Invisible by Tim Prager. Not one of his outcries against social disorder but in fact a quite guessable story of a dislocated family and the death of a drug dealer.
Also Velvy's living in squalor trying to support his wife and self.
Sharlene Whyte, Jude Cudjoe, Aaron Stephenson. Nadine Marshall is the returning DI.
Post-Civil War, Southerner ('Rebel') Alan Ladd is travelling North to find help for his non-speaking son; the boy really is Alan's son David. Ladd's still receiving prejudicial treatment, particularly from Dean Jagger and his two sons (Harry) Dean Stanton and Tom Pittman.
They have marvellous sheepdog which becomes integral to the story (played by 'King'), as does farmer Olivia de Havilland.
It's something of a Shanealike, enjoyable. Though we don't understand why a trip to the doctor suddenly costs $300 and necessitates the sale of the canine. I'd watch O de H in anything. Must watch To Each His Own again.
Ladd was not the war hero I was thinking of - who was that? Had quite a sad life in the end - suicide attempts. The toll of stardom. That's why I felt a bit sorry for the lad who just won the BAFTA for Adolescence - he's a bit too famous, has so much to live up to, insane pressure.
With Cecil Kellaway, James Westerfield, Henry Hull (judge).
Difficult to comment much on Ted McCord's colour photography as TPTV has kindly supplied us with a print filtered through the Haze-o-Vision process.
An independent Sam Goldwyn Jr production.
Kick off a new season with old pros - Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton wrote Effective Range, but it's one of their more far-fetched ones. (Spoilers.) A body is found staged in the same way as that of a serial killer from 20 years ago, who we see in contemporary police interview footage, quite chillingly portrayed by Leo Starr. The pathologist at the time, John Hannah, whose wife was taken by the killer, is convinced it's not the same man. It turns out to be his son, who has staged the killing (the man was dead already) to ?remind everyone of his father? Turns out Hannah has been keeping the killer in a cage for 20 years!!
However I can concede that yes, DNA could survive for 20 years outside on a boat. How Hannah managed to just magically turn up in the autopsy room though was something of a miracle.
Tim Prager has written Grievance Culture around the side-effects of the 'MeToo' movement, with some flair. Brilliant pathology lecturer Kevin McNally will not bow down to it, positively wants to 'trigger' his students and not let them be in a 'safe space' - quite right, he's there to challenge them. (Lots of good writing going on here: hadn't heard before that the Superman story is a retelling of the Judeo-Christian origin myth!) But one complainer makes him a social outcast with students protesting for his removal (a bit of a jump cut too far for me). The panel of judges who've turned down his application for head of the Criminal Court or something start being murdered. Whilst he's the obvious suspect, particularly of amusing copper John Thompson, it's pretty obvious who the real culprits are.
To have the professor kill himself though is a real wrong note to me.
Meanwhile, Cara's college mate is trying to seduce Jack and makes false allegations against him; and Gabriel wants Jack to teach him how to be a fighter.
The amazing building's the Royal Holloway University of London.
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| Despite the name it's actually just outside the M25, between Staines and Virginia Water |
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| Aki Omoshaybi |
Heart of Darkness. Michael Crompton. New train line scheme through woodland is bombed. Family conflicts at the root.
Jack's been able to 'see' what happened since.. well I'm not sure. At least this season.
People run away again.
Southbay. Ed Westmore. Jack accompanies former boss Richard Cordery to crime scene; woman has been stabbed, her sons may have witnessed something. The police are hiding something. What's going on?
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| Rhiannon May (now Jones) |
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| Richard Cordery |
He wrote it? All of it? On his own? Just the scene alone where Elastigirl is stuck between several automatic doors is ingenious. His screenplay was Oscar nominated.
It had been too long since we were last bowled over by this playful super-hero / family adventure. Craig T Nelson and Holly Hunter are Mr & Mrs Incredible, Samuel L Jackson is Frozone and Jason Lee the evil Syndrome. The hilarious designer character is voiced by Bird himself!
