No Strings Attached (2011 Ivan Reitman)

Reviewed here. Greta Gerwig plays her part beautifully - she is up for two Oscars this year for writing and directing Lady Bird. Good for her.

Had to comment about this:

...because the previous scene is ten years before when he romantically proposes "Can I finger you?" (She says "No".)

Some if it is a bit crude and Portman's character is somewhat annoying. In fact Q hoped Ashton would end up with Lake Bell, who we've also seen in It's Complicated and Man Up, with Simon Pegg. Talia Balsam is Natalie's mum.

Writer Elizabeth Meriwether created and wrote New Girl (which is presumably where Jake Johnson fits in). It's not as good as Friends With Benefits.

Sweet and Lowdown (1999 Woody Allen & scr)

Not seen since 19 January 2009 - why not?? 'Entertaining fake biopic of jazz guitarist with typical Allen turns of events'. Indeed. Such as the moon which falls to the stage, or Sean Penn crashing into a room full of counterfeit money, then buying a car.

Penn is excellent. His smile kept reminding me of Eddie Redmayne, and he really looks like he's playing the guitar. "I had reservations about working with Sean because he had a reputation for being temperamental and difficult... I found him very, very nice, and as so often happens, what you hear about someone doesn't bear out. He was creative, he contributed to the part. I could criticize him without him having any insecurity at all. But again, when I direct great actors and actresses, I rarely have to say anything."

Both Sean and Samantha Morton are great and were Oscar nominated. The way drunken Penn gets on to the moon, for example, and this scene, where we slow track in to Samantha, who's realised what a talent he is - was it an accident that her dress hasn't dropped down properly?
(I love that Woody told her to play it like Harpo Marx - "Who?" So she went away and watched Harpo and returned with a perfect impression. "I don't want you to really act like Harpo Marx, but that's the general idea I'm going for..")

Tons of great jazz guitar of course. Beautifully shot by Zhao Fei. It grossed $4m - one of his flops. He originally pitched it to United Artists after Take the Money and Run - it was then called The Jazz Baby.

Apart from Anthony Lapaglia and Uma Thurman, didn't recognise anybody in the cast. Woody Allen is one of the amusing story-tellers and that is his co-writer of Bullets Over Broadway Doug McGrath as one of the others.

Other little nuggets: the crew waited four months for one shot. And that the ending to Woody references the end of La Strada.

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954 Jean Negulesco)

CinemaScope was new and amusing results followed - here, almost every shot is medium size, with actors spread across the frame. It's almost as though they've forgotten how to make films. The ratio is great for panoramas of course and hot in the wake of Roman Holiday this manages to cram in Rome and Venice by the architecture-load. Milton Krasner won the Oscar (though it should have gone to Rear Window).

The film is not too soft, fortunately, particularly Maggie McNamara's character, who expressly sets out to trap the rich prince (Louis Jourdan). Jean Peters (Pickup on South Street) falls for Rossano Brazzi whilst Dorothy McGuire has been in love with novelist Clifton Webb for fifteen years.

It's enjoyable enough. Pissed, McGuire takes a dip in a fountain, somewhat anticipating Fellini...

Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003 Peter Webber)

Olivia Hetreed's screenplay is nicely visual (the source novel was by Tracy Chevalier) and Eduardo Serra's widescreen photography is masterly:

"Serra worked in England on Funny Bones (1995), directed by Peter Chelsom, and then again on Michael Winterbottom’s Jude (1996), which won him a Camerimage Silver Frog and teamed him once more with [Seamus] McGarvey, who was tasked with additional photography this time around. McGarvey recalls, “My gaffer, Lee Walters, and I used to laugh because I had a little light meter that I would secretly bring out to look at what Eduardo was doing with exposure, and I often couldn’t even get a reading! When Lee and I started shooting our own feature films, if the light was fading at the end of the day to the point where we had to stop, Lee would always joke with me and say, ‘You’re going to need Eduardo’s meter!’” (ASC article.)

The house is a set (in Luxembourg). It was shot in the winter. Serra used fast 500 ASA film stock. The candlelit scenes were lit (though there's a great night exterior scene which looks natural to me).

Good cast: Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Essie Davis, Joanna Scanlan, Alakina Mann, Cillian Murphy.

Alexandre Desplat's theme is lovely.

Whatever Works (2009 Woody Allen)

"He's not a serial killer. Well, he didn't say so."

