Tarantula

 Year:  1955

Director:  Jack Arnold

Screenplay:  Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley, from a story by Jack Arnold and Robert M. Fresco, based on the television episode "No Food for Thought" written by Robert M. Fresco from Science Fiction Theatre 

Starring:  John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll

Running Time:  80 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

When a strangely deformed man is found dead in the Arizona desert, Dr. Matt Hastings (Agar) investigates the laboratory of the respected Professor Gerald Deemer (Carroll), who has been working on a new nutrient to help feed the world's rapidly growing population, however, in it's unperfected state it causes rapid, uncontrolled growth, and exposure to it was somehow responsible for the deformity and death of the man found in the desert.  Things go from bad to worse when a tarantula Deemer had been experimenting on breaks out and goes on the rampage, as it keeps getting bigger and bigger, and hungrier and hungrier.

This is one of the better examples of the giant bug movies that were crawling all over American screens in the 1950s.  Science and particularly scientists were often depicted quite ambiguously in American film in the 1950s.  While science promised the brave new world of numerous gaudily printed science-fiction magazines, it also unleashed the horrors of the atomic bomb.  Even when the scientists were essentially benevolent and well-meaning, as in Tarantula, when the eggheads inevitably make a complete mess of things it is time for them to step aside and let the US Air Force blow everything to kingdom come. The film used quite advanced and complex special effects for the time, with blown up images of real animals used to depict the giant animals.  Most of the sequences of the tarantula itself use a real tarantula superimposed on to the footage, with model effects used for close-ups of it's fangs, and for the film's climax.  They may look unconvincing today, but the special effects were deemed convincing for the 1950s.  Also a lot of people are terrified of tarantulas anyway.  Jack Arnold was one of the great directors of B-movies, and has a solid cast of veterans, including Leo G. Carroll, who appeared in several Alfred Hitchcock films, as the avuncular professor who is unwittingly responsible for the whole mess.  John Agar, who appeared in a number of John Ford Westerns, plays the square jawed hero, and Mara Corday, who really doesn't have much to do as Carroll's assistant and Agar's love interest.  The film has an interesting script, adapted from a 1955 episode of the TV anthology series Science Fiction Theatre.  Tarantula's lasting legacy in popular culture is probably being name checked in the lyrics to "Science Fiction, Double Feature" the opening song for The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): "And Leo G. Carroll/ was over a barrel/ when tarantula took to the hills."  You may also recognise the Air Force pilot at the end of the film as it is a very early, uncredited appearance by Clint Eastwood.

Tarantula

Pale Rider

Year of Release:  1985

Director:  Clint Eastwood

Screenplay:  Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Chris Penn, Richard Dysart, Sydney Penny

Running Time:  116 minutes

Genre:  Western

19th century, California: A group of independent prospectors, panning for gold, are regularly harassed by a gang of thugs in the pay of wealthy mining baron Coy LaHood (Dysart), who is determined to drive off the prospectors so he can seize their land.  Following a raid in which her pet dog is shot dead, 14 year old Megan Wheeler (Penny) prays for a miracle to save them.  Shortly afterwards a mysterious Preacher (Eastwood) arrives to help the prospectors.

Plot wise, this is similar to endless Westerns in which a lone hero arrives to defend the good and the helpless against brutal villains.  This film however has a strange supernatural angle to it, similar to Eastwood's directorial debut High Plains Drifter (1973).  It is very strongly hinted that the unnamed Preacher is a ghost, although it is left ambiguous.  The Preacher's backstory is hinted at, but never really revealed.  It's even hinted that the Preacher is Death himself.  He seems to appear in answer to Megan's prayer, riding in accompanied by thunder, lighting and howling winds, and he enters the prospector's camp accompanied by a reading if the Biblical verse from which the film takes it's title: "And lo, I beheld a pale horse, with a pale rider on it, and the name of the rider was Death.  And Hell followed him."  As an actor, Eastwood does what he does best, with his squinting glares, and snarling drawl, as a director, Eastwood handles the material with style, often using interesting framing and camera angles, that take advantage of every part of the screen, and the wintery landscapes are beautiful.  The influence of Sergio Leone, who directed the Dollars trilogy that made Eastwood a movie star, is very strong here.  There is also a slight environmental element to the film with LaHood's controversial hydraulic mining technique destroying the landscape, as opposed to the prospectors peacefully panning for gold in the river.  Michael Moriarty plays Hull Barret, the put upon but determined leader of the prospectors, Carrie Snodgress plays Sarah Wheeler, Megan's mother who has become increasingly cynical after she was abandoned by Megan's father, but with whom Barret is in love, and Chris Penn plays LaHood's son and head of the thugs.  Richard Kiel (best known as the metal-toothed Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979)) has a small role as one of LaHood's heavies.  The performances are all fine, if unmemorable,  they do what they need to do.  Snodgress probably gives the best performance, and the film does build up a fairly complex relationship between Sarah and Barret.  There is a brief but very unpleasant scene of an attempted sexual assault on the 14 year old Megan, although is is stopped and she is rescued by the Preacher.  It sours an otherwise innocuous film, and really serves little purpose.  Despite being an action film, this is mostly quite a slow film, and all wrapped up in a fairly neat, if disappointing climax.  This is not an essential film but, if you like Westerns, you may enjoy it, but if you're not a fan of the genre this will not convert you.     

