Funeral in Berlin

Continuing from last week, I watched:

Funeral in Berlin (1966).

Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) returns and this time he's sent to Berlin to vet KGB Colonel Stok (Oscar Homolka) who intends to defect to the west. Always a tricky situation, since he has to find out if the defection is genuine, and if it is, he needs to make it happen. In Berlin he connects with his old friend Johnny Vulkan (Paul Hubschmid). It was Vulkan Harry schemed with when he got arrested and sent to prison and then to the intelligence service. Soon enough he also meets the beautiful Samantha Steel (Eva Renzi), and the game becomes a great deal more difficult, not to mention dangerous.

Funeral in Berlin is directed by Guy Hamilton, who amongst many other movies has directed four James Bond films. In 1966 he had only directed Goldfinger, although Funeral in Berlin was his 13^th movie overall.

Where I found The Ipcress File to be good but flawed, Funeral in Berlin is a stone cold spy thriller. You can feel Hamilton's touch and it feels good. Palmer is essentially the same free-wheeling smart mouth he was in Ipcress, but he feels a bit harder and more cynical, though not in a bad way. The other actors are all solid, but apparently Eva Renzi was incredibly difficult to work with. She was rude to Caine and argued constantly with Hamilton, even telling him how to light her. This did no favors for her career, and although it was far from ruined she earned the title “difficult to work with” which can sink an actors career surprisingly fast.

As I'm writing this, I'm trying to remember the soundtrack, but I can't. I firmly blame the excellent story and the atmosphere that at tines is thick enough to cut with a knife. Even scenes that are apparently unimportant feel really tense. The Cold War paranoia really is omnipresent.

In order to avoid spoilers I won't mention any plot details beyond what I have already done, but I want to point out that at times the story is a bit hard to follow. It all makes sense in the end, but there are a lot of moving parts and unless you're really paying attention you might get a bit lost. This is the kind of critique I never know how to feel about. On the one hand, it is a good thing if the audience can follow the story without taking notes, but on the other hand I like a convoluted story that doesn't hold my hand and over explains everything. Suffice to say that Funeral in Berlin is somewhere in the middle I suppose.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! If you have any interest in spy thrillers Funeral in Berlin is a must watch. It has its flaws but overall it is an excellent movie that is well shot, well directed and a top shelf pick in its genre. They even shot scenes at the actual Check Point Charlie! How's that for realism?

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have great week!

 

The Ipcress File

Ever since I got into consuming spy media, I've been meaning to watch:

The Ipcress File (1965),

and last night I finally got around to doing so.

Based on the debut spy novel by Len Deighton, this British spy thriller is directed by Sidney J. Furie and stars Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson, Frank Gatliff and many more.

We meet Harry Palmer (Caine), an army sergeant who got into legal trouble in Germany but instead of prison was recruited by what I'm guessing is SIS (it isn't mentioned outright). He's a bit of a rogue, has a glib mouth and a tendency to do what he wants. Although this is the 60's so he's actually pretty polite by modern standards. I'm sure it was shocking back then.

An important scientist is kidnapped and it is up to Palmer's unit to find him. Since Palmer is, let's say unconventional, he gets results that quickly spiral out of control and everything heads towards a dramatic climax. That's as far as I can go without spoiling anything.

I'm not very used to 60's cinema, I generally prefer the 70's, but The Ipcress File is good. Low budget to be sure, but they did a lot with what they had. Being British, this isn't a roaring action movie, it's much more subtle than that. What I found interesting is that there isn't really much of a motivation for the bad guys, nothing overtly explained at least.

Michael Caine is brilliant as always, and the rest of the cast is good. Lots of familiar faces for those that watch older British TV and movies. The soundtrack is likewise nice and the cinematography is excellent. I keep saying it, but older movies were shot so much better than modern ones.

There are a couple of interesting facts about this movie I want to share:

The main character in the novel isn't named so Caine & Co had to come up with a name. The producer Harry Salzman and Caine agreed that Harry is a boring name and Caine went to school with a Tommy Palmer who was also apparently boring so the name Harry Palmer was born.