Reviewed here, (March 2017) here (November 2015) and here (September 2013).

Because Henry Cavill was on Graham.

Evan Rachel Wood was in The Ides of March, True Blood, Mildred Pierce (as Veeda), The Wrestler and Thirteen.

Armadillo (2001 Howard Davies)

Thankfully William Boyd's three hour TV drama adaptation of his own book is finally out on DVD. He has great fun with names and identities (and illusion, thus the mask). Most interesting material is set in the world of loss adjusters, sleep clinics and mini cabs - and thus is unlike anything else. Also funny e.g. Bonneville's enthusiasm for the mini cab trade.

Eclectic cast - James Frain, Stephen Rea, Catherine McCormack, James Fox, Neil Pearson, Andy Beckwith, Paterson Joseph, Victor McGuire (brother), Branka Katic, Ian McNeice (art dealer), Hugh Bonneville, Ron Cook, Stephen Moore, Stewart Wright (S African), Conor Mullen (Paterson's BF),  Trevor Peacock (flower seller) and Tom Hiddlestone.

It didn't quite come off for me and I can't put my finger on it. I think maybe there's a lack of chemistry between Frain and McCormack... her's is an elusive character...

The Social Network (2010 David Fincher)

In the outtakes Fincher (Gone Girl) looked like the most annoying director ever, retaking a scene 99 times (no exaggeration), and preaching at the cast incessantly - the complete opposite of Woody Allen - Jesse (who's great) must have loved the experience of working with the latter in comparison. Also the 'rehearsal' sessions seem more about rewriting Sorkin's script (Q guesses the writer would have chosen not to work with that director again.)

Aaron Sorkin won the Oscar - the structure is good, cutting two court cases to flashbacks. The source material is Ben Mezrich's 2009 non-fiction book 'The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal'. However we thought the film ('Mark Zuckerberg is a Cunt') was unfulfilling - why exactly does he shaft his only friend Andrew Garfield? (The title is an irony as Z is portrayed to be unable to conduct human relationships with anyone, really.) To this extent, Jesse Eisenberg is quoted as saying 'one of the hardest things about the role was having to deliberately speak and behave in a manner he had struggled against in his own personality his entire life'.

Also felt the Armie Hammer twins rowing thing was irrelevant. Sharply written dialogue of course - wholly unsympathetic Harvard principal to the twins 'You memorized that instead of doing what?' College life scenes also maybe irrelevant. Scene of hackers competition (like Fight Club) drinking shots was unbelievable - more likely they all would have failed the task and fallen over - a better scene also. No - just cut it out. Also have to query night club scene in which you have to strain to hear the conversation between Jesse and Justin - what's the point of that? To make it more 'realistic'?

So, good acting, Jesse, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara, Max Minghella (son of), Rashida Jones (Parks and Rec), Josh Pence, Brenda Song, Joseph Mazzello, Dakota Johnson. Shot by Jordan Cronenweth (in widescreen) in the sort of unmistakable greenish hue which Fincher seems to like.

The Romantic Age (1949 Edmond T Greville)

18 year old schoolgirl Mai Zetterling (dreadful) seduces teacher Hugh Williams, almost ruining his career - he's about as charismatic as a soggy newspaper in a tunnel. Wife Margot Grahame and daughter Petula Clarke - who's her classmate - offer at least half-decent performances. With Carol Marsh, Raymond Lovell (the butler), Margaret Barton, Marie Ney and Paul Dupuis.

Ugh!

Unsurprisingly based on a French novel 'Lycee des Jeunes Filles' by Serge Veber. Adapted by the director with screenplay by Edward Dryhurst & Peggy Barwell.

Leaves Lovell to deliver the best moment. "Throughout the many years I have been privileged to serve Mr Tessereau, whom I consider in many ways my superior, I have always endeavoured to tolerate his abominable daughter, but I fear, without success. I have avoided putting my thoughts into words , but I think the time has now come when I may permit myself the liberty of saying that you ought to be put across somebody's knee and spanked, hard. (outraged look of response) Furthermore, if it did not involve a certain loss of dignity on my part, I would not hesitate to do it myself. (leaves room, then re-enters) Dignity be blowed!"

Apart from editor Ralph Kemplen there wasn't a name I knew behind the camera, though it's not a badly made film.

Liked the Shelley quoted, 'Love's Philosophy'.

