Presumed Innocent (1990 Alan J Pakula & co-scr)

Co-written with Frank Pierson, from a novel by lawyer-turned-author Scott Turow.

Is Harrison Ford guilty of the murder of his colleague and former lover Greta Scacchi? His boss Brian Dennehy thinks so (but only for political reasons); luckily cop John Spencer, attorney Raul Julia and wife Bonnie Bedelia believe him. There's a sub-plot, of course, that complicates matters, as does the disappearance of key evidence. 

Despite the involvement of Price of Darkness Gordon Willis and composer John Williams, no one seems particularly on good form - certainly seen and heard better from those two, and Pakula doesn't give it his normal creepy paranoia thriller feeling.

Still it involved us enough until the end.

Evan Lottman had worked with Pakula before, was originally a documentary editor, first feature was working on montages for Dede Allen on The Hustler. Later went on to The Exorcist.

With Bradley Whitford, Paul Winfield (judge), Joe Grifasi, Tom Mardirosian.

The Eagle and the Hawk (1933 Stuart Walker)

Though Walker's contract allowed him credit, in fact Mitchell Leisen directed it. WW1 at Paramount. Frederic March is an ace pilot who manages to survive whilst his 'observers' (aerial photographers) keep dying. Enter blunt nemesis Cary Grant, who proves himself a bad guy by machine gunning a helpless parachutist. On leave, March meets 'Beautiful Lady' Carole Lombard (out on loan as usual) and they have a five minute fling. (This is not a long film.) Back in the action, March's barely legal (and barely male) new observer falls out of the plane (I laughed, but it wasn't funny really), which burns March to the point where he kills himself.  To protect his reputation, and the morale of the pilots, Grant takes him up in the air and pretends they've been hit to give March a hero's ending.

John Monk Saunders has therefore written some sober stuff.

Jack Oakie provides the comedy relief and Sir Guy Standing (Now and Forever) is the serious commander of the squad.

Nicely photographed by Harry Fischbeck, edited by James Smith.

Long Bright River (2025)

 Liz Moore wrote the novel and co-wrote it. A Philadelphia cop  is looking for her long lost addict sister. She annoyingly doesn't tell anyone anything, even after being nearly murdered.

Amanda Seyfried, Nicholas Pinnock, Ashleigh Cummings, Callum Vinson (the boy), John Doman ('G-Pop').

Boomerang! (1947 Elia Kazan)

Don't forget the exclamation mark. Another true story. Under huge political pressure, Dana Andrews has to bring a priest murderer to justice, but he suspects they have the wrong man (Arthur Kennedy - you know, from A Summer Place and Peyton Place). As the credits announce the places and real people involved were used as much as possible.

With Jane Wyatt, Lee J Cobb (Twelve Angry Men, On the Waterfront), Cara Williams (The Defiant Ones), Robert Keith, Ed Begley, Sam Levene.

Alfred Newman wrote the (little) music, Norbert Brodine photographed. 

Sergeant York (1941 Howard Hawks)

It was nominated for everything - Gary Cooper and editor William Holmes won. Despite the four writers credited, Hawks told Peter Bogdanovich that John Huston 'did it all'.

In two and a quarter hours we start out with a rowdy farmer who reaches a Road to Damascus turning point and gets religion - with much delight from preacher / store owner Walter Brennan. And despite somewhat unwillingly joining World War 1, he ends up a hero, capturing a load of Germans - it was all true, though as Hawks adds, it was the tail end of the war and he thought the Germans probably wanted to surrender.

Good cast as well - didn't recognise Joan Leslie, though she was in High Sierra - a typically feisty Hawks heroine. Margaret Wycherly is the mother (also Cagney's mother in White Heat). With George Tobias, Stanley Ridges, Ward Bond, Noah Beery Jr., June Lockhart and Dickie Moore (the siblings), Howard da Silva.

Photographed by Sol Polito and Arthur Edeson (battle scenes). Familiar sounding score from Max Steiner, orchestrated as usual by Hugo Friedhofer. Long but doesn't flag - most entertaining and extraordinarily true.

Casablanca (1943 Michael Curtiz)

Montages by Don Siegel and James Leicester. When you know it was still being written as they were filming, with an undecided ending, you can sort of see it. According to Ingrid, producer Hal Wallis was arguing with everyone and making script changes daily. "No one knew where the picture was going and no one knew how it was going to end, which didn't help any of us with our characterizations... It was ridiculous, just awful. Michael Curtiz didn't know what he was doing because he didn't know the story either. Humphrey Bogart was mad because because he didn't know what was going on, so he retired to his trailer. They were going to shoot two endings..."

And I can't believe that in the end, Capt. Renault calls the fucking Nazi in an attempt to thwart his 'friend' and the couple's escape. 

And it's not even "Play it, Sam." It's just "Play it!"

Owen Marks was no idiot though, if you look at the long shots of Ingrid he leaves in, just thinking...

King's Row (1942 Sam Wood)

All is not well behind the porches and windows of the houses in King's Row. One doctor imprisons his daughter, then kills her and himself. Another doctor performs unnecessary operations, then threatens to have his daughter committed. And, worst of all, Harry Davenport has to endure a ridiculous stuck-on beard from Perc Westmore.

Once again, Hugo Friedhofer has marvellously orchestrated Erich Wolfgang Korngold's brilliant score.

When I told Q that Kaaren Verne was married to Peter Lorre, she said 'He's punching above his weight'. And my sister informs me that it has a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. How can any film be scored 100%?

Clive Hirschhorn's 'Warner Brothers Story' reports that the studio were concerned it was too dark for a wartime audience and sat on it for a year before releasing it, when it was only moderately successful. I'm not sure sitting on a film for a year is a good idea, also. Though did get Best Picture, Director and Cinematographer award nominations.

The kids are excellent - Scotty Beckett (who actually has more charisma than his grown-up counterpart Robert Cummings), Douglas Croft (just right as young Drake) and Ann Todd. Beckett was already something of a veteran by then - his later life was marred by drink, drugs, failed marriages and suicide attempts. Also special mention to Ann Sheridan's pop and brother, Ernest Cossart and Pat Moriarity.

When they're not hysterically crazy, it's the women who have the best ideas in the film. Love the scene where Sheridan 'lets' Reagan decide on a business venture.

'Dementia Praecox' was an old term which has now been updated to 'schizophrenia'.

Remember the Day (1941 Henry King)

School teacher Claudette Colbert looks back over her past - particularly her relationship with colleague John Payne (Kansas City Confidential) and pupil Douglas Croft, who ends up being Shepperd Strudwick, disappointingly a presidential candidate rather than a boat builder.

Colbert's the whole show. Written by Tess Slesinger, Frank Davis and Allan Scott from a play by Phillip Dunning and Philo Higley.

Photographed by George Barnes. Edited by Barbara McLean, Scored by Tom's dad Alfred Newman. Fox.

The Red Shoes (1948 Powell and Pressburger)

It had been a while and we had forgotten how big it was, and subsequently couldn't then watch anything else. I'd forgotten how tragic it is. It's like a box of mirrors this film, casting reflections everywhere. What do I mean by that? Well one thing is that the plot of the film is also the plot of the Red Shoes ballet, and that the shoe-maker is Lermentov, because he traps her into a world of ballet and she can't escape - she can't take the shoes off. (And what's quite subtle in the ballet is that she does start off with a boyfriend, who tries to prevent her from wearing the shoes, then later he's at the dance with her, but he loses her and is literally carried away by a malevolent crowd.) And I'd forgotten that Lermentov (Anton Walbrook in surely one of his two best performances - yes, we all know what the other P&P one is) is so controlling that he's actually an evil bastard. (Though I have to add that Crastor is a jealous bastard who has no right to stop her from dancing for him.)

