Sherlock, Jr. (1924 Buster Keaton)

The one where Buster falls asleep in the cinema projection room and ends up on screen - perhaps an influence on The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Features some incredibly inventive stiff, like when he dives through a window and some old woman's clothes and stands up and is the old woman who calmly walks away from the pursuing gangsters. Of the pool scene where he hits every ball but the explosive ball 13. But there's also the moment he on the handlebars of a riderless motorbike and he crosses the path of an oncoming train that is breathtaking and no doub t highly dangerous.

Small Time Crooks (2000 Woody Allen & scr)

Reviewed - or jottingsed - often before, it's also a Pygmalion variant (even Prof Higgins gets a mention) (as I guess was born Yesterday).

Santo Loquasto must have had fun designing Tracey Ullman's horribly over-the-top apartment.

It's hilarious.

This Property Is Condemned (1966 Sydney Pollack)

Or, the story of a fatherless, selfish, mercenary fantasist flirt, played by Natalie Wood, and her interaction with railway employee Robert Redford, and what happens when he is called in to lay off employees. I'll tell you what happens. They savagely beat him up. Then Redford thinks he's understood that the girl's going away to Milwaukee or Michigan or somewhere beginning with M, and she's using him, so he jaunts off in a huff. And the next thing is her mum's boyfriend Charles Bronson, who in a really pervy way has been at her through the film, she drunkenly marries him. What the double fuck? Steals his money, ends up in New Orleans with Redford. Then lovely mummy (Kate Reid) turns up and upsets the apple cart. All this is relayed via her sister, plucky young Mary Badham (or Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, more familiarly), who likes and is liked by Redford.

So, yeah, it's... I dunno. Based on a one act play by Tennesse Williams, adapted by Francis Coppola, Fred Coe and Edith Sommer. I didn't really know what to make of it. Redford's good. I guess you don't really like or sympathise with the Wood character from the off so kit leaves a bit of a so what? impression.

Photographed by James Wong Howe. Edited with many a luscious dissolve by Adrienne Fazan, who also cut The Prize, The Courtship of Eddy's Father, Two Weeks in Another Town, Some Came Running, Designing Woman, Lust For Life, Singin' in the Rain and Lubitsch's The Merry Widow. Phew! Like this one:

I know, I know...

The production designer is Stephen Grimes.

The Sandman (1991 Paul Berry)

Anyone out there remember this eerie stop motion animation? It's still out there, on YouTube.

It's still rather wonderful.

Camera: Joe Dembinski. Edit: Therese Lynch. Music: Colin Towns. Puppets and sets: Colin Batty, Ian Mackinnon, Richard Sykes.

Over shoulder looks

 

Pierre (2026 Roy Williams & John Donnelly)

Meet Pierre Jeffreys, a harassed, underpaid London solicitor with a gambling problem, onset of diabetes and a son who's quit uni and not pulling his weight. Sara Powell's his wife, Dylan Ennis the son; Jason Flemyng is his best mate.

His staff - partner Michele Austin and juniors Nikkita Chadha and Dean-Charles Chapman (1917) aren't being paid.

Pierre meets a young man Ezrae Maye who feels he is being harassed by the police - particularly copper Tom Rhys Harries (The Light in the Hall, The Return, The Gentlemen, Hunky Dory) - who's then found murdered - promises mum Cherrelle Skeet he'll find out what happened. Christopher Fairbank is a local gangster who's somehow involved.

6 x 45 minutes for The Lighthouse on Channel 4. The flashes of humour throughout are most welcome - so many TV dramas are just that - drama. It ends somewhat openly without resolution, hopefully cueing a second series.

To answer my own question, at least one of the writers is black (Williams) as the race theme is nicely sewn in throughout, particularly through the character of a janitor who's faced police brutality, well played by Andrew French.

Amrita Acharia kept reminding me of Jenna Coleman. (Remember The Good Karma Hospital??)

To Each His Own (1946 Mitchell Leisen)

A fabulous story, worked out by Charles Brackett, with input from Jacques Thery and Dodie Smith (and none from Wilder, who didn't like it).

Great quotable dialogue like "I hope he's half the man his mother is."

Olivia de Havilland is just great in it. She was Oscar nominated for GWTW and Hold Back the Dawn, won the first time for this, was again nominated for The Snake Pit and won again for The Heiress. She died in Paris in 2020 aged 104!

This is the first of Roland Culver's four Hollywood films. And John Lund's debut.

With Mary Anderson, Phillip Terry (her first beau), Bill Goodwin (her second), Virginia Welles (fiancee), Victoria Horne (nurse), Griff Barnett (father).

Daniel L Fapp shot it, Alma Macrorie not only edited but plays someone called Belle Ingram! (Her other notable credit is editing The Trouble With Harry.) Victor Young provided the score. Wally Westmore supervised the incredible make up.