But the reason for wanting to seek out this rare film is that the piano music being played repeatedly by Grahame, 'Jealous Lover', became the main theme from The Apartment! (Though it isn't credited in the latter.) Which I guess is written by the film's composer Charles Williams. How that happened I have no idea. It's a weird feeling though, hearing that through unfamiliar material...

Strangely this copy, which was originally broadcast on Channel 4, has the copyright info in the credits blurred out.

Friends With Benefits (2011 Will Gluck)

A proper screenplay, funny, fast, well plotted, knowing - not like an Apatow movie, in other words. And Kunis and Timberlake really click.

David Newman and Keith Merryman also wrote a film called Think Like a Man (2012) which they are turning into a series. I guess they're doing all right as in December 2016 they bought a nice $1.9 million house in Beachwood Canyon, LA. This grossed $150m worldwide from a $35m budget. The UK, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Australia were big markets - almost two thirds was foreign sales.

How did you come up with this story idea?
David Newman: We had started with characters. We had a woman with a fear of abandonment and a man with a fear of commitment, and the premise Friends With Benefits came to fit.
Keith Merryman: Well, you know what part of it was: We were looking at all of our straight, single girlfriends and what they were going through.

No wonder the gay character Woody Harrelson has some of the best lines.

So I guess Twin Peaks / Less Than Zero writer Harley Peyton and Gluck came in to brush it up or something. Gluck made Easy A the year before so Emma Stone's appearance here is a leftover from that.

Gluck then made Annie (Aline Brosh McKenna one of the writers) and Peter Rabbit, pre-production on Treasure Squad (TV series) and announced Which Brings Me To You.

A Long Way Down (2014 Pascal Chaumeil)

Parisien director Chaumeil made some of the episodes of Spiral season 1, previously to that was a second unit director for Besson (Leon and The Fifth Element) - died sadly at 54 in 2015 - Heartbreaker / L'arnacoueur (2010) is a highly rated romcom.

Nick Hornby's highly fanciful tale - screenwritten by Jack Thorne - has a group of would-be suicides meeting atop a tall building one night...  I like Pierce Brosnan - he's not afraid to send himself up. Toni Collette is a real character actor talent, always great. But Imogen Poots is terrific here, so full of energy. (She's doing all right, isn't she, having appeared in work by Cameron Crowe, Peter Bogdanovich and Terence Malick already!) Aaron Paul is the fourth member of the quartet. Sam Neill also good value as Imogen's dad, and Rosamund Pike all but steals the film in a cameo as a bitchy TV presenter.

Music is by Dario Marienelli, handsome photography by Ben Davis (just BAFTA nominated for 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), edited by Barney Pilling.

Tuppence Middleton and Aaron Paul

Vanishing Point (1971 Richard Sarafian)

Finally... Very much of its time, similar to Two Lane Blacktop, a descendant of Easy Rider and Mitchum's Thunder Road. Guillermo Cabrera's script (from Malcolm Hart's outline) actually has two endings, if you count the one at the beginning. Barry Newman races a 1970 Dodge Challenger (which we are informed has been supercharged) from Denver to San Francisco (an 18 hour, 1200 mile journey) and whilst doing so we see bits of America exposed and his past life flash-backed. All the while blind DJ Cleavon Little makes him into an antihero ("Speed means freedom of the soul").

Very impressively photographed by John A. Alonzo.

Quite influential I think - can't imagine Sugarland Express without it. Maltin finds it disappointing but with a great rock soundtrack - for me, there are too many songs with 'Jesus' in them.

Does he drive through the night? There's no night scenes. It doesn't rain, either.

Personal Services (1987 Terry Jones)

This was indeed one of four films banned in Ireland, of which Terry directed three! (Life of Brian and Meaning of Life were the other two. All long since lifted.) It's quite funny.

Julie Walters is terrific (e.g. scene where her father turns up at the brothel). She was BAFTA nominated as was David Leland, who wrote it loosely around the life of Cynthia Payne, and it's portrayed as an accommodating critique of ageing, kinky chaps who aren't doing any harm in a hypocritical society (heavily underlined in closing showing a room full of the male characters as judges). Shirley Stelfox (mainly on TV) and Alec McCowen good too.

Roger Deakins shot and operated his own camera.

American Graffiti (1973 George Lucas & co-scr)

A nostalgic piece from Lucas who recalled the growing-up small town fifties feeling. Shot in 28 days he had little time to direct the actors - luckily they are fine - 'Ronny' Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Paul le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips (the young one) and Deby Celiz (Ron's girlfriend).

