Teaser Tuesdays – Straight White Male by John Niven

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page.
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

Here’s my teaser from page 25 of Straight White Male by John Niven:

“He could still remember the texture, the firmness, of the cloakroom girl’s rump through the thin cotton of her dress. Kennedy Marr would have taken two or three stabs to give you his daughter’s birthday, but he could give you chapter and verse on the ass of a girl he felt up, what, three years ago?”

I’ve only just started this book as I finally finished The Book Thief the other day (pretty drastic change in genres between the two!). So I had to flip through the early pages of Straight White Male to find a good teaser. Oh my – it was hard to find something that wasn’t completely filthy!

I’ve not read Niven’s Kill Your Friends but my hubby liked it and he got me Straight White Male last Christmas. I know it’s a satire on the film industry & novelists while Kill Your Friends was the music industry but it’ll be interesting to see how I get on with a book about a complete & total wanker as I really can’t stand assholes. But the book is meant to be pretty funny. We’ll see!

Here’s the synopsis for Straight White Male (from Goodreads):

Kennedy Marr is a novelist from the old school. Irish, acerbic, and a borderline alcoholic and sex-addict, his mantra is drink hard, write hard and try to screw every woman you meet.

He’s writing film scripts in LA, fucking, drinking and insulting his way through Californian society, but also suffering from writer’s block and unpaid taxes. Then a solution presents itself – Marr is to be the unlikely recipient of the W. F. Bingham Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Modern Literature, an award worth half a million pounds. But it does not come without a price: he must spend a year teaching at the English university where his ex-wife and estranged daughter now reside.

As Kennedy acclimatises to the sleepy campus, inspiring revulsion and worship in equal measure, he’s forced to reconsider his precarious lifestyle. Incredible as it may seem, there might actually be a father and a teacher lurking inside this ‘preening, narcissistic, priapic, sociopath’. Or is there…?

Murder By Death (1976) Review

Murder By Death (1976)

Directed by Robert Moore & Written by Neil Simon

Starring: Truman Capote, Alec Guinness, Peter Falk, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, James Coco, Eileen Brennan, Elsa Lanchester, Nancy Walker, Estelle Winwood

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB)
Five famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks are invited to a bizarre mansion to solve an even stranger mystery.

My Opinion:

Is this the first Neil Simon movie I’ve ever seen in my life?? I think it is! First of all, can I just say that I have no idea when I watched this & it’s stressing me out? Whenever I finish watching a movie, I immediately add it to my current year’s page on here. I forgot to add this one! I just realized when I decided it was time to review it. I’ve added it to my 2015 page but I’m thinking it may have been late 2014. Oh, the drama!! 😉 Now that I’ve murdered you all by boredom, I’ll talk about what I remember of this movie all these days?, months?, years? later. I’m catching up now as I don’t really get to go to any current films over the summers. I need to go to a movie soon!!!

I’d never even heard of this movie until several years ago when someone mentioned it was a favorite of theirs. I kept that in mind so was happy when it appeared on UK Netflix. I’m funny about “comedy” – there are very few that I like. I’d rather watch a “proper” movie like sci-fi, fantasy, action, drama… I mean, no movie will ever be as funny as The Princess Bride so I kind of can’t be bothered to watch many comedies. Oh yeah – Billy Crystal! HE’S funny! City Slickers! Monsters, Inc! Billy makes me laugh! Why do we have to suffer with shit like We’re The Millers nowadays? And why did I even watch that? Maybe I need to explore some older stuff like Murder By Death. Because Murder By Death is… funny! It’s not “Billy Crystal funny” & Peter Sellers is a somewhat annoying distraction but it’s pretty damn funny overall. The surprising thing was that the most serious acTOR, Alec Guinness, was hilarious as the blind butler! I think Guinness & Peter Falk (Princess Bride connection!) were my favorite things about this. Oh! And tiny Nancy Walker as the deaf-mute cook! She was awesome. Her scenes with Guinness’ blind butler were a riot. Is that politically incorrect? Well, if you think it is you’ll want to fast-forward through every scene with Peter Sellers as an Asian detective based on Charlie Chan. Oh boy! More about that later…

So, this movie is a spoof on famous detective novels/movies. Most of the characters are obvious but I did have to look them up. I’ve never read a murder mystery but I’ve always thought about checking out some of Agatha Christie’s novels. I wish I had a little experience with this genre as I probably would have appreciated the comedy a bit more. Well, I did love Murder She Wrote – Angela Lansbury kicks ass! 😉 From Wikipedia, these are the characters who those in Murder By Death are based on:

Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is based on Earl Derr Biggers’ Chinese police detective Charlie Chan. 

Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are polished, sophisticated society types modeled on Dashiell Hammett’s characters Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man film series. 

Milo Perrier (James Coco) is a take on Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. 

Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) parodies another Dashiell Hammett character, The Maltese Falcon’s hard boiled Sam Spade. 

Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) parodies Christie’s Miss Marple. 

These famous characters are invited for the weekend to the mansion of a mysterious millionaire, played by the intriguing Truman Capote. He claims that there will be a murder to be solved and that the winner will receive one million dollars.

Blah blah blah, hijinks ensue! Some of the jokes were totally silly but that’s the kind of thing I like. I liked Guinness being named Jamesir Bensonmum just so there could be a silly exchange with a couple of guests (David Niven & Maggie Smith if I remember correctly). Speaking of Niven, he’s been in tons but the only other thing I’ve seen him in is The Pink Panther with Sellers. I like him – I’d have to say that I prefer him to Sellers with his over-the-top comedy. Anyway, as I mentioned, Sellers plays an Asian detective here based on Charlie Chan. I don’t know anything about the character of Chan so had to look into this but it does appear that this performance is a send-up of the fact that Chan was so often played by white actors. In this context it makes sense & makes it not as bad as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany’s (Truman Capote connection!) but his character may not sit right with some people who watch this movie today. Which is kind of a shame as it’s otherwise quite an enjoyable film.

Summary:

I enjoyed Murder By Death quite a bit but, like the movie, I’m from an older generation. The comedy probably won’t work on a younger audience and may be seen as too politically incorrect at times. If it sounds like your kind of comedy & you’re a fan of the very impressive cast, I’d definitely recommend this if you’ve not seen it.

My Rating: 7/10

The Pink Panther (1963) Review

The Pink Panther (1963)

Directed by Blake Edwards

Starring:
David Niven
Peter Sellers
Robert Wagner
Capucine
Claudia Cardinale

Music by Henry Mancini

Running time: 113 minutes

Plot Synopsis:
A jewel thief plans to steal the Pink Panther, the world’s largest diamond, from Princess Dala of Lugash. Bumbling French police inspector Jacques Clouseau intends to catch the mysterious thief known only as The Phantom.

My Opinion:

I’d never seen any Pink Panther movies before watching this a few months ago. I figured it best to start with the first one. I also have no experience with Peter Sellers beyond Dr Strangelove (which is awesome). So, I’m probably the worst person in the world to review this. Or… Maybe the best depending on how you look at it! I’m a virgin to Clouseau. (Huh?)

I have to make these reviews shorter or I’ll never finish up my 2013 movies in 2013. I enjoyed The Pink Panther. It’s SO of its time, though! A young person today wouldn’t go for this swinging 60s film. The pace is VERY slow and we get this long musical number in the middle of it that I fell asleep during at least three times so I had to keep rewinding. I admit that I watched this over a couple of nights – it does get dull in places (Oh no! It’s a classic! Have I pissed anyone off??).

This is deservedly a classic, though. It has a great 1963 look & feel plus, of course, it brought us the (some would say genius) character of Jacques Clouseau. And the Henry Mancini score MUST also be mentioned – who doesn’t know The Pink Panther Theme?! Finally, this movie also introduced us to the cartoon character of The Pink Panther in a fantastic opening credits segment (I’ll put the YouTube link to that at the end of the review). The Pink Panther diamond got its name because it’s a large pink gem that has a small flaw resembling a panther. The camera zooms into the diamond and the cartoon panther comes to life for the credits. Honestly, this was probably the best part of the whole movie to me. No, I didn’t know before seeing this JUST how the cartoon character had come to be.

So, already, this movie is very iconic thanks to Clouseau, the score & the opening credits. But David Niven, Robert Wagner, Capucine & Claudia Cardinale are also fabulous in this so I don’t think ALL credit can go to (some would say “the comedy genius of”) Peter Sellers. I especially liked the strong female leads! How refreshing. Of course, they’re naturally extremely sexy compared to the average looking older men, one of whom is a bumbling idiot (other than Robert Wagner who is REALLY handsome. Wow – I’d never seen him so young!). This never really changes in Hollywood – the women are always more attractive but at least these two women are very clever & strong lead characters. God, they really are sexy, though. Am I going on about this too much? I’m starting to worry myself a little. Honestly, women were SO much more attractive in the old days… Here they are – one hot & sultry and one cool & classy (give me this over Megan Fox any day):

Phwoar!

This screwball comedy won’t be for everyone but it’s a great slice of the 1960s and very much worth a look for anyone who loves film & wants to experience the best from each decade.

My Rating: 7/10