The Lady Eve (1941 Preston Sturges & scr)

An incredible cast - Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, Eric Blore, Robert Greig, Melville Cooper, Luis Alberni.

So many long takes, especially between Stanwyck and Fonda, and their incredible closeness. Brilliant cards scene between Coburn, Stanwyck and Fonda.

Another of Sturges' great breakfast menus, delivered by Jimmy Conlin: "Good morning sir. Fruit, cereal, bacon and eggs, eggs and sausage, sausage and hot cakes, hot cakes and ham, ham and eggs, eggs and bacon..."

Stanwyck beautifully oblivious to horse

La Mariée était en Noir (1968 François Truffaut & co-scr)

A difficult shoot - Truffaut and Raoul Coutard disagreed about the lighting (it was their last collaboration) leaving it down to Jeanne Moreau to have to explain to the different male actors their roles. It was Truffaut's least favourite film. Hitch liked the poisoned Arak scene but said he would have made Moreau put a cushion under the man's head so he could have died more comfortably. (Whilst that might have been a nice touch, it wouldn't fit with her blind revenge  character.)

It comes over as very nimbly shot and edited like lightning (Claudine Bouché - her next film, six years later, was Emmannuelle!) The men seem like shits (the only thing they have in common is the hunt and women) and it's almost as though Truffaut is criticising himself for his womanising ways (it was co-written by Jean-Louis Richard, based on Cornell Woolrich). Not sure you can suffocate a man in a cupboard under the stairs, but hey ho, Truffaut would say I'm being one of Hitch's 'plausibles'. 

So, the murder victims are Claude Rich (from balcony), Michel Bouquet (in his besotted confusion; poisoning), Michel Lonsdale (cupboard), Charles Denner (artist shot by Diana's arrow) and Daniel Boulanger (murdered in prison - Truffaut doing Bresson). Loved Moreau playing with Cookie, and the way the innocent school teacher (Alexandra Stewart) is greeted by her pupils on returning to school. Jean-Claude Brialy is the friend who finally recognises her.

Herrmann's score is amazing. Also loved the concierge, and the scarf that floats over the city, and the girl who says 'If you remember me why don't you ever say hello when you see me in the street?', and the cutting of the concert scene, and the drawings of Moreau.

Artwork by Charles Matton

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976 Clint Eastwood)

Excellent epic revisionist western, very overdue. (The only thing I remembered about it is the 'Good day to die' scene, which turns out to be from a different Chief Dan George movie, Little Big Man!)

Forrest Carter's novel adapted by Phil Kaufman and Sonia Chernus - they were unaware that he was a former Klansman and segregationist. Excellent script. Plays like a revenge western but along the way turns into something more Fordian as Wales is rehumanized by his encounters with an Indian chief (Chief Dan George) and squaw (Geraldine Keams), a tough old lady and her daughter (Paula Trueman and Sondra Locke) and assorted waifs and strays from a silver town where there ain't no silver. Sam Bottoms is an outlaw pal, John Vernon and Bill McKinney represent the bad guys. Lots of humour amidst the action, some spectacular scenery, shot beautifully by Bruce Surtees. Jerry Goldsmith's score is quite recognisable. Clint's direction most assured.

Malpaso for Warners. 

The Notebook (2004 Nick Cassavetes)

Nicholas Sparks novel adapted by Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi, anchored by a fabulous performance from Gena Rowlands, who was unlikely to need any direction from her son. James Garner, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams are good too. With Sam Shepard, Kevin Connolly, David Thornton, Joan Allen, James Marsden. 

Robert Fraisse is on camera. Filmed in South Carolina.

Le Deuxième Symphonie (1918 Abel Gance)

Slightly complicated by the fact that the intertitles are in French with no translation, as indeed are several letters, which interestingly are used to help tell the story. Also quite innovative in its use of different shot sizes and editing, and in its 'symphony' section, with its eye-catching semi-transparent ballet scenes. 

Melodrama tells of how a woman Emmy Lynn falls under control of good-for-nothing Jean Toulot who's witnessed a murder; later she marries composer Séverin-Mars, but his daughter falls for the cad. Most interesting, with a modern score and beautifully shot by Léonce-Henri Burel (early Bressons).

Great tinting as well. In one scene a character turns off a light, and the previous warm amber tint is abruptly replaced with a cold green one - not sure I've seen that before.