It looks and sounds great - Haskell Wexler contributed to the look, shot by Jan D'Alquen and Ron Eveslage - Walter Murch dishes up a treat of sound montage (though I missed the stereo shriek this time!) Verna Fields (and Marcia and George Lucas) cut it.

It has some nice ironies and is touching and well-observed.

With Wolfman Jack, Bo Hopkins, Beau Gentry, Manuel Padilla Jr (who Q correctly identified as Jai from the Tarzan TV series), Harrison Ford.

Harper (1966 Jack Smight)

William Goldman's first solo script is an adaptation of Ross Macdonald's 1949 novel 'The Moving Target' (which is also the film's UK title). Gum-chewing Paul Newman is very charismatic in California-set private eye story with unmistakable sixties trappings, using its locations well (mountain top retreat, shipyard, various shady bars, glamorous mansion).

Goldman had to write the credits sequence hurriedly ('the what sequence?') - was overjoyed that the audience found it funny (using coffee dregs from the bin was what many people remembered of the film). Missed the bit he writes about where Wagner spontaneously cries just before being killed - his true love's name is being sullied - so in the moment is he. (Newman was acting his part off-screen, which is rare that a star does that.... "Paul Newman is the least starlike superstar I've ever worked with. He's an educated man and a trained actor and he never wants more close-ups. What he wants is the best possible script and character he can have. And he loves to be surrounded by the finest actors available, because he believes the better they are, the better the picture's apt to be, the better he'll come out. Many stars, maybe even most, don't want that competition." William Goldman, 'Adventures in the Screen Trade'.)

Good cast: Lauren Bacall, Robert Wagner, Pamela Tiffin, Shelley Winters, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Robert Webber. Shot in Panavision by Conrad Hall, music by Johnny Mandel.

The car is a 1955 Porsche.

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964 Robert Aldrich & prod)

Nothing is what it seems in Lukas Heller and Henry Farrell's Deep South melodrama, which begins in 1927 with Bette's violent father Victor and the murder of her beau Bruce Dern. Cut to - the present, and Bette's in melodramatic mode (as is her housekeeper Agnes Moorehead).  Joseph Cotten is a dypso doctor. Then sweet cousin Olivia de Havilland arrives... (She wins the acting honours for me.)

Imaginatively shot by Joseph Biroc (perhaps influenced by Freddie Francis's filming of The Innocents), with a suitably twangy score from de Vol (a name which always sounds like a sixties hairdresser).

Rather long for what it is, but rather enjoyable (my only comment from 18.7.94 was 'overlong').

Features Cecil Kellaway, Mary Astor, Wesley Addy (very recognisable sheriff), George Kennedy, little John Megna (Mockingbird), Ellen Corby, Lillian Randolph.

It was very interesting to see this after Feud of course, knowing that Joan Crawford's scenes had to be reshot - and having de Havilland was in my opinion the better course.

That restaged read-through in Feud shows how carefully it was modelled on actuality. Note how everyone but Bob is smoking

Um - don't think too much about the plot (where'd the blood on her dress come from, at end they let Bette roam free to kill them?) And where's she going - to jail, to hospital, to freedom? (Actually don't mind the opaque ending.)

The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996 Barbra Streisand)

Slightly dubious in the plotting department around the pivotal scene where professor Jeff Bridges, overcome with lust for his wife Barbra... rejects her. Based on a somewhat different idea from a 1958 film by André Cayette and Gerard Oury, here written by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, A Little Princess, The Horse Whisperer, P.S. I Love You, Water for Elephants).

Winning pairing of the always watchable Bridges and Streisand. Good support from George Segal, Lauren Bacall (in good bitchy mode), Mimi Rogers, Pierce Brosnan, Brenda Vaccaro, Austin Pendleton, Elle Macpherson, Leslie Stefanson.

Towards the end I was getting a slightly queasy feeling that the film was saying women have to work out and wear make-up to be fulfilled - fortunately, that (sort of) doesn't seem to be the morale of the film, but it's a little muddy. Still, entertaining drama set in and around Columbia University, New York.

Shot by André Bartkowiak and Dante Spinotti (one cameraman for each side of Barbra's nose), sugary music from Marvin Hamlisch.