It's one of films that you just want to go on forever.

Sunset Blvd. (1950 Billy Wilder & co-scr)

"Ten thousand eighty-six Sunset Boulevard."

"I tapped up a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."

Written by Billy, Brackett (their last collaboration) and D.M. Marshman; Brackett also produced. In the sense of an older woman trying to preserve her youth it's still massively topical.

Doane Harrison is the supervising editor; Arthur Schmidt cut it. The extraordinary production design is by Hans Dreier and John Meehan. Loved those handle-less doors and when the lights go out it looks like closing eyes. Franz Waxman's score is frequently as nutty as the action.

The William Holden character is gallant at the end; pushes Nancy Olsen away from him knowing he's been a bit of a slut, but at least has the balls to leave his sugar mummy.

That strange cigarette holder thing

It's a very well directed film, to be sure. I love the way Holden's stupid long key chain gets hooked on the house doors. And the New Year's party when Holden and Olson are having fun but it's like a flirtation. And the gate keeper and the other people at Paramount who remember Norma Desmond.

Holden is at one point reading 'The Young Lions' by Irwin Shaw, a war novel with some anti-Semitic themes, published in 1948, filmed in 1958.

H.B.Warner, one of the 'waxworks' is familiar to us from It's A Wonderful Life but was also in silents like The King of Kings.

Dance, Fools, Dance (1931 Harry Beaumont)

Zippy pre-Code drama. Society siblings Joan Crawford and Lester Vail are left penniless when their father dies. She gets a job as a journalist, he goes into bootlegging for crime boss Clark Gable. Their stories of course interweave after fellow journalist is murdered.

Photographed by Charles Rosher, hard to admire in TPTV's washed out print.

Crawford is vivacious and dances the house down.

MGM. I am so suggestible these days that at one point someone said said "You're in a jam" and I thought "Jam? Nice idea" and made myself toast and jam.

Slap Shot (1977 George Roy Hill)

It's interesting, isn't it, that in Hill's film it's the violent encounters between the ice hockey teams that the audiences seem to love, but in the final credits / parade, it's children that Hill focuses on, almost as though to say, 'What effect will all this have on them?' a point also expressed when Paul Newman finally meets the owner of the team, and she confesses she's never allowed her children to watch hockey on television as they 'copy what they see'.

In fact I'm really not sure what Hill's intention was with this film (other than being an enjoyable antidote to the Hollywood cliche sports movie about the little team / player that comes good in the end). Writer Nancy Dowd (won an Oscar for her contribution to Coming Home) based it on material collected by her brother Ned (who also appears as 'Ogilthorpe'), who was a hockey player for the Johnstown Jets who were the team in the film. Most of the 'actors' in it were genuine hockey players.

The eternal romantic, Newman is also hoping to reconnect with his wife Jennifer Warren and also trying to push Michael Ontkean (Twin Peaks) and his wife Lindsay Crouse (All the President's Men) back together.

It was Dede Allen's second collaboration with Hill after Slaughterhouse-Five.

With Strother Martin, Jerry Houser, Andrew Duncan, Jeff & Steve Carlson & David Hanson, Melinda Dillon, M. Emmet Walsh, Swoosie Kurtz, Paul Dooley.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962 Robert Mulligan)

Mary Badham in interview revealed her favourite scene to be one in bed where Atticus promises to leave her her mum's jewellery.

I love the scene with Greg sitting on the porch listening to the kids talk about their mum and he doesn't react at all, but it's great.

Priscilla (2023 Sophia Coppola & scr)

A 15-year old in Germany, Cailee Spaeny (Civil War, Mare of Easttown), meets and falls for Elvis (Jacob Elordi). (This is based on Priscilla's book 'Elvis and Me'.) After a long-distance relationship she ends up moving to Graceland where she essentially becomes a prisoner, while Elvis and his goons disappear off to film locations and tours. He's not even keen to have sex with her and behaves brutishly and takes loads of pills. Oh, he's almost certainly having affairs too, but the film is shot entirely from Priscilla's point of view. There's a great piece of ironic writing when he buys her a car and we all know she's not going to be allowed to drive anywhere in it.

It's nicely shot by Philippe le Sourd, and edited by Sarah Flack, who delivers some very interesting montage sequences, but I was glad when it was over. The soundtrack mixes period songs with more modern stuff.

According to IMCDB it's a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere

Production designer: Tamara Deverell. The sound balance is annoying: whispered dialogue isn't audible.

A Severed Head (1970, released 1971 Dick Clement)

"I think you ought to get right away. Go to Crete or Turkey or Tunis. Find yourself."
"And how can I be sure that I'd be there?"