Le Fantôme de la Liberté (1974 Luis Buñuel & scr)

Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière have constructed a series of surreal sketches, loosely linked, with most amusing opening where a statue knocks a soldier unconscious. Then a man's dreams (a postman visits the bedroom in the middle of the night) lead him to a doctor - we then follow the nurse Milena Vukotic and her crazy episode in a B&B with monks, an incestuous nephew (when he pulls the covers off his aunt it's clearly a much younger model) and an S&M couple. There's a slightly draggy episode involving the police, but things pick up with a girl who's gone missing (although she's there - the chief of police interviews her - inspiration for Welcome to the Doll's House?) and an assassin who's sentenced to death and becomes a celebrity. Familiar faces abound - Jean-Claude Brialy, Julien Berthaud (Prefect), Adriana Asti (naked piano playing sister), Michael Lonsdale, Michel Piccoli (the other Prefect), Adolfo Celi, Monica Vitti, Jean Rochefort. Great fun.

Photographed by Edmond Richard, featuring Buñuel's own sound effects.

I've missed Buñuel, a director who had two enormous fans in the guise of Michael Powell and Alfred Hitchcock.

Her (2013 Spike Jonze & scr)

A multi-layered, Oscar winning screenplay, about the dangers of technology and the efforts of human beings to connect. Joaquin Phoenix isn't the only one to fall for his operating system (beautifully played by Scarlett Johannson) - Amy Adams does too. (It turns out the computer's having relationships with 600 other people!) And, on the theme of connections, his job is to write letters for other people. Highly prescient (everybody's on their phone the whole time) and funny. Perhaps goes on a bit too long.

With Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde. Photographed by Hoyte Van Hoytema.

Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993 Woody Allen)

A rare collaboration - with Marshall Brickman - originally to be an episode from Annie Hall. Woody and Diane Keaton's relationship is getting stale - she's constantly in the company of friend Alan Alda, whilst he's being seduced by publishing client Angelica Huston. Then a neighbour's wife dies and - in the Rear Window tradition - Keaton begins to suspect something sinister is going on, as the widower, Jerry Adler, not only seems rather casual about it, but is also spotted with a younger woman (Melanie Norris).

Witty, for sure ("I can't sit through that much Wagner. It makes me want to conquer Poland"), but Woody's showing us he can do thriller scenes well, ahead of Match Point, especially where Keaton's in the apartment, only to have the suspect walk back in. The ending, intercut with Lady from Shanghai, is amazing.

Woody's filming loosely, doing another round table track. Carlo di Palma shot it. It was Woody's first film since he and Mia split.

The Last Flight (1931 William Dieterle)

Came across this from a great review in Time Out ('more quintessentially Fitzgerald than anything Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote') - Halliwell gave it four stars. Little known 'lost generation' film opens with an amazing war montage, then in brief describes the experiences of our pilots in WW1. We pick them up, drinking all the while, and talking unified nonsense, in Paris 1919. Richard Barthelmess, David Manners, Johnny Mack Brown and Elliott Nugent are fascinated by Helen Chandler, and rather sweetly adopt her. Walter Byron is an annoying and slimy lecher / hanger on.

Some of the acting is a bit theatrical, but it's not a static film - the camera moves plenty, as does the film, which takes us to Lisbon, and the fates of the crew, who always order the same drinks as each other.

The surviving print is unfortunately rather dark. Sid Hickox shot it, for First National. Written by John Monk Saunders from his novel 'Single Lady'.

The Face of Fu Manchu (1965 Don Sharp)

Faced with a choice between John Ford, Buñuel and Bergman, I elected for this - what an idiot. Some reasonable period detail, but extremely lethargic in execution - half the 'Burmese' gang are clearly English; even though they're armed with knives, our heroes can bare knuckle beat them every time, nothing fiendish happens - I thought it was a Hammer production - that might have been more horrific.

Christopher Lee is the oriental criminal, Nigel Green - an actor who always looks so straight, you suspect inside he's trying not to laugh - his nemesis. Joachim Fuchsberger looks like he's wandered in from some urbane dinner party, Karin Dor his girl. Tsai Chin is Manchu's daughter.

'Of course - the river!' Blah blah. And what the hell are the 'Young Husband papers'??