The design and animation is seriously amazing, but so is the sound (Sound Editing by Randy Thom and Michael Silvers won the Oscar; Sound Mixing by Thom, Gary Rizzo and Doc Kane nominated.) Michael Giacchino's fabulous parody of John Barry's Bond scores wasn't even nominated - he's using the same instruments and arrangements in points.
Written by Bill Haney; based on an appalling true story of Regina Kelly, a version of her played here by Nicole Beharie (The Morning Show). Single mother of four is arrested by drug squad in a poor section of Texas town, accused of being a drug dealer on the basis of an unreliable witness and a phone recording. She resists taking a plea bargain to get her out of jail; something the end titles reveal happens 95% of the time in the US courts. Luckily the ACLU takes her side in the form of Tim Blake Nelson (didn't recognise him at all) and Malcolm Barrett, enlisting the help of local attorney Will Patton; Michael O'Keefe is the hateful and racist DA who they must prosecute.
The best scene in fact is the deposition of the DA; Behaire has the bright idea that the black member of their team should lead the questioning, eventually causing the DA to lose it. (And by default get the guilty verdicts overturned.)
With Alfre Woodard, as good as ever. Can't remember when we first 'spotted' her - maybe Grand Canyon (1991)? With Xzibit (ex), Charles S Dutton, Anthony Mackie.
Tim is Walt's nephew
Minor Borzage, unfortunately. Straight guy James Dunn in his feature debut falls for sassy Sally Eilers. He doesn't take to her best friend Minna Gombell, who calls him 'grouch' but really they grow to like each other. Eilers gets pregnant and thinks he won't like it; he thinks the same. Vina Delmar's novel and play adapted by Edwin Burke.
When Eilers' brother William Pawley finds out she's getting married, he kicks her out - what a cunt! Good moment where Dunn is boxing to make some extra money, reveals to opponent he's about to have a baby; opponent sympathises. Also liked Gombell's kid who adds black ink to milk to make it black, but can't understand why when you add milk to black ink it doesn't turn it white.
Best moment - the just-met couple on the stairway, seeing life go on around them; particularly lady on phone who in single take explains that her mother has just died.
Aspect ratio is 1.2:1 (I think).
A huge production; just the height of William Cameron Menzies' sets is staggering. (As a minor carp I did notice that all the streets and floors in Bagdad are completely flat, giving it all a slightly artificial feeling.) Let alone all the artful mechanics that make those great gates open and close.
The acting - particularly Fairbanks - is of the theatrical overdone big gestures sort, but there's no arguing with his agility and athleticism. (I daresay seeing him spend the entirety of the film topless might have encouraged the odd woman or two to see it.) He was the producer, very closely involved in all aspects of pre-production and production, would rehearse his stunts carefully. Future director Mitchell Leisen designed the costumes. Arthur Edeson filmed it. The makeup's by George Westmore.
Some of Sinbad's 'trials' are a bit much - fake monsters everywhere - but the climax, with his magical summoning of a huge army, and the magic carpet flight over the crowds, still work. It's a fun film.
Other colour tints were available:
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| With Julanne Johnston |
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| Sojin Kamiyama strangely likeable as evil prince; with Mathilde Comont (!) and Nobel Johnson |
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| Anna Mae Wong in mouse ears up to no good |
That giant ape was a (good) trick - the guards next to it are played by children to make it look bigger.
"Defile" = steep gorge or passage.
Dana Glauberman is a woman! And I'm an idiot! She does a great job cutting this. It's particularly evident in the beginning: a little back story and then within five minutes Bang! and we're straight into the action.
She's cut most of Jason Reitman's films from Thank You For Smoking in 2005; then Juno (2007), Up In the Air (2009), Young Adult (2011), Labor Day (2013) and Men, Women and Children (2014). (But then did they fall out? Tully and The Front Runner, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Saturday Night were all made without her.)
Gattlin Griffith is great as the kid; he was Angelina Jolie's stolen son in Changeling.
Wasn't expecting this Jews in Occupied France WWII story at all. Mark Bomback adapted R.J.Palacio (it's vaguely linked to her 'Wonder' story). "Vive l'humanité!"
Ariella Glaser is good as the girl who has to be hidden in a barn; Orlando Schwerdt is her polio-affected protector.
