True Believer (1989 Joseph Ruben)

Written by Wesley Strick. James L Woods is a former Greenwich Village idealist lawyer who's sold out and now gets drugs dealers off (himself partial to dope in his ridiculous pony tail). But for no clear reason he decides to help an Asian who is inside for a murder he claims he did not commit - cue Chinatown (not that one) and shady coverings up. Robert Downey Jr is his assistant - well, his dad died last year, so I guess he's now simply Robert Downey - who really does very little - a non-part, sadly. It's not the best movie in the world.

With Margaret Colin, Yuji Okumoto, Kurtwood Smith, Luis Guzman. All the acting's somewhat overdone.

That's Life (1986 Blake Edwards)

If I was a reviewer for Time Out, I'd say that this is a film by and about the problems of rich, privileged people that doesn't bear any resemblance to real life - That Isn't Life, in fact.

But I'm not.

A real family affair, as Blake was married to Julie Andrews, Jack Lemmon's son Chris plays his son, and Jack's wife Felicia Farr has an enjoyable cameo as a randy fortune teller. Jack acting as man with crabs in church is hilarious. And Julie's step-daughter and real daughter play her daughters.

Everyone has their problems, but the mother stoically tries to deal with them all without revealing she is waiting on a cancer diagnosis. I have to give it to Ms Andrews, or Mrs Edwards, if you prefer, who steals the film with a terrific performance. Filmed, somewhat surrealistically, in her own house in Malibu.

Also with Sally Kellerman (the nutty neighbour), Robert Loggia, Jennifer Edwards (Blake's daughter), Robert Knepper, Matt Lattanzi, Dana Sparks, Emma Walton Hamilton (Julie and Blake's daughter), Teddy Wilson (the indispensable help).

Photographed by Anthony Richmond (who apparently replaced Harry Stradling Jr.), unmistakable score from Mancini, written by Edwards and Milton Wexler, edited by Lee Rhoads.

Woman of the Year (1942 George Stevens)

The first teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, the beginning of their love affair. He was on one of his sober periods at the time.

But it's not really a comedy, despite two protracted scenes of genius: one, where he explains the rules of baseball to her, and the finale (apparently added after initial previews) where without dialogue she attempts to make breakfast. I'm glad it wasn't a total cop-out ending though, where she has to just be Mrs Spencer Tracy. In fact I don't think she would have agreed to it. The writers are Ring Lardner Jr. (MASH) and Michael Kanin, who won the Oscar; Kate was nominated, and looks gorgeous, lit by Joe Ruttenberg (who like her also won four Oscars).

With Fay Bainter, William Bendix, Reginald Owen, Minor Watson (her father), Gladys Blake, Dan Tobin again (her annoying assistant), Roscoe Karns, Jimmy Conlin (uncredited).

Stevens likes long takes, and that's all right with me too. Good score from Franz Waxman.

This is the first we see of Hepburn:

Then the camera tracks up:

We cut to Tracy's reaction briefly:

And her's back at him:

It was produced by Joe Mankiewicz at MGM.

Dear Ruth (1948 William D Russell) / The Reluctant Debutante (1958 Vincente Minnelli)

Without realising it we watched two adaptations of plays.

The first has Joan Caulfield finding an airman (William Holden, recently returned from the real Air Force) turning up at her parents' house having fallen in love with her through her letters - though they've been written by her younger sister Mona Freeman. Edward Arnold and Mary Philips are the parents, and Billy de Wolfe is fun as the straight-laced fiance of the young woman who becomes increasingly jealous as Holden keeps kissing her (something which he does frequently and noticeably). She can't help but fall in love with him, of course.

Norman Krasna wrote the hit Broadway play which Arthur Sheekman retained virtually intact. It therefore does seem very stagebound, but is fun. John Douglas Eames' 'The Paramount Story' reports 'According to Krasna, he based most of the characters on the household of Groucho Marx'.

