The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988 Billy Hale)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Rome with Love (2012 Woody Allen & scr)

 We're not clever enough to understand this joke:

"My brain doesn't fit the usual id-ego-superego model."
"No, you have the only brain with three ids."

Antonio Albanese

"What's next - Tosca in a phone booth?"

Silent Witness (2015)

Falling Angels. Graham Mitchell / Craig Viveiros.

A bewildering turn of events unfolds with homeless man Jack Roth (son of Tim; good) seeming to commit random murders, whilst new lover Leila Mimmack stands by him. All revealed in good twist. Again it's not pathology that seems to be at work rather than forensics.

In parallel Nikki investigates the death of detective Richard (Rebus) Rankin's father - which turns into another twist.

My only problem is that we don't get any motivation for the homeless man's behaviour but otherwise it's a good, sneaky one.

The Walsh Sisters (2025 Stefanie Preissner)

Marion Keyes' novels provide source for Dublin sisters Louisa Harland, Caroline Menton (out of control), Danielle Galligan, Máiréad Tyers and Stefanie Preissner; Carrie Crowley and Aiden Quinn are parents. The mother is horrible.

Most engaging bits - when we hear just how bad a drunk and druggie Menton was from her boyfriend; and Harland's encounter with a fellow griever at the cemetery.

It was OK; we were somehow not really that involved.

Shrinking - Season 3 (2026)

Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Harrison Ford, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, Ted McGinley, Christa Miller, Michael J Fox, Devin Kawaoka.

Ted and Liz have to kick their son out so he can make something of himself. Brian and Charlie have a baby. Sean's girlfriend returns. Great to see Fox as Parkinson's patient. Paul is retiring. Alice is going to Uni.

Various writers. Good stuff.

Silent Witness: Season 18 (2015)

Sniper's Nest. Ed Whitmore. Director David Richards.

One of those ones in which (one of the) perpetrators is someone you haven't met during the whole two hours, so it seems like a bit of a cheat. Random sniper strikes. Like some of the other films, pathology doesn't seem particularly relevant.

Zoe Telford and Sean Gilder are up against it. Adam Wilson is good as the juvenile murderer (and we thought of Adolescence).

Sadie McKee (1934 Clarence Brown)

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

And all because the guy she's run away to New York with to marry proves to be a worthless whore. Will decent but privileged Franchot Tone save the day?

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

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

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

28.40, 30.26, 36.10.

Lord of the Flies (2026 Jack Thorne)

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

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

Directed by Marc Munden.

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

Second part, Ralph, features a brilliantly handled pig hunt.

Silent Witness: Fraternity (2014 Graham Mitchell / Dušan Lazarević)

Is Jack's half brother Owen McDonnell the killer of a schoolgirl? No, or course not, but he is ultimately responsible for other dodgy stuff that gets him nicked. Leaving us clinician Liam Garrigan a prime suspect.

The murderer attempts to kill Jack but is somehow unsuccessful. Their identity is somewhat unlikely.

Ashley Walters investigates with bad grace. Haydn Gwynne is a stand in pathologist. Kirsty Besterman, Clare Calbraith, Teresa Churcher, Daisy Ridley.

A Woman's Face (1941 George Cukor)

From a play 'It Etait Une Fois' by Francis de Croisset, which had been adapted  as an Ingrid Bergman Swedish film En Kvinnas Ansikte in 1937, and it was she who came up with the ending - that she would face trial for murder but the outcome wasn't known. This of course had to be changed to the happier ending that MGM audiences were expecting, by Donald Ogden Stewart and Elliot Paul. It was a big hit.

The scarred faces compared:

Bergman's diary reveals she cried in the studio - not from the pain of the makeup but because she was so 'bad'

Thanks to Musings for saving me the trouble.

Both versions take the form of a trial in which various witnesses come forward and present the story of the scarred and (emotionally) ugly woman blackmailer, beginning with a cohort in Donald Meek, who explains how Crawford blackmailing an adulterous woman Osa Massen leads her to meet plastic surgeon Melvyn Douglas, and her transformation begins. But she's being manipulated by evil Conrad Veidt (was he ever the good guy?) who wants her to kill his nephew, a little boy, and so we are led to the snowy, er, hills of Hollywood, and Albert Basserman, Marjorie Main and young Richard Nichols.

There's a very exciting sled chase / race at the end, edited by Frank Sullivan (and without music) and Robert Planck's photography of these scenes and Ms Crawford's face are equally good. Bronislau Kaper's score is not to the fore.

Lots of recognisable people in cast include Reginald Owen, Connie Gilchrist, Gwili Andre, Henry Daniell, George Zucco, Robert Warwick.