Harry wears glasses which was unusual for a tough guy back then, and he's also an accomplished cook. These two facts together made the movie hard to distribute in the US. It seemed distributors were worried the American audiences would think Harry was gay. For wearing glasses and cooking. Different era indeed, especially since Harry is a real skirt chaser.

The director and the producer fought constantly, to the point where Caine and Salzman had to jump in a Rolls-Royce to chase down a bus. Furie had stormed off and gotten on that bus, and they desperately needed him back.

So, do I recommend this movie? Oh yes! It is a bit dated but in a fun way. It's not quite up to the quality of Tinker Tailor, but what spy drama is? The Ipcress File does what it does with style, and I look forward to checking out the other movies in the Harry Palmer series.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

So that happened...

It's been a while since the last time we did weird trivia, so here we go:

In 1876, in Olympia Springs, Kentucky it rained strips of meat one day. There has never been a good explanation a to why it rained mystery meat, but some suspect a large flock of vultures may have gorged themselves and then vomited, which they do when they feel threatened. I don't know what is better, meat rain or vulture vomit...

Everyone knows that sport riots can cause huge damages both to people and buildings, but they are not a new phenomenon. In AD 532 a riot erupted in then Constantinople over a combination of politics and chariot racing which was super popular. This riot apparently claimed 30.000 lives and destroyed a large part of the city including the Hagia Sophia. Emperor Justinian had to deploy thousands of imperial soldiers to put a stop to the madness.

In 1932 during the Great Depression, Australian farmers grew more wheat to make ends meet, which had the unforeseen side effect of attracting hungry emus. The abundance of food made the emus breed more and soon there were huge flocks of these large birds roaming around attacking farms. An emu is pretty big and they can be dangerous. On top of that, their thick dense feathers are hard to penetrate with small arms, so the farmers asked the government for help. Soldiers were deployed and the Emu War had begun. A war Australia lost. Good thing they were emus and not cassowaries.

In July of 1518 a strange event started in Strasburg, Germany. People started dancing uncontrollably in the streets. They apparently could not stop and several died from stroke or exhaustion. Theories range from the infamous ergot poisoning to mass hysteria, but to this day no one knows why people danced themselves to death.

To be named Time Magazine Man of the Year, one has to do something that makes a huge impact. However this impact is essentially neutral, in that it doesn't have to be a positive or negative impact. This is why in 1938, Hitler was made Man of the Year. This in itself is well known, but did you know that in 1939 he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize? The nomination was made by a Swedish member of parliament, and was intended as a satirical critique. Whether that was true or not, the nomination was canceled within a few days.

From dancing to laughing. In 1962 at the University of Tanganyika in Tanzania, three girls suddenly started laughing and they couldn't stop. This strange madness spread to over a thousand students and the university had to close for several months. The theory of mass hysteria was again suggested but no one knows for sure.

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, conqueror of Europe was defeated not only by Wellington but also by rabbits. In 1807, Napoleon wanted to celebrate the peace between France and Russia with a massive rabbit hunt. He acquired 3000 rabbits which were set loose, but the hungry rabbits attacked the people and jumped all over them looking for food, leading to the desperate retreat of the Master of France.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!

 

Listen carefully.

Being a life long fan of Warhammer 40.000, I was interested to learn about a story called:

The Watcher in the Rain.

But I hit a snag. The Watcher in the Rain is an audiodrama only, it doesn't exist in written form. I became determined to listen to it so I went hunting.

You can get it from Games Workshop directly, but paying over €10 for a 75 minute drama felt a bit steep. It's not like an album that you can listen to several times a day if you want to, an audiodrama is a book, you might want to revisit it from time to time, but not as often as music.

Then I found it on Audible (not a sponsor), Amazon's audio book platform, and to my delight you can sign up for £0.99 and you get a credit with which I got The Watcher in the Rain. 

I had heard a couple of audiodramas 15+ years ago, dramatizations of a couple of Lovecraft stories,which were excellent.

The main differences between an audiodrama and an audiobook are sounds effects and multiple voices. An audiobook is normally read by one person, but an audiodrama has different people for all characters and the aforementioned sound effects. This creates a wonderful atmosphere that enhances the experience beyond mere narration.

So, I sat down, put on my headphones and enjoyed The Watcher in the Rain. I'm not going to go into detail about the story as such, it deserves to be experienced as it is, I'll only say that it was excellent both in writing and performances. If you like Warhammer 40.000 I highly recommend it. 