Shot by Ernest Steward, written by Harry Alan Towers

Maid in Manhattan (2002 Wayne Wang)

..Because in Modern Family, Mitch is talking about renting a movie - ' Rom com or horror? Or we could combine them and get Maid in Manhattan.' Which is not necessarily a recommendation - more of a warning.

And yes - this is the second in our Coen Brothers double bill.

It's not that bad. I kept thinking of Peter Bogdanovich directing Sidney Poitier in To Sir With Love 2 - "All I ever said to him was "A little faster, Sidney" in as many variations as you can imagine" - was getting the feeling Jaylo could have done with the same direction.

A Serious Man (2009 Joel & Ethan Coen & scr)

Rather like Inside Llewyn Davis, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is not having a great time - his wife (Sari Lennik) is leaving him for another man (Fred Melamaed) - only he has to move out of his own house. He also has a problem with a Korean student, and his crazy brother (Richard Kind) who gets into trouble with the police. Various rabbis are no help, nor are neighbours (gun toting and naked sunbathing).

It's the sixties. Traditional Jewish songs alternate with Jefferson Airplane. And what's the dybbuk got to do with it? (Fyvush Finkel.) Stuhlbarg looks confused - so were we. It's a dense pudding.

Photographed by Roger Deakins.

Fargo (1996 Joel & Ethan Cohen & scr, prod, ed)

Frances McDormand did win her (first) Oscar for this - quite right too - she's brilliant. Her and her husband Harve Presnell are so well written. She doesn't even appear until 32 minutes in. The beautifully written screenplay also won.

The North Dakota / Minnesota accents are far out.

Started us thinking, by now, at least Martin McDonagh must have met the Coens. We thought they probably loved each other's work (John Michael too). They share a black comedy / violence thing. I know at least that McDormand's character in Three Billboards was written specifically for her (the McDonaghs had been impressed with her since Blood Simple.)

My Dad loved it.

Inside Llewyn Davies (2013 Joel & Ethan Coen & scr, prod)

1961 Greenwich Village. With all its period detail I was surprised the budget for this was only $11m - it took $32m worldwide. And considering how unlucky the title character is, it's another surprise how enjoyable this is. Indeed, in its road movie Chicago section it's actually quite hypnotic, and when he arrives there and auditions for the producer, his song performance is so good you expect him to be signed up on the spot. Instead he's encouraged to get back with his former partner, but by then, we know he's dead. It's another great screenplay that is impossible to predict. Oscar Isaac gives a great performance and has a sweet voice.

Bruno Delbonnel provides another eye-opening photographic experience.

The funniest scene is the performance of 'Please Mr Kennedy'. Why's Adam Driver (hilarious) making those odd one word emissions in the rehearsal? Then in the song, it all makes sense.

And that suggestion the bar owner (Max Casella) has slept with Jean (Carey Mulligan) makes you suddenly suspicious that LD is the father at all. With John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Ethan Phillips and Robin Bartlett, Jerry Grayson, Garrett Hedlund (another of the Coen's taciturn drivers), Stark Sands (soldier who's an improbably good singer) and lots of great people in bit parts, like his agent's secretary (Sylvia Kaiders).

Some lovely dissolves in the editing too. Great songs.

Q: "Why would anyone build a corridor like that?"
Me: "Because it's a Coen brothers film."

More about the cat here.

Night Without Stars (1951 Anthony Pelissier)

Winston (Poldark) Graham's story (from his own novel) has a partially blind man (David Farrar) in Nice, running into a beautiful girl (Nadia Gray) and dodgy goings-on, ending with a murder. Returning to London he has his eyesight restored, then travels back to sort out what's afoot, finds smuggling by former Resistance, and a brother-sister relationship that's perverse.

Not bad, but despite the talent to hand (Guy Green, Ernest Steward, John Seabourne) it doesn't quite work. I'm not sure the writing is quite there, nor the casting - the romantic aspect between the two doesn't really come off.

Jersey Boys (2014 Clint Eastwood & prod)

Mr. Biopic Eastwood's at it again. This one didn't quite click for me - partly, I suspect, that I'm not a fan of the Four Seasons' sound (weird Jerry Lewis type falsetto, with dumb dog bass), plus I didn't really care for any of the characters. Certain moments of improbability too, e.g. when Bob auditions and they're all note perfect on the song he's brought them, arrangements and everything. It's written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.