Silent Witness - Season 17 (2014)

To get over the bad taste left by the Louis Theroux doc we turned instead to abduction, torture, rape and murder - how very British of us.

In a Lonely Place by Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone (Whitmore) takes place in the Scottish Highlands. Not one but several bodies are uncovered - effectively depicted as sniffer dogs one by one sit on places of corpses. It all links to a seedy pole dancing club.

Martin Compston investigates along with his old 'pals' Robert Cavanah and Gary Lewis, principal suspect is Christopher Hatherall. It's got quite a merry-go-round of a plot (though Q thinks table tennis is a more apposite analogy).

Enjoyably cruel and far-fetched idea to have the victim who got away kidnapped and tortured again - at least she survives - Nicola Grier.

Then in Undertone (Ed Whitmore again, with Declan Croghan) the corpse of a young women, who has had a baby removed, is linked to a drug dealing Turkish gang - this one of the quite unlikely ones. Akin Gazi is memorable as the baddie, Sean Gallagher as the very bad cop, Morvern Christie his subordinate.

Why the other cop is shot at the beginning is I think not explored.

The Alexandra Road Estate (aka Rowley Way) in Camden is a location we've seen before:

... notably in Breaking and Entering.

Loved Jack taking out the bad guy who has him at gunpoint.

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere (2026 Adrian Choa)

Louis chums up with some utterly despicable and twisted people with no brains and decides that their promotion of mancentric things and Matrix-fuelled conspiracy theories are all organised to make sales for them and no one else - Louis'  $500 investment managed by 'billionaire brokers' quickly expires. 

Utterly depressing - the world has gone backwards.

Funded by Netflix.

Rooster (2026 Bill Lawrence / Mark Tarses)

New Steve Carrell comedy for HBO revolves around University. Carrell is a best selling author who drops in to look after recently separated daughter Charly Clive, finds himself sequestered (the wrong word I know) by college professor Danielle Deadwyler. Brit Phil Dunster is the ex, who's now with Lauren Tsai ("I'm funnier than everyone thinks"). Eccentric Dean is John C McGinley.

Oscars 2026

Conan O'Brien is a capable host - some of the skits, like old films remade for vertical, Casablanca over-explained (with Sterling K Brown as Sam) and the advertising that would appear if the Oscars were screened on YouTube are good - some of the 'jokey' bits by presenters are just screamingly awful.

No real surprises here - Wunmi lost out to Amy Madigan for Weapons; Leo lost to Michael B Jordan in Sinners. Sean Penn won again for Supporting. Paul Thomas Anderson won the Wilder hattrick, reflecting how important that film was perceived to be by the Academy.

The K Pop band were rather unfairly musiced over.

But the real seismic event was the first time a woman won Best Cinematography. Women must have won in all the major categories before so rather belatedly they're now caught up on this one. Congratulations to Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Sinners. Rachel Morrison had been nominated for Mudbound in 2017, Mandy Walker for Elvis in 2022.

Despite Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident being in competition for Foreign Film, the Norwegian Sentimental Value won.

Silent Witness (2014)

Coup de Grace Graham Mitchell / David Richards. Very diffused photography. Nikki helps acquit suspected murderer Michael Socha (pronounced, I am informed, 'So-cha') but then more murders in his style take place. Nikki gets too close to defence lawyer Tobias Menzies. Meanwhile detective Lorraine Ashbourne is convinced they had the right man all along.

The House in Marsh Road (1960 Montgomery Tully)

Patricia Dainton inherits a family house giving her and her wastrel husband Tony Wright a place to crash, and from where he can 'write'. The house seems inhabited by a poltergeist,  as pointed out by housekeeper Anita-Sharp Bolster, which the husband doesn't love, but he's soon after glamorous (by that I mean she's prone to wearing shiny slacks) single typist Sandra Dorne, who's a bad girl and indifferent to stealing a woman's husband. He's a real sleaze, did I mention that? Even to the point of planning to murder his wife. But - and this is a neat twist - the house (or the poltergeist) has other ideas... The ending is the best part of this short 66 minute indie, which despite many shortcomings remains watchable.

Written by Maurice Wilson from a story by Laurence Meynell. Didn't know any of the crew except for nascent director, first AD Douglas Hickox.

I was initially caught by John Veale's opening credits music, which in melody and orchestration sounds like a trial run for Barry's Thunderball theme. The rest of the music is more routine but you wonder.

Silent Witness: Season 17 opener (2014)

Commodity. Timothy Prager / Daniel O'Hara.

New pathologist Richard Lintern steps in to take Leo's job (Nikki didn't want it). 

Jack has insulted a detective (Adrian Rawlins). So he has to apologise, but Lintern endears himself to us (and the team) by making the DI apologise as well. Then he leaves Nikki with Leo's old creaky chair.

