Doctor in the House (1954 Ralph Thomas)

A rather sweet film, miles away from the crude hi-jinks the series became, properly underscored with the difficulties of being a medical student and the hurdles of qualifying (note at the end those that still have not got through).

Dirk Bogarde is top billed though Kenneth More won the Best Actor BAFTA. (Really? He won over John Mills in Hobson's Choice, David Niven in Carrington V.C., and Robert Donat in Lease of Life.) With Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, Kay Kendall, James Robertson Justice, Donald Houston, Geoffrey Keen (Dean), George Coulouris. And with cameos: Joan Sims, Shirley Eaton, Joan Hickson, Amy Veness, Richard Wattis and writer Nicholas Phipps himself as a magistrate.

'St. Swithins' is played by University College London's main building in Gower Street, Bloomsbury, photographed by Ernest Steward.

The Furies (1950 Anthony Mann)

What's going on here? The Furies are Roman mythological goddesses of vengeance. Well that fits insofar as Barbara Stanwyck is the strong-willed daughter (of strong-willed rancher Walter Huston) who seeks revenge when daddy backtracks on promise to leave her his ranch 'The Furies', having hooked up with Judith Anderson (who drinks the disgusting sounding combination of cognac with orange juice!). Although why you would name your ranch that is another matter (it's a bit silly).

Stanwyck also has a hot-cold thing going for mercenary and emotionless Wendell Corey, but her heart is with a Mexican (Gilbert Roland) whose family has lived on the estate for ages. There's a very dramatically faulty sequence where Huston's men lay siege to Roland's family's castle (which, frankly, looks unassailable) but they surrender... and then Huston has him hanged for theft of a horse (which he succumbs to without a word or a struggle??) What a cunt! And of course this is going to position his daughter hotly against him also.

And the in the end, she ruins him, but then goes into partnership with him! And marries Corey! But Roland's mother (oh - that was Beulah Bondi) kills him - good! 

I can't help the feeling that this all probably plays better after a few sherberts.

Charles Schnee adapted a novel by Niven Busch. both names we know. And having just been enjoying Mann's films noir like T-Men, Border Incident and Raw Deal, we were somewhat disappointed. Though we like the cast, which also includes Thomas Gomez. It was Huston's last - he died later that year.

Photographed by Victor Milner and scored by Franz Waxman for Paramount, produced by Hal Wallis.

Barbara about to disfigure Judith Anderson

Mrs Dalloway (1997 Marleen Gorris)

We watched an introductory film by Eileen Atkins, who said she was sent such rubbish she might as well adapt Virginia Woolf's novel herself, but 'couldn't find a part' for her. And having looked at a summary of the novel's plot, I'd say she did a bloody good job.

Gorris had just won an Oscar for her film Antonia. Eileen's husband decided to produce it but ran out of money, and the whole project was taken over by a new funder, without their involvement. When they saw the finished film, they hated it. But wind forward a few years, The Hours was premiered at Guildford and they agreed to screen Mrs Dalloway along with, with a Q&A with Eileen, and seeing it again, she and her husband loved it!

Mrs Dalloway (who has recently suffered from some sort of unexplained 'illness') prepares for a party to be given that evening, cross cut against her romantic past. In conjunction a shell shocked soldier spends a day in the park before being committed. He kills himself and Mrs Dalloway hears about it at the party and feels for him. It doesn't sound much, but it's really good.

And with this great cast it should be. Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha McElhone as her younger self, Michael Kitchen, Alan Cox, Rupert Graves, Amelia Bullmore, Lena Headey, John Standing, Sarah Badel, Robert Hardy, Phyllis Calvert.

Handsomely set and photographed by Sue Gibson, good music from Ilona Sekacz. Clapper loader Joe Wright is not that one, but does show I pay attention to credits!

His Kind of Woman (1951 John Farrow)

For me, this film is a bit of a mess. The exposition is clear enough - gangster Raymond Burr needs to get back to the US in disguise, decides to trade places with someone similar in physique - namely Robert Mitchum (yeah? I don't think so.) Mitchum is enlisted and then we spend an interminable time in an admittedly exotic Mexican hotel set in which everyone is forever ordering drinks than leaving them (you're in one set so Farrow wants to move the actors around it. He - and Harry Wild - do a great tracking shot at one point of Mitchum coming in to the bar.) Shades of Casablanca - there's even the same set up with Mitchum rescuing a woman whose husband is in debt, by cheating at cards - from Jim Backus, a character who doesn't really need to be there at all.

