Topper (1937 Norman Z. McLeod)

Is that a Wombat we see in the hilarious opening, being driven by Cary Grant with his feet? He and Constance Bennett have escaped from their own anniversary party and to 'relax' before the next morning's Board Meeting, they go to a nightclub (where Hoagy Carmichael accompanies them on the piano)... finally arriving in the early hours outside the bank, where they promptly fall asleep. Come morning a crowd gathers, Grant wakes up, realises he's late for the meeting and hops out of the car, in that way only Grant can do, leaving her surrounded by gawpers, still asleep.

This is written by Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch (of My Man Godfrey fame) and Eddie Moran, from Thorne Smith's novel. And as to the Wombat - well (I've just looked it up on imcdb) - in the following year's Young in Heart, Roland Young, is driving a 1938 Phantom Corsair, whereas here we have a 1937 Buick Century - it's even a different colour, and they look nothing like each other.

Anyway, when the couple die, they come back as ghosts in order to try and make Roland Young live a more fun life - there's not even any booze in wife Beulah Bondi's house, and Alan Mowbray the butler always brings the same egg. Eugene Pallette turns up later, as a hotel detective who can't believe the ghostly things going on around him. Syd Saylor is the car salesman we thought we recognised but didn't.

This is an MGM production, photographed by Norbert Brodine. I noticed the attention to detail in a back-projected driving scene, there's some great lighting (or effects) which makes it look like reflections of the passing trees in the bonnet.

It would be even more fun were it not that our neighbours were moving an elephant around in their house.

Friday Night Dinner (2020 Writer Robert Popper)

Had to mention this, one of the funniest things on TV. (Funnily enough, because of lockdown, Channel 4 are re-running all their classics, which reminds you what a good hub it used to be - Spaced, Black Books, Father Ted, Green Wing..)

The highlights were Auntie Val (Tracy Ann Oberman) ending up locked in the dog cage.. the blue tape (blue, you see - it's funnier if it's something specific) and the finale-  'There's glass in the soup'.

The Racket (1951 John Cromwell)

What was it between Howard Hughes and Robert Mitchum? The millionaire used to lend Mitchum office space when he was starting out; when at Hughes-controlled RKO, he protected Mitchum's career after the dope bust, then kept him in starring roles.

We don't see Mitchum for seventeen minutes, but already get the feeling he's going to be the incorruptible cop everyone's talking about, as the plot is introduced - we have the standard tough crime boss (Robert Ryan), but also the new fifties element of the 'syndicate' - organised crime of a much bigger and more powerful nature - working behind the scenes (in this case, run by 'The Old Man', who we never see).

In a very ironic ending, the Old Man's bent cop, William Conrad, shoots Ryan rather than let him testify, so whilst the nominal bad guy is beaten, the real bad guys are still at work. This, then is deflated by a last minute arrest of the bent Judge (Roy Collins) and (we think) Conrad - something of a last minute cop-out (forgive the pun), which seems a compromise.

Also going on is a budding relationship between a young newspaper man Robert Hutton and singer Lizabeth Scott. Dedicated cop is played by William Talman (who had quite an old face for 36).

William Wister Haines and W.R. Burnett (Scarface, The Asphalt Jungle, This Gun For Hire) adapted Bartlett Cormack's play, first filmed in 1928. Sam Fuller apparently worked on it too.

Photographer  George Diskant wouldn't like the terrible quality print that Sony Classic Movies ran this week.

School for Scoundrels (1960 Robert Hamer)

"Oh - hard cheese." It's always an enjoyable hour and a half.

Ian Carmichael had spent quite a stretch on TV before getting any interest, since 1947. Terry-Thomas had an even longer slog, since the thirties, his first film of note Private's Progress in 1956. Hamer's drinking ended his film career here (though clashes with producer Hal Chester didn't sound like they helped) - he was dead within three years. Chester and Patricia Moyes are credited with adapting Stephen Potter's 'Oneupmanship' books but didn't - see earlier review.

Janette Scott, Alistair Sim, Dennis Price, Peter Jones, Edward Chapman, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier.

