Make Way for Tomorrow (1937 Leo McCarey)

There's another of McCarey's subversive kids here - the one in Maurice Moskovitch's store - he says to the kid "You'll be good to your mother when she gets old?" and he just stands there and says nothing. There's the same deft touches from McCarey at work here, such as the letter Beulah Bondi (49 playing seventies) notices has arrived from the old people's home - she then shuts her son up so she can pre-empt him having to tell her she's moving there in an act of beautiful selflessness (the like of which none of the kids display). PB observes that the old couple still display the same love for each other, towards the end, in the hotel sequence, in a youthful way, whilst none of the kids seem anywhere near as happily married themselves - it hasn't been passed down.

Is the Alfred Molina film Love Is Strange a sort of gay remake?

Victor Moore is the husband, Fay Bainter the bridge-teaching wife of Thomas Mitchell, Barbara Read their daughter. Minna Gombell is the horrible cow, married to Porter Hall. Ferike Boros is Maurice's uncredited wife (we just saw her in Love Affair as Irene Dunne's landlady).

McCarey would rewrite scenes on set with the actors to get these fresh scenes and performances. It's a very discreet film; none of the big emotional scenes of a Kings Row or Now Voyager, for example, but that doesn't dilute its power at all - as Peter says, it's more like a European film than a Hollywood one - cut to - Tokyo Story.

"Now they tell us!"

So neglected was the film it's not even featured in my old Time Out 1991 Film Guide. Made for Paramount - so McCarey was a wanderer, not tied to one studio, like Hawks...

Love Affair (1939 Leo McCarey)

"My father used to say in this life the best things are illegal, immoral or fattening." The original, and - as I predicted - almost half an hour shorter than his own remake An Affair to Remember. (There's a whole conversation there. Hitch also remade his own 30s film in the 50s and that's a lot longer too. Same applied to Imitation of Life. And A Farewell to Arms...)

Irene Dunne shines in this, Boyer supports charmingly. It's a very smooth film, e.g. closeup up of the couple's hand shaking good night - but they don't let go. When Dunne opens her balcony door and the reflection is the Empire State Building. Dunne running back up the stairs to kiss grandma goodbye; the closed lid of grandma's piano. Also, Dunne and Boyer silently pointing out their other halves to each other from the ship.

One of those films that has lapsed into the public domain and thus exists in a variety of shoddy copies, which is a shame as Rudolph Maté's cinematography looks suitably luminous. On the plus side it disguises the background paintings to some extent so that Madeira-on-Hollywood looks suitably realistic.

It's a classic. McCarey an underrated director who I'm trying to retrospect (if I may be allowed to use that as a verb). Made at RKO. With Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moskovitch. Music by Roy Webb, who scored every film ever made at RKO.*

Of course Peter Bogdanovich discusses it with the director in 'Who the Devil Made It?' McCarey prefers Boyer's performance to Grant's, and worked out the story himself with Mildred Cram (the screenplay is credited to Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart). The scene with the little boy** was there for two reasons: with Dunne it displays a kind of turnaround humour, and with Boyer it underlines the character - "What do they say about me?" "I don't know. Whenever they start I have to leave the room." This is McCarey's 'ineluctability of elements' - events are linked together - one incident flows from another.

*Not actually true, just seems like it. (Though since writing this, every RKO film we've seen has been scored by Roy Webb.)
** Yes, we had seen him before - he's the young Parris Mitchell in Kings Row. His IMDB bio begins 'Scotty Beckett was one of the cutest, most successful child actors of the 1930s and 1940s. His descent into a life of alcoholism, drugs, and crime remains one of the most tragic of Hollywood stories...'

Chappaquiddick / The Senator (2017 John Curran)

A very straight re-telling - by Taylor Allen (an animatics* editor on The Simpsons) and Andrew Logan (mainly, a producer) - of a queasy moment in Teddy Kennedy's life when - let's face it - he could well have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne by not going straight to the police (and, frankly, by driving drunkly and badly). In fact the only interesting bit of the story - how the hell did he get out of the car, and then not be able to get in to save her - is unexplained.

