REVIEW OF ''ISLAND OF LOST WOMEN" (1959)

"Hell on Frisco Bay" director Frank Tuttle's final film "Island of Lost Women" (** OUT OF ****) was co-produced by actor Alan Ladd's Jaguar company and written by "Teenage Monster" scenarist Ray Buffum from a story by Prescott Chaplin. Chaplin is best known for writing the W.C. Fields comedy "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break." "Island of Lost Women" appears to be inspired in part by William Shakespeare's "The Tempest." American radio commentator Mark Bradley (Jeff Richards of "Born Reckless") is being flown to a news conference in Melbourne, Australia, when one propeller of their twin-engined plane, piloted by Joe Walker (John Smith later of the television western "Laramie"), malfunctions, and Walker makes an emergency landing on an uncharted island in the Pacific. These guys have been working together for five years and what they are about to encounter is the most bizarre experience of their association. Moments before they land, our heroes hear a warning broadcast to them over a loudspeaker to dissuade them from landing. Left with no alternative but to land, Walker manages adroitly to put the plane down on the beach without it cracking up. A distinguished gentleman in casual apparel, Dr. Paul Lujan (towering Alan Napier of the television series "Batman"), approaches them and brusquely inquires how quickly they can repair their aircraft and leave him in peace.

Watching nearby from the foliage are Lujan's lovely daughters: Venus (Venetia Stevenson of "Darby's Rangers"), Mercuria (June Blair of "Hell Bound"), and sixteen-year-old Urana (Diane Jergens of "Teenage Rebel"), who have never seen any men other than their father. Later, we learn that Paul's wife died after they had moved to the island. Walker discovers their host's identity when he is gathering eggs for their supper. The pilot finds Lujan's name stenciled on a slat from a packing crate: Dr. Paul Lujan, California Institute. A cynical and disillusioned atomic scientist who is "one of the leading authorities on nuclear fission in the world," Lujan explains to Mark that his wife and he forsook civilization fifteen years ago and sought the haven of an island with their three small children after the attack on Hiroshima. Lujan never believed the Allies would have deployed the bomb. He thought it would be used only as a threat. Bradley takes a walk with Venus and they talk about his work. Urana shows up to bring Venus home and asks her has Bradley kissed her yet. Dr. Lujan furnishes our heroes with pillows and bedding to sleep on the beach. While Walker had tried to extend their stay with additional repairs, Bradley wants him now to speed up things because he senses a scoop in their serendipitous encounter on the island. The following morning, our heroes confront Dr. Lujan with his identity, and he allows them the chance to leave, but Bradley is determined to exploit the opportunity. Now, in a drastic change from his earlier graciousness, Lujan promises them that they shall never leave the island if they don't agree to never mention its location. Again, Bradley refuses to accept Lujan's ultimatum. The scientist brandishes a flame-throwing automatic pistol and destroys their plane.

This doesn't keep Bradley and Walker from commencing work on a raft with Venus and Mercuria providing them with tools. Before long, Urana creates trouble of her own when she becomes infatuated with Bradley. Our heroes have built a raft, but Bradley refuses to take Venus with her. Urana eavesdrops on their conversation and informs on them to her father. Eventually, Lujan takes Walker prisoner in his storage shed. Urana finds her father's flame-throwing pistol and they struggled over it. Accidentally, they fire it and a blaze erupts in Lujan's laboratory. Trying to release Walker from confinement, Lujan is thwarted when a shelf above the door collapses and knocks him semi-conscious. Bradley rushes it as the daughters carry their father to safety and rescue his pardner. Earlier, Lujan had shown Mark his process for forging a special isotope from uranium in his small laboratory reactor. The heat from the blaze triggers a reaction. Our heroes, the girls, and Dr. Lujan survive an atomic blast. At fadeout, an air/send rescue plane is flying all six of them back to civilization.