Frederic Raphael's treatment of Iris Murdoch's novel depicts a crazy romantic merry-go-round in which Lee Remick leaves husband Ian Holm for psychiatrist friend Dickie Attenborough, whilst Holm has been having an affair with Jennie Linden. And that's just the beginning... Other people involved are Attenborough's 'sister' Claire Bloom, Clive Revill and Ann Firbank.

Mad scene where drunk Holm assaults Bloom, then falls into a strange imaginary sequence - most interesting. Somewhat shocking and funny.

Edited by Peter Weatherley (The Hireling, Alien), photographed by Austin Dempster.

The Best Things in 2026

I Swear

Say Nothing.

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

One Battle After Another. Far fuckin' out, brother!

Bird (Andrea Arnold)

Le Notti de Cabiria

Materialists

Hamnet (and, come to that, Hamlet)

Frank Borzage / 7th Heaven and The Doll

The best of Silent Witness / Tim Prager.

Project Hail Mary

Hacks, Ted Lasso, Blue Lights

The Blame

Blue Lights - Season 4 (2026)

It is probably fair to say that the cops depicted here are in truth a nicer lot than exist in a real police station. But also that we've had so many shows about flawed / conflicted law enforcement types (The Cops springs to mind particularly) that this comes over as a welcome change. It's also very pro police in that they are human beings who have a laugh and are hard working, reasonable people at times under severe pressure.

An exciting beginning (one of the Angela Bassett episodes) puts us in the thick on an anti-migrant protest and introduces a social media activist who causes a lot of problems for Grace (Sian Brooke). Aisling (Dearbhaile McKinney) can't face being in a relationship with Tommy (Nathan Braniff). Shane (Frank Blake) is keen to make an impression with Michael Smiley's unit as he has spotted a gangster suspiciously driving a coach laden with soldier-types. Sandra (Andi Osho) is in court but the case against the killer of her husband is quashed by MI5 pressure thanks to gangster Abigail McGibbon, whose son Michael Shea is a nasty mess. The station is under threat of being closed.

After flashback episode 4, featuring Richard Dormer, Sandra now realises she has the evidence to expose the whole corrupt mess and so bringing the overarching four series story to a conclusion - they could leave it there. (Probably won't.)

Bring back deep focus!

With Joanne Crawford, Neil Keery, Andrea Irvine, Michael Smiley, Cathy Tyson, Hannah McClean, Jonathan Harden, Seamus O'Hara. 

Forbidden Planet (1955 Fred M Wilcox)

A somewhat kitsch and trippy experience particularly as the weird sound effects run through the whole film instead of music. The story seems preposterous. Whether it’s intentionally referencing The Tempest I couldn’t say. Robbie the Robot is clearly a man in a robot suit. The production design is pretty wacky. 

This looks like it belongs in that Diane Keaton book of weird photos

Watch out for those monsters of the Id!

Louis and Bebe Barron were the 'beatniks' responsible for the electronic score. Unknown to them MGM had made a deal with the unions that it was a one-off and they'd never be hired again.

With: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis (Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle, then just about every TV show you can think of), Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Earl Holliman (cook). Photographed by George Folsey, editor Ferris Webster.

Yeah, I don't think I will be watching this next Halloween.

The Haunting (1963 Robert Wise)

An incisively directed and edited film, with good performances and design, and yet it doesn't quite work.

Why not? Because the Julie Harris character has just spent years suffering looking after her mother, and also feels guilty for not being there when she died. She wants something to happen to her. She thinks the house is either after her or for her. (How can she have any experience of psychic phenomena when she's been housebound for so long?) Nothing is resolved. And we feel the ending is somewhat fluffed.

But it's still an absorbing watch, largely because Robert Wise is so good as creating scenes. (He learned first from Orson Welles, then Val Lewton, let's not forget.)

The editor is Ernest Walter (The Mercenaries, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Nicholas and Alexandra, Children of the Damned). Davis Boulton shot it (also Children of the Damned).

Of the cast, Claire Bloom is the most watchable. With Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn.

Amazing production design. We especially liked the door that bends in.

Nicholas Nickleby (2002 Douglas McGrath & scr)

Successful, star-studded interpretation led by Charlie Hunnam (The Gentleman). Jamie Bell is probably the stand-out as Smike. With Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Christopher Plummer, Romola Garai, Tom Courtenay, Anne Hathaway, Kevin McKidd, Edward Fox, Nicholas Rowe, Nathan Lane, Barry Humphries, Alan Cumming, Phil Davis, Sophie Thompson, Timothy Spall, Gerard Horan, David Bradley.

Photographed by Dick Pope, edited by Lesley Walker (Mona Lisa, Shirley Valentine, All Or Nothing, The Fisher King).

We loved the line "Your day is done. Night is coming fast for you."