Very ending, with Turandot singing neighbour (real tenor Carlo Scibelli), is beyond cheese.

Ali Marsh and Leslie Stefanson

The Goodbye Girl (1977 Herbert Ross)

Dreyfuss is fabulous, but Marsha Mason is every bit as good (she was Oscar and BAFTA nominated and shared the Golden Globe with Diane Keaton). In particular that long take in the bathroom is just terrific. Did they get on?

"When I look at a film, I don't just see the performance. I remember the days I shot the film. I can still look at moments on the big screen and not like what I see because I was in a real bad mood that day. Well, I loved every day of Goodbye Girl. I loved who I worked with.  I loved Herb Ross, I loved Marsha Mason, I loved Neil Simon. To me, good work on any level is based on relaxation. I got to a level of relaxation I'd never been to on that film. And that's what I see in Elliot Garfield too. Also, he's the nicest person in the world...totally human and he's kind and good and intelligent and witty and sweet and lovable. Who wouldn't want to play that?"

Dreyfuss interviewed by Cameron Crowe, Rolling Stone, January 11 1979.

I.Q. (1994 Fred Schepisi)

Written by Andy Breckman (creator of Monk) and Michael Leeson (The War of the Roses).

Ven ve haff four professors, ve shoot in widescreen!

Left to right - Lou Jacobi (Irma La Douce, Arthur (plant store owner) Next Stop Greenwich Village), Joseph Maher (Time After Time, Heaven Can Wait), Matthau (inspired casting as Einstein), Gene Saks (director of The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, Cactus Flower, Brighton Beach Memoirs and actor in A Thousand Clowns, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and  Deconstructing Harry).

Perfectly satisfactory and sweet.

Hero / 英雄 (2002 Yimou Zhang)

OK, not Wong Kar Wei, as I thought (not really his style). No, this is a wuxia film ('oo-sha' - a sort of chivalrous martial arts) of a dazzling kind, with an intriguing plot from Zhang (Raise the Red Lantern, House of Flying Daggers), Feng Li and Bin Wang. Nameless (Jet Li) comes to assassinate the King (great performance from Daoming Chen); tells of victories against Broken Sword Tony Leung and Flying Snow Maggie Cheung (both also great; from In the Mood For Love) and Sky Donnie Yen; involving the loyal servant Moon Ziyi Zhang (also very cool).

It is eye-melting beautiful and jaw-droppingly incredible, with what looks like armies of thousands, but also clever visual effects to produce many an astonishing scene, each colour-coded by cinematographer Chris Doyle and production designers Tinxiao Huo and Zhenzhou Yi. Very formal, symmetrical, straight on compositions. All battles are [fill in own superlative here] with rain, water, desert, and forest leaves used to spectacular effect (that fight between Cheung and Zhang in the leaves, which turn blood red, is one of those really special film moments).

Interesting lesson in calligraphy and its meaning. Also loved movements of king's candles, and the collapsing of those green silks.

Edited by Zhai Ru and Angie Lam, music by Dun Tan. 'Action director' is Tony Ching Siu-Tung.

I watched the alternative cut, whatever that is.

Rushmore (1998 Wes Anderson & co-scr)

(With Owen Wilson.)

Thank Wilder for the effervescent Wes Anderson and his stock company (the Wilsons, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Seymour Cassel, Dipak Pallana), who always combine to bring something delightfully original and playful to the screen (the Serpico staging is fabulous, with its model train). Many jokes told visually, e.g. Murray and Schwartzman trying to ambush each other, quirky use of curtains as chapter headings, dog! Even the calligraphy is a plot pointer!

Olivia Williams is the object of affection, with Brian Cox, Mason Gamble, Sara Tanaka, Stephen McCole, Connie Nielsen, Luke Wilson. Also featuring a Tenenbaum and a Dignam!!

Shot (by Robert Yeoman) using the widescreen ratio really well. Music by Mark Mothersbaugh (with lots of well chosen old material also) and edited by David Moritz.

Symmetry, triple reflected (the painting)

There were at least six lateral tracking shots, but I stopped counting.

She's So Lovely (1997 Nick Cassavetes)

Written by dad John (and with a cameo from mum Gena Rowlands). I take it the title is an irony because the Robin Wright Penn character is not at all lovely, but rather leaves her children and isn't remotely sympathetic in any way whatsoever.. Essentially taking place over two days separated by ten years, we did not at all enjoy the story of mental wacko Sean Penn, rapist James Gandolfini, angry brute John Travolta or shiftless pair Harry Dean Stanton and Debi Mazar, despite good acting all round. (Kelsey Mulrooney is the daughter.)