Director Frank Tuttle doesn't have much to work with, but he keeps the action moving briskly in this tame, black and white, 71-minute opus. Alan Napier is ideally cast as the mad scientist who believes that civilization is like a snowball that grows bigger as it rolls along toward extinction. Jeff Richards and John Smith are feisty young bulls. One scene shows them in their swim trunks about a dip in the ocean. Later, Bradley saves Venus from a shark. The shark that Richards kills is hilariously limp. Of course, the girls are all gorgeous. Production values seem above-average as this is a Warner Brothers' release. The uncharted island with atomic energy must have been a stretch in those days. "Island of Lost Women" was obviously used to pack theaters. Routine and competent best describes it.

FILM REVIEW OF "WONDER WOMAN" (2017)

The Adam West & Burt Ward “Batman” (1966) movie qualified as the first costume-clad crime fighter epic of the modern era.  Although women have figured prominently in all superhero sagas, DC Comics’ latest superhero origins extravaganza “Wonder Woman” (*** OUT OF ****) marks only the fifth time a woman has been cast as the title character in a blockbuster actioneer.  Earlier entries included “Supergirl” (1984) with Helen Slater; “Tank Girl” (1995) with Lori Petty; “Catwoman” (2004) with Halle Berry; and “Elektra” (2005) with Jennifer Garner.  Unfortunately, these four films failed to recoup their respective budgets at the box office.  (Before in the 1970s, Cathy Lee Crosby and Lynda Carter broke through the TV barrier and portrayed William Moulton Marston’s comic book creation Wonder Woman.  Crosby made one television feature, while Carter cavorted about for three seasons in a starry, patriotic costume with lots of cleavage. For the record, the Wonder Woman character made her DC Comics debut in their All-Star Comics in December 1941, and she fought Hitler’s Third Reich.)  Anyway, “Wonder Woman” is the only superhero movie about a heroine that can be classified as both a smashing critical and commercial success.  At last, little girls and feminists alike have a larger-than-life heroine as a role model that they can applaud in the eternal struggle against evil.  

Meantime, Warner Brothers should have released “Wonder Woman” before “Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.”  The earlier blockbuster introduced audiences to the iconic Amazon warrior Princess Diana (Israel model Gal Gadot) with her incandescent Lasso of Truth and her ritualistic sword--something like King Arthur’s Excalibur--who came to the rescue in the darkest hour of need to vanquish Lex Luthor’s genetically mutated monster Doomsday.  Sadly, Wonder Woman tangles with an adversary far less frightening than Doomsday in “Monster” director Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman.”  Instead, she clashes with Zeus’ son--the wicked God of War Ares--and triumphs over the dastard.  Primarily, “Wonder Woman” is a movie told in flashback about the formative years of the heroine’s life and the photograph taken of her with her mortal male companions in World War I.  Actress Gal Gadot will erase any memories of either Cathy Lee Crosby or Lynda Carter. “Wonder Woman” ranks as a spectacular movie until she scrimmages with Ares, who resembles the Wizard of Oz’s Tin Man high on bath salts.  Apart from that predictable climactic clash with Ares, “Wonder Woman” ranks as an exciting, first-rate adventure opus about our heroine shedding her naïve innocence as she blunders through an amoral world.

