BEVERLY HILLS MADAM

US, 1986, 97 minutes, Colour.
Faye Dunaway, Louis Jourdan, Donna Dixon, Robin Givens, Melody Anderson, Terry Farrell.
Directed by Harvey Hart.

Beverley Hills Madam is a telemovie focusing on high class call-girls in Los Angeles in the 80s. It in allegedly based on true stories and the character portrayed by Faye Dunaway is combination of a number of such Beverly Hills Madams.

The film, in a sense, has its cake and eats it at the same time. The glamour and wealth of the call girl experience is highlighted - but at the end, with a great amount of melodramatic crisis. The overall effect of the film is a
mixture of glamour and warning.

Other files on prostitution and high class call girls include Candice Bergen as the Mayflower Madam, Dyan Cannon as the Lady of the House, Julie Walters offering Personal Services, the ensemble cast in the 1960s Walk on the Wild Side.

Faye Dunaway gives a glamorous performance as the hard-bitten madam. Louis Jordan is her business associate. A number of starlets including Melody Anderson, Donna Dixon and Robyn Givens (introduced in this film) portray the girls.

1. Interesting and entertaining telemovie? Provocative subject for the wide television audience? The adaptation of the reality and the seamier side of prostitution for the television audience?

2. Los Angeles settings, affluent world, glamour, homes, estates? The musical score?

3. The title and the focus on Los Angeles, money, prominent men and their use of the escort agency? The money paid?

4. Faye Dunaway as Lil: the story of her past, 17, brutality, determination, her building up her business, her relationship with the girls, strict and demanding, checking out the clients? Appearing in society as a wealthy divorcee and socially accepted? Her relationship with Doug? the personal level but keeping him at a distance? Friendship with the girls, training them? The appointments and the control, The breaking of her rules, responding to crisis? Wanting to get out? and the final collapse? Offering Claudia the opportunity of taking over? The popular magazine portrayal of the Madam?

5. Douglas Corbin and his suave style, friendship with Lil, checking out the girls, the dangers and covering up? The smooth front for the prostitution?

6. The girls, glamorous women? Their backgrounds? Skill in their work, seeing them at work with their clients? in limousines, hotel rooms, palatial mansions, boats? The glamorous and money-making side of the profession?

7. The seamier side, the demands on the girls, training and breeding, elegance style, being confidants? Pandering to the men? Woman as ultra glamorous objects and paid for in this way? Their study, conversation making? The uglier side brutality, danger? Not able to maintain relationships? The possibility of their marrying and their being found out?

8. Claudia, glamorous, at work? Fully professional? The ambitions to be married, her relationship with the fiance, nervousness about going to the meal, preparations for the wedding, discovered by the fiancé’s uncle, his brutal reaction? Her disillusionment, drinking, selling herself cheaply? Lil angry with her? Drinking at the dinner? opting out of the appointment and thus escaping the death? The final confrontation with Lil? Her future?

9. April, aerobics background, glamorous? Black woman and her prostitution? her clients? Taking Claudia's appointment and her death?

10. Wendy, with politicians, studying? Pregnancy, the rejection by the politician? Her collapse?

11. Julie, the young girl coming from Nebraska, her friend, being bashed in the arrest; Lil taking her under her wing, the decision about coming one of Lil's girls, knowing the facts, the training and the study, going to the boat to initiate the young man, his declaration of love, her not wanting the money and the bonus, going to the house the father rejecting her, the young man and his friends staring at her from the tennis court? Her wanting to opt out?

12. The world of prostitution? exploitation? Glamour and money? Uglier realities?

BLUE GARDENIA

US, 1953, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Anne Baxter, Richard Conti, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr, Jeff Donnell, George Reeves, Nat ‘King’ Cole.
Directed by Fritz Lang.

Blue Gardenia is a film noir from Fritz Lang, typical of some of the small thrillers of the 1950s.

It is a story of amnesia with Anne Baxter, waiting for her boyfriend to come home from the war, accepts an invitation from a playboy, drinks too much, returns home with him, resists his forcing himself on her and kills him. In the morning she cannot remember what happened. She is helped by a newspaperman in order to confront the truth and communicate it.

Anne Baxter was good at this kind of film. Raymond Burr appears, yet again, as the villain. Richard Conti is the newspaperman.

Nat ‘King’ Cole sings the title song as himself.

The film was directed by Fritz Lang who made such an impact in Germany in the 1920s, especially with Metropolis and in the 1930s with M. Claimed by Goebbels as the director for the Third Reich, he escaped from Germany and went to Hollywood where he made a number of significant films in the late 30s including You Only Live Once and Fury. During the 1940s he specialised in a number of thrillers. His range increased during the 1950s although the films were much smaller by comparison. After Blue Gardenia he was to go on to make the classics The Big Heat and Human Desire.