Tom Newman's score is quite recognisable, Matthias Koenigswieser catches it nicely. Matt Chesse is the competent editor (another director-editor pairing; Christoper Robin (2018) and A Man Called Otto (2022) their latest collaborations, both also photographed by Koenigswieser.
Helen Mirren forgets her French accent pretty much immediately; Gillian Anderson is also in it. It was filmed in the Czech Republic
Deborah Kerr and Gladys Cooper, David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Wendy Hiller and Rita Hayworth, Cathleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer, Rod Taylor and Audrey Dalton, May Hallatt (Black Narcissus) and Priscilla Morgan.
When Ludo says in Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont 'We're trapped in a Terence Rattigan play!' this is the play; the 'nudging in cinemas' one.
Artfully lit by Charles Lang.
Music: David Raksin.
This was one of Burt Lancaster's own production company films, in tandem with Harold Hecht (no relation to ben) and James Hill. Started in 1948, it produced Trapeze, Sweet Smell of Success and Birdman of Alcatraz amongst others.
Interesting to play 'what happened next?' on this one. You sense that despite the mother's objections, Niven and Kerr might marry and actually make it work. I don't give much for Lancaster and Hayworth's chances though - this 'I love you so much it tears me apart' never ends well.
A van containing dead and half-alive people is found in Kent - some of them, it turns out, are immigrants being smuggled out. But the others? Rebecca Wojciechowski's screenplay for Familiar Faces - also involving drug gangs and missing teenagers - isn't I'm afraid very exciting.
Of more interest is another contribution from Jim & Dudi - Star (this time directed by Bindu De Stoppani) which looks at the music scene and the malign workings of an 'e-pimp' for social media influencers.
Velvy is working through his own shit - a wife and child he left behind in the orthodox community.
Hannah Rae plays both 'Star' and her sister in a neat twist but overall I wasn't too impressed with this one either - too much of the 'running away' stuff and a somewhat unbelievable murder. It was Bindu's idea, apparently.
The three faces of Hannah:
When you see that the season opener The Penitent is written by Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble, with Dudi directing, you're on fairly safe ground it's going to be a good one. And it is, with the 'Ndrangheta's tentacles being felt everywhere and everyone and their families threatened.
Nikki is being forced into finding one of their number in witness protection and kill him. We think she'll come up with a plan to make it seem like this has happened, but in the end, doesn't get the chance to go through with it.
Great moment where she enters Jack's (new) house and a menacing man appears over her with a hammer - it's a Hitchcockian moment - but he's the contractor... or is he? Sense of menace not helped by fast flash-forwards of Nikki seeing Jack being killed.
The denouement is really clever and totally unexpected.
Felt there were film references - scene in church and hospital felt like The Godfather, Q noticed tin can in pig likely a Jaws reference, others..
Whilst all this is going on we're introduced to lapsed Orthodox Jew Alastair Michael and brusque data-obsessed pathologist Aki Omoshaybi. And opens opportunities for some humour to come out, something the series has lately been sorely lacking in.
With William Willoughby, Sophia Myles, Matteo Carlomagno, Issy Knopfler (daughter of Mark).
An ambitious six part story, linked by former pathologist Sam (Amanda Burton) and what's going on now with her and her husband's medical data company (Hugh Quarshie). The Health Minister is shot and killed by a long range assassin but was she the real target? It turns out that Nikki's former husband Matthew Gravelle is involved, causing her to withhold evidence from the police. (Did we know Nikki had been married, albeit briefly?) The opening two are by Ed Whitmore.
She and Jack are at least having some kind of a relationship, and she's there when his father dies in Ireland.
Into the main story are smaller ones: a woman claiming to have killed her husband (Christine Bottomly, writer Caroline Carver) - Duncan Preston is the old-school investigating officer and Simone's missing sister is a sub-plot; a burned body connected to a farm (writer Phil Mulryne). Jemma Redgrave rudely investigates again, Clive Russell and Mark Frost (Unforgotten, The Long Shadow) are familiar looking suspects.