No problems with the pacing, staging or performances, nor having various characters address the audience. Vincent Piazza (Tommy), John Lloyd Young (Frankie), Christopher Walken, Erich Bergen (Bob, the writer), Michael Lomenda (who quits), Mike Doyle (gets them contract), Erica Piccininni, Renée Marino, Joey Russo (Joe Pesci), Kathryn Eastwood (Tommy's GF), Francesa Eastwood (waitress), Freya Tingley (ill-fated daughter).

All characters dancing in the street ending is too much.

Shot by Tom Stern, edited by Joel Cox and Gary Roach.

Gran Torino (2008 Clint Eastwood & prod)

A sort of thematic retread of Million Dollar Baby, only here grumpy solitary old man is brought out of funk by Hmong neighbours - even shares with the earlier film an unhappy ending. Enjoyed it, though somehow doubt the gang would have hung around at the end waiting for the police to catch them.

Creditable that it does posit tolerance in an extremely multi-cultural America.

Clint can do this in his sleep. With Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christoper Carley (tenacious priest), Brian Haley and Brian Howe (the sons), John Carroll Lynch, Geraldine Hughes, Dreama Walker, Choua Ku, Scott Eastwood.

Written by that Nick Schenk fellow again, with Dave Johannson. Camera: Tom Stern. Editors: Joel Cox and Gary Roach. Music: Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens. Malpaso for Warner Bros.

Clint's a John Ford fan and like him, many of his films are about America, whether it's the Civil War, WWII, Iraq, Edgar J Daffodil, police corruption, the space race; and real people and events - The Four Seasons, Richard Jewell, Sully, the train guys, John Huston, Charlie Parker..

Untraceable (2008 Gregory Hoblit)

Diane Lane plays a detective who's trying to locate a charming man who kills people online in a variety of fiendish ways, as though he's Fu Manchu or somebody - how quickly they die depends on how many people tune in (a rather sick plot point, as sick as some of the messages posted we glimpse). Refreshingly, she doesn't go to bed with nice cop Billy Burke, nor does she need him to waste the bad guy (Joseph Cross) in the final minutes, which she manages to do perfectly well on her own. Also features Colin Hanks, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Gray Lewis. And, weirdly, as we're on a Modern Family binge, Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

Apart from the sick murders it doesn't have any imagination. Written by Robert Fyvolent & Mark Brinker and Allison Burnett.

It was the Portland in Oregon, if anyone's interested.

I must say I did like the stunt of the guy who blows his brains out then falls off the bridge onto the van below in one take.

Lane's fine as always but the film doesn't make much sense and is unappealing. Looks like it had been ENR-ed, if they still do such things, making it inky dark (Anastas Michos).

Capote (2005 Bennett Miller)

Miller directed Foxcatcher and Moneyball; it's the first screenplay by Dan Futterman (also Foxcatcher), adapted from the biography by Gerald Clarke.

I think we'd seen it before, but when and where is mysterious. Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Oscar.

Capote interviewed the Kansas murderers, begins to empathise with one, despite their awful crime (it turns out the other guy didn't kill anyone), changes literary history in writing a factual novel.

Catherine Keener plays Harper Lee. With Chris Cooper, Clifton Collins Jr., John Warkentin, Bob Balaban. Music Mychael Danna, ph. Adam Kimmel.

The Bliss of Mrs Blossom (1966, released 1968 Joe McGrath)

It is a sign of the times indeed that Paramount invested I don't know how many millions into this very silly film. Harry H Corbett refers to 'that picture, The Knack' at one point, but this is not anywhere near in the same league.

Amusingly, Q kept trying to apply logic to the craziness. Wife of brassiere designer Richard Attenborough Shirley Maclaine hides a lover in the attic of their far-out SW3 house (actually Howard's Lane, Putney - the house is pretty much unchanged). Farcical policemen Freddie Jones and Willie Rushton are in search of the missing man. With Bob Monkhouse, Patricia Routledge, John Cleese.

Geoffrey Unsworth is doing some interesting things with lenses, focus and the zoom, and the design is very far out in the Swinging London style.

The copy we saw on TPTV had the words 'bitch' and 'crap' censored!

O Lucky Man! (1973 Lindsay Anderson)

Epic satire, originating with Malcolm MacDowell's travelling coffee salesman story, developed into Candide-like look at contemporary Britain by David Sherwin.