Erwin Hillier shot it. The Quiller Memorandum was one of his later notables. John Addison wrote the rowdy score.

Love the initial meeting between Sim and Carmichael in which the former constantly one-ups him, firstly in use of surname / 'Mister', then in not returning the pen...

Love & Mercy (2014 Bill Pohlad)

I'm not quite sure I believe John Cusack to be the older version of Paul Dano - both playing Brian Wilson - but film could have been heavy, and isn't. Giamatti is great as evil controlling doctor, Elizabeth Banks is the car dealer who saves Wilson.

I swear there's a nod to Godard (Sympathy for the Devil) in a recording studio scene; recreations of famous song recordings interesting. Some interesting use of sound.

Written by Oren Moverman and Michael Lerner, photographed by Robert Yeoman.

I was amused to read on IMDB that one of Paul Dano's early supporting roles was in...

Life of Crime (2013 Daniel Schecter & scr, ed)

Based on Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel 'The Switch', the film is dedicated to him.

Great fun from the off, tight story-telling. Yasiin Bey (Begin Again, Be Kind Rewind) and John Hawkes (Three Billboards, Lincoln, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Winter's Bone) kidnap Jen An, but her husband Tim Robbins is rolled up in a luxury apartment with Isla Fisher and isn't interested in her return. Will Forte is also involved; Mark Boone Junior is the Nazi obsessed kidnapper.

Eric Alan Edwards shot it.

Mad Men - Season 7 (2014 / 2015 Matthew Weiner)

1969. I did not like the episode in which Don comes back to the office and is made to wait around all day whilst the staff treat him as though he's toxic; then he's finally summoned to the partners who insist he can't behave like Don anymore... and he meekly accepts. Then he has to work for Peggy...

Sally: "I'd stay here until 1975 if I could get my mom underground." That's a line that has quite ironic significance by the end.

We're going off Peggy... At least she and Don are finally reconciled over some burger pitch...

Ben Feldman (Jesus, he goes crazy..), Elizabeth Moss, Jay R. Ferguson

An Omega Seamaster Deville. There are all sorts of watches on his wrist throughout the seasons

Robert Towne is a consulting producer..

This ends episode seven - there was then a year before eight resumed... Eight was dedicated to Mike Nichols.

Bye bye Bert.. Robert Morse will be 89 on May 18.

John Dos Passos was a writer noted for his 'USA Trilogy'.

The poster is Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician:

 "Where's Don? He walked out of a meeting Wednesday and hasn't been seen again." We wondered if the ending Coke ad suggests Don's returned and that's his work. Loved Don's wanderings.. that left turn, where the nice motel veteran turns nasty, thinking he's stolen the money. And then testing high speed cars in the desert...

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949 Robert Hamer & co-scr)

He wrote it with John Dighton; source was novel by Roy Horniman.

Apart from The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, I'm not sure there is a drier film. Probably my favourite Dennis Price / Joan Greenwood / Hamer / Ealing film.

"Two days later I made the tedious journey to Bayswater. It was typical of Lionel to live on the wrong side of the park."

"We do seem to be a very short-lived family." And "All your cousins seem to get killed."

Locations this way.

The Towering Inferno (1974 John Guillermin)

There's unusually no studio ident as two made it - Warners and Fox. (It was based on two similar books.) Unfortunately, the script was one of the early casualties of the fire.

We quite enjoyed seeing some of the people - Bill Holden, Fred Astaire, Steve McQueen. Paul Newman, Jennifer Jones, Roberts Vaughan and Wagner, Faye Dunaway, Susan Blakely..

.. but when you start expecting Richard Chamberlain's burned corpse to fall on the fire fighters, and the little girl says 'Will there be a bang?' and you realise the flaming film's going on for another hour...

For the record, Fred Koenkamp and Joseph Biroc (action scenes) won the Oscar. After 9/11 and Grenfell it's not an easy watch, somehow. I once thought it was the best film ever made.

We seem to be watching a lot of crappy films, lately...

Mad Men - Season 6 (2013 Matthew Weiner)

1968, potted with the war and assassinations, and cuing this sort of exchange: 'We've already had this meeting, and it went well.' Don: 'Where's our check?'