1. How interesting a murder mystery was this? Was it in any way clever? Was it merely routine? A Hollywood murder mystery? Why?

2. How did the screenplay compel audience interest? Identification with characters? Bright dialogue? The mystery itself? The determination of the heroine? How were all of these factors utilised in the film?

3. How interesting were the girls who shared the flat with Nora? Their bright dialogue and humour? Creating a situation for the murder mystery? How enjoyable was this? How important for the film? Their later contribution to the story?

4. How did the film establish its characters to make the murder situation credible? The background of work and the telephones? The newspaper atmosphere? The ordinariness of the situation?

5. How sympathetic a character was Nora? As a working girl? Her world? Her suffering then when she received the letter? Was her outing with Prebble credible? the way that it was filmed? the clues given? The song, the blind woman, the waiter, getting drunk etc?

6. How did the film rely on the audience’s response to Harry Prebble? The audience response to the Prebble type? the sympathy for Nora as against him? The audience’s lack of sympathy for his death? After he had molested?

7. How contrived was the sequence where we thought Nora might have killed him? How did this contrast with the real murder? Was the clue given too obviously? Why?

8. How important was Nora and her predicament for the feel of the film? was her behaviour credible? Her concealing of the truth? What would any woman have done in her situation? Why? Why not go to the police?

9. How sympathetic a character was Casey Mao? Was his character well established as a good newspaper man? Should he have had scruples in invading this privacy? Was he just a self-centred? Did he have the right to investigate the murder? How did he use Nora and her emotional fear and response?

10. How important was the theme of trust in the film? Mao’s atmosphere of trust, Nora’s confiding in him - how important and emotional were these sequences? Why?

11. How brutal was the sense of betrayal? The fact that Mao was using her, despite his change of heart? The despair for Nora when she was betrayed?

12. How ingenious was the working out of the truth did Plato redeem himself? The contribution of Crystal? Nora’s final liberation?

13. How much of this was a ‘woman's film’? Of a woman’s audience identifying with Nora and her predicament and her behaviour?

THE BLUE DAHLIA.

US, 1946, 96 minutes, Black and white.
Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard da Silva, Doris Dowling, Tom Powers, Hugh Beaumont.
Directed by George Marshall.

The Blue Dahlia is one of many film noir made in the mid-1940s. The film focused on a taciturn central character, a vampish woman, a murder mystery – all done with special black and white photography to create mood. 1946 was also the year of a classic film noir, Gilda, with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford.

This film was written by Raymond Chandler and has a number of characteristic twists. Alan Ladd portrays a veteran returning from the war to find his wife (Doris Dowling) in a relationship with the owner of a nightclub played by Howard da Silva. Ladd confronts his wife, discovers that her drunkenness was the cause of their son’s death, decides to kill her but thinks that it is not worth it. Somebody else kills her with the gun he leaves behind. He is aided in his search for the truth by Veronica Lake, playing the wife of the nightclub owner. William Bendix, once again, is a buddy character.

The film was directed by George Marshall, better known for westerns and, during the 50s, for a number of comedies, especially with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. This was a Paramount Pictures contribution to film noir.

1. How good a murder mystery was this? The puzzle for the audience, the types Of characters, the clues? The atmosphere? How well did it use the conventions of the murder mystery?

2. How was this a film of 1946? The post-war atmosphere, the stars, the world picture?

3. How obvious were the film styles those of 1946? Black and white photography, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix? The presentation of the police? Los Angeles, hotels, nightclubs, crooks?

4. How differently would the film be made now?

5. Comment on the build up of the Los Angeles atmosphere, the buses, the bars, the attitudes of people, the war, friendship, comradeship. How did this add to the atmosphere of the film?

6. The initial impact of Buzz, his wounds? Buzz as a character? Attractive, Interesting?

7. Johnny as a hero? Alan Ladd's style? Tough and sympathetic? His relationship with Helen? The impact of the bar and their meeting? His response to the charge of murder? The hero going it alone? Helped by Joyce? Acting toughly? Confronting villains and police? Being vindicated? The happy ending and atmosphere of the film?

8. The portrait of Eddie as a big time crook? How interesting and convincing? The pressures on Eddy as a murder suspect, his relationship with Joyce? Were audiences sorry at his death?