The plot is all about whether a cocky footballer has murdered the ex nanny.

Woody Allen Double Bill: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) / Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

Completely coincidentally both films are linked by mediums. In the first, Pauline Collins predicts Gemma Jones' future, much to the disbelief of daughter Naomi Watts and her husband, Josh Brolin, a writer. She in turn hopes to have an affair with boss Antonio Banderas and he with neighbour Freida Pinto. Jones' ex Anthony Hopkins is in a very misguided relationship with Lucy Punch. And they all make a big mess of everything!

Vilmos Zsigmond shot it in London.

With Fenella Woolgar, Philip Glenister, Neil Jackson, Ewen Bremner, Anna Friel, Celia Imrie, and briefly, Joanna David.

Darius Khondji shoots the Cote d'Azur beautifully. Great production design / locations. Most enjoyable film.

Sitting Target (1972 Douglas Hickox)

 I quite enjoyed this seventies British thriller, which takes after Performance and its ilk.

Convict Oliver Reed - sporting ugly accent - learns wife Jill St John is leaving him and determines to break out of prison with mate Ian McShane and escape planner Freddie Jones - leading to an exciting scene, well shot, and showing what a difficult and scary task it is.

Reed's mission is to kill her, and it involves fellow criminal Frank Finlay and detective Edward Woodward. There's some good action scenes and a nice twist ending.

Well photographed by Ted Scaife, edited by John Glen, music by Stanley Myers.

The Lost Patrol (1934 John Ford)

A restrained Victor McLaglan leads said British patrol across Mesopotamian desert (now Iraq) to oasis where they are gradually picked off by an unseen enemy - an inspiration on Assault on Precinct 13?

Boris Karloff is a religious nutter. With Reginald Denny, Wallace Ford (no relation), J.M. Kerrigan.

Music by Steiner, shot by Harold Wenstrom, filmed in the Imperial Sand Dunes, Buttercup City for RKO.

Some surprising and memorable deaths, e.g. soldier who has just scaled a palm tree, aircraft pilot; but there's not a lot to it, really, certainly not the **** which Maltin bestows it with. Though I have to admit, almost berserk McLaglen with machine gun and Arabs, and British army finally showing up, is an effective ending.

Frenzy (1972 Alfred Hitchcock)

I was surprised to read that Quentin Tarantino thought it 'a piece of crap' as it's Hitch's last great film, a real change of pace, a nouvelle vague Hitchcock.

Friends With Benefits (2011 Will Gluck & co-scr)

Written by Gluck, David A Newman and Keith Merryman..

Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis. Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson, Jenna Elfman, Richard Jenkins, Emma Stone.

Twentieth Century (1934 Howard Hawks)

I'm not sure we were in quite the right mood to experience the histrionics of Carole Lombard and John Barrymore, though they are both great in Ben Hecht / Charles MacArthur screenplay. Based on the play 'Napoleon of Broadway' by Charles Bruce Millholland.

With Roscoe Karns, Walter Connolly, Etienne Girardot (mad man).

Ms Lombard in an array of glamorous fashion:

Mr Barrymore's response:

Der Liebe der Jeanne Ney (1927 G.W. Pabst)

German version of film fair zips along in story of Russian (Uno Henning) who has loved a French girl but they must flee to Paris. I can't tell you how unspeakable some of the men are in this, particularly the vile Fritz Rasp, who whilst embracing blind fiancee Brigitte Helm is also trying to seduce title heroine Edith Jéhanne. He's also boasted to a girl whose eye he has kissed (not a typo) - a sort of Louise Brooks protégée Hertha van Walther - that he's going to kill said fiancee for her money. There's an amusing scene with a diamond stealing parrot, and a wonderful little moment where the couple spy a just married bride... and she's crying.

The uncle is another monster who is absolutely overwhelmed by greed (another standout moment) and who suddenly decides to seduce his niece... For fuck's sake. The screenplay is by Rudolf Leonhardt and Ladislaus Vajda from Ilja Ehrenburg's novel.

Most interesting, though Bernd Thewes modern recreation of an old piano cue sheet leaves something to be desired. Good performances by and large. Sig Arnio, best known to us from The Palm Beach Story, is funny as an investigator. With Hans Jaray, Vladimir Sokoloff, Eugen Jensen.

The agile camerawork is by Robert Lach and Fritz Arno Wagner (Nosferatu, Diary of a Lost Girl, Westfront 1918, The Threepenny Opera, M, The Testament of Dr Mabuse).

