Marple Double Bill: At Bertram's Hotel (2007 Dan Zeff) / Ordeal By Innocence (2007 Moira Armstrong)

Bertram's well covered here and here.

I read up on Martine McCutcheon, a muddled life. Her father abused her mum, was denied access to her. She was killed off from Eastenders by a vengeful producer. She miscarried and was in more than one unsuccessful relationship. She won the Laurence Olivier Award and was super-popular for Love Actually but then had no follow-up career. Her Insta is all about posing for the camera. She was declared bankrupt in 2013. She's a fabulous presence and this is what makes this film one of the best in the series, particularly when paired with war-weary cop Stephen Mangan.

And it's Julian Rhind Tutt who makes the best impression in the follow-up film (both from the third season) as a diffident anthropologist who is unable to help poor Juliet Stevenson. Unfortunately I remembered the identity of the culprit early on. And what an incestuous 'family'. Bryan Dick is having an affair with 'sister' Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Richard Armitage has been having it away with his sister-in-law Stephanie Leonidas!

3:10 to Yuma (1957 Delmer Daves)

Based on a short story by Elmore Leonard which covers the action from where farmer (in the story, Marshal) Van Heflin (kind of in Shane mode again) arrives at Contention with his prisoner bandit Glenn Ford, waiting for the train while the gang surround them. Writer Halstead Wells has opened this up to tell of the stagecoach holdup which starts everything going, Heflin's wife (Leora Dana) and two kids, and a brief relationship between Ford and bargirl Felicia Farr.

I'm not sure quite how credible the ending is but it's an engaging and suspenseful ride. Ford is good as super-confident bandit, though when he says "I've escaped from Yuma before" it's almost like "well what's the point in any of this?"

With Henry Jones (drunk who in the Hollywood way amazingly just does not need a drink when the eleventh hour comes), Richard Jaeckel, Robert Emhardt (stagecoach owner). Music by Charles Durning, photography by Charles Lawton, who also shot Daves' next film, Cowboy. A Columbia picture.

Box of Moonlight (1996 Tom DiCillo & scr)

It's clear that anti-social engineer John Turturro is in no hurry to get back from Tennessee to his wife and son in Chicago, and when he meets oddball 'off the grid' Sam Rockwell, an unusual friendship forms between them.

And that's pretty much it, though we do eventually meet Catherine Keener and Lisa Blount (and, unfortunately, Dermot Mulroney).

Photographed by Paul Ryan.

Mr. Bigstuff (2024 Ryan Sampson)

..who also plays the nervous brother of Danny Dyer, who won the BAFTA for best male entertainment performance. He keeps making me think of Terms of Endearment era Jack Nicholson.

With Harriet Webb, Adrian Scarborough, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Ned Dennehy, Nitin Ganatra.

Six episodes made for Sky.

Subtle it ain't.

Anastasia (1956 Anatole Litvak)

The film that restored Ingrid Bergman's credibility in the US, and won her her second Oscar. But she has to struggle with that period of CinemaScope where they're afraid to show any close ups for fear of alienating the audience.

Is she really the lost Anastasia, descendant of the family of Tsar Nicholas, or an imposter? We don't really know, but at the end her grandmother says 'the play's over. Tell them they can go home', which suggests not. Also the romance with Yul Brynner is kept at such arm's length that you're not sure it's happening. An unusually muffled story, in fact, adapted from a play by Marcelle Maurette, written for the screen by Arthur Laurents.

Enjoyed the production design by Andrej Andrejew and William C Andrews, filmed in Paris, Copenhagen and England by Jack Hildyard. Also enjoyed the performances of Akim Tamiroff, Helen Hayes and Martita Hunt, as well as Alfred Newman's music.

Didn't recognise Sacha Pitoeff, Edited by Bert Bates. Fox.

Conclave (2024 Edward Berger)

Was finding Volker Bertelmann's music over-emphatic and annoying (he also scored the director's All Quiet on the Western Front) but soon was caught up in the intrigue, helped along by marvellous performances initially from Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci. (in fact when we first saw clips on the BAFTAs it was Tucci that I really wanted to see.) The screenplay by Peter Straughan won BAFTA and Oscar - it appears to be very true to Robert Harris's novel with all the same twists and turns.