Alan Price is 78. The songs act as a terrific counterpoint to the story.

Great cast has most actors in multiple roles. Helen Mirren, Ralph Richardson, Arthur Lowe, Rachel Roberts, Graham Crowden, Peter Jeffery, Dandy Nichols (tea lady), Mona Washbourne, Philip Stone, Mary MacLeod (vicar's wife), Michael Bangerter (other interrogator), Wallas Eaton, Warren Mitchell, Bill Owen, Michael Medwin, Vivian Pickles, Geoffrey Palmer, Geoffrey Chater, Brian Glover, Jeremy Bulloch, James Bolam.

Nice, grainy photography from Miroslav Ondricek.

The woman are important, they figure in key moments. They save and rejuvenate him.

Nights in Rodanthe (2008 George C Wolfe)

Still don't know how to pronounce 'Rodanthe' as it's not referred to in the film - stupid title. From Nicholas Sparks novel, so you know pretty much what you're getting - adapted by Ann Peacock and John Romano.

Third pairing (no pun intended) of Diane Lane and Richard Gere (The Cotton Club was 1984, Unfaithful in 2002). Doctor befriends divorcee in North Carolina guest house - ultimately it helps them get closer to their estranged kids. With Christopher Meloni, Viola Davis, Becky Ann Baker, Scott Glenn, Mae Whitman, Charlie Tahan.

Ph. Affonso Beato.

The Trouble with Harry (1955 Alfred Hitchcock)

But where the hitch is Fuckcock?

Dwight Marfield is the doctor.

It's the first Herrmann score for Hitch - and it's highly memorable.

"Perhaps I'll come back tomorrow."

"When's that?"

"The day after today."

"That's yesterday. Today's tomorrow."

"It was."

"When was tomorrow yesterday?"

"Today."

"Oh, sure, yesterday."

It's not just funny, it figures usefully later.

Pat and Mike (1952 George Cukor)

Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon screenplay has Tracy a slightly dodgy sports promoter, Hepburn an all-round sports goddess (tapping into her natural abilities), who gets the better of the man. Most refreshing battle of sexes story.

Aldo Ray is the thick boxer, William Ching the BF. With various real sports stars, and a Charles Buchinsky, for good measure.

The scene where Kate has to explain to the police (Chuck Connors) how she disabled the bad guys is a corker.

Mostly location shot by William H Daniels for MGM. Memorable nightmarish tennis scene. Also love Kate hitting the six golf balls in a row.

Notorious (1946 Alfred Hitchcock)

Things to love about Notorious. It seems to be made in a slightly different style to other Hitchcocks. For example there are plenty of long takes, not just the famous apartment kissing scene, but in the very early meeting between Grant and Bergman. It also does these amazing dives, for example, a perfect crane shot from the upstairs balcony down to the key in Bergman's hand. I've never seen a Hitchcock that's so in close up. Normally good directors reserve their close ups for key moments - this just gives it a feeling of continuing intensity and intimacy. Also love that shot where the mother (Leopoldine Konstantin) appears in very long shot on the stairs and walks right up to the camera.

It's amusing that various producers had a problem with the uranium bomb plot element - things changed when the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan. Also that Hitch predicted South America as a likely destination for Nazis. And that most of the cast are antifascist German emigrants.

Selznick was one who mistrusted the script, and also wanted Joseph Cotten over Grant. He sold the property to RKO, where Hitch was able to specify his own cameraman (Ted Tetzlaff; Gregg Toland shot the second unit Rio stuff.) Ben Hecht and Bergman were both regular visitors to the Hitchcock houses. 

Grant and Bergman are both absolutely brilliant.

Paris Can Wait (2016 Eleanor Coppola & scr)

Film producer Alec Baldwin leaves his wife Diane Lane in Cannes to be driven to Paris by business associate Arnaud Viard, who's obsessed by food to the point of boredom. Danger signals arrive when he tells Lane they are stopping off at a hotel, and he needs her credit card to book a room. (At that point we would have said 'No - I'll make my way to Paris on my own, thank you.') 

Thus it continues, food, unexpected diversions, Lane taking pictures of things, he vaguely trying to seduce her (but, it seems, bopping an old flame at the Lumiere museum en route). Saying it's Brief Encounter for foodies and culture hounds would be being too complimentary.