'The Reluctant Debutante' was a play by William Douglas Home that began in Brighton with the unknown and 17 year old Anna Massey making her debut. It quickly switched to the West End and ultimately Broadway, still with Massey in the lead. For box office reasons MGM preferred to use the cute and American Sandra Dee instead. The parents are very smoothly played by Rex Harrison and his real wife Kay Kendall, who tragically died of leukemia the following year, a condition Harrison knew of but kept from her. (She was Jack Cardiff's cousin.) Home wrote the screenplay, which is given the Technicolor / CinemaScope treatment, though like the first film still obviously stagebound.

Angela Lansbury is a gossipy friend, the drummer Dee likes is John Saxon (Enter the Dragon, Black Christmas), Peter Myers is the boring creep and Diane Clare was in The Haunting  and Whistle Down the Wind.

Still signs of awkward widescreen framing though

Loved the line delivered by Harrison at 5 AM - "I would like a short nap before the office".

Quaglino's in St James is still running, founded in in 1929, known still for live music. The film is photographed by Joseph Ruttenberg and is a superior piece of entertainment, on the whole elegantly filmed, obviously dated.

Though for such a light and genial comedy, it does cast its shadows. Aside from the Kendall situation, Dee was sexually abused by her step-father when young (her mother wouldn't or couldn't admit to it) and suffered lifelong problems of anorexia and drink addiction - thus why there's always something slightly sad in those eyes. Sleep well, little Sandy.

Tuesdays with Morrie (1999 Mick Jackson)

"Magic time" Jack Lemmon would always say before a take. This was his last performance before dying from cancer in 2001. Produced by Oprah Winfrey, based on the book by sports writer Mitch Albom, who did reconnect with former Brandeis professor and got his memoir published, which paid his medical bills. It's adapted by Tom Rickman and was the most watched TV movie of the year, winning four Emmys, for Lemmon and Hank Azaria (who gives his best performance), best TV film and best editing (Carol Littleton, an exceptional piece of work). Indeed, Jackson lets it fly along.

It made me think (not for the first time) that if you're acting opposite someone brilliant, it can surely only make your own performance better.

Barry - Seasons 1 & 2 (2018 Creators Bill Hader, Alec Berg)

Hit man gets into acting. Bill Hader wanders into a class led by Henry Winkler, with students including Sarah Goldberg. As Q says it's The Kominsky Method plus the assassin bit, but in fact this came first (a few months ahead).

Stephen Root is the assassin's 'manager'. Chechen mafia are Glenn Fleshler and Anthony Carrigan. Paul Newsome and John Pirruccello are cops

It's an enjoyable mix, not actually that funny. It's how the acting affects his life that is I guess the nub. Or key, if you prefer.

HBO.

Season two takes us back to Afghanistan for some searing moments. But in the funniest episode, Barry is coerced into assassinating a Tae Kwondo champion, whose ninja-like daughter gives him a terrifying run for his money.

Belfast (2021 Kenneth Branagh & scr)

Ken's tender and tough treatment of his own childhood in the turbulent Belfast of the 1970s. The boy playing him is Jude Hill. (A sequel, how they get on in England, would also be interesting.) Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Michael Maloney, Colin Morgan.

Good use of sound, Simon Chase and James Mather (e.g. in opening mob attack). Music throughout from Van Morrison. Photographed in high contrast by Haris Zambarloukos. Editor Una Ni Dhonghaile (Misbehaviour, Stan and Ollie, Death on the Nile) is interviewed here. She was the BFE Cut Above award for this.

There's a good feel for the smallness of houses, that characters occupy the same frame though aren't necessarily in the same scene.

Dedicated to John Sessions, who has a small role as an actor. And we see Turlough Convery (Sanditon) again as the minister.

"Go."

Won Oscar for best screenplay and BAFTA for best British Film. Very successful.

"There were no roads to Shangri-La from our part of Belfast."

Sanditon Season 2 (2022)

Justin Young is the head writer now.

Alexander Vlahoss is the artist, Tom Weston-Jones the rather brutish looking Colonel, Frank Blake and Maxin Ays as officers, Eloise Webb the difficult teenager. They join Rose Williams, Crystal Clarke, Kris Marshall, Charlotte Spencer (who's being poisoned), Kate Ashfield, Anne Reid, Rosie Graham, Kevin Eldon, Theo James, Turlough Convery.