9. The line-up of murder suspects? How successful was the film in generating suspicion?

10. How attractive a heroine was Joyce? Conventional, resourceful, romantic, sexuality overtones?

11. Comment on the portrayal of the police and their tough style? How well did the film portray its web, drawing it in on Johnny, on the real murderer?

13. Did you suspect the real murderer? Was the film satisfactory in its presentation of the murderer and build up of clues?

14. How important and well portrayed were particular incidents; the meeting of Buzz and Helen in the bar, the meetings of Joyce and Johnny, the caretaker and his blackmail, Johnny's incidents in the sleazy hotel?

15. Comment on the standards of violence, sexuality etc during the mid-40s.

16. How satisfactory for the audience was the resolution and the happy ending?

BLOWING WILD

US, 1953, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Ruth Roman, Anthony Quinn, Ward Bond.
Directed by Hugo Fregonese.

A brief melodrama - a star vehicle for its cast. Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck appeared in the forties in such films as Howard Hawks' Ball Of Fire. Cooper had just won his second Oscar for High Noon and Stanwyck was moving into more matronly roles. Anthony Quinn had just won an Oscar for Viva Zapata and was moving towards stardom. Ruth Roman was an attractive star leading lady at Warner Bros. They do not have all that much to do in this melodrama but they give it their style and force.

Direction is by Hugo Fregonese, director of some smaller budget films, the most successful of which was The Raid with Anne Bancroft and Van Heflin. The Latin American oil setting was somewhat exotic in the fifties - but has been the setting for many films, for example The Wages Of Fear which part of this film resembles. The musical score is by Dimitri Tiomkin and the title song sung by Frankie Lane - as he had just previously with Tiomkin's High Noon. Dramatic but inconsequential.

1. The significance of the title? reference to oil, adventure? The reference to Marina? The reference to black gold and the aura of oil exploration and discovery? An adventure tone for the film?

2. Black and white photography, location work? Action sequences? The contribution of the cast - their reputations, mystique? The musical score, Frankie Lane and the singing of the title song?

3. Gary Cooper's characterisation of Jeff ? Ward Bond as his buddy? Their work in exploration. investing their money, the bandits destroying their work? Destitute and trying to get home? Trying to trade in the ticket? Jeff’s encounter with Sal? The meeting with Pucco and the offer of work? The background of relationships with Marina? Their working for Pucco? Marina's interfering, jealousy of Sal? The move towards success? The attack of the bandits? The explosions? Marina's killing off Pucco and Jeff’s spurning of her? The Gary Cooper intense style of hero of integrity? His loyalty to his friend - and the hospital sequences?

4. Barbara Stanwyck's style as Marina? The American wicked lady? Her using of Pucco, her passionate attachment towards him - and to his wealth? Her bitter attitude towards Jeff? Her wiles in trying to win him again? Confrontation with Sal at the casino? Her killing of Pucco? Her revealing of this to Jeff? Her death? A persuasive picture of passionate villainy?

5. Anthony Quinn and the exuberance of Pucco? Wealth, laughter, friendship with Jeff, reliance on him, passionate devotion to Marina? His death?

6. Sal - the woman on the loose, stranded in Latin America, using her charms to get back, the encounter with Jeff? His abandoning her? Work around the town? Her falling in love with him? The clash with Marina and telling her the truth? The happy ending?

7. The background of oil exploration in Latin America in the forties and fifties? Search, technology, difficulties? The importance of the attacks by the bandits?

8. How satisfying as romantic melodrama? Action sequences? Interrelationships? A popular entertainment adventure of the fifties?

BLOODY MAMA

US, 1970, 90 minutes, Colour.
Shelley Winters, Pat Hingle, Don Stroud, Diane Varsi, Bruce Dern, Clint Kimbrough, Robert de Niro, Robert Waldon, Alex Nicholl, Pamela Dunlap, Scatman Crothers.
Directed by Roger Corman.

Bloody Mama is something of a classic by Roger Corman. Corman had begun film-making in the 1950s with small-budget genre pictures. They were inexpensive, had little-known casts, but were done with flair as well as tongue-in-cheek. Some of them seem very good in retrospect – while others seem more than absurd.

By 1970 Corman had built up quite a reputation and made some much more upmarket films like The Red Baron and The St Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Corman continued making films, mainly producing in the succeeding decades but also made a number of screen appearances including the 2003 The Manchurian Candidate. However, he is very much remembered as giving a start to many classic directors including Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese. It is significant that Robert de Niro appears in this film in a small role. The film was made by American International Pictures who, like Corman, were making small-budget exploitation films. However, they sometimes made classics like Wild in the Streets.