A Fistful of Dollars

Year of Release:  1964
Director:  Sergio Leone
Screenplay:  Victor Andrés Catena, Jaime Comas Gil, Sergio Leone, Adriano Bolzani and Mark Lowell, based on Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa and Ryūzō Kikushima
Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Josef Egger, Wolfgang Lukschy, John Wells, Daniel Martin, Carol Brown, Benny Reeves
Running Time:  99 minutes
Genre:  Western, Spaghetti Western, action

The small town of San Miguel, on the Mexican-United States border, is divided between two smuggler families, who are engaged in a violent and long-running feud.  One day a mysterious stranger (Eastwood) arrives in town and, learning of the situation, decides that he can make some money by playing each side off against the other.

This relatively low budget film with no big stars, and from fairly unknown director, which was panned by the critics on it's initial release, went on to not only launch one of the biggest movie stars, and one of the most iconic characters but almost defined an entire genre.  If you don't know, the term "Spaghetti Western" were Westerns produced and directed by Italian filmmakers and usually shot in Spain.  A Fistful of Dollars was not the first Italian Western but it created the style and the hallmarks of the genre.  Leone wanted to make a Western that felt like an Italian film.  In this film, everything feels exaggerated, the streets of the small town are as wide as most modern city streets, the closeups are extreme so you can read every crevice on the craggy faces, the violence is stylish and fast moving.  This was the first film to star Clint Eastwood, who at the time was best known for the TV series Rawhide (1959 - 1965), and his "Man With No Name" became possibly his defining role (although in this film, an undertaker refers to him as "Joe").  The character is iconic, the man of mystery who you know about as much at the end of the film as you did at the beginning.  The fast shooting, quick drawing gunman with a permanent squint in the eye and sneer who always seems to be two moves ahead of everyone else.
The film is widely regarded as an unauthorised remake of the classic Japanese film Yojimbo (1961), directed by Akira Kurosawa who brought a lawsuit against the filmmakers.  Kurosawa stated "Leone made a fine film, but it was my film."  Leone pointed out that Kurosawa was not the first person to use the plot of an individual playing two sides off against each other, noting the Dashiell Hammett novel Red Harvest (1929) and the 18th Century play Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni.  However, the lawsuit was settled out of court.
A Fistful of Dollars is a must see for all fans of Westerns or action films in general.  Leone and Eastwood would ride again in two sequels: For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

Clint Eastwood as The Man with No Name            

Play Misty for Me

Year of Release:  1971
Director:  Clint Eastwood
Screenplay:  Jo Heims and Dean Riesner, from a story by Jo Heims
Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch
Running Time:  102 minutes
Genre:  Thriller

In the picturesque Californian city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Dave Garver (Eastwood) is a late night radio DJ .  One night in a bar, Dave meets Evelyn Draper (Walter), a fan of his radio show, who calls up every night requesting the jazz standard "Misty".  Dave and Evelyn have a one night stand, but Evelyn soon reveals herself to be an obsessive stalker.  Dave, who is in the process of reuniting with his ex-girlfriend, Tobie (Mills), repeatedly rejects Evelyn, who becomes increasingly violent and dangerous.

