All I Desire (1953 Douglas Sirk)

Beautifully composed, staged and shot (by Carl Guthrie), Sirk's elegant camera moves rather than cuts. Well acted too, by Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Carlson, Lyle Bettger, Marcia Henderson, Lori Nelson, Maureen O'Sullivan and Lotte Stein, who's wonderful as the housekeeper. Babs is no slouch on a horse, particularly when having to execute the ridiculous side-saddle.

As so often in Sirk, the kids are the problem. As is the small town mentality. As to the fiance's exclamation of '23 Skidoo!', it dates from the early twentieth century - so probably not an anachronism - and means 'leave quickly'.

Music by Henry Mancini and Herman Stein, production design Alexander Golitzen and Berbard Herzbrun, produced by Ross Hunter.

Written by James Gunn and Robert Blees, Gina Kaus having adapted Carol Ryrie Brink's novel 'Stopover', a title Sirk would have preferred to have kept.

The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943 Paul L. Stein)

This is the reminder that RKO used to make run of the mill B movies as well. Someone called Hugh Sinclair is The Saint, involved in gold smuggling plot in 'Baycombe', Cornwall. (There is one exterior that looks genuine.) Cue secret sliding doors, people knocking each other out with guns, fumbling detective and eccentric aunt.

Jean Gillie is not one to watch, Wylie Watson the overplaying comedy butler, Clifford Evans 'The Tiger' and Gordon McLeod the flat foot. Our John Slater (Pimlico), Amy Veness (This Happy Breed) and Joan Hickson appear in small parts.

Difficult to tell in our underwater print but it was unbelievably shot by Robert Krasker (though credited as Bob Klasker) and edited by Ralph Kemplen (John Huston films). An RKO British quota quickie.

Phantom Lady (1944 Robert Siodmak)

Produced by Hitch's assistant Joan Harrison and derived from the nightmarish mind of Cornell Woolrich (under his author pseudonym William Irish), screenwritten by Bernard Schoenfeld (The Dark Corner and Sirk's There's Always Tomorrow). Alan Curtis gets into the hot water pretty quickly picking up Fay Helm and her phantom hat, which goes on to enrage singer Aurora. And though colleague Ella Raines starts tracking down the truth, witnesses (Andrew Tombes' barman, Elisha Cook's drummer) start dropping like flies.

Top billed is Franchot Tone as a man with a twitch; Thomas Gomez good as detective. (The scene at the beginning with the detectives, including particularly unsettling Joseph Crehan and Regis Toomey, is quite Kafkaesque).

We both liked Elwood Bredell's lighting

There isn't any music, which gives it a spare feel. Nicely composed and shot - 'Woody' a B picture cameraman - for Universal.

'Kansas' isn't too convincing as a moll, but seems to fool Elisha Cook Jr

Nightcrawlers (2014 Dan Gilroy)

Gilroy (author of the Bourne films and Michael Clayton) has written a morality fable about the engineering of news and manipulation of media, through a psychopathic main character (Jake Gyllenhaal acting like the young intense Martin Scorsese). It's almost American Psycho for TV cameramen. We would have preferred he was caught (with CCTV etc actually the more likely outcome and more of an audience pleaser).

Riz Ahmed is good as his unwilling accomplice. With Rene Russo, Bill Paxton (rival cameraman, who sadly died this February), Michael Hyatt (cop), Kevin Rahm (TV's Lethal Weapon), Ann Cusack.

Has a hint of Taxi Driver in eternal night, realised by Robert Elswit (in Panavision). Tense ending.

The Two Jakes (1990 Jack Nicholson)

What went wrong with The Two Jakes? I read somewhere that Polanski worked so much on the Chinatown script that he could have been credited as co-author - in particular the very ending of the film in Chinatown was Polanski's own. And that I think is the problem. Robert Towne has forgotten to write any suspense, tension, mystery, action or drama into his script.

The cast is fine - Jack, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Ruben Blades - and Vilmos Zsigmond's photography is excellent, so it's a big shame.

Sparkle (2007 Neil Hunter, Tom Hunsinger & scr)

What a fabulous ensemble cast - Shaun Evans, Lesley Manville, Bob Hoskins, Amanda Ryan, Anthony Head - and particularly Stockard Channing, who really excels - in great writing.