Didn't know Crystel Fournier on camera, though did recognise sound designer Richard Beggs.

So, no, Mrs. Coppola, it doesn't work, particularly the ending to-camera look, which is painfully embarrassing.

We did, though, get to hear Trenet's 'Que Reste-t-il de Nos Amours' for the second day in a row, which you can hardly argue about.

French Kiss (1995 Lawrence Kasdan)

Adam Brooks' script has the somewhat loony premise that whilst working in Paris, fiancé Timothy Hutton falls for another woman and dumps his long term girlfriend Meg Ryan - rather than be disgusted and angry, she flies out there desperately to try to win him back. If you can get over that, she runs into louche Frenchman Kevin Kline (in good restrained mode) who uses her for a little grapevine and necklace smuggling. But the cops (Jean Reno) and petty criminals (Francois Cluzet) get involved.

In the version we watched there were no French subtitles - it was fun trying to work out what the missing passages were on about.

Entertaining and different in that the leads aren't interested in each other at all romantically until the film gets well underway.

Edited by Joe Hutshing with Mark Livolsi assiting.

Enough Said (2013 Nicole Holofcener & scr)

Julia-Louis Dreyfus starts dating divorced James Gandolfini, unaware that he's the ex of her new buddy Catherine Keener. When she finds out, rather then telling anyone, she begins to pump her for inside info ('like doing a Trip Advisor on him' she says) which begins to sour the relationship (particularly at an awkward dinner party with friends Toni Collette and Ben Falcone). Both the couple also have daughters about to head off for high school, Tavi Gevinson and Eve Hewson.

Unusual romantic drama from the uneven Holofcener feels real. Good performances, little details.

Hollywoodland (2006 Alan Coulter)

1959. What is Adrien Brody's character? A sort of private eye / PR guy? That could've been clearer. He was with the police, that much we know (seems to be more than one Chinatown shadow that hangs over this story, which is based on true events). Anyway, he's investigating the death of TV's Superman George Reeves, Ben Affleck, financed by his mother Lois Childs, whilst in parallel flashback, we see Reeves' relationship with lover Mrs Mannix (Diane Lane) and her husband, powerful MGM figure Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), and various other sundry characters.

Where this leaves us is with various possible murderers, or suicide, and I wonder whether it would have been a better idea for Paul Bernbaum to have made his mind up and present one version or another as he saw it. Whilst very watchable, the film is elusive, like Mount Etna on a cloudy day, and it doesn't help that the Brody character is not very likeable - the film could have done with a couple of measures of humour too.

Robin Tunney is the tartish girl who ends up with him at the death house, Kathleen Robertson plays someone else, Caroline Dhavernas is I think Brody's PA, Larry Cedar is an investigator, Joe Spano is the Mannix PR guy and Jeffrey DeMunn makes an impression as, er.. someone. Yes, I did feel a little confused here and there.

The score is also a Chinatown soundalike (Marcelo Zarvos). Photographed by Jonathan Freeman.

The real Eddie Mannix, shady MGM 'fixer' and protector of the stars' images, was the inspiration for Hail, Caesar!

The Desperate Hours (1955 William Wyler & prod)

It had been a while since we stepped into the Hilliard house, where Frederic March, Martha Scott, Mary Murphy and (to a lesser extent) Richard Eyer are terrorised by escaped criminals Humphrey Bogart, Dewey Martin and Robert Middleton. Have to say police chief Arthur Kennedy and that guy from TV, Whit Bissell (I'm probably thinking of The Time Tunnel) don't do a lot, and adding mayor Ray Collins right at the end is pointless (other than it's nice to see him). Talking of which, this whole thing is Joseph Hayes' fault, as he wrote the novel, play and screenplay.

It's still a good, tense experience, which is probably why it was remade twice, as a TV movie in 1967 and by Michael Cimino (with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins) in 1990.

Shot by Lee Garmes in VistaVision for Paramount.

Lady Bird (2017 Greta Gerwig & scr)

Last review applies, though this time I thought the mother was quite fractious. Took me almost the whole film to remember the name Laurie Metcalfe.

The nice nun Lois Smith is in Wes's new The French Disptach, and was in the Nice Guys, Killshot, Hollywoodland, The Pledge, Fried Green Tomatoes, Green Card, Midnight Run, Black Widow, Next Stop Greenwich Village, Five Easy Pieces and East of Eden!

