden away by a parent who is being hunted and ends up in the home of Widow Tweed (voiced by Jeanette Nolan). This allows him to have a fairly happy and safe life. The fox, named Tod, even befriends, and plays with, a hound, named Copper, belonging to a neighbour. That all has to change at some point and Copper is taken away by his owner to learn how to track and hunt. Tod grows up while awaiting the return of his friend but is still naive enough to believe that nothing else will affect their friendship. Sadly, Copper knows better and when he returns he tries to explain to his friend that they can no longer hang around together. Tod doesn't want to believe this but is soon shown just how things have changed.

With Kurt Russell as the voice of Copper and Mickey Rooney as the voice of Tod, The Fox And The Hound almost feels like a bridge between two ages of Disney. The animation is as lovely as ever and the story is the stuff of classic Disney but the studio had a pretty tough time in the 1980s, not helped by the departure of Don Bluth and a number of other animators who helped birth and develop Sullivan Bluth Studios. In fact, production of this movie was delayed by a year because of the staff departures. Perhaps I'm simply projecting onto the film based on the little I know about the ups and downs of Disney but this certainly feels like one of the last old-fashioned outings that they got right just before faultlines began to run through the House Of Mouse.

However, none of that can detract from the fact that this is an endearing, amusing story with moments of great excitement and a cracking vocal cast that includes Paul Winchell (best known as the voice of Tigger), Richard Bakalyan, Pearl Bailey and Sandy Duncan as well as the stars already mentioned. I recommend it as one of the many great Disney films worth including in any collection of family entertainment.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fox-And-Hound-DVD/dp/B000M2E7KA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353432551&sr=8-1