Shelley Winters is quite striking as Ma Barker, the mother of a gang of criminals who flourished during the Depression. Another film on this story, Big Bad Mama with Angie Dickinson, also appeared soon after Bloody Mama.

1. The quality of this film as about the Depression and its gangsters? The particular genre and its appeal, qualities?

2. The emphasis of the title? Shelley Winters’ portrayal, impact? Ma Barker in her time, her reputation, the legend? Admiration or humour?

3. The film's use of colour, the credits sequence? guns, re-creation of the thirties in its places, cars, the towns, the countryside? The songs and the ballads? The credits’ song? What did the film celebrate? Attack?

4. The portrayal of society in the thirties? The picture of America? Its ills? An American society that had formed Ma Barker and her sons? The corruption of society and its need to change? The Barkers’ challenge to this society and attempt to change? Defeated by this society? In what sense were the Barkers heroic, even in their crimes?

5. The importance of the background of Ma? The visualising of her as a girl, the effect of rape on her? The significance of her childhood and its effect on her later career, and on her children?

6. George Barker? Why was he so ineffectual? His way of life and work? His fathering children? Lack of influence on them? The reasons for Ma leaving him? Her love and her lack of love?

7. What kind of person was Ma? How well delineated was her character? Her obsession about life and her sons, Her relationship with each of her sons? The possessive love? Her violence, her erratic character, her lack of moral scruple and conscience, her treatment of people, for example, the two women on the car during the escape? Her notoriety with guns and clothes? Headline seeking?

8. How did the film portray and explain her attitude to life? Her expectations of what life owed her? Its influence on her sons?

9. The film's detailed portrayal of the robberies and their style? The family involvement? The reputation and notoriety?

10. How well drawn were the sons? Herman as the eldest, his violence and obsession? Sexuality and his relationship with Mona? Lloyd and his weakness, drugs, rape, his death? Arthur as a weaker and gentler person? His devotion to his mother? His death? Fred and his erratic nature? the prison term and his masochistic relationship with Kevin, homosexuality? How clear were their personalities? Their loyalty to their mother, love? Their violence? Lack of moral scruple?

11. Kevin and his role in the film? His insinuating relationship with Freddie? His being welcomed into the gang? His personality and holdover them all? With Ma? His place in their gang? The fact that he was shot by Ma?

12. The personality of Mona, her drifting into this family? Her pregnancy, relationship with the other brothers? Her being used and her wanting to be used? How strong a person? Why did she leave?

13. The importance of the sequences with Rembrandt? The violence of the rape, effect on her and her fear? Horror of her death? Ma’s influence on her death and her sons’ reactions? The solemnity of her being placed in the lake?

14. The change of mood with the kidnapping of Pendlebury? Its details, its feeling, his being blindfolded, imprisoned?

15. The importance of Pendlebury's personality? Why was he kidnapped? His attitude towards the kidnapping?

16. Pendlebury’s effect on them all? His relationship with Ma? The boys liking him? A substitute father figure? Ma’s cruelty in wanting him killed? The boys letting him go? This act of defiance as putting Ma in a secondary position?

17. Why did the interrelationships in the family and the gang break down? The change to Florida? The quietness of hunting alligators? The pathos of Lloyd’s death?

18. Was it inevitable that the film should end in a hail of' bullets? The violence of the siege? The number of G-men and their violence? Ma shooting Kevin, Freddie’s erratic death? Arthur protecting his mother? The horror of Herman's suicide?

19. What do films like this achieve? In presentation of a period visually? In reminding Americans of their heritage? Of interest to overseas audiences in understanding America and its values?

BLOOD FOR DRACULA (ANDY WARHOL’S DRACULA)

US, 1974, 108 minutes, Colour.
Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, Arno Juerging, Maxime Mc Kendry, Milena Vukotic, cameos from Vittorio de Sica and Roman Polanski.
Directed by Paul Morrissey.

Blood for Dracula is a companion piece to the 3D Flesh for Frankenstein. They were both directed by Paul Morrissey for the Andy Warhol Studio. Morrissey was also to make the sex films with Joe Dallesandro, Heat, Flesh, Trash. Dallesandro was the star in the 1960s and 1970s for the Andy Warhol group. He later had something of a career in mainstream films.

The film is tongue-in-cheek, a send-up of the Dracula story, with Count Dracula (Udo Kier who is also Frankenstein) able only to drink the blood of virgins – otherwise suffering convulsions. Joe Dallesandro is the gardener – with the sex drive as he has in his other films.

The film is therefore a combination of sexual exploitation, horror conventions and spoof.

1. Audience expectations of Andy Warhol-backed films? His style, sub-culture, interests? The Frankenstein and Dracula expectations? The repute of Flesh for Frankenstein and Paul Morrisey's style? Warhol meeting the traditions of the horror genres?

2. The impact of horror stories, their appeal, the illustration of the shadow side of human nature, nightmares and dreams? Why is horror satisfying and entertaining?

3. The Dracula traditions - Dracula as monster? The vampire tradition, the evil and the living dead, the need for blood, the sexual overtones of the Dracula myth?

4. The horror in the Dracula, tradition the living dead, sexuality? How were these used by Morrissey - camp treatment, outrageous exaggeration? Why is this enjoyable to a 20th century audience?

5. The use of the basic plot - the introduction of Dracula, his making himself up but no image in the mirror, his elegance? The lack of virginal blood in Romania, his withdrawal symptoms? The satire in his biting the Difiori girls and being sick on their bad blood?

6. The build-up of Dracula, Romania, Anton as the traditional servant, the decision to go to Italy, the purpose of finding virginal blood in a Catholic country? The ironies about Italian morals?

7. The Marquis Difiori as portrayed by Vittorio de Sica? Style, manner, talk? Poverty, his home and its elaborate beauty? His plans for the marriage of his daughters? The picture of the various daughters - their beauty, loss of virginity, potential as Dracula’s victims? Their relationship with Mario? (and the overtones of the sex exploitation film?)

8. How well characterised were the daughters? Mario and his relationship with them? and their bad blood?

9. Mario as portrayed by Joe Dallesandro (and his reputation in the Warhol films)? His revolutionary statements and his deadpan style? Sex symbol? His relationship with Perla and consummating the relationship in order to save her from Dracula?

10. The portrait of Anton and the overtones of Dracula’s servant?

11. The final pursuit by Mario becoming hero, the ultra violence in the dismembering of Dracula? Esmeralda and her impaling herself?

12. The supporting cast and guests, for example Roman Polanski as the belligerent peasant and his style? Comic horror?

13. The overall effect of this kind of outrageous presentation of traditional horror material? lts comment on the genre, its comment on audience response?

BLOOD BEACH

US, 1981, 92 minutes, Colour.
David Huffman, Mariana Hill, Burt Young, John Saxon.
Directed by Jeffrey Bloom.

Someone in this film refers to the Creature from Blood Beach. This is the tone of this quite competent horror thriller. While it has the contemporary Californian beach look, the plot and the characters are straight from the B Budget science fiction Creature films of past decades. The beach sequences give the semblance of serenity (with hints of Menace and Jaws) but soon are quite terrifying, gulping people down. There is the usual search for the Creature - and a variation on the seventies' police films. Burt Young stands out as a particularly obnoxious policeman. This kind of material is conventional, take it or leave it - this is a reasonable example of its kind.

1. The appeal of horror and monster movies over so many decades? The blend of reality and fantasy? Expectations - scares, shocks, revelations, mystery? How satisfying is this particular example?

2. The background of California, the beaches, old buildings filmed with menace, modern atmosphere, teenagers, old people and fools, the police? The blend of realism and fantasy? The use of expectations from T.V. and film police shows?
3. The atmosphere of horror - the woman disappearing? the element of mystery under the beach? The eccentric old woman and her pram? The sense of the unknown, water and sand? Special effects? The girl mauled
under the sand? The man who escaped from the underground? So much of the film in the dark with the sense of menace?

4. Speculation about the monsters, explorations in the basement? The visual impact of the creature? The explosions? Audiences wondering about the destruction of monsters and their survival as hinted by the end? Audience response to such films as of nightmares?

5. Harry as hero - swimming to work, his police work, the puzzle of the disappearing woman, his relation to Kathryn and the renewal of friendship with her, falling in love? The hostess and her disappearance? His puzzle, work with the police, exploring the basement, the end – and the perennial valiant hero?

6. Kathryn - the death of her mother, her life story, the break with Harry, her return? Falling in love? her exploring the basement and the threat and menace?

7. Pearson and his tough running of the Police Department, pressures? His haranguing the men? Telling off the councillors?

8. The other police - their competence in their work, puzzle? Royko and his obnoxious presence and comments about Chicago?

9. The Harbour assistant - the attempted rape of his girl friend and her rescue? The songs at the cabaret?

10. The eccentric old lady, her presence on the beach, the musicians? her accosting Kathryn? her presence in the old pier? her refusal to rescue the assistant? in the explosion?

11. How well did the film create and sustain atmosphere of tension and suspense? The disappearances? Audience feeling for the characters? the mother, the hostess, the girl on the beach, the man with the metal detector, Harry's assistant?

12. The build-up to a climax, the explosion? The long sequence (during the final credits suggesting that more creatures were lurking, the disappearance of the baby?

BLOOD AND ROSES (ET MOURIR DE PLAISER)

France/Italy, 1960, 87 minutes, Colour.
Mel Ferrer, Elsa Martinelli, Annette Vadim (Annette Stroyberg), Mark Allegret.
Directed by Roger Vadim.

Blood and Roses is based on a popular story by Sheridan le Fanu, the Irish novelist who also wrote Uncle Silas, which was the basis for the 1948 film with Jean Simmonds as well as a Spanish version at the same time and was the author of In a Glass Darkly, the basis for Carl Theodor Dreyer’s classic vampire film Vampyr.

His story Carmilla was much more popular and, especially during the 1970s, gave rise to a number of versions including the British thrillers, The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil as well as the Spanish, Blood Castle.

This film was directed by Roger Vadim who had emerged in the mid-1950s with dramas with sexual content, rather more explicit than usual for the period. He also was in the habit of using his wives in his various films, starting with Brigitte Bardot, moving to Annette Stroyberg. He also made films with his wife of the 1960s, Jane Fonda: La Ronde, The Game is Over, Tales of Mystery and Imagination and the most famous, Barbarella.

1. Did the title reveal the theme of the film? The French title was: To Die Of Pleasure. Does this add to the significance of the film and its tone?

2. Was this a successful vampire and horror film? What presuppositions in an audience do film like this have? Horror, vampires, blood and death, superstitions? How much does it presuppose belief in this? enjoyment of its screen presentation?

3. The film was released in the early sixties. How does it represent horror trends of the time? It was made by Roger Vadim who looked for vehicles for leading ladies and tended to exploit them. Did this seem to be the case here? Where?

4. The film had a modern setting. Did this add to the plausibility of the story? The value of the commentary at the film’s opening? Did this make the horror film more attractive? The use of widescreen colour and modern and old style settings?

5. The Karnstein family has been associated with many films about Dracula. How did the film use the Karnstein Dracula background? What was added to the film by its old-world atmosphere and the mansions still on the property?

6. Was Leopoldo an interesting hero? Mel Ferrer's performance and his lack of presence? How was he made the centre of the film?

7. How interesting a character was Carmela? How mysterious? Her fascination with the Karnstein tombs, the family crypt? why was she overtaken by the vampire identity of Millaroa? The curse of the family working? the murdered girl, the mutilated throat, Millaroa in the woods? Carmela’s performance, her cold shadow, the sun, flowers withering, horse being terrified. seductions? Jealousy? How interesting a portrayal of the character was this?

8. How did Georgia contrast with her as being normal? How attractive a heroine was Georgia?

9. The important sequence of Georgia pricking her finger on the rose thorn and Carmela’s morbid fascination with the blood? The theme of blood and roses?

10. The importance of the dream sequences and the fantasies, the nightmares?

11. Carmela’s death and its melodrama, the vampire with the stake through her heart, the accompanying explosions?

12. The irony of the ending with Georgia as the new vampire, continuing the tradition, the rose petals dying in her hand? How effective was this for the ending of the film?

13. How successfully did the film sustain its horror and Gothic atmosphere? The atmosphere of morbidity, the lesbian touches, the hot-house and unhealthy atmosphere?

14. What value are film like this in entertainment? In exploration of morbid and superstitious and mythic themes?

BLONDE VENUS

US, 1932, 93 minutes, Black and white.
Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore.
Directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Blonde Venus is one of several projects that Marlene Dietrich made in the early 1930s with Josef von Sternberg. He had directed her in the classic The Blue Angel in 1930 in Germany. However, Marlene Dietrich migrated to the United States as did von Sternberg. He directed her in a range of films from 1930 to 1936: Morocco, Dishonoured, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, The Devil is a Woman, Desire.

Herbert Marshall is the rather staid husband who experiences radium poisoning, goes to Germany for a cure and returns to find that his wife has worked in a nightclub in order to finance his cure. She has also taken up with the nightclub owner, Cary Grant. He disowns her and she goes to Paris. again working in clubs and teaming up with the nightclub owner. When she returns to America, she wants to get possession of her child – and is dismayed to find she doesn’t know which world she belongs in.

In one way the material is fairly conventional. However, it has become famous for one of its cabaret scenes, the dancers in black face dancing around a gorilla – from whom Dietrich emerges.

The film was written by Jules Furthman who was a newspaperman who began writing for films in 1915, prolific, writing up to eight films a year at this particular period. He also wrote Shanghai express for Marlene Dietrich. He wrote a number of very popular films of the 1930s and 1940s, Come and Get It, Only Angels Have Wings, The Outlaw, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Nightmare Alley. His last film was the screenplay for Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo.

1. How enjoyable a film? As a film of the early thirties and talkie period? Marlene Dietrich vehicle? Her work over the years with Joseph Von Sternburg? The impact in the early thirties, now? As entertainment, mirror
of the times?

2. Film techniques of 1932? the quality of black and white photography, the skills, angles, lighting? The use of locations for atmosphere? Europe, the city, Paris, the south of America? The American atmosphere? The use
of sets for example apartments, wealthy homes, outdoors, the sleazy settings of the south, for example, the brothels
the poor home, the asylum for women? The musical score and the classic, Hot Voodoo?

3. The meaning of the title and its emphasis? As applied to Marlene Dietrich and its role in the plot? Marlene
Dietrich as a sex symbol of the time and the way this was exploited? Her first appearance as swimming, the transition to American housewife, the transition then to star of cabaret as the Blonde Venue and such bizarre numbers as the Hot Voodoo, the contradiction in her appearance as vamp and as mother and housewife, the transition to her degradation and her wandering of the south, the resurrection to glamorous star of Paris and the life of wealth? The comments on the presentation of a heroine? Sex symbol? American expectations? For the film’s portrait of America in the thirties? The American dream of wealth and success? A land of hope? The domestic sequences and the traditional American style - father and hie ruling of the home, mother and her doing the housework and looking after the child, the pleasant homely sequences? The picture of American society - Nick and wealth and wealth and political corruption, the world of the nightclubs, the power? The splitting of characters between these two worlds and their inability to cope? The importance of despair within the American dream? The importance of gestures, of Helen being degraded and audiences perhaps expecting her death and her determination to succeed? The finale and the moral of this decline and fall and rise of the star and heroine?

4. The atmosphere of the introduction - the old fashioned picture of American students, their chatter, looking at the girls, the girls swimming, taking the clothes etc.? The way this was visualised for the audience, the way the story was told by Ned and Helen for Johnny at the start of the film? Ned's difficulty in telling the story at the end and yet his wanting to hear it? Helen telling the story? The framework for the themes of the film especially for the family?

5. Ned's role in the film - his serious style, his work, health symptoms, the interview with the doctor, the importance of his work? The fact that he had married Helen and brought her to America? Johnny and his role in the family? His decision about his health and his body for science? The importance of his return to Europe, the suddenness of his healing? His hard attitude on the discovery of Helen's behaviour on his return, the relentlessness of his pursuit? The clash with Nick? His spurning the money? The decision to let Helen in at the end and the telling of the story with her? His suffering in her behaviour, could they build their life again? After his treatment of her when he found her in the south?

6. Marlene Dietrich’s interpretation of Helen? Was she a credible character? At the beginning as an actress,
the transition to the scenes of her as mother, a domestic portrait for example the bath, telling the story, worrying about Johnny? Her decision to gain the money for Ned, her visiting the agent and being allowed in, the discussion of deals? Her billing as Blonde Venue? The impact of the Hot Voodoo number? The importance of the money, Nick's entry into her life? Seeing Ned off and Nick taking herself and Johnny from the wharf?

7. Nick as a man-about-town - his history with Taxi and her presence in the dressing room and in the nightclub? O'Connor and deals and the running of the club? The promotion of Venus? Nick's fascination with Helen? Infatuation? love? His presence at the farewell and taking her home? Setting her up in an apartment, giving her luxuries, and the decision to go away on a holiday and the ironic discovery by Ned? His letting her go, rediscovering her in Paris? The challenge to her and bringing her back? How interesting a character, how sympathetic to the audience, moral stances?

8. The importance of Helen's decision after the discovery by Ned, her decision to take Johnny? Their trekking all over America, the sleazy clubs, rooms, lack of food, the south, her work in the brothel, avoiding detection?
The growing despair and her allowing Ned to take Johnny away and the pathos of the scene at the railway station?
Her washing dishes for Johnny, the emotion in giving him up?

9. The poor house sequence and her giving the fifteen hundred dollars to the derelict woman? Audience
expectation of suicide and yet her decision to come out of this, her drive for success and her hard work?

10. The Paris sequence and the song and its impact, her appearance, hardness? Nick and the challenge? Did the audience expect her to change?

11. How credible was her return to domesticity after encountering Johnny, after the experience of running away with him, of her success?

12. The portrayal of emotions in this film as real, hard? As determined by situations? Love and hate, clutching at love and possession. despair? The wandering the labyrinth of despair and hardship in America? The ironic comment on success and the American dream? Popular entertainment yet grappling at a popular level with the values of anxiety and despair, love and hate?

BRASS TARGET

US, 1978, 111 minutes, Colour.
Sophia Loren, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Robert Vaughn, Patrick Mc Goohan, Bruce Davison, Edward Hermann, Max Von Sydow.
Directed by John Hough.

1. How enjoyable a thriller, popular entertainment, familiar war and thriller material? The significance of its being made in the late seventies? The basic appeal of the thriller, detective story, war story? Politics and conspiracies?

2. How well did the film blend fact and fiction? The nature of the imagination in conspiracies about historical characters and situations? The tone of the ending with the information about General Patton, about Yebbor? The facts and the plausible possibilities? The attraction for audience imagination?

3. The use of Panavision, colour, European locations especially the mountains and the cities after the war? The special effects, for example with the sabotage of the gold train? The gun for the assassination? The atmosphere of post-war Europe?

4. The contribution of the stars and their personalities? Sophia Loren and fashion and glamour, Max von Sydow and suave villainy, John Cassavetes and his intensity for the hero? The stars portraying the villains: George Kennedy's style as Patton?

5. Audience familiarity with the basic themes of Nazi gold and robberies? The credits sequence and Rogers and the masterminding of the robbery? The sinister meeting and crash in the tunnel with the train? The deaths of the soldiers through the gas? The robbery? The plan used during the war for sabotage? The skill of the plan? Audience response to the robbery - and the reaction of Rogers and Gilchrist?

6. The character sketch of Rogers as a military man. his masterminding the plot, his work for the Army in Europe, his authority and its use? His ruthlessness? His not lacking in scruple for murders of the 59 soldiers, of Mc Cauley, of Shelley, the assassination of Patton? His hold over Gilchrist? The significance of his homosexuality and its presentation? An intense character, his killing of the flash Shelley? The suddenness of his death and that of Gilchrist?

7. Mc Cauley and his place in the Army, his occupying the castle and his style, relationship with Mara? Friendship with De Lucca? His participation in the plot, the selling of the plan? His double, activity with Rogers and with De Lucca? His helping De Lucca to leave Europe? His visit to Switzerland and the tensions of the deal with Shelley? His return to Frankfurt. the girl, the nature of his death and its inevitability? As a type, the presentation of his motivations?

8. The film's sketching in of post-war Europe and its atmosphere –assassins, thieves, cover-ups, corruption? The comments of the corruption of war and the after-effects of war? De Lucca as hero - his role in the war, his plans and their use? Dawson and his control over De Lucca and, the investigation? his personality, his involvement. motivation, moral stances? Friendship with Mc Cauley and disillusionment? The interview with Lucky Luciano and the revelation about De Lucca’s father and justice? His following up the tips from Luciano’s lawyer? Friendship with Webber but not trusting him? His disregard of Dayson but the growing bond between them? The assassination attempt in the church and the dangers for him? Love for Mara, memories of the past, renewing the love affair? The bond with her and her assistance in the solution? His inability to prevent Patton's death? The suspicions of Webber and the execution of him - ironically with his own weapon? An American hero? attitude towards the law, patriotism, killing, sabotage? His values, involvement in the search, execution of justice?

9. Audiences sharing De Lucca’s response to Dawson - his age, role? His participation in the investigation, anointing De Lucca with the confrontation of Rogers and Gilchrist and their deaths?

10. The credibility of the character of Mara - Sophia Loren and her style, fashions? Her love for De Lucca, liaison with Webber during the war, his protection? With McCauley? The tram sequence and her decision to stay with De Lucca? Her anxiety with the involvement in the church, her knowledge of Webber, her seducing him to his death?

11. Max von Sydow's characterization of Webber? Our first meeting him as the professional assassin, his presence on the boat, his ability to do deals, the meeting with the gun-maker and the specifications, the inevitability of his killing him? His disguises? The irony of his official role for war orphans? The ironies in the dialogue in the mea1 with Webber, his past liaison with Mara? His skill in the setting up of the tale? Shelley and Roger’s execution of him? His not trusting people? His skill in his presence as the American G.l., the placing of the trucks, the shooting of Patton and his escape? The being tricked by Mara and the irony of his own death? A credible and suave villain?

12. The ironies of Lucky Luciano and his involvement - and the comment on his subsequent pardon and life?

13. A popular picture of Europe and the effects of war? The historica1 background, for example with Eisenhower?

14. A satisfactory resolution to this kind of thriller? What was the audience left with? Interesting adventure story, the testing of values, the political and moral implications?