Tallulah Bankhead

  • Fanatic aka Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2022) It’s a good thing that the TV channel I was watching decided to go with the lurid American title Die! Die! My Darling! rather than the staider original British title of Fanatic. For one thing, it drew me in. For another, it represents better the lunacy at the heart of this low-budget thriller. The story gets going once a young American woman travels to England in the lead-up to her wedding with her British beau. There’s a problem, though: In visiting her future mother-in-law, she grows increasingly concerned about the older woman’s craziness, and is prevented from leaving as the matriarch blames her for her other son’s death. Much of the film consists in having our plucky heroine attempt to escape captivity, or watching Classic Hollywood actress Tallulah Bankhead in her final film performance as she tries to chew as much scenery as possible as an unhinged biddy. (You can certainly include this film on the filmography of horror movies made by slumming screen legends.)  This being a Hammer film, it’s not meant to be taken all that seriously—it’s not a comedy, but the drama and suspense are both cranked up to extremes and the result is, well, far closer to Die! Die! My Darling! than anything as simple as Fanatic.

  • Lifeboat (1944)

    Lifeboat (1944)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2019) It’s interesting to note that as Alfred Hitchcock grew older and more comfortable with his mastery of the suspense genre, he started placing more emphasis on gimmicky premises, including one-location films—whether we’re talking Rope, Rear Window or the first one of them all… Lifeboat. After a perfunctory prologue, the situation is made clear: An American ship has been sunk by a German U-Boat, and a diverse crew of passengers is now stuck together on a lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. As with most lifeboat stories, Lifeboat quickly becomes a study in the ugliness of desperate humans with a side order of sadistic ethics. It’s also quite morally gray, especially toward the ironic end. Still, it does wring quite a bit out of its premise, keeping things interesting for its zippy 80-minute duration all the way to a surprising action-packed climax (“In a word, wow!”)  The obvious temptation in discussing Lifeboat is to focus on the technical challenges of presenting a story entirely set on water—the rear projection, for instance, is obvious but not necessarily intrusive. But there are some fine acting performances to discuss as well. This was the first film in which I can recall being impressed by Tallulah Bankhead, for instance and I can see what the fuss was about—although my sympathies go with the other female character. You can also see Brit Hume in an early role, showing the span of his career after seeing …batteries not included (1987) a few days ago. Also worth noting is Canada Lee’s performance, in a much better-than-average representation for a black character in 1944 Hollywood. Finally, let’s appreciate what’s possibly Hitchcock’s funniest cameo … in a one-location film in the middle of the ocean.