The film is quite unusual, not so much a crime drama, more a commentary of the times. George is disturbed by the disrespect for the US flag he sees in every corner and the obstacles put in his way by The Man. In truth the film is a little awkward, the good ideas lost in a rather erratic execution and the surreal astronaut daydreams which sometimes drag.
The film is an interesting piece of social and political commentary but not that interesting a watch.
Bill is still courting Louise, though it gets him into trouble. He assumes Ian has it in for him and has ruined his chances. He ends up in combat in a ship under Ian's command. Will he survive the war and get back to see Louise?
This film has all the usual war movie themes, the only really novel part is that it involves the Coast Guard. The film is a good watch though with plenty of stock footage during the battle scenes. The love triangle is probably the weakest part of the film but it is OK.
There are many ways to kill people especially in Hollywood movies, in this one (which is also known as Murder by Phone) the method of murder is to send sonic death signals and electric shocks down the line. When one of his former students is killed in this grisly manner, Nat Bridger (Richard Chamberlain) heads into the city to try and find out what exactly is going on. A man with a grudge (Robin Gammell) is carrying out these killings, the telephone company isn't really helping much by using it's huge corporate power and influence to bury the problem.
Nat, with the help of Ridley (Sara Botsford) and the police (Gary Reineke), begins to unravel the plot and the cover-up. The film is full of tension and suspense especially in the final act as Nat challenges the killer to call him so his location can be traced.
A fantastic film but one which will probably leave you with an irrational fear of the telephone. Luckily nobody speaks on the phone anymore and nobody has worked out a way to kill people using SMS or Twitter... yet.
Elizabeth decides to not sell and she is now in danger. She manages to survive a number of botched murder attempts. Meanwhile, a detective (Gert Frobe) investigates the death of Elizabeth's father - mostly by talking to a computer (which speaks back of course with a wonderfully retro synthesised voice). There is also a strange snuff-video subplot which doesn't seem to have much of anything to do with the main plot...
The film is a car crash (and also includes a number of car crashes). It is incredibly trashy and shoddy. A perfect adaptation of a Sidney Sheldon book then. The dialogue is banal, the editing rough, the plot makes little sense. Quite why such a great cast wanted to be involved with this is the true mystery. Like the board members in the film they obviously needed the money.
Another W.C. Fields comedy short as he drawls his way through being a rather inept barber. To be honest he doesn't do anything right, even throwing a baseball seems to end up in mayhem. Barber O'Hair is the character's name (of course) and has a pretty sad life, his wife is a vegetarian and he never gets any meat. He does enjoy sitting outside of his shop all day and chasing away dogs. Not the funniest W.C. Fields short but a decent and charming performance as always.
One of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's later films, the jokes are by now a bit too obvious but still usually hilarious. Professor Hartley (Arthur Space) is an eccentric inventor who is always coming up with madcap schemes. His latest invention is a new explosive which he is told he must protect (thanks to a bit of mischief). He calls a detective agency but only the janitors are available, but the prospect of good living and cash leads the janitors (Laurel and Hardy) to pretend to be detectives...
Meanwhile a gang is planning to rob Hartley of jewels but when members of the gang hear about the explosive they want to steal the explosive instead and sell it to the enemy (insert a bit of wartime propaganda here). Laurel and Hardy are set off with a fake bomb hidden in an accordion to lead the thieves away, but of course they have the real bomb...
A very funny film even if the jokes are often so obvious you can spot them coming a mile off. There isn't much plot, more a framework for a series of comedy set-pieces. The visual gags are very good though. Not the best Laurel and Hardy film by any means but still has plenty of the duo's magic to make the film very worth watching.