This chilling psychological thriller marked Clint Eastwood's debut as a director.  Looked at today, the film has dated, but by and large it holds up.  Although largely written as a deranged obsessive, Jessica Walter gives her portrayal of Evelyn some real depth, playing her as a confused, vulnerable and hurt woman, crucially she is always a sympathetic, if terrifying, character, and there is real chemistry in her scenes with Eastwood.  There is an interesting dynamic in that, while we never really fear for Garver, as he visibly struggles to contain his temper, we worry what he may do to Evelyn.  Throughout much of the film Garver doesn't really take Evelyn all that seriously or seem particularly concerned about the real threat she represents to him.  Mostly he treats her as a nuisance.  Directed largely in a straightforward, unflashy style, the film allows the tension to build up effectively, and at times it looks like a quasi-documentary, particularly the scene at the Monterey Jazz Festival.  One sequence which really feels out of place though, is the love scene between Garver and Tobie, where lyrical shots of nature and this beautiful verdant forest culminates in the two of them having sex in a isolated natural pool, all to the strains of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack, and ends up looking a bit like the cover of a paperback romance novel. 
Veteran director Don Siegel, who made several films with Eastwood and was one of the biggest influences on his filmmaking style, has a small role as a bartender.

Jessica Walter and Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me   

J. Edgar

Year:  2011
Director:  Clint Eastwood
Screenplay:  Dustin Lance Black
Starring:  Leonadro DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Damon Herriman, Ed Westwick, Jeffrey Donovan
Running Time:  137 minutes
Genre:  Drama, biography

This film tells the true life story of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.  In the 1960s, Hoover (DiCaprio) dictates the story of his rise to power to a succession of young agents.  In 1919, a 24 year old Hoover makes a mark by targeting alleged Communists after a series of letter bombs are delivered to prominent politicians and public figures in Washingotn D.C.  After being appointed Director of the Bureau of Investigation, Hoover's scientific methods of criminal investigation are brought to bear in the high-profile Lindbergh baby kidnapping case.  However, in the 1930s, when the FBI declares war on the "public enemies" (famous gangsters and bank robbers such as Al Capone and John Dillinger), Hoover becomes a household name.  However as time passes Hoover becomes increasingly paranoid and obsessed with surveillance, building up bulky covert files on countless American citizens (both guilty and innocent).  At the same time he is troubled by his repressed homosexuality, and desire for his best friend, Clyde Tolson (Hammer).

This is a film which is easier to admire than like.  It boasts a strong central performance from DiCaprio who has the difficult task of portraying a complex man from his mid-twenties to late seventies, it is well shot with immaculate production design and period detail.  Visually the film employs a palette which seems to bleed all the colour from a scene making it look virtually black-and-white.  For a film that mostly takes place in gloomy, cavernous offices, it gives it an appropriately somber look.  However, the film suffers trying to pack in seven decades of American history into about two and a quarter hours, which means that many important and interesting elements are either skipped over or ignored entirely (most notably Hoover's relationship with Melvin Purvis, who was at one time the FBI's number one agent  and became famous for shooting John Dillinger.  However, allegedly jealous at Purvis' fame, Hoover turned on him).  Another problem that the film has is the prosthetic make-up for when the actors play their older characters, DiCaprio's is fine, but Hammer's just looks comical, like a rubber mask.  Also the film is very slow at times.  Hoover promoted an image of the sharp-suited, square-jawed, clean-cut, gun-toting FBI "G-Man", but he himself was a man who spent his career behind a desk, and much of the film is basically people talking in offices.  Action is kept to a minimum, and that which there is strongly hinted to be a product of Hoover's own self-mythologising.

For a man who was preoccupied with the private lives of others, and was always hungry for fame and publicity,  Hoover kept his own private life a closely guarded secret.  The film makes it pretty clear that Hoover was gay but very deep in the closet.  In one chilling scene, Hoover tries to explain to his mother (Judi Dench) that he is not interested in women and his mother harshly responds that "I would rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son."  One of the most famous rumours about J. Edgar Hoover was that he was a transvestite, although this has since been discredited.  It's not even mentioned in the film. 

A film that is so focussed on it's central character means that the other characters rarely have much of a chance to make an impression.  Armie Hammer is impressive as Hoover's close friend, Clyde Tolson, which the film depicts as having  along term almost-romance with Hoover, Naomi Watts is underused as Helen Gandy, Hoover's long-serving secretary and Judi Dench gives a good perfomance as Hoover's sour, deeply religious mother.  DiCaprio plays Hoover with sympathy and sensitivity, no matter how unpleasant the things he does.  Hoover comes across as a bully and a power-hungry manipulator, who would do everything and anything to get what he wanted.  However, it is a testament to DiCaprio's skill and the film's script that Hoover emerges as a sympathetic, if not likeable, character.

This is an interesting enough movie, and makes a good attempt to explain an extremely complex man.  In fact, it is good enough that it is really frustrating that it is not better.

Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar