Whatever Works (2009 Woody Allen & scr)

 Larry David. Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Henry Cavil, Ed Begley Jr.

"I saw the abyss!"
"Don't worry - we'll watch something else."

Such great plot turns.

It doesn't rain!!

Nowhere Special (2020 Uberto Pasolini & scr, prod)

Marvellously acted by James Norton, Daniel Lamont and Eileen O'Higgins and very well edited by Masahiro Hirakubo and Saska Simpson.

A film which breaks all the rules: has no bad guy, no love affair, no character arc; yet succeeds beautifully - as such it had to borrow its budget from Romania.

The Devil and Miss Jones (1941 Sam Wood)

Cracking cast: Charles Coburn, Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Spring Byington, S.Z Sakall, Edmund Gwenn, William Demarest in seriously well photographed film courtesy Harry Stradling Sr. Wood likes the confinements of the frame.

Written by Norman Krasna. The millionaire's house was a set left over from Citizen Kane.

The Enemy Below (1957, released 1958 Dick Powell)

Yes, the actor from 42nd Street and Murder My Sweet. Wendell Mayes adapted D.A. Rayner's novel and tells of the pursuit of a German submarine by a US destroyer, skippered respectively by a somewhat fed up Curt Jurgens and Robert Mitchum, who respect one another at a distance. Refreshingly the scenes at sea are actually filmed on a destroyer without back projection; lots of long takes give actors the opportunity for... well, acting. Lots of 'give orders twice', 'give orders twice' dialogue.

Slightly swollen though - how many times can you show depth charges blowing up in the water, or a submarine being rocked about. Still, builds to a nice ending.

With David Hedison, Theodore Bikel, Russell Collins, Kurt Kreuger. Photographed by Harold Rossen, scored by Leigh Harline, edited by Stuart Gilmore. 20th Century Fox, CinemaScope.

The original ending was to have been Mitchum trying to save the German from the submarine when the bomb goes off, killing them both and leaving a shot of an empty sea... which would have been fantastic - but of course the studio wouldn't allow it. Cut forward to the seventies where the unhappy ending would have been the only one allowed!

Anything Else (2003 Woody Allen & scr)

"There's an old joke about a prize fighter who's in the ring, and he's getting killed, he's getting his brains beat out, and his mother's in the audience. And she's watching him getting beaten up in the ring, and there's a priest next to her. And she says 'Father. Father. Pray for him.' And the priest says 'I will pray for him. But you know, if he could punch, it would help.' There's more insight in that joke into the what I call the 'Giant So What?' than most books on philosophy."

Bridges, by Darius Khondji:

The Queensboro Bridge, I believe

"Have you ever dialled 911? It's like getting a mortgage."

It's great - one of the undersung ones.

Oh yeah - it rains! (Right at the beginning when we first meet Ricci.) Let's see if it rains in Whatever Works, Mighty Aphrodite and Alice next.

Maltin gave it a BOMB rating and called it 'Woody's worst movie'. He can't get them all right.. What is Woody's worst movie? I think I'd have to say Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.

Licorice Pizza (2021 Paul Thomas Anderson & scr)

It's a love story, featuring wonderfully 'normal' looking people. Yet somehow it doesn't quite click for me. Maybe it's too rambling and episodic. Maybe despite his entrepreneurial spirit, the Cooper Hoffman character just is too young. Alana Haim is the object of desire. I don't know. I enjoyed it though, particularly the scenes revolving around Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper) and the truck, and Sean Penn's action movie star (with Tom Waits). The scene with Benny Safdie bringing Haim to the restaurant to meet his lover Joseph Cross is pure Altman.

A film like this, you have to mention the production designer - Florencia Martin. (Probably an award winner for the most times we're inside a shop and you can see the name painted on the window backwards.) And the costume designer - Mark Bridges.

Silent Witness Triple Bill (2015-16)

The team tackle East End gangsters Steven Hartley, Beth Goddard (one of those faces you just see on everything) and son James Farrar (who's rather good) in One of Our Own (Tom Butterworth and Chris Hurford / David Drury), which takes its departure point as the death of a good copper. Mark Frost and Elly Fairman (and latterly Steven Pacey) investigate; Jason Watkins appears.

Season 19 kicks off by putting Nikki in danger as an apparent suicide makes her realise she's mis-diagnosed an old case featuring her mentor Georgie Glen. Ed Whitmore writes a thrilling but quite far-fetched story as usual, putting Nikki in prison at one point, then later shot at by a hit man. She does some silly things, doesn't tell the police when she should etc., annoying detective Liza Tarbuck.

Dean Lennox Kelly is the man released from prison, Dean Andrews his angry son. Geraldine Somerville the murderer - oops! I mean wife. After the Fall was again directed by Drury, and photographed by James Friend, later to win Oscar for All Quiet on the Western Front.

But it was the noticeably high contrast photography and skilful designs that caught my attention in the following story, Flight, shot by Steve Lawes, best known for Death Comes to Pemberley and Sherlock. It's about the survivors of a war zone who have become radicalized and plan to do silly things: Abigail Hardingham and Assad Raja (mum is Wanda Opalinska). Graham Mitchell wrote, Richard Senior directed.

Lord of the Flies (2026 Jack Thorne)

Thorne has preserved much of William Golding's story and even the time period, probably a good idea.

The island location is good (Malaysia), the music different (Cristobal Tapia de Veer, The White Lotus), the extremely wide lenses weird (Mark Wolf). Mátyás Fekete / Andonis Trattos edited alternately.

Directed by Marc Munden.

Good cast: with Winston Sawyers (Ralph), Lox Pratt (Jack), David McKenna (Piggy), Ike Talbut (Simon).

Second part, Jack, features a brilliantly handled pig hunt. Third, Simon has a weird red colouring running through, perhaps predicting what will happen at the end. Leading me to wonder if they've all been colour themed.

In the final instalment, Ralph, the veneer of civilisation has crumbled and savagery holds domain. Great flashbacks with Ralph and his dad (Rory Kinnear) and a policeman (Danny Mays) before the climactic arrival of naval officer Tom Goodman-Hill. (Q wanted him to rescue Ralph and leave all the others behind!) Before this there's a sequence with all the kids close up shot by shot looking up - having read the book, I fully expected them to be looking at suddenly arrived officer, but that doesn't happen till later, making me wonder if the scene had been devised that way then moved in the edit.

Striking imagery and good performances anchor arthouse version of bitter and cautionary tale.

That was John Taverner right at the end - 'Funeral Canticle' performed by the Choir of the Academy of Ancient Music, written for his father. Also appears in Tree of Life.

Silent Witness, Season 18 (2015)

Someone's trying to kill Russian oligarch Dragan Micanovic. Abhin Galeya and Amber Rose Revah (Foyle's Way) play entrepreneurial siblings, Cameron Jack is a security guard. Jack gets involved with investigating detective Lauren O'Neill, whose being manipulated by boss Pippa Heywood.

Squaring the Circle was written by Matthew Arlidge. Features crafty murder by fentanyl gas.

"London is open for business" is the ironic last line.

A Woman of Substance (2026 Katherine Jakeways)

Begins promisingly in 1970s NYC and Brenda Blethyn in the middle of a power struggle with her kids over her company. Then quickly goes back to her young self, Jessica Reynolds, and her experiences working as a in the dreadful Fairley household in Yorkshire. 

Barbra Taylor Bradford is the writer of the source novel.

Leanne Best, Ewan Horrocks. Emmet J Scanlan, Lydia Leonard

Tony Slater Ling on camera.

Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards (2026 Mark Burt, director Michael Samuels)

Yeah - I'm not sure this was a good idea, really - a documentary might have worked better (and I probably wouldn't have watched it). So the main thing going for this is Martin Clunes, who gives a good performance. No, Huw Edwards sounds like not a nice man; but the behaviour of the coerced youth was hardly ideal also (Osian Morgan). It strikes me that the more serious offences of child porn should have been the primary focus, but that's not a compelling enough story. So I'm not sure it quite achieved anything, really.

Gone (2026 George Kay)

Kay is inspired by a true life crime book 'To Hunt a Killer' by ex detective Julie Mackay and Robert Murphy, which I think provides the backstory to this rather different case. So in other words, this is mainly an original story. 

Tough headmaster Michael, David Morrissey (also in Kay's The Long Shadow), finds wife / teacher has disappeared and neither he nor daughter Alana (Emma Appleton) know where she's gone. Detectives Anne (Eve Myles) and Nira (Jennifer Macbeth) investigate and - when a body is found - become family liaison.

Meanwhile Anne is still visiting the mother of a murdered girl from years before (this is the backstory). She's also tentatively renewing a relationship with ex-husband Craig, Peter McDonald, also a detective.

Complications arise when we learn the missing wife has been having an affair with married Stephen, Elliot Cowan, whose son Dylan (Billy Barratt) is the star rugby player; wife is played by Claire Goose.