Silent Witness Season 16 finale (2013)

Greater Love. Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble. Directed by Douglas Mackinnon, who has an annoying habit of putting something in the way of his subject and tracking the camera through it, like this:

The gang go to Afghanistan to retrieve a fallen soldier from a water project. Unfortunately they spend a lot of time in debate with others and each other about war vs crime, west vs. everyone else, personal morality, justice, chicken decomposition etc and it seems to be a showcase for polemical discussion rather than the exciting episode it could have been... Until the somehow not unexpected twist and shock ending.

Nikki: "Leo was as close to a father as I'll ever have."

David Caves, Brana Bajic, Sam Hazeldine, Joe Doyle.

Silent Witness has gone mad (2013)

We don't think Rob Jarvis killed his wife and even investigating detective Christine Bottomley isn't sure - but her dad Christopher Fulford puts the pressure on. Turns out a former policeman David Murray has been killing and cutting fingers off all over the place (literally). Nikki saves Jack's life with a clonk over the head. True Love Waits was written by the normally reliable Ed Whitmore, and Tracey Malone, but I wasn't sure what was going on half the time. 

Then in Stephen Gallagher's The Legacy. Nikki gets involved with a politician who you know is going to be a wrongun (Ed Stoppard) whilst a nuclear train crash has been covered up. (Sorry - he was going to build low cost housing on land he knew was contaminated with uranium?  Have I got that wrong?)

It's nicely photographed, anyway - by Jon Conroy - but really over-edited by Catherine Creed.

Silent Witness - Season 16 (2013)

Change is right - there's no more Harry. Tom Ward had had enough. But, you know, he was our favourite character, so that's hard. Though we had just watched him in 96 episodes. So that should be enough really.

David Caves is Jack, the new Harry, who we meet in a boxing ring, and he's accompanied by his diminutive sidekick Liz Carr (Clarissa).

Death of a confectionary magnate is the rather cumbersome plot here. With Sharon Small, Louis Emerick, Anna Madeley, Derek Riddell. Timothy Prager wrote it, Anthony Byrne directed.

Then in Trust (Richard Davidson / Richard Clark) Jack bumps into former colleague / lover Amanda Drew who's investigating a double murder, which revolves around an anthrax plot involving Bryan Dick and Mark Bonnar. The ending is a bit shit. In a side story, Leo helps the mother of a deceased infant. With Adam James.

Silent Witness: And Then I Fell In Love (2012 Timothy Prager)

This - directed by Keith Boak - is the hardest watch of the series so far, as it deals with impressionable teenage schoolgirls being seduced through presents and flattery and drugs into becoming unwilling prostitutes for a gang of Pakistani men. And these girls don't seem stupid, but they all seem to come from unhappy home lives. 

In fact it should be mandatory viewing in schools.

Begins with two bangs - Nikki witnesses a barefoot girl being run over and helps her; Harry's flat blows up!

Rather successful in that we see the miserable fate of one of the girls imprisoned and desperate to escape cross cut with how it all begins for another couple of girls.

Elyes Gabel is good as the charismatic gang leader, with Faraz Ayub, Ashwin Bolar and thankfully Tony Jayawardena as the slightly thick one who knows they are doing wrong and eventually comes to the rescue (also good; A Street Cat Named Bob). The girls are Emma Amos, Juliet Cowan, Chloe May.

A taciturn detective is Sam Troughton; Sanjeev Bhaskar also features.

To leaven the dark proceedings, Harry moves into Nikki's flat (though doesn't get much more sleep there!)

What is also quite disturbing that although we see all the gang being arrested, we're not convinced there will be enough evidence to convict them all. And this was some years before the Bradford grooming scandal, also.

Roman Holiday (1954 William Wyler)

When Audrey says she's aware of her responsibility and that's why she's come back; had she not been aware of it she may not have returned at all - I was wondering how many times Willie made her say it! Certainly you can see in the climactic press conference at the palace quite how good a director of actors he is.

Audrey would not have been known at all in Rome, which must have been liberating.

Caffe Rocca next to the Pantheon is no longer there. Via Margutta is near the Spanish Steps; Fellini lived there.

East of Eden (1955 Elia Kazan)

John Steinbeck 'Cain and Abel' story adapted by Paul Osborn - the irony being that the 'bad' character is the better one. Strong performance from James Dean, who was Oscar nominated after his death. With Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Richard Davalos, Burl Ives, Jo Van Fleet and a young Lois Smith (pictured at bar with Dean below). And more ironies in that Dean and Harris make a better couple than her and his brother. And also that Dean is a better businessman than his father. And that he could have had a good relationship with his mother when the others couldn't.

Creatively photographed by Conrad Hall's mentor Ted McCord, using the widescreen well.

Editor Owen Marks is not afraid of the widescreen. Strong score from Leonard Rosenman

It was a Warner Bros film, designed by James Basevi and Malcolm Bert.