Filmed at Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol, where the town was created in a 67 x 21 m set in the backlot.

I rather enjoyed this season, especially the relationship between big, affable Turlough Convery and Crystal Clarke, which is rather sweet. He was also in Killing Eve (series three), Les Miserables, Poldark, Temple, My Mad Fat Diary.

Rosie Graham, Rose Williams, Crystal Clarke

Heartstopper (2022 Euros Lyn, writer Alice Oseman)

Joe Locke falls for classmate Kit Connor, signified by animated hearts, birds etc., in chaste 12 certificate version of Sex Ed (couples only kiss). Yasmin Finney, William Gao, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell accompany them on their journey. Based on her graphic novel. Plus Olivia Colman (and Stephen Fry's voice). An eight parter for Netflix.

Ted Lasso Season Two (2021)

Seems unwisely to have gone off on a tangent, with longer and more serious episodes, e.g. The Beard going off on a Long Dark Night of the Soul, Ted revealing his dad killed himself, needing therapy.

Still most enjoyable though. Sometimes, we all need to be a bit more like Ted Lasso.

The Years Between (1946 Compton Bennett)

In origin a Daphne du Maurier play, adapted for the screen by Sydney and Muriel Box. A man thought dead returns from war and finds his wife has become an MP (in his old district) and she's about to remarry. How the husband reacts to everything having changed is the underlying theme of this, which must have been absolutely relevant to any returning spouses at the time.

Valerie Hobson, Michael Redgrave (eventually) - both good - Flora Robson, James McKechnie, Felix Aylmer, Edward Rigby, Dulcie Gray, Esma Cannon, Katie Johnson.

Music by Benjamin Frankel, DP Reginald Wyer. Has an interesting credit for 'Director of Sound' George Burgess.

C'mon C'mon (2021 Mike Mills & scr)

This is what Paper Moon looks like in the 2020s*, with excerpts from children's educational books and interviews with young people about their views. To help his sister Gaby Hoffman, with whom he's had a difficult relationship, Joaquin Phoenix offers to look after her ten year old son, the British Woody Norman (Peter and Wendy, The White Princess, Poldark) in New York.

The beautiful black and white images are care of Robbie Ryan, the editing and sound editing are also worthy of mention - there's often stuff going on in the sound that doesn't match the image. Editor Jennifer Vecchiarello, sound Zach Seivers. With a mix of ambient music (Aaron and Bryce Dessner) and a whole heap of mainly classical music cues, there's an accumulation of creative stuff here that probably points to Mills' best film (he also made Thumbsucker, Beginners and 20th Century Women).

The cumulative scene in Central Park is so stunning it's almost as though we're in a twentieth century fairy tale. It was shot on a digital Alexa Mini.

* Actually, Alice in the Cities was the reference point, a film that's long been on the 'to watch' list.

Without Love (1945 Harold Bucquet)

Hepburn and Tracy's second billing, at MGM, thus Q recognised the same dog from Undercurrent. Actually, it's the same cameraman - Karl Freund - also. Freund was apparently one of those rude and obnoxious cameramen who spent ages lighting everything, much to Tracy's exasperation.

He plays a brusque scientist who wants to set up shop in Hepburn's cellar - and that's not a euphemism, as in this unlikely tale, he - having had his heart broken - wants no romance, and neither does she (short lived perfect marriage). Yeah, yeah - we all know how this will turn out. Source is Philip (Holiday & The Philadelphia Story) Barry play, in which Hepburn had starred, screenwritten by Donald Ogden Stewart (same).

Tracy was most unhappy about the role and spent some time on alcohol binges during which periods production has to be halted.

With them are Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn (Under the Clock, Song of the Thin Man), Carl Esmond, Patricia Morison, Felix Bressart and - in a very short scene - Gloria Grahame.

It goes on a bit - an hour 51 - these MGM films seem longer than ones from other studios, as though to say 'See - we gives youse more film for your buck'. Actually I think Warner Brothers films would talk like that - MGM films probably talk posh. Still largely enjoyable though.