What more to say but come on guys, give us more! This is their most recent film....

Shot by Sean Van Hales, music by Adrian Johnston.

Miller's Crossing (1990 Joel Coen)

The Coens' least funny film is quite unpleasant and the plot complicated, though features excellent performance from Gabriel Byrne and splendid photography by Barry Sonnenfeld (who also operated). Rest of cast good too: Albert Finney, John Turturro, Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Polito, J.E. Freeman, Steve Buscemi.

Dennis Gassner was the production designer, Michael Miller edited in the days before Roderick Jaynes, Carter Burwell wrote an Irish themed score. It's made with a lot of style, of course.

Unlikely Hero (2013 Kieran Mulroney & Michele Mulroney & scr)

This kept reminding me of Birdman, which it pre-dates, with Jeff Daniels' imaginary super-hero (Ryan Reynolds) and - it turns out - Emma Stone's imaginary admirer Kieran Culkin. Also with Lisa Kudrow.

A husband and wife writer-director team? It'll never catch on. They also wrote the second Sherlock Holmes film. The title of this could have been better.

Jeff and Emma are both fantastic.

Shot by Eigil Bryld.

Why Him? (2016 John Hamburg)

Awfully badly written film, with Bryan Cranston and James Franco, Megan Mullaly and Zoey Deutch. Sort of in the Meet the Fockers class. Funniest moments are self-declared rip-offs of Pink Panther scenes. Keegan-Michael Key though funny as estate manager.

The Leopard Man (1943 Jacques Tourneur)

Based on the 1942 novel 'Black Alibi' by Cornell Woolrich (Phantom Lady, The Window, The Chase, Rear Window), Lewton's third RKO horror, written by Ardel Wray (with Edward Dein).

Typically atmospheric, with great tense scenes - notably the one at night under a railway bridge. It's edited by Mark Robson (he then went on to direct the next one) and shot by Robert de Grasse. (Roy Webb wrote the music for the entire series).

Good, weird themes (victims are all innocent women / lead Dennis O'Keefe is - like Woolrich - a tough nut on the outside only), exotic settings and background (Spanish procession of atonement), fabulous touches (the unsympathetic mother essentially kills her own daughter by not letting her in).

I so love these films. Now want to watch the entire series.

Eyewitness / The Janitor (1981 Peter Yates)

Good thriller penned by Steve Tesich (Garp), distinguished by great suspense scenes, particularly that where Sigourney Weaver is saved from kidnapping by William Hurt on motorbike (in fact she's the wrong woman, in twisty plot). Nice exposition (gradually learn about characters, initial scene with dog, initial horse scene) well carried by leads. Also the one place you think it might end up - the basement - it doesn't.

Great scene - from the director of Bullitt you think 'Here's the car chase beginning' but it's very short and effective

With James L Woods, Christopher Plummer, Morgan Freeman, Irene Worth, Kenneth McMillan, Pamela Reed, Alice Drummond (Pieces of April). Shot by Matthew F Leonetti (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Breaking Away).

Side Street (1949 Anthony Mann)

Another MGM noir, less successful than last night's Zinnemann, has desperate father-to-be Farley Granger steal some money - only to get in way over his head with murderers. Cathy O'Donnell is the wife, James Craig the ruthless killer, Paul Kelly the cop, Jean Hagen the femme fatale nightclub singer. Does have that nightmarish quality though, and twists, unease reflected through low camera angles.

Sydney Boehm came up with the story and screenwote (also High Wall, The Big Heat) - thankfully, the totally unnecessary voiceover drops away ten minutes in. Joseph Ruttenberg refreshingly shooting NYC on location, Lennie Heyton provides music.

Farley Granger considers the above 'review'

Une Vie de Chat / A Cat in Paris (2010 Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol)

Thankfully we're visually very much in Paris, complete with major landmarks - though you wouldn't know from very rag-bag assembly of accents in strangely produced English language version, which is fairly poorly done. Some jokes fall flat, and you wonder if they are lost in translation.

Animation is sweet and old-fashioned 2D - as is the plot.