“Wonder Woman” unfolds in contemporary Paris, at the illustrious Louvre Museum. Diana works as a Curator in the Department of Antiquities.  A Wayne Enterprises armored car pulls up, and a uniformed guard delivers a locked valise to her office.  Diana recognizes Bruce Wayne’s logo on it.  Opening the valise, she admires a sepia-colored daguerreotype of her in her Wonder Woman outfit with four troubleshooters posed with her.  The significance of the photograph is that Wayne Enterprises, a.k.a. Batman, has sent her the original copy.  The picture revives Diana’s memories about her youth on the enchanted Uptonian island of Themyscira.  Eight-year old Diana (newcomer Lilly Aspell) yearns to be an Amazon warrior, but her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen of “Gladiator”) refuses to let her sister Antiope (Robin Wright of “Forrest Gump”) train her as a warrior.  Hippolyta warns her daughter, “Fighting doesn’t make you a hero.” Later, she calls Diana “the most precious thing in this world.” “I sculpted you from clay myself and begged Zeus to give you life.” Eventually, Hippolyta relents but tells Antiope that Diana must be the best Amazon on the island. Moreover, Diana should be able to defeat even Antiope!  Predictably, Diana (Gal Gadot of “Fast Five”) emerges from her training as the greatest Amazon.  Initially, when Zeus created the island paradise for the Amazons, he made it virtually impossible for anybody to find it.  As she is standing atop a cliff one day, Diana spots a plane as it penetrates the shield surrounding Themyscira.  The aircraft plummets into the ocean, and Diana plunges into the deep.  She rescues the aviator from the sinking plane and examines him on the beach.  Just as he recovers from the crash, Diana’s mother Hippolyta and her warriors ride up on a cliff overlooking the beach and spot German ships breaking through the invisible barrier.  Squads of German soldiers in the Kaiser’s Imperial Army storm the beach and open fire on the Amazons.  The intrepid pilot, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine of “Star Trek Beyond”), seizes a rifle from a soldier while the Amazon warriors let arrows galore fly at the Germans.  Incredibly, the Amazons repulse them!  Later, they learn from Trevor that he is an American secret agent masquerading as a German for the British.  Moreover, he has stolen a valuable notebook from a notorious German chemist, Dr. Mara (Elena Anaya of “Van Helsing”), who is testing a poison gas that will alter the outcome of the conflict.

The refreshing thing about “Wonder Woman” is her origins haven’t been told ad infinitum, like “Superman,” “Batman,” and “Spider-man.”  In fact, the set-up on Themyscira is one of the better parts, especially director Patty Jenkins’ choreography of the fight between the Germans and the bow & arrow wielding Amazons on the beach.  Anyway, Diana learns about the global tragedy of World War I and decides the only way the war will end is when she slays Ares.  Diana promises to help Steve Trevor escape from Themyscira if he will escort her to the war.  She takes the Lariat of Hestia, an incandescent rope that prompts captives in its twine to utter only the truth, her magical bracelets, and an impressive sword nicknamed ‘the Godkiller.’  The next best scene occurs on a World War I battlefield.  Wonder Woman emerges from the trenches and enters no-man’s land.  Germans from everywhere greet her with a hail of gunfire.  She uses her magical bracelets to deflect their bullets.  Gal Gadot acquits herself as well here as the eponymous character as she did in “Batman Vs Superman.”  Altogether, “Wonder Woman” amounts to a dame good movie!

FILM REVIEW OF ''PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES" (2017)

If numbers mean anything to you, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” (*** OUT OF ****) is the fifth film in Walt Disney Studios’ 18^th century, supernatural, seafaring, fantasy franchise about swashbuckling buccaneers.  Norwegian directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg of “Bandidas” have taken the helm and recycled the best elements of the series with this boisterous as well as bizarre scavenger hunt for the fabled Trident of Poseidon. The Trident—according t0 “Tower Heist” writer Jeff Nathanson’s elaborate but rambling screenplay--will absolve any curses cast on seagoing guys.  The exhaustive Trident search amounts to a marathon enterprise in this scenic, widescreen, PG-13 rated, 129-minute epic, but everything works out in the surf.  The CGI animation of various characters and the ocean where they find the Trident is probably a milestone for the franchise.  Mind you, the “Pirates” movies have savagely maligned for their heavy reliance on special visual effects.  Given that fantasy is the keystone of the franchise, such criticism seems entirely irrelevant.  Nothing about the “Pirates” movies, aside from the exotic settings and sprawling production designs, is remotely authentic.  After several mediocre movies and enough bad press to drive a lesser mortal into exile, Johnny Depp is back doing what he does best. Captain Jack Sparrow is as rum-soaked as ever, and Depp plays him with his characteristic flair for comic theatricality. 