Directed by Richard Laxton over 6 x 45 minutes for ITV.

There's a real dynamic shift at the end of episode 4, when Anne is getting closer to Michael revealing things about himself but her ex turns up all annoyed she's stood him up. He appears frighteningly aggressive and when Michael tries to ensure Anne is OK Craig attacks him and ends up arresting him. So we've suddenly been shifted from not liking the head teacher at all to finding Anne's ex even worse, making the former sympathetic in contrast.

For me the last two episodes have too much Michael not communicating or over-emoting, but when Anne finds the real culprit, it's handled surprisingly sensitively. Meanwhile the investigation into the old murder is pushed right back leading us to the inevitable Season 2.

Rather too many drone shots for my liking. Find another way to do a transition shot, for Wilder's sake. And plot holes: time of death; keep forgetting suspect has 24hr surveillance.

Framed ties hanging on headmaster's wall?

The usual irritating senior (male) copper is Arthur Hughes, more helpful one is Oscar Batterham; Jodi McKnee good as police interviewer. Staff includes Rupert Evans. 

The League of Gentlemen (1960 Basil Dearden)

Jack Hawkins gathers together an ex-army group who all pursuing criminal activities in one way or another and need money. They are Nigel Patrick, Dickie Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Roger Livesey, Kieron Moore, Terence Alexander and Norman Bird (not as I was confusing him with Alec MacGowan from Frenzy, but a TV stalwart). With Robert Coote, Nanette Newman, Melissa Stribling. And a cameo from Oliver Reed as a gay actor!

We spend quite a lot of the time getting the plan agreed and assembled before the exciting robbery itself, which is meticulously executed (and perhaps where The Italian Job's writers borrowed the idea of a car being driven into a truck). The interplay between the characters is fun until the last minute sting and the sadly predictable pre-seventies ending.

Photographed by Arthur Ibbetson, edited by John Guthridge. Bryan Forbes adapted John Boland's novel but apparently changed the ending, though at the moment I don't know how.

"I'll wash, you dry, old darling."

When Strangers Marry / Betrayed (1944 William Castle)

Maltin: "As good a B picture as you'll ever find." So Kim Hunter hadn't really been discovered yet for AMOLAD; and I guess Mitchum hadn't really taken hold either. Dean Jagger is actually star billed.

George Moskov's story was screenwritten by Philip Yordan and Dennis J Cooper. And makes for a most economical and enjoyable 63 minutes. Castle also made the decent Hollywood Story.

nHas some bizarre and memorable touches, beginning with a man in a lion mask, or like the newspaperman who claims he doesn't have the newspaper that he does, the huge volume from the dance hall outside Kim's hotel room, Hunter's rush from the balcony, the couple finding themselves in Harlem all-black bar, superimpositions aplenty and the former tenant's photo.

With Neil Hamilton, Lou Lubin (a memorable face; he had appeared alongside Hunter in The Seventh Victim), Milton Kibbee (drunk), Dewey Robinson.

Approx 1940 vintage, today will cost c. £500, suggests it wasn't a cheap watch then

The film was shot in only seven days; luckily the actors had (for free) agreed to a seven day rehearsal first, which helped with the speed of filming enormously.

Castle's scream-to-train-whistle is indeed a steal from Hitchcock, The 39 Steps.

Silent Witness (2015)

A quite disturbing story about social work and child care: Protection by Timothy Prager. 

A child goes missing and we suspect the parents are up to something - they are, but it's not what we think. In tandem an angry young man finds one sister is being fostered and another about to be adopted; his mum is with someone unsuitable. Oh yes, and another couple are questioned over bruises on their baby. And central to all of this is social worker Claudie Blakley, who we sense errs on the side of caution a bit too much. The ending is heartbreaking.

John Dalgleish we know from something - Lark Rise. Amit Shah is a useful doctor. Otherwise didn't particularly recognise anyone. Directed by Daniel O'Hara.

None of the humour from the previous Nikki-Harry relationship seems to have survived, unfortunately, especially with material this dark.

Sadie McKee (1934 Clarence Brown)

"Your name's Sadie.. And your mother's a cook." Edward Arnold plays the most annoying drunk since that Spencer Tracy film we couldn't watch. Actually he's not as annoying as him, but.. Oh yeah, it's Mrs Merton's question - "What was it about millionaire drunk Edward Arnold that appealed to you?" His horribly drunken behaviour is just Pre-Code, as is fade out on kiss in hotel room.