I was going to joke that was Bruce Dern playing Kennedy the elder - I was most surprised when it turned out it was him. Jason Clarke is his son, Kate Mara the unfortunate victim, Ed Helms as the faithful cousin. With Jim Gaffigan, Olivia Thirlby, Clancy Brown.

As a film it's just a wee bit dull. I suppose we're supposed to be shocked that it was covered up as smoothly as it was, and that he retained the trust of the American people, but the problem is we're way beyond that now in the utter incredibility of world politics (Saudi Arabia, for one).

Didn't recognise any of the names behind the camera, except Curran, who made the better The Painted Veil and Tracks.

* An animatic is the first stage of the edit in an animation. It's the combination of the storyboards, audio (possibly with temp voice acting), and timing. It's used as the base for the animation: animators will take the shot angle, durations, certain actions, and timings as a starting point for their work on each shot. Definition from Judith Allen.

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (1975 Sidney J Furie)

Somewhat slow character drama doesn't really live up to the title. Arriving from Harrisburg, Pennsylania, Jeannie Berlin moves into NYC flat with ditsy actress Rebecca Diana Smith - a well caught character, one of those flaky types with no money and always in a hurry - and pretty much immediately bumps into doctor Roy Scheider. This triangular relationship, search for work and wedding of her younger sister are pretty much it.

Music budget seems small, as the one pop song is replayed endlessly; Michel Legrand's score seems syrupy. Unwisely filmed in Panavision by Donald M Morgan. Written by Gail Parent, from her own novel. Paramount.

Any Human Heart (2010 Michael Samuels)

As I told the author, "one of those rare cinematic occasions where everything blends together perfectly – acting, cinematography, production design, music, editing , direction – think I’ve remembered everybody – into one amazing whole".

Without doubt, William Boyd's most successful adaptation (Restless and Sword of Honour are other worthy contestants), a story of overwhelming brilliance, charting a fictional character through real characters and events (Will claims the Harry Oakes story as told is as he thinks it happened for real - was even going to publish a non-fiction book about it) - we did laugh indeed when 'Nat Tate' turned up at the art gallery!

It's almost Roegian in places, with its impressionistic sequences and flash forwards and backs. The montage about Logan's suicide attempt is out of this world, and the oddly filmed scene where he rushes up to find his son dead equally stunning.

What is remarkable is how little subsequent success the parties involved seem to have had - discounting the author. Samuels hasn't made anything else of note, nor has Dan Jones (won BAFTA) composed anything half as good - it's literally one of those film scores you could buy and listen to independently of the film. Wojciech Sepel's cinematography is outstanding, particularly when viewed on Blu-Ray - he, Jones and Samuels reunited on this year's The Windermere Children. Tim Murrell edited, Patrick Melrose his last good credit - he also cut the Endeavour episode 'Ride', and the author's Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth. Stevie Herbert is the production designer (many of the locations abroad were filmed near Barcelona).

Shall we mention the cast? It's Matthew Macfadyen's finest hour or five, and as I think I've mentioned before, I love the way Jim Broadbent 'becomes' him (Sam Claflin is the younger version). Will thinks people are more than one person through their lifetimes - that's (partly) why Logan is played by four different people (if you include Conor Nealon - and why shouldn't we?), though the others are simply aged. Hayley Attwell, Ed Stoppard (Ben), Samuel West (Peter), Julian Ovenden (Hemingway), Ken Bones and Flaminia Cinque (Logan's parents), Emerald Fennell (Lottie), Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander, Kim Cattrall, Holliday Grainger, Hugh Skinner (from W1A), Stéphane Dausse (Cyprien), Yolanda Vazquez (Encarnacion), Rupert Vansittart (Earl), Freddie Fox and James Musgrave (younger Peter and Ben), Kulvinder Ghir (London neighbour), Tobias Menzies (Fleming), Richard Schiff (from The West Wing), Skye Bennett (Gail), Rosie Cavaliero (nurse), Charity Wakefield (Land), Julian Rhind-Tutt, Stuart McQuarrie, Lydia Wilson (Monday), MyAnna Buring (Ingeborg).

One of those films where at certain moments, the sound vanishes, for special effect. Also the moment Freya is bombed is terrifically well done.

It's just amazing. Also very moving and very funny. As you get older you appreciate it more and more.

Dad's Army (2016 Oliver Parker)

Started promisingly, fondly but knowingly. Went downhill, with the odd titter. Written by Hamish McColl. Couldn't be bothered to finish it.

Great cast, though: Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Daniel Mays, Bill Paterson, Tom Courtenay, Blake Harrison, Michael Gambon, Alison Steadman, Sarah Lancashire, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mark Gatiss, Annette Crosbie, Ian Lavender.

Nicely photographed by Christopher Ross (Trust, Eden Lake, London to Brighton).

Isolation Stories (2020 Developed by Jeff Pope)

Remarkable achievement to film four fifteen-minute lockdown stories in stars' own homes, with family members operating professional equipment which had been sterilised and shipped in. (It was filmed on iPhones.)

'Mel.' Pregnant, single Sheridan Smith is having qualms about her forthcoming birth, receives a friendly call which puts everything into perspective. Written by Gaby Chiappe.

'Ron and Russell'. Robert Glenister likely has the virus, son Tom looks after him. Written by Jeff Pope.

'Mike and Rochelle.' Angela Barrett video counsels hypochondriac Darren Boyd. Written by William Ivory.

'Karen.' Eddie Marsan, David Threlfall. Man in lockdown with two kids, wife separated, her dad  keeps visiting, helps. Moving episode, written by Neil McKay.

Magic in the Moonlight (2014 Woody Allen & scr)

Reviewed many times before.

So, there's no hereafter, there's nothing but what you can see in front of you, when you die, you die -- which is why you need to believe in a little magic, allow some illusions, fall in love.

That long (almost) uninterrupted take between Firth and Eileen Atkins is the best scene in the film. Notice how Eileen seems to be really concentrating on her card game, whilst delivering her lines brilliantly. And the writing - what's actually going on is she's making her nephew wake up to the fact he's fallen for the faker.

Firth is one of those people who've jumped on the "I'll never work with him again" bandwagon (including, surprisingly, Greta Gerwig), whilst Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johannson are publicly on his side. I was trying to find something about Firth's experience working on the film, but this is all I got...

Out To Sea (1997 Martha Coolidge)

Funny that Matthau is cast as an inveterate gambler, which I only recently learned he was in real life. Because of gambling debts he inveigles Lemmon onto a cruise ship, but rather than the luxury voyage he's been promised finds they are there to work as dance partners, under the strict eye of cruise director Brent Spiner, who ruins various songs. Also working there are Donald O'Connor and Hal Linden.

Matthau goes after Texas heiress Dyan Cannon, who you'd think would be far too young for him (her mother is Elaine Stritch), and who Edward Mulhare also covets, whilst widower Lemmon falls for widow Gloria DeHaven (who was in some second rate musicals*, The Thin Man Goes Home, then lots on TV). She's rather good.

It's fun, Matthau getting most of the laughs, e.g. learning how to dance. "There's no such thing as 'too late'. That's why they invented death." Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs.

"Madam. I would be honoured if you would take my last name and put it on your bank account."

Not their last teaming - 1998's The Odd Couple II took that ignominious credit

Photographed by Lajos Koltai, music by David Newman (brother of Thomas), edited by Anne Coates (particularly noticeable in carnival scene and end credits), using a variety of old-fashioned scene transitions.

* Sorry, I don't actually know Two Girls and a Sailor is second-rate. Could be the best goddam muscial in the world, for all I know.

Moonrise (1948 Frank Borzage)

Moonrise has a remarkable opening. In stark yet impressionistic chiaroscuro, a man in shadows is hanged, then an effigy is hanging over a crying baby's head - the son - who then is schoolboy aged and being bullied for having a father that was hanged. All shadowy impressionism. Then those steps to the gallows again.. and we're a few years later on, the boy being bullied again, the cycle repeating, dark, shadowy scenes. This all takes place in about ninety seconds. Then the adult, and he's fighting again, the same assailant...

Thus we understand the motivations driving our grown up protagonist, played by Dane Clark, but boldly, he's depicted as being extremely hostile to just about everyone, not at all sympathetically, almost killing his deaf and dumb friend (Harry Morgan) at one point; and thus when schoolteacher Gail Russell falls for him, we wonder why...

It has its shocking moments, but not in a blunt Sam Fuller way, well, sort of - but with camera moves that are more sophisticated, like Ophuls. This is particularly evident in a beautifully staged sequence on a carousel, and in the way the camera on a crane tracks the lovers in their ballroom dance. Borzage is often called 'lyrical'. I think I know what that means, as in 'expressing emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way', there's definitely something striking about him. Also, I wonder whether Laughton saw this before making his own, studio set, river-bound, lyrical masterpiece Night of the Hunter, which even shares Ethyl Barrymore in the cast. Certainly, Lionel Banks' art direction here on Republic sets is most accomplished, evoking not only the swamps but the run down look of the town and the dilapidated Southern mansion, William Lava's score is thunderous and pounding, John Russell's photography starkly effective and moody (Psycho was his most notable later achievement).

Rex Ingram is the noble recluse, the conscience, who starts singing a spiritual with words all about Clark's situation, like he's a Greek chorus (or indeed like Sir Lancelot in I Walked With a Zombie). Dogs are significant, particularly in a night raccoon hunt (why hunt raccoons? They look cute. To eat them?) Allan Joslyn is a sympathetic cop.

I was surprised it ended as happily as it did.

Borzage is not a well known name these days, but he definitely left his mark in dozens of silents, notably including 7th Heaven and Street Angel, then into sound with the original Farewell to Arms, Man's Castle, Little Man, What Now?, Three Comrades and The Shining Hour. There's a cracking good 1997 article about him and his work here at Filmcomment.com, by Kent Jones.

Good Girls - Seasons 1 & 2 (2018-9 Creator Jenna Bans)

Wasn't going to bother reviewing this, another Breaking Bad progeny, with a money laundering Ozark spin. It's pretty much totally unbelievable, plots don't make sense, characters do stupid things (that needn't be a bad thing - they often do in life)... but I have to agree with Q, it's quite fun in a bad way. The key is to not take it at all seriously.

Really not sure of the acting (which isn't a good sign) Christina Hendricks, Retta (who cries at everything) and Mae Whitman - their banter often feels forced, though attempting to use urban lingo has its moments of chuckles ('faded...lit'). Also has many moments where a character just ... looks...

Reno Wilson is the cop husband who starts helping them ridiculously easily, Matthew Liddard is the cheating husband who then says he has cancer (that, for some reason, isn't enough for Hendricks to kick him out - even after she finds out he's had four affairs), Manny Montana is the hood, who occasionally I can understand,  Allison Tolman the secret shopper who starts blackmailing them (full marks to Q who identified her from Fargo Season 2). Quite liked James Lesure as the dogged detective.

How did they get the cut up body out of a 30 square mile rubbish site which had 24 hour security and had police dogs all over it? By... yeah - I don't know. In this way, it flits from one far-fetched idea to another, dropping plots that aren't convenient (Whitman's drugs charge, for example) through seventeen hours, or however long it all is, often to completely irrelevant French songs (not that I have anything against French songs) until finally SPOILER the baddie gives Hendricks his gun for the second time to shoot someone and thankfully, she shoots him. I should think so. What an idiot. At least it finished, though.

Also with June Squibb.

That very familiar, mournful classical score that opens episode four is Beethoven's Seventh, Second Movement. Finale 'Love and War' by Fleurie sounds suspiciously like an Adele song. Liked Boards of Canada - 'Dawn Chorus'.

Love Serenade (1996 Shirley Barrett & scr)

Still no idea how I came across this distinct oddity now - a very low key, whimsical relationship comedy featuring two sisters - Miranda Otto (as 'Dimity') and Rebecca Frith ('Vicki-Ann') and a new-in-town DJ, George Shevtsov.

Has a quite unexpected and amusing ending. Good use of industrial soundscape.

With John Alansu in the Chinese restaurant. Features a good soundtrack of seventies numbers, principally Barry White (including the title song). Photographed by Mandy Walker (Baz Luhrman films) in Victoria.

Movie Movie (1978 Stanley Donen)

A pastiche of two Classic Hollywood genres - the boxing movie ('Dynamite Hands') and the putting-on-a-show musical ('Baxter's Beauties of 1933'), written by Larry Gelbart (MASH, Tootsie) and Sheldon Keller, sharing most of the same cast, which comprises George C Scott, Eli Wallach, Trish Van Devere, Jocelyn Brando, Red Buttons and Art Carney. The first features as the boxer Harry Hamlin, the second stars Barbara Harris and Barry Bostwick.

These are affectionate parodies with committed playing and a good line in absurd dialogue, e.g. "Your sister's eyes are below the belt" and "Now is a long time".

Photographed by Charles Rosher Jr (The Late Show, 3 Women, A Wedding.. but who spent most of his life getting married and divorced) and Bruce Surtees (in colour) who since his last Eastwood movies in the eighties dried up.

Some great stuff on bicycles in the musical, which was staged by Michael Kidd. The music's by Ralph Burns.

Topper (1937 Norman Z. McLeod)

Is that a Wombat we see in the hilarious opening, being driven by Cary Grant with his feet? He and Constance Bennett have escaped from their own anniversary party and to 'relax' before the next morning's Board Meeting, they go to a nightclub (where Hoagy Carmichael accompanies them on the piano)... finally arriving in the early hours outside the bank, where they promptly fall asleep. Come morning a crowd gathers, Grant wakes up, realises he's late for the meeting and hops out of the car, in that way only Grant can do, leaving her surrounded by gawpers, still asleep.

This is written by Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch (of My Man Godfrey fame) and Eddie Moran, from Thorne Smith's novel. And as to the Wombat - well (I've just looked it up on imcdb) - in the following year's Young in Heart, Roland Young, is driving a 1938 Phantom Corsair, whereas here we have a 1937 Buick Century - it's even a different colour, and they look nothing like each other.

Anyway, when the couple die, they come back as ghosts in order to try and make Roland Young live a more fun life - there's not even any booze in wife Beulah Bondi's house, and Alan Mowbray the butler always brings the same egg. Eugene Pallette turns up later, as a hotel detective who can't believe the ghostly things going on around him. Syd Saylor is the car salesman we thought we recognised but didn't.

This is an MGM production, photographed by Norbert Brodine. I noticed the attention to detail in a back-projected driving scene, there's some great lighting (or effects) which makes it look like reflections of the passing trees in the bonnet.

It would be even more fun were it not that our neighbours were moving an elephant around in their house.

Friday Night Dinner (2020 Writer Robert Popper)

Had to mention this, one of the funniest things on TV. (Funnily enough, because of lockdown, Channel 4 are re-running all their classics, which reminds you what a good hub it used to be - Spaced, Black Books, Father Ted, Green Wing..)

The highlights were Auntie Val (Tracy Ann Oberman) ending up locked in the dog cage.. the blue tape (blue, you see - it's funnier if it's something specific) and the finale-  'There's glass in the soup'.

The Racket (1951 John Cromwell)

What was it between Howard Hughes and Robert Mitchum? The millionaire used to lend Mitchum office space when he was starting out; when at Hughes-controlled RKO, he protected Mitchum's career after the dope bust, then kept him in starring roles.

We don't see Mitchum for seventeen minutes, but already get the feeling he's going to be the incorruptible cop everyone's talking about, as the plot is introduced - we have the standard tough crime boss (Robert Ryan), but also the new fifties element of the 'syndicate' - organised crime of a much bigger and more powerful nature - working behind the scenes (in this case, run by 'The Old Man', who we never see).