Directors Rønning and Sandberg have delivered not only a superior sequel but also an interesting prequel.  This time we see Jack before he acquired his signature headgear and attained the rank of captain.  Captain Jack Sparrow is still as much a hero as a buffoon.  This time out he is pitted against an utterly villainous ghost, while the pride of His Majesty’s Imperial Fleet terrorizes him.  Presumably, after the least memorable 0f sequels, i.e., “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer sought a return to form.  Although it lacks the inspired spontaneity of the original “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” you couldn’t ask for more from this fourth sequel.  Forty minutes shorter than the second, overindulgent sequel “Dead Man’s Chest,” “Dead Men Tell No Tales” ties up many loose narrative threads as well as charts a possible future for the franchise. 

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” opens with an attention-grabbing scene.  Twelve-year old Henry Turner (newcomer Lewis McGowan) rows out by himself into the ocean at night. Knotting a rope to his ankle, which in turn is attached to an anchor, he steps from the boat into the briny deep, and the anchor plunges him down to the ocean floor.  Holding his breath all the way down, Henry lands on the deck of the sunken pirate ship The Flying Dutchman.  Henry meets the ghostly apparition of his father, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom of “Ned Kelly”), and assures him that he hasn’t given up on his lifting the curse on his dad.  Henry tells him about the Trident of Poseidon and assures his father that he can live on land again as soon as Henry acquires the trident.  The Flying Dutchman surfaces from the deep, and Will reminds Henry that the trident is largely a legend.  Nevertheless, Henry vows to find it. Nine years elapse, and Henry (Brenton Thwaites of “Maleficent”) is aboard a British sailing ship in pursuit of a pirate ship.  Henry warns the captain in vain that he is pursuing a treacherous course into the Devil’s Triangle as the ship approaches a tunnel in a mountain surrounded by a reef.  The captain charges Henry with treason and has the youth clapped in irons.  Not long afterward, the dreaded Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem of “Skyfall”) attacks his ship.  They kill everybody aboard except Henry because they find Jack Sparrow wanted posters in his possession.  Salazar allows Henry to live on the condition that he tell Jack Sparrow that he wants him.  Furthermore, Salazar lets Henry live because he always sends one lone survivor back to tell the tale.

Meantime, Sparrow and his pirate crew have sneaked into the township of St. Martin.  They have come to rob the bank.  The bank directors are celebrating the addition of new, impregnable vault that nobody can rob.  When they open the formidable vault, the commotion awakens a sozzled Jack Sparrow who is inside it.  The British fire a volley about the same time that Jack’s crew has lashing the vault to a team of powerful horses.  Whipping the steeds into action, they wind up hauling the whole bank along with the vault behind them!  Jack Sparrow entangles his foot in one of the ropes, and he is dragged along behind it, blissfully guzzling rum from a bottle.  Predictably, the British follow with muskets blazing.  The trouble is the door to the vault doesn’t shut and all the wealth in the vault spills out in a trail of golden bread crumbs that citizens scoop up.  This qualifies as one of the best gags in this sprawling spectacle.  Indeed, it recalls a similar robbery in “Fast Five.”  Later, after the British Navy recaptures Jack, they set out to decapitate him with a French guillotine.  At the same time, the British are poised to hang an alleged witch, Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario of “The Maze Runner”), because she claims to know how to read the stars as if they were a map.  Not only does Henry believe she can lead him to the Trident, but also that Jack Sparrow has a compass that can aid them on the quest.  Henry enlists the help of Sparrow’s crew, and this escape sequence is both hilarious and exciting.

The characters in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” run the gamut of larger-than-life as well as larger-than-death.  Salazar’s zombie pirate crew are a CGI miracle.  Most of his crew are missing fragments of their anatomy, some even their heads.  The fifth installment in the “Pirates” franchise will keep you shivering and snickering.