BAFTA also awarded the editor Nick Emerson for sensible choices, and gave it Best Film and Best British Film, which seems a bit unnecessary. Stéphane Fontaine's photography was also nominated - I found it too dark - but that could be the way Amazon streamed it. I just can't tell any more. Might have to stop watching films streaming. Good sound mixing / design Ben Baird.

Funnily enough I am reading Ingrid Bergman's autobiography and when I saw Isabella Rossellini I thought 'There's Ingrid!'

Rest of good cast: John Lithgow, Brian F O'Byrne, Sergio Castellitto, Carlos Diehz, Lucian Msamati (The Good Liar).

"It is a war!"

It was weird timing as Vatican City has literally just had a conclave and a new Pope elected.

Tucci in his second book 'What I Ate in a Year' reports that Cinecitta (where it was filmed) was in the same sad state of misrepair that it was 25 years ago and that the catering was 'disgusting. Really. Disgusting.' - which is not what you'd expect at all.

D.O.A. (1949 Rudolph Maté)

Why does Edmond O'Brien want to get away from hopeful fiancée-to-be Pamela Britton? That's not a good start for him, and then he starts ogling women in San Francisco hotel (accompanied by a Carry On like whistle), goes off with a group of salesmen to a jive club where the sax player isn't moving his fingers, and tries to pick up a woman. Is it a morality tale - he's poisoned with 'luminous toxin' because he's a worthless skunk? 

Memorably told in flashback in a police station, it begins to unweave a plot of double-crossing and murder, with untrustworthy dames at every turn. Talking of dames, there's zero chemistry between O'Brien and Britton.

An unknown cast includes Luther Adler, Beverly Garland, Lynn Baggett, William Ching, Henry Hart, Neville Brand (the psychopath), Laurette Luez.

Ernest Laszlo shoots good night on location stuff in San Francisco - the Bradbury Building is briefly featured - and Dmitri Tiomkin provides a suitably dramatic score. An independent - Harry M. Popkin production, released through United Artists.

Is it a film noir, according to my own strict definitions? Despite the lack of Chandlery dialogue, I guess it is. Written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene.

O'Brien we should know from White Heat, The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance, The Barefoot Contessa, The Hitch-Hiker (also overdue) and The Wild Bunch.

The Studio (2025)

It's quite tricky to make comedies about film making and the conflict between money and art - there have been more failures than hits. But this starts out with Seth Rogan being hired as the new studio head by Bryan Cranston and briefed to make a film about Cool Aid Man when what he really wants to do is work with Scorsese (who he manages to completely alienate in a funny scene). It turns out he really is not producer material (and anything he has been involved in sounds crap).

With Catherine O'Hara (former producer), Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, Kathryn Hahn.

Has that 'single take' technique, not sure if that adds anything, and Antonio Sanchez drumming, which definitely does. Second episode is actually called 'The Oner' and is one; documents Rogan repeatedly interrupting a single take shot, which we found intensely irritating! Then he chickens out of telling Ron Howard the last section of his new movie stinks. His behaviour continues to irritate, e.g. in episode where he insists that films are as important as healthcare. (His own films aren't even art - they're dross.)

So in a way we think this could all have been better than it is.

10 multi-length episodes for Apple. Somewhat ironically, it took five people to 'create' this concept: Seth Rogan, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory and Frida Perez.

Liked the advice Aaron Sorkin gives to starting out writers. "1. Shorter is better. 2. Faster is better. 3. Don't listen to anyone's advice."

And as we film buffs know, Wings of Desire wasn't in 70mm - some writer is trying to catch us out. Like seeing 'The African Queen in CinemaScope' - wasn't that in this show too?

Modern Family (2009 - 2020 Creators Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd (not that one))

We just finished watching the entire 11 seasons. I still think my favourite scene is Phil christening / Godfather.

Where are they now? is a good question.

Ed O'Neill is still working - was in TV series Clipped last year. He's 79. Sofia Vergara's most significant work has been 2024's Griselda as a ruthless cartel head - she was Emmy and Golden Globe nominated. Rico Rodriguez has taken to posting pictures of himself trying to look cool on Insta.

Over in the Dunphy family, Ty Burrell has done voiceover for Amy Poehler's animated comedy Duncanville (not that highly rated), Julie Bowen was in drama The Fallout (2021) and also voiced an animated show. Sarah Hyland's been in a Pitch Perfect TV series, Ariel Winter has also done loads of voice work and Nolan Gould is fairly low billed in rated drama Miranda's Victim, with Abigail Breslin.