Maybe it was just about how messed up people are... On  the plus side, it did end.

Shot by Thierry Arborgast (Leon, Nikita) in Panavision and MudVision.

Juke Girl (1942 Curtis Bernhardt)

Quick re-teaming of Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan after success of Kings Row, another little gem from the pen of A. I. Bezzerides (from a story by Theodore Pratt, adapted by Kenneth Gamet), again set in the tough world of farming - cf. They Drive By Night (also with Sheridan) and Thieves' Highway, this time set in Florida, and going a very different, gripping way. Richard Whorf is Reagan's itinerant road buddy. We didn't recognise George Tobias as the ebullient Greek farmer, but other faces are very familiar - Gene Lockhart the corrupt boss, Alan Hale a nice guy, Howard da Silva a scary baddie, Donald MacBride the bar owner. Also benefits from Betty Brewer as a smart-talking kid (who really should have been written in right at the end); with Faye Emerson and Willie Best as the seller of good luck charms.

Bert Glennon photographed, Adolph Deutsch scored.

A Passionate Woman (2010 Antonia Bird, Kay Mellor)

Based on Mellor's own mother's experiences of  - when married - falling madly in love with a Pole called Craze in the flat below, who was killed in a fairground brawl, then buttoning up the experience for years. (So part 2 - the wedding etc., is fiction.) Interviewed at the time, Mellor says " the play opened in the West End to rave reviews. [It] .. has toured extensively all over the world. Film rights were fought for, but I held on to them tightly as I didn't want Cher playing my mum on a rooftop in Detroit."

Unfortunately the way it comes over to us is that Billie Piper's character is just stupid, and can't see Theo James's Craze as a shiftless, worthless womaniser.. (there are people chasing him, for Christ's sake!) and then it seems a lifetime for her to cotton on to this, culminating in ruining her son Andrew Lee Potts's wedding. (There's no way she would have been let to carry on as normal after the rooftop thing - sectioned, more likely.) It seems very serious too and lacks any of Mellor's trademark wit, as though the project was so personal it had to be dealt with reverentially.

Also I'm not sure about the wisdom of seeing a preview of everything at the beginning - the shooting at the funfair, maybe (a sort of Mildred Pearce beginning) but to show us everything?

My sympathy was with the Newcastle lass (Kelly Harrison young, Barbara Marten older) who was ostracised by everyone and who desperately clings to Piper as her friend (she isn't).

Great idea to cast Joe Armstrong as younger Alan Armstrong but Piper didn't really metamorphise into Sue Johnstone to me. Neighbours are Mina Anwar and Youkti Patel.

I am pleased to say that the Leeds Hyde Park Picture House is still there, and indeed still is an operating cinema  - it's Grade II listed.

Thunder Road (1958 Arthur Ripley)

An unusual, independent production from Mitchum's own original story, produced by he and Ripley. Mitchum co-wrote the theme song.

Seems to have something in common with later films like Vanishing Point in story of existential road warrior who will deliver the moonshine come hell or high water, despite efforts of criminal Jacques Aubuchon and the FBI. Actually, we don't really understand Mitchum's motivation - and there's some back story about not being in the war which doesn't come over.

The cars are quite something, and the car chases are accompanied by really funny unusual music (Jack Marshall).

With Gene Barry, Keely Smith (Mitchum's singer girlfriend), Trevor Bardette, Sandra Knight and son James Mitchum.

Print on MGM DVD release is poor in image and sound.

To answer my own question, Mitchum was arrested in August 1948 in a small party at friend Lila Leeds' house at 8443 Ridpath Drive, Laurel Canyon with her and two other people. (It sounds like it wasn't even his own stuff). The press had already been alerted (by who? - some smell of corruption here) and were at the house with photographers. When asked for occupation at police station he replied 'Former actor'. Head of RKO Howard Hughes immediately acted to protect the star (he had lent Mitchum his office in the old days. don't forget). He got two year's probation including 60 days in jail.

Leeds' career was over (she had been a receptionist in Lady in the Lake, her most notable film). Ironically one of her last films was called Wild Weed, a film which exploited her experience (Source: Autobiography 'Baby, I Don't Care', 'Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites' E.J. Fleming.)