Anyway about an hour in things pick up with strong arm gangsters (Tony Caruso and Charles McGraw) and the arrival of the crook, and a sort of double act emerges between Mitch and movie star / hunter Vincent Price. Whilst Mitchum is being really nastily beaten up and threatened with death on board ship, the Price side of the film descends into slapstick - particularly when a boat load of militia sets sail and immediately sinks - a funny scene, but feels like it belongs to another film altogether. And in the cross-cutting between the Price- Mitchum sequences, the film seems to labour when it should be at full steam. One example of this is when Mitch is finally free on board and stops to load his gun - and he seems very slowly to put in one cartridge, then another.. for Wilder's sake, why couldn't he just have a loaded gun?? Which all contributes to its almost two hour running time - unusually long for this sort of material.

Anyway I don't want to be too hard because overall it's enjoyable, and in quoting his delicious dialogue, Price is in a way foreshadowing his later career as an eloquent horror star, and the action is fast and violent, not just in the editing but in-camera too (some of it hand held, I read).

It was made for RKO when Hughes was in charge.

Let's see what Mitchum biographer Lee Server can tell us. "It was a strange sort of script [written by Out of the Past's Frank Fenton]... To Farrow's credit, he never tried to resolve the script's tonal inconsistencies [why to his credit?] but ran with them all the way." Then Hughes decided to redo the ending, with Richard Fleischer directing new material from Earl Felton, including the big fight on the ship and the comedy boat sinking. And - much to Mitchum's displeasure, the scene where they try to inject him - with his drugs bust he did not want the shot of a needle going into his arm at all. The ensuing cut with all this new stuff was three hours.

But that's not the end of it. Hughes then decided he wanted a new bad guy and all the Burr scenes had to be reshot - this is a year after they started - and fed up, Mitch started secretly drinking vodka on set, and on the last day of filming, exploding. "The film would have registered a nice profit but for the nearly one million dollars Hughes had spent on five months of retakes, added scenes, and cast changes."

What We Did on Our Holiday (2014 Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkins)

A young old favourite, if you see what I mean.

Of the kids, I would have to single out Emilia Jones for her grave seriousness - hope she'll do more. Holy smoke! What an idiot! It's only now I realise she is the lead in Coda! And Fairyland - young girl growing up with gay dad in 1970s San Francisco, premiered at Sundance 2023 but not due for release until October?? Maybe because it treads similar ground as Alan Ball's Uncle Frank.

Martin Hawkins is the elegant DP, mainly on TV. 'It must have been fun to edit' Q said. I thought there would have been an absolute ton of material to go through and correctly assemble, but I know what she means. Steve Tempia and Mark Williams were responsible.

Just realised I took exactly the same screen shot in 2018!

The Dig (2021 Simon Stone)

Moira Buffini adapted John Preston. And it's not really about the dig, but the many relationships that we see in its orbit, notably between landowner Carey Mulligan and the digger Ralph Fiennes and her son Archie Barnes. Also between Fiennes and his wife Monica Doolan; excavator Ben Chaplin (who's gay) and his wife Lily James and her attraction for Johnny Flynn; and the political maneuverings of Ken Stott. And it all ends somehow inconclusively though well - not everything needs to be all wrapped up - make up your own ending,

Loved Jon Harris' editing, especially the extensive use of displaced sound - haven't seen that done so well since Vic Boydell. And Mike Eley's cinematography, which looks like it's in entirely natural light, should also get a special mention. Stone referenced Diamonds of the Night (1964) and the Ukrainian Earth (1930). Natural light was used as much as possible, with reflectors, and it was mainly shot hand held. The music's by Stefan Gregory.

I enjoyed it more than last time (not that I didn't enjoy it then), thought it was really good. Should check out more of Australian Stone's films. Ah - he's only really made one, The Daughter, with Geoffrey Rush. With the Netflix The Woman in Cabin 10, with Kiera Knightley, in post-production, due in October.

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: The 4:50 from Paddington (1987 T.R. Bowen)

Seemingly, a straightforward retelling of the original. The denouement is some bonkers - how would Marple know her friend would return to the room just when the doctor was examining her eye?

Maurice Denham is the aging star in this one. Also we were struck by Joanna David, who it turns out is married to Edward Fox, mother of Emilia and Freddie. She seems to have been in just about every British TV programme, from the Last of the Mohicans in 1971 and including Colditz, The Duchess of Duke Street, The Darling Buds of May, Bramwell, Foyle's War, Death in Paradise, Morse and... the Marple reboot! And You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, for good measure.

Hated the performance of the 'artistic one' John Hallam.

21 Bridges (2019 Brian Kirk)

Reminded we'd never seen this through Graham Norton rewatch featuring the sadly late Chadwick Boseman, who seemed like a good presence.

Story and screenplay by Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan is fun as cocaine heist goes wrong, eight cops are dead so renegade detective Boseman decides to shut down Manhattan to catch killers. What do you mean, that's totally unbelievable? It's only until the next morning! But then - corruption sets in.