I also think that by extension, Lermentov is Powell. Powell was behaving quite dictatorially then. The lovable designer (Albert Basserman's last performance) may well have been based on their previous designer 'Uncle' Alfred Junge, who had created a stairway to heaven and a Himalayan palace, but he was summarily dismissed for younger blood in Hein Heckroth. And - in an exact mirror of the film - former composer Allan Gray's score was rejected and he was replaced by Brian Easdale. Interestingly, Emeric once wrote that Lermentov (who he wrote for Walbrook) "is something of Diaghilev, something of Alex Korda, something of Michael and quite a bit of me". But many had stories of Powell's bullying and at times sadistic reputation, so I'd have to say that in the worst way, Lermentov is Powell.

But I can't think of any modern director who could film The Red Shoes Ballet in the same brilliant way.

As we know, Jack Cardiff was robbed of his second Oscar, but to us, he won it. (The actual winners were Joseph Valentine, Winton Hoch and William Skall for Joan of Arc.) The film though did won the Oscars for it's astounding art direction - Hein Heckroth and Arthur Lawson - and Brain Easdale's music, as well as being nominated for Picture, Screenplay and Editing (Reginald Mills).

It was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic which for a film about ballet is quite puzzling. We can see the war-torn Brits probably loved the colour exotic Mediterranean locales (and Moira Shearer's bottom). And it's funny how tastes change. At one point, Lermentov is served an enormous grapefruit half, which he then douses with white sugar, Shearer is served a glass of orange juice, and she does the same thing. Both food items could only be dreamed about in rationed and poor Britain then.

The brilliant cast also includes Marius Goring, Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine (who plays the shoe maker, and for a non-professional actor is particularly good), Esmond Knight, Austin Trevor.

Pressburger originally wrote the script alone after viewing preparations for a new ballet that was being put on - he was assisted by a young novelist called Keith Winter who helped with things like English names. This was before Powell's time, and the war shelved production. When the Archers purchased the script from Korda seven years later, Emeric completely re-wrote it. His goal was to show how a work of art was actually made so that the audience would say "ah, that's what all the fuss is about!" and he really succeeds - I love the scene when Crastor plays his new music to the principal collaborators and how enthused they immediately become.

And thanks to Kevin Macdonald - here's his grandfather in the short sleeved blue shirt!

The little harbour where the party celebrates a birthday is in Villefranche-sur-Mer, where a hidden underground medieval street hid the Resistance from the Nazis in WW2.

The Debt (2010 John Madden)

My, John Madden does make a film that moves. And he makes sure it moves - and he told us this himself - by rewriting the script always, though never taking the credit. This one comes from an Israeli film Ha-Hov by Assaf Bernstein and Ido Rosenblum, adapted by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan. An inter-connected trio of Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds are celebrating the publication of a book (by her daughter) about their exploits in East Berlin in the 1960s when they manged to trap 'The Surgeon of Birkenau' and kill him when he tries to escape, a scene we see in flashback. But when we actually go back, the reality is somewhat different... and more complex in what happened and the relationships.

Jessica Chastain plays the young Helen Mirren (well), and her two fellow Israelis are Sam Worthington and Martin Csokas, and Jesper Christensen is rather good as the Surgeon. (I mean, it would have been tempting to just cut his throat and leave him in an alley.)

So yes, it's very engaging and thrilling and even leaves us on a knife-edge finish (and I mean that literally). You have to factor in German-born editor Alexander Berner, who does a splendid job of weaving it together, and Tom Newman, who gives us one of his trade mark percussive and driving scores, and Ben Davis for his considered imagery. (Does Tom play his own keyboards in his scores? I bet he does.)

It was because it had featured in the Helen Mirren documentary - I'd never heard of it. John said he wouldn't even consider taking the project forward unless Helen Mirren played the lead. And someone else - Matthew Sweet or somebody - that she gets to talk her native - well it's not her native tongue, is it, but her father's native tongue - Russian.