Undercurrent (1946 Vincente Minnelli)

Robert Taylor was the lead in A Yank at Oxford, served in the war three years, then did this and High Wall, latterly was in Ivanhoe and some such.

He marries Katharine Hepburn, great as always, but there's a black sheep brother lurking in the background, Robert Mitchum (who must have been loaned out from RKO), and a black horse, come to that. Good cast includes Edmund Gwenn, Marjorie Main, Jayne Meadows, Clinton Sundberg (Hotel), Dan Tobin (Hepburn's initial love interest), Leigh Whipper, Kathryn Card.

Story Thelma Strabel, screenplay Edward Chodorov. Populated by characters with names like 'Dink' and 'Bangs'. Minnelli's direction fine (Under the Clock was the year before), shot by Karl Freund on the usual plush MGM sets. Music by Herbert Stothart, with great use of melody from Brahms' Third Symphony (third movement).

My only complaint is I would have liked to actually see Taylor being mashed up by the terrifying horse. The ending (as they say) is a doozy.

A Bell for Adano (1945 Henry King)

An interesting film in many ways. Made at the end of the war, it tells of a small US contingent that is looking after a wrecked Italian town, its hungry people and their lack of town bell (which the Fascists have taken to turn into shells). Major John Hodiak (Lifeboat) deals with a mixture of Italian stereotypes with tough compassion, has time to mix with local belle Gene Tierney, only he's married and she's waiting for an imprisoned sweetheart. It's quite hard on the US army, but finds the navy a much better and more helpful organisation. So there's no romance and no action and it's quite long, with a plot about a missing report pointing to the absurdity of wartime administration.

Written by Lamar Trotti, Norman Reilly Raine, based on the novel by John Hersey.

With William Bendix and Henry Morgan (playing a quite unsympathetic MP) are the available Hollywood Italians: Fortunio Bonanova, Henry Armetta, Roman Bohnen, Luis Alberni, Eduardo Cianelli; and Richard Conte, Stanley Prager, Monty Banks, Hugo Haas.

Splendid photography from Joe Lashelle, scored by Lionel Newman, edited by Barbara McLean. I can tell you how many films King had made up till that point, from 1915, but it would take too long.

The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe (2022 Richard Laxton, scr Chris Lang)

If this has been presented as fiction it would have seemed entirely unbelievable, terribly written. 'No one would do that!' you'd keep exclaiming, annoyed. I think it was right to present it semi-comically.

Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan (who was so good in The Bagnold Summer) are terrific as the loony couple. She was also in The Dig, Vanity Fair, W1A, A Very English Scandal, Strike, The Falling, Pride, Occupation and Topsy-Turvy. Blimey!

Good music: Harry Escott and Ben Pearson. Panama is played by Portugal.

The fateful photo

Son of Rambow (2007 Garth Jennings & scr)

A pop video director, his feature debut was 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and his only other significant movie is 2016's animated comedy Sing.

Bill Milner is nicely corrupted by Will Poulter when they attempt to make their own version of First Blood. I wondered if the film is partly about the problems of making a film, but I don't think it was, really.

With Jessica Hynes, Neil Dudgeon, Paul Ritter, Ed Westwick, Jules Sitruk, Eric Sykes.

"Skills on toast!"

Whisky Galore (1949 Alexander Mackendrick)

Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, James Robertson Justice, Gordon Jackson, Catherine Lacey (The Lady Vanishes, IKWIG, The October Man, The Servant), John Gregson, Henry Mollison (dry customs man).

Based on a true incident, documented by Compton Mackenzie and written by he and Angus MacPhail. It was Mackendrick's debut. He reportedly was more on the side of Radford's characters than the villagers. Film captures the Ealing spirit of anti-authoritarian resistance, neatly depicted by hiding a bottle of whisky under a baby!

BAFTA nominated for Best Film, though came out the same year as Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets (which were also nominated, though The Third Man won).