Then we go back to the main story for the last two episodes - I feel this is maybe rather unwieldy storytelling, written by Alyn Farrow and Katerina Watson. Of course Sam isn't a bad guy! Of course the Chinese have a dodgy involvement! And of course it's all down to a corrupt Government official as usual! Security of personal data is a hammered home theme.
Ian Puleston-Davies is the (typically) belligerent DSU who finds out too late he should have been looking out for his No. 2 Shireen Farkhoy.
The Odd Couple TV series ran from 1970-75 and starred Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar:
The first season at any rate was shot on the same set as the movie.
A more concise retelling of Kurosawa's famous 1952 original (by Kazuo Ishiguro) is a perfect vehicle for Bill Nighy.
Helen Scott's production design and sets gorgeously photographed by Jamie Ramsay in the unusual aspect ratio of 1.5:1.
Discussed elsewhere, the behaviour of the kids, and their grossly inappropriate language, is great fun. Matthau loved working with them, would hang out with them between takes and tell them raunchy jokes; thus he was one of them, not the star.
The Bears: Chris Barnes, Erin Blunt, Gary Lee Cavagnaro, Jaime Escobedo, Scott Firestone, George Gonzales, Jackie Earle Haley, Alfred Lutter, Brett Marx, David Pollock, Quinn Smith and Tatum O'Neal.
Music: Bizet's Carmen. On camera: John A Alonzo (I fear our print to be a shade darker than he would have liked).
I first saw it on December 27th 1977, gave it 7/10 and particularly rated Matthau, O'Neal and Alonzo. Tatum thought she was the big star but her performance had to be cajoled out of her.
Written by Guillermo Arriaga, and thus not presented in a strictly linear manner. However it becomes clear that Jones' Mexican buddy Julio Cesar Cedillo has been killed, by border control officer Barry Pepper - it's a revenge tale as Jones kidnaps the cop and forces him to accompany him and the corpse into Mexico to bury him in his home town.
As soon as we meet Pepper he punches a fleeing Mexican woman hard in the face - I was hoping something bad would happen to him in return and pleasingly, it does, for much of the film. He also had a dreadful attitude to his wife January Jones.
It's quite amusing, had me in mind of both The Good the Bad and the Ugly and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Good make-up of the corpse.
Beautifully filmed by Chris Menges. Edited by Roberto Silvi.
With Dwight Yoakam, Melissa Leo, Levon Helm (blind man), Mel Rodriguez.
I'd long wanted to see this - now I have.
Producer Hawkesworth brings his Upstairs Downstairs sensibilities (and filming style) to the BBC, as chef Gemma Jones defies the upper classes for her shot in early twentieth century London.
We seem to have missed the beginning (only the opening episode thankfully) and find herself already having made a good impression with a Major, Michael Culver (Roland's son) and Lord Bryan Coleman, but is pressed into marrying butler Donald Burton so she can be mistressed out to the Prince of Wales, Roger Hammond. That I find a bit much.
Familiar faces in June Brown, John Raply, Doreen Mantle, John Welsh, David Cater, Robert Hardy, Christopher Cazenove, Richard Vernon.
She later starts a hotel, despite her husband trying to ruin her; has a baby, exposes fraudsters and adulterers. Entertaining series.
There's also something insanely catchy about Alexander Faris's theme tune.
In Brother's Keeper (Marteinn Thorisson) you begin to wonder whether Paulette Randall has ever directed actors before, in badly staged and acted story involving underground boxing, which seems fairly unbelievable - the distancing effect of Covid is quite clearly felt here. Lorraine Ashbourne holds her own. Simone (Genesis Lynea) is the new pathologist. And it's her GF who's investigating, Danielle Henry.
Then for the finale, Matters of Life and Death, written by Martin Crompton (someone heard me and commissioned one of the seasoned SW writers, who also did the last finale), a murder is discovered in Nikki's pathology class - a good start. Then looks at relationships. Simone gets Jack a date. Nikki most unwisely has a relationship with a student. (What was she thinking?) Then Nikki kisses Jack... but then he hears she's had the affair and goes all bitter.. There's even a rather sweet relationship between Jack and care home resident Sian Phillips.
Good cast: Nicholas Woodeson, India Eva Rae, Steven Wight returning as the DS. And lots of rain.