Act of Violence (1948 Fred Zinnemann)

Quintessential noir themes. Seemingly happy family man Van Heflin's bright, upright family life begins to disintegrate the minute vengeful Robert Ryan comes onto the picture. Zinnemann - and Robert Surtees on camera, using just one 28mm lens - capture the moody night streets brilliantly. Scenes with clocks anticipate High Noon.

An MGM noir? It opens without credits, straight into the action. Terrific. Co-star Janet Leigh (didn't even recognise her!), Mary Astor (thought she looked familiar!), Berry Kroeger.

Robert Richards' screenplay, Collier Young story, suitably fatalistic. Powerful score by Bronislau Kaper, too.

Carol (2015 Todd Haynes)

As subversive as Far From Heaven as it portrays a beautiful 1950s - via production designer Judy Becker and cameraman Ed Lachman (shooting on 16mm) - in which society crushes the desires of the individual - Cate Blanchett's child is monstrously stolen from her through charges of amorality just because she's fallen for Roony Mara.

A low key treatment, suitably underscored by Carter Burwell. No coincidence that it uses the opening device from Brief Encounter. A subtle film of great style, perhaps lacks emotion, and doesn't have a funny line in it. Apart from a moment with a gun it doesn't seem familiar Patricia Highsmith material either - her 1952 novel 'The Price of Salt' - published under a pseudonym - is the source, adapted by Phyllis Nagy (her only screenplay).

Superbly directed - the two girls are frequently shot on the edge of vertical lines, suggesting confinement, or just visible through foreground movement. Good article on the shooting, which references photographer Saul Leiter, here.

Blanchett, Lachman, Roony

The leads are fine. With Kyle Chandler as the eruptive husband, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy.

Gun Crazy (1949, released 1950 Joseph H. Lewis)

It's a masterpiece - a masterpiece, I tell you. No wonder the cahiers boys loved it, with its on-location zippiness. The long takes and tracks are quite brilliant. It makes the way modern films are made positively dull.

The ending is far out, and somehow manages to anticipate both The Letter Never Sent and Stalker, somehow (both Russian films, you note).

Zombieland (2009 Ruben Fleischer & co-scr)

What is this fascination with zombies? North America is a land of zombies? This is a dumb film which could have been written by a computer and doesn't hold up to any sort of examination. It could almost be a computer game, and tries in part to emulate Edgar Wright's style from Scott Pilgrim. However, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Amy Bresling and Woody Harrelson (and Bill Murray) will get you a long way.

Children of a Lesser God (1986 Randa Haines)

Mark Medoff's play - adapted by he and Hesper Anderson - only works through having (virtually) every bit of signing also spoken, which is sort of justified by the approach but makes it a little artificial and hard work - there's too much going on in dialogue and could have been more visually told. Still, William Hurt is as excellent as ever and Marlee Matlin also outstanding - she won the Oscar, but they always give it to the disabled character.

John Seale's photography is very handsome and Michael Convertino's music good.

Lawless Heart (2001 Tom Hunsinger & Neil Hunter & scr)

Their only previous collaboration was Boyfriends. Very interesting structure mixes up three overlapping storylines. Bill Nighy almost has an affair with Clémantine Célarié whilst wife Ellie Haddington decides what to do with an inheritance. Gay Tom Hollander befriends kooky Sukie Smith (rather good). Douglas Henshall is annoying. There.

In our Optimum Release DVD Sean Bobbit's images are unfortunately cropped to 4x3.

The music which begins and ends the film is Schubert's Andante, Trio in E Flat Major D929.

The Chalk Garden (1964 Ronald Neame)

Great fun seeing Hayley and John acting in scenes together. I imagined the conversation after a take -

HAYLEY
Was that alright, Daddy?

JOHN
Don't look at me. Ask Ronnie if that's what he wanted.

Ronnie of course would have known Johnny since This Happy Breed and Great Expectations (if not before).

This was really well written by John Michael Hayes, based on  a play by Enid Bagnold. It's a Ross Hunter Universal production, with much of the filming taking place at MGM studios, Borehamwood. Shot by Arthur Ibbetson and edited by Jack Harris, with good music from Malcolm Arnold.

Deborah Kerr and Edith Evans were BAFTA nominated. With Felix Aylmer, Elizabeth Sellars. The Mills are great as usual.