Droll film in which the absence of 'the water of life' causes island to be depressed until a shipwreck offers them a life line - though they can't go and get it at first because it's Sunday. That ending is clearly stuck on (Perry says it was done so for American audiences but then why is it on our UK print?)

The Parisian disco Whisky A Gogo was opened in 1947 and was named after Mackenzie's novel.

DP Gerald Gibbs, music (based on traditional themes) by Ernest Irving.

This Happy Breed (1944 David Lean)

It was the highest grossing British film of the year, and the first which Lean directed solo, and was nominated for precisely no BAFTAs.* Celia Johnson never felt comfortable in the role but still manages to deliver a sublime performance.

Probably the greatest scene in it is Vi (Eileen Erskine) arriving to announce the death, partly because of the way it begins between aunt and granny (Alison Leggatt and Amy Veness). The former has mellowed and they're no longer at each other's throats - indeed they're gossiping about a letter from Queenie in France. Johnson enters, having had a bad dream, and immediately turns on the radio they've shut down, then she goes out into the garden. Vi enters, breaks the news, gets rid of them, then goes into the garden. The camera tracks across the room, but rather than getting to the point where we can see anyone outside, it comes to rest... Then and only then do the shell-shocked couple come into view, whilst the happy big band music continues...

Just a flat in Alderbrook Road will cost you £700,000.

What happens when the film is finished is a good question. Queenie's off to Singapore. If she's still there in 1942, she's going to be captured or killed by Japanese, Johnny too unless he's luckily at sea. Reg presumably will join up. I can see Frank as an air raid warden and Bob in the Home Guard. Maybe a continuing story would be that of Billy and Queenie's boy growing up in the 1950s?

Wincarnis, by the by, is a fortified wine (17%) a bit like sherry.

It's Shakesepare, by the way. 'This happy breed' is from the famous Richard II speech, 'this sceptred isle' etc.

* That's because there weren't any until 1949.

Killing Eve - Season 4 (2022 Showrunner Laura Neal)

The last season - everyone's doing finales - Peaky Blinders, Gomorrah, This Is Us, Ozark, Grace & Frankie, After Life... possibly even Endeavour. (Neighbours, even.)

Opens in a great way with a suited motorcyclist forcing her way into Kim Bodnia's place of work and shooting him - no, it's not Villanelle (Jodie), but actually Eve (Sandra Oh), who's kind of on the trail of The Twelve (yeah, no one cares). Fiona Shaw, still most entertaining, has been relegated to diplomatic duties in Mallorca. And Villanelle? She's living and working at a church, in an attempt to reform. Hmm... not for long. Obviously - it made her a less interesting character. In fact, it's rather silly.

It's all getting a bit old hat, really. I think they should have quit after the first two.

Not until episode 4 (of 8) does it seem to find its feet, with Jodie back on form torturing and killing people, she and Fiona Shaw playing Truth or Dare, and Oh seducing Camille Cottin. The music and writing work so well together. Oh and Kim Bodnia training Anjana Vasan, who's killed her (vile) brother, in Margate, is fun.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been a fan of Shaw since she saw her, aged 16, on stage in Medea.

Other writers are Kayleigh Llewellyn, Isis Davis, Sarah Simmonds. Directed by Stella Coradi, Anu Menon, Emily Atef.

Ice Cold in Alex (1958 J Lee Thompson)

Based on a novel by ex military man Christopher Landon, adapted by T.J. Morrison, BAFTA nominated as was film and Anthony Quayle.

We seem to be in the midst of a mini John Mills revival. He was delighted to finally break free from the stiff upper lip military figure.

With these two are Sylvia Syms and Harry Andrews, and it's Gilbert Taylor tracking their travails over Libya and Elstree to the somewhat uninspired melodies of Leighton Lucas.

A daring sex scene (yes, she had two buttons undone) between Mills and Syms was completely removed by the censor. Mills' character is refreshingly vulnerable and battered (great scenes near start with him and bathing CO).

The decisive moment:

In his biography, Johnny claims he had to drink the lager down in one six times over six takes and was then absolutely plastered. I wonder if Lee was just having a bit of fun?