Lucas Hedges we just saw in Three Billboards.

It's an uncritical look at teenagers.

The Lady Vanishes (2013 Diarmuid Lawrence)

You can see why Hitch and his writers added a lot of material to Ethel Lina White's story - to add humour and action. The stripped down version (by Fiona Seres) is more serious and less fun, and the heroine, played here by Tuppence Middleton, comes over as petulant and irritating. A good cast is left with not much to do: Alex Jennings, Tom Hughes. Keely Hawes, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Gemma Jones, Sandy McDade, Pip Torrens, Stephanie Cole, Benedikte Hansen, Emerald Fennell.

It's also uncomfortably directed so that the camera feels too close to everybody all the time.

Bringing Up Baby (1938 Howard Hawks)

Leo McCarey may get the credit for discovering the comedy side of Grant in The Awful Truth, but here Hawks (in their first collaboration) guides him into completely unrecognisable screwball territory, in classic encounter of man vs. woman. It's Hawks - the woman wins.

The talking over each other (or barking or growling), the speed, gives it a wonderful memento.

The plot - Dudley Nichols from Hagar Wilde story - is a doozy.

Hepburn is also absolutely wonderful, as is Charlie Ruggles. With Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Fitz Feld and Skippy.

Can you believe it was a critical and commercial flop - when Peter Bogdanovich ran a Hawks retrospective in the sixties, it hadn't been shown in New York for twenty years. Hawks himself thought a problem with it was that every character was crazy, but you're laughing too much to notice.

Photographed by Russell Metty, music by Roy Webb, RKO.

Hawks also mentioned that the cheeky line when Grant's shielding her drawers "I feel a perfect ass" was missed by the censors as they were laughing too much.

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003 Audrey Wells & scr)

From Frances Mayes' autobiography.

I love Diane Lane. She may not have the greatest range, but she's immensely natural and likeable. (Being beautiful doesn't hurt either.)

Good cast. Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan, Raoul Bova, Vincent Riotta, Mario Monicelli, Pawel Szajda.

Wells died just before the release of her last screenplay, The Hate U Give.

Photographed by Geoffrey Simpson, in Cortona, Firenze, Montepulciano and Positano.

"Live in all directions, with childish enthusiasm."

The Secret of Chimneys (2010 John Strickland)

 ..who directed episodes of Line of Duty and Bodyguard.

A German count (Anthony Higgins, who we last saw in Lewis) comes back to Chimneys (Hatfield House, also location in Paddington 2, The Favourite, Wild Bill, The Crown, Mister Holmes, Anna Karenina, My Week with Marilyn), forms relationship with the daughter of the manor Charlotte Salt, and is then murdered. Step in Marple Julia Mackenzie and Scotland Yard inspector who will soon be put in his place, well played by Stephan Dillane (The Crown, Darkest Hour, The Tunnel). A giant missing diamond plays its part.

With other recognisable faces: Edward Fox, Matthew Horne, Adam Godley, Jonas Armstrong, Michelle Collins (The Illustrated Mum, Two thousand Acres of Sky), Dervla Kirwan (Goodnight Sweetheart) and Ruth Jones.

The unlikely sounding Julian of Norwich was our first female author, writing in the 14th Century.

Pool of London (1950, released 1951 Basil Dearden)

Most interesting, on location Ealing drama about shore leave of sailors in London. Mates Bonar Colleano and Earl Cameron (who died July 3 aged 102) encounter Susan Shaw and Renée Asherson; the American gets involved in a diamond robbery, leading to exciting chase finale.

The dark streets caught by Gordon Dines; music John Addison.

With Moira Lister, Max Adrian, Alfie Bass, James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips, John Longden.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018 Peter Jackson)

Because of 'The New Confessions' - John James Todd is telling of his war experiences and says 'Think of the Great War. You only know it in black and white. There are no colour photographs of the Great War yet I can assure you it was a very colourful event'.

And here we are, with the voices of dozens of soldiers to illustrate the clips, which only omit actual battle footage.

That the soldiers generally respected the enemy is shown in the clips of captured soldiers. And of the declaration of ceasefire, 'There was no great cheer, just silence. We had all gone too far...' And that no civilian could ever understand what they had been through.