Skyfall (2012 Sam Mendes)

We'd caught a bit of this in the background the night before - we were particularly blown away by the credits scene. If you look at the credits of an old one like Thunderball - with its watery females swimming past shimmery colours, which seemed at the time revolutionary - well this one just knocks all of that into the water. It's actually a mini film in itself and once you've seen it you realise that the whole film is encapsulated into the titles sequence, which was designed by Daniel Kleinman and put together - no surprise here - by Framestore.

But even before that we've been dazzled by this incredible pre-credit chase scene which is beyond words, as Craig and co-pilot Naomie Harris chase an escaping villain on various modes of transport, including some amazing stunt driving performed for real along the rooftops of Istanbul, more info here.

It was written by Neal Purvis and Rob Wade & John Logan and goes darker than previous entries in the series but still manages to introduce cool little references for those in the know. Tom Newman has no problem jumping straight into a classic Bond score without losing his own distinctive melodic and percussive quirks and Roger Deakins' photography is absolutely amazing, particularly in that stunning Shanghai scene, so full of moving light and textures - had me thinking of von Sternberg / Lee Garmes Shanghai Express. Newman and Deakins were both BAFTA and Oscar nominated and Tom won the BAFTA.

Production design by Dennis Gassner. The villain's hang-out is Hashima Island, Nagasaki in long shot, deserted since 1974, and recreated at Pinewood.

Javier Bardem makes a good villain. With Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Helen McCrory, Nicholas Woodeson. Edited by Stuart and (presumably) his daughter Kate (still working, cut one of the Endeavour films).

And instead of the usual take over the world bollocks, the villain's motivations are refreshingly simple - revenge. What with Adele's Oscar winning theme song it's overall one of the best films in the series.

My Oxford Year (2025 Iain Morris)

My Oxford Year was chiefly of importance to us as another film edited by the delectable Victoria Boydell, though in this case she left before it wrapped to start work on Emerald Fennell's latest, Wuthering Heights and Kristina Hetherington finished it. I would guess though that the frequent 'pretties' - aerial shots of Oxford - were not Vic's suggestion.

Otherwise this is a not particularly anything film, a romantic comedy-drama along the lines of Love Story, perfectly watchable with to me a fairly unknown cast. Comprising: Sofia Carson, Corey Mylchreest, Dougray Scott, Catherine McCormack (Lockerbie, 28 Days Later, Braveheart), Harry Trevaldwyn, Esmé Kingdom, Nikhil Parmar, Poppy Gilbert (Chloe).

Makes good use of Oxford locations, photographed by Remi Adefarasin.

Rift between father and son seems to heal ridiculously easily.

The Gold - Season 2 (2025 Neil Forsythe)

Whereas the first one was based on true events, this is I think a supposition of 'what happened next'. We meet up with our former cronies Sean Harries, Tom Cullen - married to Stefani Martini - the interestingly charismatic Sam Spruell, Jack Lowden, Tom Hughes, Dominic Cooper and Joshua McGuire.

Emun Elliott and Charlotte Spencer, and Hugh Bonneville, are still on their tails. Plus Stephen Campbell Moore, Amanda Drew, Silas Carson, Peter Davidson.

"I heard you got caught doing coke in a Wimpey."
"It was a Berni Inn, actually."

Sam Spruell

Ultra diffusion c/o DP Oli Russell, shooting Tom Hughes

Joshua McGuire

It jumps about all over the globe - France, Tenerife, British Virgin Islands - though was actually filmed just in the UK and Tenerife. Hastings plays the Isle of Man. As to how much of the money was recovered isn't stated so I'd have to say not much. And to answer whether there'll be a third series, Forsyth is quoted as saying "Sadly they can't find a third half of the gold, so that's your lot!"

It was most watchable.