Good cast, well directed, long but enjoyable thriller.

When the allied plane flies over them and drops a message, it would have been funny if it had said 'Put your shirt on, man! Just because there's a war on...'

Other Thompsons I'd like to visit / revisit: Northwest Frontier, Yield to the Night, the original Cape Fear.

Cut from 132m to 79m in the US and retitled Desert Attack!

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (2022 Hugh Laurie & scr)

Bravo, Mr. Laurie - Bravo! A brilliantly written adaptation of Agatha's 1934 thriller, with just the right balance of humour to menace and an expertly directed cast. We thought he would have directed episodes of House (for which he was being paid the paltry sum of $400,000 per episode) but no - only two (and a couple of TV series).

Will Poulter and Lucy Boynton are just right as the adventurous couple who are drawn in to murder. Jim Broadbent, Emma Thompson and Laurie himself essentially cameo. With Maeve Dermody (troubled doctor's wife), Jonathan Jules (car dealer mate), Daniel Ings, Miles Jupp, Amy Nuttall, Alistair Petrie (vicar), Joshua James (The Ipcress File, Life), only Conleth Hill again (Holding, Magpie Murders) as the doctor, Paul Whitehouse. Whitehouse and Charlie Higson decorated Fry and Laurie's flat and were persuaded by the comedy duo to go into it themselves.

Laurie referenced The Thin Man, "another couple I adore spending time with".

Looking forward to watching it non-jerky on DVD.

Good use of music as well, I wonder if the specific reference to the tune that closes The Shining (Al Bowlly, 'Midnight, the Stars and You') was intentional.

Music Harry Escott, DPs John de Borman and Mika Orasmaa, editors Belinda Cottrell and Ian Farr. For Britbox.

The terrible organist is one of many good touches - the (nice) characters display a real warmth for one another.

After Life - Season Three (2022 Ricky Gervais)

Favourite moment - throwing a potted cactus through the back window of a car that hasn't stopped at a zebra crossing.

Gervais's pot shots are about self-publishing authors, swingers, men reclaiming malehood (and acting like wankers), super-superior teachers..

I would have preferred some of the super-gross material to have been omitted, but you have to forgive him for his series finale, featuring sick kids in hospital, and the way in the end everyone seems to find someone and some previous characters including Tracy-Ann Oberman and Steve Speirs appear. The importance of the dog (played by Anti) is most evident also. And the way he finally accepts that care home patient Dave Hill is his 'dad'. (Though perhaps the disappearing characters in the final shot is one touch too many.)

Tom Basden, Tony Way, Diane Morgan, Kerry Godliman, Ashley Jensen, David Bradley, Penelope Wilton, Jo Hartley, Jo Wilkinson. It's Hemel Hempstead.

Serpico (1973 Sidney Lumet)

Written by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from Peter Maas' biography. He observed police corruption and reported it in 1967, gave the story to the New York Times in 1970 and was shot the following year. He did briefly recuperate in Switzerland and lived abroad for a while but returned to New York in 1980.  Everywhere he had been in the city - Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx - the corruption seemed worse and worse and by not taking the money he put himself in great danger. And according to the film, that completely soured any private life he had, with girlfriends Barbara Eda-Young and Cornelia Sharpe.

Dede Allen has a great way of propelling you from one scene to another like this - Smack! Smack! - which gives the film a great momentum. Richard Marks is co-editor.

With Al Pacino: John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Tony Roberts, M Emmet Walsh and (uncredited) F Murray Abraham and Judd Hirsch.

Arthur Ornitz photography nice and gritty; Mikis Theodorakis' music is less successful and mixed too high. Paramount.

The Time Machine (1960 George Pal)

We'd both seen this as kids, of course. It doesn't hold up very well. The acting is poor - Pal, I sense, was more into the effects, which don't always make sense. It's kind of enjoyably cheesy. 

Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot, Tom Helmore (Vertigo), Whit Bissell.

Photographed by Paul Vogel. MGM.

Best bit - Morlock time lapse dissolving into pile of bones. Studio / sets / matte all look very fake.