In a very ironic ending, the Old Man's bent cop, William Conrad, shoots Ryan rather than let him testify, so whilst the nominal bad guy is beaten, the real bad guys are still at work. This, then is deflated by a last minute arrest of the bent Judge (Roy Collins) and (we think) Conrad - something of a last minute cop-out (forgive the pun), which seems a compromise.

Also going on is a budding relationship between a young newspaper man Robert Hutton and singer Lizabeth Scott. Dedicated cop is played by William Talman (who had quite an old face for 36).

William Wister Haines and W.R. Burnett (Scarface, The Asphalt Jungle, This Gun For Hire) adapted Bartlett Cormack's play, first filmed in 1928. Sam Fuller apparently worked on it too.

Photographer  George Diskant wouldn't like the terrible quality print that Sony Classic Movies ran this week.

School for Scoundrels (1960 Robert Hamer)

"Oh - hard cheese." It's always an enjoyable hour and a half.

Ian Carmichael had spent quite a stretch on TV before getting any interest, since 1947. Terry-Thomas had an even longer slog, since the thirties, his first film of note Private's Progress in 1956. Hamer's drinking ended his film career here (though clashes with producer Hal Chester didn't sound like they helped) - he was dead within three years. Chester and Patricia Moyes are credited with adapting Stephen Potter's 'Oneupmanship' books but didn't - see earlier review.

Janette Scott, Alistair Sim, Dennis Price, Peter Jones, Edward Chapman, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier.

Erwin Hillier shot it. The Quiller Memorandum was one of his later notables. John Addison wrote the rowdy score.

Love the initial meeting between Sim and Carmichael in which the former constantly one-ups him, firstly in use of surname / 'Mister', then in not returning the pen...

Love & Mercy (2014 Bill Pohlad)

I'm not quite sure I believe John Cusack to be the older version of Paul Dano - both playing Brian Wilson - but film could have been heavy, and isn't. Giamatti is great as evil controlling doctor, Elizabeth Banks is the car dealer who saves Wilson.

I swear there's a nod to Godard (Sympathy for the Devil) in a recording studio scene; recreations of famous song recordings interesting. Some interesting use of sound.

Written by Oren Moverman and Michael Lerner, photographed by Robert Yeoman.

I was amused to read on IMDB that one of Paul Dano's early supporting roles was in...

Life of Crime (2013 Daniel Schecter & scr, ed)

Based on Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel 'The Switch', the film is dedicated to him.

Great fun from the off, tight story-telling. Yasiin Bey (Begin Again, Be Kind Rewind) and John Hawkes (Three Billboards, Lincoln, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Winter's Bone) kidnap Jen An, but her husband Tim Robbins is rolled up in a luxury apartment with Isla Fisher and isn't interested in her return. Will Forte is also involved; Mark Boone Junior is the Nazi obsessed kidnapper.

Eric Alan Edwards shot it.

Mad Men - Season 7 (2014 / 2015 Matthew Weiner)

1969. I did not like the episode in which Don comes back to the office and is made to wait around all day whilst the staff treat him as though he's toxic; then he's finally summoned to the partners who insist he can't behave like Don anymore... and he meekly accepts. Then he has to work for Peggy...

Sally: "I'd stay here until 1975 if I could get my mom underground." That's a line that has quite ironic significance by the end.

We're going off Peggy... At least she and Don are finally reconciled over some burger pitch...

Ben Feldman (Jesus, he goes crazy..), Elizabeth Moss, Jay R. Ferguson

An Omega Seamaster Deville. There are all sorts of watches on his wrist throughout the seasons

Robert Towne is a consulting producer..

This ends episode seven - there was then a year before eight resumed... Eight was dedicated to Mike Nichols.

Bye bye Bert.. Robert Morse will be 89 on May 18.

John Dos Passos was a writer noted for his 'USA Trilogy'.

The poster is Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician:

 "Where's Don? He walked out of a meeting Wednesday and hasn't been seen again." We wondered if the ending Coke ad suggests Don's returned and that's his work. Loved Don's wanderings.. that left turn, where the nice motel veteran turns nasty, thinking he's stolen the money. And then testing high speed cars in the desert...