Dick Dong Swinger is having an affair with his neighbour, doctor's wife Linda Cardellini, while Megan pursues an acting career, about which he's not happy - double standards at work again, not just from him.

In an outrageous episode eight, written by Weiner and Jason Grote, the staff of the newly merged ad agencies take some 'vitamin' injection - coke? - and go crazy, whilst Sally wakes up to find a strange black woman in the apartment who claims to be Don' s mother. This is interspersed with young Dick in whorehouse being cared for (in more than one way) by a young prostitute, intercut with Don's mad quest for an old ad image, one that is the key to some Grand Idea...

Looking at Dick's life - his mother died giving birth, his step-mother hated him, his Dad was no better, then raised in a whore house - it's not surprising that he has such difficult relationships with women. He knows how to charm, flatter and flirt, is suitably handsome, confident and mysterious, and can be tender and thoughtful... but at the end of the day he can't share himself with them - even the ones that know about his past - and just doesn't get how to relate to them at all. It's a nicely complex characterisation.

Anyway, in a slightly unlikely plot development, Don tries to help the doctor's son not get drafted to Vietnam; Sally catches him 'comforting' the mother - she then decides she'd rather be at boarding school. (I cannot seem to stop writing dangling modifiers at the moment.) (Don also 'comforted' Betty at camp.)

Ken: 'I told them Cynthia was pregnant and to celebrate they took me out and shot me... On the way to the hospital, they tried to stop for lunch.'  Pete's mum says he was 'a sour little boy'. James Wolk is the too-smooth Bob Benson.

The ending is that Don gets too personal with Hershey and as a result is put on indeterminate leave. And Pete's mum goes overboard on a cruise. I was beginning to get a feeling that it was becoming a bit far-fetched.

Grease (1978 Randal Kleiser)

I'm amazed this was a big hit - what was it 1978 audiences found attractive about a cheesy 1950s musical? Travolta dances like a chicken and the behaviour of his 'gang' is laughable.

Of main interest then is late appearances by Eve Arden and - believe it or not - Joan Blondell. And someone called Frankie Avalon is in it too.

The musical numbers are awful, particularly the solos - the exact opposite of La La Land in fact. It's like the film's written around terrible songs. It's frequently flat, and the ending will make you puke.

Our Paramount DVD in 2.35:1 looked like it was squeezed, which didn't exactly help matters. (It was supposedly shot in 2.2:1).

Still the moment Travolta is in a diner ordering milkshakes does make you think Pulp Fiction all of a sudden...

Jaws: The Revenge (1987 Joseph Sargent)

Definitely in the 'so bad it's good' department. The credited writer is Michael de Guzman - we decided though that he fell asleep and his seven year old niece finished it.

I was going to say that despite dreadful dialogue at every turn, Michael Caine is the only actor in it with any credibility, but when he emerges from the sea and is totally dry that was stretching things too far. Lance Guest is so wooden he could get a job as a tree. It's like it's a foreign film which has been badly dubbed. Even back projected scenes in plane are hilarious.

"I've always wanted to make love to an angry welder."

"Whatever we had last time."
"Two Bahama Mamas."

Dearly wished the little girl would be eaten by the shark.

Flashbacks (and clips from) the original made me think of that crocodile fight in the early Tarzan which is then in all the subsequent films.

Mad Men - Season 5 (2013 Matthew Weiner)

Episode two. 1966: student riots, a nurse killer, a sniper (leading to Targets). Recently married, Megan has made the mistake of throwing Don a surprise birthday party in which she saucily performs a French song, 'Zou Bisou Bisou', originally recorded by Gillian Hills. The next day, Harry is overheard by her making lewd comments about her.

Later, Harry's summoned to Roger's office.

HARRY
(nervously)
You wanted to see me?

ROGER
I did. Come in. Have a seat.

HARRY
No - that's OK.

ROGER
I think you should have a seat.

HARRY
OK.

Sits, anxiously.

ROGER
Now, I think you know that we like to think of this place as a family. And, there are certain ways a family behaves.

HARRY
What did she say? Look, you have to hear my side of it.

ROGER
Your side of what?