Meanwhile Jesse Tyler Ferguson has appeared in The Good Fight, the notorious Cocaine Bear and 2024 drama All That We Loved. Eric Stonestreet and Aubrey Anderson-Emmons neither much of significance.

According to Buzzfeed the adult actors were earning $30-60,000 an episode in Season 1 (Ed a bit more - $95,000 plus a share of profits), which is still a hell of a lot, but $500,000 an episode by the end! When you consider that had 18 episodes, each one earned $9 million and the combined budget for the top stars was $54 mil! So - no one has to work, basically.

Speed (1994 Jan de Bont)

An utterly extraordinary idea written by Graham Yost and no doubt earning a ton of cash. Entertaining tosh. Do not get on board Bus 2525, that's all I can say.

With an emphatic Keanu Reeves and an empathetic Sandra Bullock are Dennis Hopper, Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton, Alan Ruck, Glenn Plummer, Carlos Carrasco.

You have to laugh, and not just at the bits you're supposed to laugh at.

In the days when big Hollywood Explosions were real

How come the bus is going up? I don't think we're supposed to ask

Photographed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Something of an accomplishment by editor John Wright (Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Hunt For Red October, Secretariat, from 1973) who must have had a mountain of footage to work through (Barbara Dunning assisted).

Nonnas (2025 Stephen Chbosky)

Chbosky has two broadcasters in his name - HBO and Sky - what does that tell us? I don't know, but there must be something wrong with the way Netflix is streaming its content - there's no way Florian Ballhaus would have shot something so dark and murky that in places you just can't see what you're looking at.

A fairly predictable film, based on a true restaurant in Staten Island where nonnas do the cooking (shown at the end).

Vince Vaughan is the restaurateur, and the nonnas are an unrecognisable Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro (Death Weekend / The House By the Lake), Talia Shire and Susan Sarandon, who, despite their differences, become blah blah.

So it was OK despite vision problems, quite entertaining but predictable. With Joe Manganiello, Linda Cardellini (that stupid Dead To Me thing), Drea de Matteo, Campbell Scott (the food critic, Big Night appropriately enough).

The car magically comes back at the end. Yeah.

Liz Maccie wrote it. Google thinks Stanley Tucci is in it, for some reason (maybe the Big Night connection). Edited by Anne McCabe.

Is this what cinematography now looks like or is it the way Netflix is streaming it?

The Bucket List (2007 Rob Reiner)

Justin Zackham is the writer, created series Lights Out (2011) about a retired boxer, and One Chance (2013) the James Corden opera singer one.

Last time I had the feeling that they weren't actually anywhere in the world they visited. I think that is true and apparently even the skydiving scene was CGI, otherwise I think there would have been a lot of publicity about it. And as Q points out, the insurance probably would have prohibited it.

Mostly enjoyable though.

Edited by Robert Leighton. Photographed by John Schwartzman.

VE Day Double Bill: Mrs Miniver (1942 William Wyler) / A Royal Night Out (2015 Julian Jarrold)

Teresa Wright should also have won the Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives, in which she gives her best performance - she wasn't even nominated. Also won for Greer Garson, Film, Screenplay (Arthur Wimperis, James Hilton, George Froeschel, Claudine West - the same team who did the same year's Random Harvest), Photography Joe Ruttenberg. Harold Kress edited, music Herbert Stothart.

Churchill said its propaganda value was worth several battleships. Certainly the bombed out house and church, both with the sky visible, are potent symbols.

Greer Garson sporting the fashionable spaghetti look

Teresa Wright mopping the floor with Richard Ney

The true story on which A Royal Night Out is based is of course much more mundane than the one presented by writers Trevor de Silva and Kevin Hood. Elizabeth and Margaret were 19 and 14, for one thing. And here they are:

They were accompanied by a household staff of sixteen and of course did not experience the film's hi-jinks, though did conga in the Ritz. The film isn't the best in the world though does have a good last third, and as that's where Roger Allam appears it is perhaps no coincidence.

I remember talking to a lady dog walking - she had been allowed to go into London as a young lady to experience the jubilations. She got off the train and about the first thing she saw was a couple bonking in an alleyway!