And all because the guy she's run away to New York with to marry proves to be a worthless whore. Will decent but privileged Franchot Tone save the day? The answer's not as clear cut as you think it will be, which is all good.

Joan Crawford, Gene Raymond, Esther Ralston (man-stealer), Earl Oxford, Jean Dixon (world weary friend), Leo G Carroll (his debut), Akim Tamiroff (his first credited role), Helen Ware.

John Meehan adapted a story by Viña Delmar. Oliver T Marsh photographed, one of 15 Crawford films he shot from as far back as 1925.

Great little song 'After You've Gone' performed on piano, guitar and double bass by Gene Austin, Candy Candido and Otto Heimel.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008 Woody Allen & scr)

 The shocking revelation - it doesn't rain!! (Though there is a bit of a storm flying in to Oviedo.)

Quite an interesting film for Woody, in many ways.

Doesn't he write a cracking story?

Hotel de la Reconquista, Oviedo

If Wes Anderson Directed Vicky Cristina Barcelona is funny.

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (2005 Dan Ireland & co-scr)

I don't know how much of this is from the book but it's special - a film with no bad guys. Loved the line "Good Lord - we're trapped in a Terence Rattigan play!" Adapted by Ruth Sacks. So love the last couple of minutes which - to copy Orson Welles again - would make a stone cry. (Isn't Ryan Gosling's new film something about a stone?)

Ireland co-founded the Seattle International Film Festival, then became a film buyer before branching into direction. Weirdly his online obits say he died aged 57, but in fact he was 66 (heart attack). Which is all a shame - but at least he left us this lovely lasting legacy. The film is dedicated "With all the thanks and love in the world, Betty Ireland." 

Joan Plowright was indeed Laurence Olivier's third wife; she only died last year, aged 95. Apart from Enchanted April I can't really think of anything else she's been in. Tea with Mussolini, Equus, Uncle Vanya (two different versions), The Entertainer.

Some of the acting veers a bit into overkill, but there's no arguing with Plowright, Rupert Friend, Anna Massey and Zoe Telford.

Ellis - Season 2 (2026)

 4 x 45 minutes reunites Sharon D Clarke and Andrew Gower.

Ashenham. Sian Ejiwunmi-le Berre. Young offenders programmer is murdered. Links back to something that happened years before. Never heard that plot before. Again, murderer revealed at end seems unlikely (like, which characters have we got left who could have done it?)

Elmsly. Oliver Frampton. Murder in stone factory links to sex traffickers. Inevitable suspect-running-away scene.

Wasn't sure which screen shot to put in -

- you need them both.

Drones should be banned. Here's why. There's a drone shot of a manhunt in progress. Yawn.

Now, imagine if your camera was low down on the crest of a hill. And over the hill one by one appear police with sniffer dogs. Isn't that a much more potent image than the aerial one?

The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988 Billy Hale)

Larry McMurtry was responsible for putting together this (what seems) largely very accurate depiction of events in Georgia in 1913 - not only a terrible miscarriage of justice but an acknowledgment that lynching by mob was then unchallengeable. Jeffrey Lane and George Stevens Jr wrote the teleplay and Stevens narrated and produced it for Orion Television.

Maurice Jarre composed, Nic Knowland photographed, John Martinelli edited it into two two hour films (won ACE and Emmy).

The posthumous pardon was only finally issued, somewhat grudgingly, in 1986, so this was in a way extremely topical. It remains a terrible indictment of prejudice (not just racial - south v north). Won Emmy for outstanding miniseries.

Many memorable moments: the appearance of the 'World's Greatest Detective' and the reason the woman has been going along with the murderer in prison; interrogations by Lemmon; the court proceedings overtaken by the Southerners singing an anthem; the secret of the office boy; the calmness with which Frank meets his end.

Good cast: Jack Lemmon (Emmy nominated), Peter Gallagher (Leo Frank), Richard Jordan, Robert Prosky, Kathryn Walker (Governor's wife), Rebecca Miller (convicted man's long suffering wife), Paul Dooley, Charles S. Dutton (good as the murderer, A Time To Kill), Kevin Spacey, Cynthia Nixon, Kenneth Welsh, Dylan Baker, William H Macy.

Ann Hite's 'I am a Georgian: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank, 1888-1957' (2025) sounds good, published in Macon, GA by Mercer University Press. David Mamet used the story for his novel 'The Old Religion' (1997) but reviews say it's quite interior and difficult to read.

And this is the South - what's amazing is that they didn't just find the Black Man guilty and string him up.