HARRY
What?... Nothing.

ROGER
You're always up to something, aren't you Crane?

HARRY
It was an honest mistake, and I consider myself reprimanded.

ROGER
Great. I was thinking Pete could take your office.

HARRY
(thinks he's fired)
Really? Look I will apologise face-to-face, as horrible as that would be, but I think it would be... There's no reason to let me go.

ROGER
You're not getting fired.

HARRY
(exhales with relief)
Oh...

ROGER
What the hell did you do?

HARRY
I made fun of Zou Bisou.

ROGER
So did I.

Both laugh.

ROGER
Is that a crime? No. I've been trying to get Jane to talk to me in that accent. Nothing doing. She doesn't speak French, doesn't like me.

HARRY
I went home afterwards and Jennifer didn't know what was coming, I was so -

ROGER
(interrupts)
I don't wanna hear that.

HARRY
No of course you don't. Why would you?

ROGER
Look - I think you can understand that Pete needs a bigger office. And just between you, me and the window washer, it's been decided that you should trade.

HARRY
Who decided that?

ROGER
I did.

HARRY
I can't do that. And I don't know that I have to do it... Do I?

Roger sighs and stands up and approaches Harry.

ROGER
Harry. I am asking you, as a friend.

HARRY
I appreciate that Roger, I really do, but I need my office.

ROGER
Look, first of all, Pete's office isn't that different.

HARRY
I disagree.

ROGER
Fine. Name the most important person you could bring in to this office.

HARRY
William Paley.

ROGER
OK, so you shouldn't do that. Trust me, network and studio executives want to think you're out there jet-setting, rubbing shoulders with television stars, chorus girls. You should be talking to clients ringside. Or at a three star restaurant. Not coming in to your miserable little office.

HARRY
But I do. I come in here almost every day and Pete's office is a shithole with a support beam.

ROGER
What if I were to make it worth your while.

HARRY
I'm already head of my department.

ROGER
What would be an appropriate bonus?

HARRY
There's no bonuses. We have no money.

ROGER
How much would it take?

Goes for his pocket.

HARRY
Well, first of all, it's more than you would have on you.

ROGER
Really?
(counts it)
There's eleven hundred dollars.

HARRY
Why do you carry so much cash?

ROGER
That's more than a thousand, Harry.

Harry, thinking.

ROGER
That is a month's salary - after tax.

Harry takes the money. But adds -

HARRY
There's no window in there.

ROGER
You could buy yourself a very beautiful picture of something to look at.

Harry stands.

HARRY
Well, OK. But you're gonna owe me.

ROGER
No I'm not! I just gave you a load of money! This is a transaction. If you don't like it, we can have the conversation you thought we were having.

HARRY
So this is every month?

ROGER
Get the hell out of my office!

Weiner is credited as the sole writer on this one.

And - Roger spying Joan "There's my baby!"

They're all horrible, but even Don can't carry off that jacket

Roger and Sally make friends... for a short while

Pete's moved to the country - doesn't look like the giraffes went with him. Roger tries LSD - which he loves - but it causes he and Jane to split up (quite a left field episode - the only thing I remember was that acid scene, Roger's cigarette being smoked in a split second, with which there's a kind of tuba-delivered sound effect).

Don's not reading James Bond, but 'The Fixer' by Bernard Malamud.

Roger: 'For all we know, Jesus was trying to get the loaves and fishes account.'

Lane steals, Pete cheats. Megan acts, Don buys a Jag, Joan prostitutes herself. Peggy quits, Harry meets Krishna, Betty's a bitch. (Nick jots.)

Weiner fell out with AMC, which was why there was such a gap between series. Part of the agreement reached was that season five, six and seven were simultaneously green lit.

Jared Harris and Cristina Hendricks steal the acting honours for me, though John does deliver his lines deliciously.

Top 10 Dog Films

Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home

No, seriously..

Lassie Come Home
Red Dog
The Thin Man
The Incredible Journey
Turner and Hooch
Marley and Me
Hachi
As Good As It Gets
Isle of Dogs
All the other Lassie / Pal films (which for the record are Son of Lassie (1945), Courage of Lassie (1946), Hills of Home (1948), The Sun Comes Up (1949), Challenge to Lassie (1949) and The Painted Hills (1951).