Lots of good (though sometimes hardly plausible) action makes it fun (though interestingly, not really exciting - didn't feel heart rate going up). Lots of NYC locations used, through they're all remarkably unpopulated. Shoot-out in meat factory is different, though that sort of sequence goes back as far as Powell & Pressburger's Contraband.

With Sienna Miller, J.K. Simmons, Stephan James (Selma, If Beale Street Could Talk, Race as Jesse Owens), Taylor Kitsch, Keith David.

Nicely photographed by Paul Cameron with a sort of Michael Kamen-ish soundalike score. Edited by Tim Murrell (Patrick Melrose).

The Good Liar (2019 Bill Condon)

Not a film you can watch too often, though you have to love the pairing of Helen Mirren and Ian McKellan, and the twist is a doozy - the flashbacks to WW2 Germany add meat. Laurie Davidson good as young Nazi. Plus: Russell Tovey, Mark Lewis Jones, Jim Carter, Lucien Msamati (how do you pronounce this?)

Rather shabbily photographed, though, in what has since become a 'style' by Tobias Schliessler. But no problem at all with Carter Burwell's ominous score.

Written by Jeffrey Hatcher from Nicholas Searle's novel.

That'll teach you!

One Night (2023 Emily Ballou)

Another one of those multi-part things that sets you up with some distant past puzzle and you have to decide whether the journey is going to be worthwhile or a disappointment. This one start quite promisingly though.

Jodie Whittaker has been in UK for a while, returns to Australia and reconnects with friends Nicola Da Silva (who has written the novel of the title) and Yael Stone. The novel though is a thinly disguised version of true events.

Perhaps unfortunately we're watching it contemporaneously with another 'Something happened in the past. What was it? Do we care? - after x hours' (Under the Bridge). Halfway through this is turning into The Stupid Woman, as da Silva has appropriated her friend's rape without her consent, made it all easily identifiable, and has aroused the anger of the local hard-nut Scottish crime bar owning family, with whose son, naturally, Whittaker's daughter becomes besmirched. And she's drinking too much to think of putting up surveillance cameras at her demented Dad's isolated farm.

If the point of all this is that rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute, and that there is a culture of toxic male masculinity in Australia, then these are hardly news. I was quite glad when it was over.

As for this new trend of opening Australian TV with a nod to the indigenous people of these lands, it feels like too little, too late. What would be better is positive discrimination towards Aboriginal people both in front of and behind the camera (certainly no evidence of the former, anyway, here).

Miss Marple: At Bertrams Hotel (1987 scr Jill Hyem)

Been watching some of these old Joan Hickson versions, which I assume are more faithful to Agatha Christie's original stories. We know and love the later version of this well, so it's interesting to see how much invention was added to it and how much more stripped back is this one, despite having a slightly longer running time. (It's symptomatic of the difference that the later version has more murders!) Which also has the delight of a late appearance from Joan Greenwood.

Caroline Blakistone is the adventuress whose neglected daughter Helena Michell (Keith's daughter) is also staying there under the watch of guardian James Cossins (very recognisable face). George Baker is an amiable detective (assisted by As Time Goes By's Philip Bretherton - who doesn't get much of a look in over Marple).

The lighting's good - John Walker. The director is refreshingly a woman, Mary McMurray, who had come to attention through The Assam Garden (1985). The hotel (the exterior, anyway) is Brown's in Mayfair.

If a Man Answers (1962 Henry Levin)

Mr. Hunter! What do you think you're doing producing such rubbish in 1962? (Let's not forget the powerful Douglas Sirk Universal - Hunter race relations epic Imitation of Life was two years previous.) What is interesting is that ten years from then this would have been total anathema to the box office public - and indeed, it may have only been the Sandra Dee - Bobby Darin popularity with this one that got any bums on seats at all.

'It's a married woman's job to keep a man interested in her.' You know, I don't think we were churning out this sort of stuff in the UK - our women were made of stronger (and more realistic) stuff. (I can't be bothered looking into that further but suspect I'm right.) Anyway Dee's mum Micheline Presle comes up with stupid ideas like the one in the title - flirty Stefanie Powers is the second act complication and Darin's dad Cesar Romero is the third act complication.

The cartoons are quite fun (in fact arguably the best section of the film) but even Russell Metty's lighting can't save it.

Hopeless.