Still, does capture the exuberant chaos of that night when the lights were finally turned back on.

I'm sure if Her Maj had watched it she would have thought it was bollocks.

Malpractice - Season 2 (2025 Grace Ofori-Attah)

Tom Hughes is a harassed psychiatric registrar involved in the suicide of a new mother, but there's a trail of incompetence and cover-up, also involving Selin Hizli, Zoe Telford, Jessica Layde, Tobi Bakare (Death in Paradise). That 'the Trust' ends up the bad guy I thought quite funny. Good writing. exciting drama.

Investigating: Jordan Kouamé, Helen Behan. 

Do You Know This Voice? (1964 Frank Nesbitt)

A boy has been kidnapped, a plucky Italian woman has seen the kidnapper's shoes, offers to make herself the target so the (useless) police can trap the kidnapper(s).

She is Isa Miranda (was in Summertime, La Ronde). With Dan Duryea, Gwen Watford, Peter Madden, Barry Warren.

Unknowns behind camera. Based on a novel Evelyn Berckman. British Lion.

Seen worse.

Funny Woman - Season 2 (2024 Morwenna Banks)

Oliver Parker directed. This is new material not based on Nick Hornby's writings.

The Gemma Arterton character is still trying to fight her way through sexism and old-fashioned values. At least finds an agent, an American. Just 4 x 45 this time.

Friends: Alexa Davies (rather good, I think) and Clare-Hope Ashitey. Writers Leo Bill and Matthew Beard. Useful new lawyer friend Lydia Leonard, Josie Lawrence (didn't recognise her). Director / lover Arsher Ali (who we just saw in Arthur and George). Barmaid Roisin Conaty comes in to save the show.

Good comedy routine at end proves the show will be a hit. Definitely room for one more.

The Secret of Roan Inish (1993 John Sayles & scr)

From the novel 'Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry' by Rosalie K Fry.

Another film about foreign cultures, folklore and myth, the sea and its inhabitants. Here, seals are most important.

A young girl is sent to her grandparents on the west coast of Ireland. They previously lived in faraway glimpsed Roan Inish but it's now uninhabited... or is it? She Jeni Courtney and cousin Richard Sheridan restore the dwellings to their former glory much to the surprise of grandparents Mick Lally and Eileen Colgan. John Lynch as another cousin is familiar from things such as Cal and The Secret Garden; sister Susan Lynch from Waking Ned, Cracker, plays the selkie.

Haskell Wexler's images and the traditional Irish songs are important factors. It's almost magic.

You & Me (2023 Tom Vaughan, Writer Jamie Davis)

Very glad to have found this finally on DVD (it was released in Australia). Nothing much to add to this. It just all comes together beautifully.

Davis' biggest body of work was an actor 169 episodes of Casualty. He hasn't really written anything else, which is a shame. Well, he has, it just hasn't been broadcast yet.

Mo - Season 2 (2025 Mohammed Amer)

Mo survives Mexico by working hard - one of his jobs is the wrestler 'Oso Pelestino' (the Palestinian Bear). Gets smuggled back to US but is caught, ends up being 'deported' but as he has no country remains in US. The family lose the olive farm. Mo's brother Omar Elba is finally told he's autistic. Mo and on-off girlfriend Teresa Ruiz are married, which means he can join family and visit Palestine - which provides a suitably sober and emotional ending (actually filmed in Malta) - we see footage of Mo's real dad, and there's much comment about the Israeli stranglehold over the country. And the fight to remain positive.

It was a labour of love for Mo, who found the scenes back home emotional, and in interview says he now want to get back to stand-up.

Palestine doesn't even have its own airport?? Palestinians visiting the country have to land in Israeli Tel Aviv??? (There was one, briefly, in Gaza, but the Israelis destroyed it in 2000.)

Training Day (2001 Antoine Fuqua)

Denzel Washington won the Oscar for his role as a maverick and murderous LA detective; Ethan Hawke was nominated as the new-to-the-force cop who in one eventful day takes a crash course  in corruption (not that there's anything he can do about it - the top cops are all aware of this corruption already.)

So a stinging screenplay from David Ayer. Loved the ending - the community chooses not to back the renegade cop.

Photographed by Mauro Fiore, edited by Conrad Buff.