Mad Men - Season 4 (2010 Matthew Weiner)

It does look like a Bridget Riley, 'Hesitate', but don't think it is a real one

In the series' sweetest moment by far Don visits Mrs Draper (Don: 'Get off my porch!'), with whom he has the only honest relationship in his life - and learns she's dying. We prefer Dick to Don... Returning to NYC he and Lane have an evening out at the pictures (Lane's secretary has sent the wrong flowers to his wife at home) - Zorba the Greek and Umbrellas of Cherbourg are discussed, but they plump for a Godzilla, then misbehave over dinner, at a night club and with two hookers. 'Thanks for the welcome distraction' Lane tells him, but it's been as much for Don...

'The Chrysanthemum and the Sword' is today's literary reference, a 1946 study of Japanese culture.

We were pleased that our vodka of choice Stolichnaya looked the same back then. And we enjoyed hearing 'If you're fond of sand dunes' recorded in the original in 1957, Patti Page's 'Old Cape Cod'.

Don has three girlfriends this season: Anna Camp, Cara Buono and new secretary Jessica Caré (we rather liked his older secretary Randee Heller, but... 'I'd ask my secretary to do it, but she's dead.' Funny scene of Don in meeting seeing them trying covertly to carry the body out.) And, in an unexpected turn of events, Don marries his new secretary.

Deborah Lacey is Betty's maid. New creatives: Matt Long, Jay Ferguson. Zosia Mamet from Girls is on, as is Lethal Weapon's Kevin Rahm.

Wasn't sure why one episode had Don giving a sort of authory voiceover throughout. And Don is so scared of his past being revealed he makes Pete ditch a $4 million contract - really?? Then they lose Lucky Strike, and things start to look really bad..

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964 Roger Corman)

Bizarre, often hilarious film about a pesky cat and a dead woman, replete with the director's fondness for dream sequences, necrophilia and fiery finishes. Either or both writer Robert Towne and / or  Corman were smoking too much dope. Unusually, filmed in England, by Hammer's Arthur Grant.

With Vincent Price in interesting dark glasses is Elizabeth Shepherd.

Far out. For a horror actor, Price sure had a reassuring voice.

La La Land (2016 Damian Chazelle & scr)

It was only our eighth viewing.

I don't have any words.

Never noticed before - Hoagy Carmichael's stool is in 'Seb's'.

Should have won Best Film Oscar (did the BAFTA) - went to Moonlight - and screenplay - went to Manchester By the Sea. And should have won Sound Mixing - Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steven Morrow (went to Hacksaw Ridge) and sound editing  - Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou.. and film editing (Tom Cross, went to Hacksaw Ridge).

The singing of key songs took place live on stage - not looped. Thus 'Someone in the Crowd', 'City of Stars' and in particular 'Audition' are all live, the latter complicated by the movement of a desk as the camera comes in. Which makes Emma's performance there all the more remarkable.

I love the really sarcastic way Ryan begins playing 'deck the halls' and then turns into a beautiful bit of jazz. And the scene with Ryan and his sister which you don't notice is a single take. I mean, these are just two little things in a film full of things I love.

"No, Jamal - you be tripping." 

Mad Men - Season Three (2009 Matthew Weiner)

1963. The ads have changed again in the opening credits scene.

There's clearly a top pocket etiquette going on here - Roger always has three points, Don is always a straight top. Bert has four. Other people come and go.

Gynocracy = woman centred.

In a crazy episode 4, this happens:

Then this:

Roger! What were you thinking? (You'd think the two scenes are connected, but they're not.) Then this:

I know. It's all going on. Q liked this outfit:

In an unforgettable moment, one of the Brit bosses has his foot run over by a lawn mower.
"He might lose his foot."
Roger: "Just when he got it in the door."
(Whilst glass is cleaned of blood in the background.)

Neil Dickson is the politician who's come into Betty's life, Ryan Cutrona is Betty's dad (who allows Sally - Kiernan Shipka - to drive), Jared Harris has joined the team from London. Now we understand Don's 'meet cute' with the man who turns out to be Conrad Hilton (Chelcie Ross) at the wedding.