The Thursday Murder Club (2025 Chris Columbus)

Based on the first of Richard Osman's novels, adapted by Katy Brand (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande) and Suzanne Heathcote, neither of whom seem to have any experience with adaptations, funnily enough. You sense a certain nuance has been lost. But as I said to Q, if you get the casting right you can't really go wrong. Helen Mirren is perfect as the leader of the group, with Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie and Pierce Brosnan. Plus Danny Mays, David Tennant, Naomi Ackie (Master of None), Henry-Lloyd Hughes, Tom Ellis (Miranda), Geoff Bell, Richard E Grant and a sadly underused Ruth Sheen.

DP Don Burgess shot Forrest Gump and Cast Away, Don Zimmerman cut it, the music's by the always reliable Tom Newman.

Two notes: That retirement home (Englefield House) looks like it would cost a fortune to live in. (it's a private estate. Who the fuck needs to live in a house that large??) Celia's cakes are excessively large.

Under the Bridge (2024 Quinn Shepard)

Indian girl found dead; group of vicious girls (and boys) may be to blame. Woman writer, ex of the hood, investigates with help of former lover policewoman. These are Vritipa Gupta, Riley Keough (Daisy Jones and the Six) and Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon). The horrible bitches (or misunderstood youths, depending on your point of view) are Chloe Quidry, Aiyana Goodfellow and Izzy G, with Javon 'Wanna' Walton as the lost young man involved. Archie Panjabi and Ezra Faroque Khan are the parents.

It's based on a true story by Rebecca Godfrey, set in 1997 in Saanich, Victoria, Vancouver Island. I don't think she actually went back to Saanich at the time it was blowing up, but she did live there previously. And the character of the cop and her family are also made up for the show. It was developed with the cooperation of Godfrey in the three years before her death and the announcement of the commissioning. 

Halfway through I started wondering if this was the same story that triggered The River's Edge, but as that came out in 1986. that 's a clear no (that film has a similar story and was also inspired by true events).

An eight part series. It was well acted, but too long, as usual (do we need Indian flashback episode, for example), and obviously grim (I don't think we needed the flashback to under the bridge again) so I don't think I'd watch it again.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968 Robert Ellis Miller)

Thomas C Ryan adapted Carson McCullers' 1940 novel, which seems more complex.

Deaf-mute Alan Arkin (fabulous), who moves in with family including teenager Sondra Locke, seems aware of people's failings. In a key moment he helps a self-harming drifter by enlisting the help of a black doctor, who becomes an important element in the story. We hope it won't turn mushy with the girl; it doesn't. The story confronts racism and has tragic elements.

It was shot by Jimmy Wong Howe with music from Dave Grusin.

With Chuck McCann (deaf-mute friend), Percy Rodrigues, Cicely Tyson (his daughter), Stacy Keach.

Now Voyager (1942 Irving Rapper)

I'm going to say go here.

The sub-plot with the depressed daughter Tina (for some reason uncredited Janis Wilson) is a mirror to the main plot - the mother-daughter relationship. I'd say it was pretty advanced for a Hollywood film of this vintage to feature such psychology - I know it's from the novel.

Ilka Chase is Bette's brilliant sister-in-law, Bonita Granville her daughter.

She's Funny That Way (2014 Peter Bogdanovich)

 I'm gonna go with this one, though still love the line 'the happiest girls are the most beautiful girls'.

Any Human Heart (2010 Michael Samuels)

A simply extraordinary film, a whole life story of incredible event, romances, friendships and tragedies. It was - well, no, we had actually seen Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter - but it was the first time we'd investigated William Boyd. We first watched it 13-14 December 2010. It won the BAFTAs for Best Drama Serial and for Dan Jones' music (which I just love), and Wojciech Szepel and Jim Broadbent and Gillian Anderson were nominated. And costumes, make up/hair. Tim Murrell's editing is amazing.

Leading to th two big mysteries: Why wasn't Will even nominated for Best Screenplay and why wasn't Murrall?? Peter Bowker won for Eric & Ernie; Five Daughters, Getting On and fucking The Inbetweeners were nominated!

The sound - Nigel Heath, Alex Sawyer (dialogue editor), Adam Armitage (sound effects editor) and Alistair Crocker - was also nominated - it's extremely good, and not just the way in which the sound is often pulled out of a scene.

Poor Logan - you sense if his wife and child had not have been killed, he would have been all right.

More about locations coming..

Can't argue with this.

Flora and Son (2023 John Carney & scr)

Yer feller Carney does something wonderful with music. There.

Eve Hewson, Orén Kinlan, Joseph Gordon Levitt.

Carney has Power Ballad in post-production. 'An uplifting music-driven story about a wedding singer, a rock star, and the song that comes between them.' Doesn't sound like one of his films.

Available only on Apple TV.

Mr. Bigstuff - Season 2 (2025 Ryan Sampson)

More entertaining nonsense, with Danny Dyer - who's the main reason for watching. Though Harriet Webb and Fatiha El-Ghorri also fun.