This experience has also rekindled my interest in audiodramas in general, and I'm going to go hunting for more. They were all the rage back before TV became a thing as something people could enjoy at home on the radio instead of going to the cinema, and they work well when playing a game that doesn't require too much audio, like World of Warcraft.

 

That's that and all that. Join me again nest time, and until then, have a great week!  

Top of the world, Ma!

I watched a video about movies Clint Eastwood loves and hates, and on that recommendation I watched:

White Heat (1949).

Directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney in the main role, White Heat is a black and white gangster thriller that never lets up.

Cody Jarrett, a veteran gangster and his gang commit a robbery that turns deadly. The feds are after him, but he is no one's fool, and supported by his devoted mother, has a plan. The feds manage to get an undercover specialist in Cody's gang to help corner the vicious and wily criminal, but Cody is not a man to go down the easy way.

White Heat is 114 minutes, but it felt like an hour. It didn't get boring for a minute even though there aren't that many scenes one would label as action. The tension is thick in scene after scene but it has balance and you also don't get overloaded.

Central to the movie is Cody himself. Devoted to his mother, a sufferer of brutal headaches and a man who'll gun down anyone who gets in his way, he is nevertheless a likable character somehow. He is a tormented soul which garners sympathy at the same time that his cruelty and careless attitude towards others makes you wish for his downfall.

The rest of the characters are good, in fact we have a surprising lack of cliches, but they all hang in orbit around Cody. From feds to gangsters, they all dance to Cody's tune one way or another.

The plot is excellent, White Heat is a really clever movie, even though the dialogue is nothing special. You have to remember that movies were made very differently back in those days. We're a long way from Tarantino's non stop clever conversations. In films like White Heat the dialogue is utilitarian, not necessarily witty, although there were a couple of good lines. The obvious one is “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” which has become legendary, but “You wouldn't kill me in cold blood, would ya?” “No, I'll let you warm up a little.” is really good.

The cinematography is top notch. The whole movie is wonderful to look at, and it really makes me wish modern directors would look back and relearn what was common knowledge in film making. No blurry jump cuts, nothing hidden in needlessly dark scenes, just solid set ups and good blocking.

So, do I and Clint Eastwood recommend this movie? Absolutely! It's one of Eastwood's favorites, and although I won't go that far, I loved it. White Heat ranges from solid to brilliant from beginning to end, and demonstrates how important it is to have an intelligent villain. Tough and scary is good, but without brains the main villain looses too much. Yes, White Heat is old, but in no way decrepit, and if you like movies, do yourself a service and watch it as soon as possible.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

Questionably Good.

I have had a very hectic week, but that does not mean I don't have something for you.

The Youtube channel Dungeon Soup makes bizarre animations centered on fantasy with a D&D-ish slant.

Recently their series, Chaotic Good Barbarian has taken the Youtube sphere by storm, and I thought I'd share it with you guys today.

Be aware that both the style and humor is pretty out there, and I don't think its for everyone, but I have enjoyed it a lot. Behind the oddball antics is some pretty smart writing, and if you pay close attention to episode 2, you are going to get some neat inside information.

I'm going to let the series speak for itself, overselling something is annoying at the best of times. I'll embed the first video and link the playlist below.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!   

 

Full Playlist

From War to Games.

I have a distinct memory that I have mentioned Kriegsspiel before, but I'm not sure so here we go.

A friend recommended a video about the subject, and it was so good I wanted to share it with you all.  

The video will explain it all in detail, but let me give you a bit of a teaser. Kriegsspiel or wargame in German, was a way to simulate battles on a table before actually fighting them in real life. Countries that adopted Kriegsspiel saw a marked increase in success on the battlefield compared to those who believed they didn't need such nonsense. 

In time, civilians got into it, and thanks to that, we eventually got things like Dungeons & Dragons, the Total War games, Warhammer and much much more. Kriegsspiel even in a sense invented hit points. A huge portion of modern gaming came from generals trying to rehearse battles in advance. 

I highly recommend this video if you've ever played any of the games I mentioned or indeed anything even remotely similar, or if you just like history. 

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!