Lovely shot from Chris Manley evokes Russell Metty

Lots of lying, deception, unspoken things... Don hasn't seen A Guide For the Married Man because it hasn't been made yet, but if he had, it would be Robert E Morse (ironically) who would be saying 'You can't screw this girl, she's single, lives two miles from your house, your wife knows her...'

David Ogilvy's 'Confessions of an Advertising Man' get a name check (publ. 1963). And noticed Frank Pierson as consulting producer - thought that name sounded familiar - he wrote Dog Day Afternoon, Cool Hand Luke and the 1976 A Star Is Born. More lovely bits of music from Dave Carbonara  - add him to the list of other great Italian film music composers: Piersanti, Marienelli, Rota, Giacchino, Morricone... Puccini, Q adds, usefully. And I seem to be the only person finding a link between Chris Manley and Metty's Sirk pictures.

Anyway, in the end, Bets has had enough - out of the frying pan... (She's not a nice character, and a terrible mother.) But the agency is sold again, to McCann, so Don has the delicious bright idea that Lane should fire them so they can start a new agency.. but they don't know where anything is. Roger seeks help... when Joan walks in to the office there's a round of applause from everyone... (well, us, anyway.)

Christina Hendricks is just great.

We have a new nickname for him - Dick Dong Swinger.

Mad Men - Season Two (2009 Matthew Weiner)

1962/3. Episode five, writer Robin Veith. Involving crude Jerry Lewis-like comedian Patrick Fischler and his wife / manager Melinda McGraw, with whom Don goes for a drunk drive, and ends up crashing. Peggy puts her up while the swelling goes down and in flashback shows how after she'd had her baby, and was feeling pathetic, Don turns up and tells her to pull herself together - an unknown and unexpected connection between them. Then the comedian spills all to Betty, causing her to suddenly vomit in Don's brand new Coupe de Ville, funnier because you're not expecting it at all (and because he's been at great pains to make sure the kids don't dirty it)... then she kicks him out.

Pete and his giraffes

There's also a priest Peggy likes... it's only Colin Hanks!

Meanwhile, back in the office, Don's new secretary Jane (Peyton List) is having an affair with Roger, and both Peggy and Joan are excluded from work opportunities by their male colleagues.

A trip out to California has Don dropping out, then reconnecting with the widow of the real Don Draper, who he's been supporting since they met, and is a real sweetie (Melinda Page Hamilton). There, Don, fixes a chair - he's good with his hands (this will come back later). He misses the action back home, when Duck (Mark Moses) simultaneously starts drinking again whilst suggesting to a powerful British agency they should buy a controlling interest in Sterling Cooper... not that Don objects much when he finds out... he's just cleared $500,000. (On returning he finds Peggy coming out of the office next to his. "Do I work for you now?" he quips.)

Frank O'Hara's 'Meditations in an Emergency' gets another name check, and indeed is the title of the last episode. Meanwhile Jane's reading Faulkner ('The Sound and the Fury').

Some lovely incidental music from Dan Carbonara.

Many writers throughout. Chris Manley photography (he shot most of the series).

Strikes me that Hitch would have loved January Jones (the icy blonde).

Strikes me there's a few of these... seem to remember one in a tuxedo, somewhere

The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936 Lothar Mendes)

Written for the screen by H.G. Wells, from his short story, for London films / Alexander Korda.

Some God-like presence gives ordinary man Roland Young the power to do almost anything - various people including Ernest Thesiger, Edward Chapman and Ralph Richardson try to advise him, but he goes power mad. Wrong woman is Joan Gardner, right one is Sophie Stewart; down cast list: Joan Hickson, George Sanders, George Zucco.

Music Michael Spolianski, photography Harold Rossen - they seemed to like importing great American cameraman, though it's difficult to study his contribution in soft, fuzzy print. Editor: William Hornbeck.

I wondered if this film had given Young his Hollywood break, but no. He was on Broadway since 1912, served for the US in WWI and became an American citizen in 1918.