HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE no stars

Chucklesome rather than laugh-out-loud funny, this British spy comedy was obviously cashing in on all things Bond flavoured when it first appeared in 1964. Dirk Bogarde, just about earning his pay cheque rather than turning in a proper performance, is the unwitting British agent dropped behind the Iron Curtain by British Intelligence, though as represented by Robert Morley, (always good fun), and John Le Mesurier, it's not that intelligent. He isn't even sure what he's there for except that the password is the film's title "Hot Enough for June". Silva Koscina is suitably gorgeous as the spy who is allocated to Bogarde as his driver while in Prague and there is a good supporting cast that includes Leo McKern, Richard Pasco and Eric Pohlmann. There is very little to it; Lukas Heller did the screenplay and there are a few good jokes. Ralph Thomas directed with no imagination whatsoever.

PHOENIX **

"Phoenix" is the title of Christian Petzold's film and the phoenix who rises from the ashes is Nelly, a concentration camp survivor whose face has been so badly disfigured that it requires reconstruction. When it is reconstructed it is very much in the form of the original and yet her husband still doesn't recognise her. However, he sees a sufficient resemblance to get her to play the part of herself, his wife returned, as it were, from the dead simply to get his hands on her inheritance.

Set immediately after the end of the Second World War Petzold's film works best as a thriller in the Hitchcock mould, (think "Vertigo"), rather than as a serious study of post-war German guilt. There are really only three main characters; Nelly, her husband, (Phoenix is also the name of the club where he works), and her friend who has brought her back to something resembling civilisation. On a realistic level it's a little hard to swallow though the denouement is very nicely arrived at and Nina Hoss is excellent as Nelly. It's certainly worth seeing but I don't think it's quite the 'serious' picture critics have made it out to be.

THE HEADLESS WOMAN ****

The closest equivalent to Lucrecia Martel's "The Headless Woman" that I can think of is Michaelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up". On the surface, of course, they are very different films but thematically they share a similar conundrum and density. An affluent Argentinian woman, (she's a dentist), is driving home when she hits something or someone on the road. She stops momentarily and, without getting out off the car, drives on. Over the following days she becomes convinced she has killed someone but then, as she tries to retrace the events of that weekend, it becomes less and less clear to her and to us, what might have occurred. Is this a film about guilt? Is Vero, the woman in question, aware of what she has done and is she repressing it or are all her suppositions simply the result of a head injury sustained in the accident and are nothing more than a kind of dream or nightmare? Yes, this is a difficult film and requires a good deal of effort but the pace is deliberately slow giving us time to think about what is happening. The film may not provide us with the answers we might want but then I don't believe providing us with answers is what cinema should necessarily be about so long as it gives us the questions. There are questions galore in "The Headless Woman" and it simply shouldn't be missed.

THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR ***

This classic screwball comedy marked Billy Wilder's directorial debut and in the Wilder canon it's largely been neglected but it remains a joy from start to finish with a great comic performance from that greatest of comediennes Ginger Rogers. She's a hard-boiled Hannah who has to pass for a 12 year old in order to get a half fare rail ticket, (you see, she doesn't have the money to buy an adult ticket). It's utterly ridiculous which is why it's so funny; that and the fact that it's graced with a great Wilder and Brackett script. Ray Milland is also superb as the Major of the title that she latches onto and naturally falls for and there's a terrific supporting cast that includes Robert Benchley, Diana Lynn and the underrated Rita Johnson. Of course, it lacks the cynicism of Wilder's later work which in this case is all for the best.

RISEN *

With virtually every other take on the story of Christ having been exhausted the producers of "Risen" aim for originality by making it a kind of biblical detective story and by concentrating on aspects of the tale most biblical pictures don't even touch on and, by and large, they succeed. It begins with the crucifixion and Christ's burial in the tomb. When his body 'mysteriously' disappears, Joseph Fiennes' tribune is given the job of finding out what happened to it, working on the assumption that it has been stolen. Of course, two thousand plus years of Christianity means you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to guess where any of this is going, so while the film may not be particularly radical at least it's intelligent, turning most of the cliches usually associated with biblical pictures on their head. Not all of them, of course; the writers still can't escape the 'God is Love' sensibility of most of the other stories of Christ while Bartholemew looks and acts like a hippy from a touring production of "Godspell". No "King of Kings" then but no disgrace either. It certainly won't convert non-believers but Christians won't find anything here at which to take offence.

THE SUNCHASER ***

Michael Cimino's final film "The Sunchaser" bombed but I suppose after "Heaven's Gate" Cimino was lucky to get any kind of gig. Consequently, the film virtually disappeared without trace and is, of course, now ripe for rediscovery. It's no masterpiece, (unlike "Heaven's Gate" which I firmly believe is a masterpiece), but it's no turkey either and is sufficiently 'strange' to be of more than passing interest.

It's a kind of road movie/buddy movie in which a 16 year old prisoner, (26 year old Jon Seda, excellent), who happens to be dying of cancer, escapes taking his doctor, (a miscast Woody Harrelson), hostage. It veers wildly between black comedy and some high flautin' philosophising, bypassing the conventions of the thriller on the way. It's an ambitious picture that makes you wonder what audience Cimino had in mind, (did we really need the dotty Anne Bancroft episode), and you could say it's certainly the work of a maverick director, being closer in tone to the American films of the seventies than what was being turned out in the nineties and for all its faults you can tell it's the work of a major filmmaker, one whose real potential was never fully realised. Seek this one out.

THE THIRD MAN ****

"The Third Man" isn't just the greatest thriller ever made but one of cinema's great masterpieces. There isn't a single redundant shot or moment in the entire picture which has become one of the most 'quoted' of all time. If you've seen it you will already know the brilliance of its relatively simple plot; if you haven't then I envy you the luxury of experiencing it for the first time. Everyone connected with it, both in front of and behind the camera, was working at the top of their form. Graham Greene concocted it and it's one of the great scripts, (even if the 'cuckoo clock' speech is reputed to have been written by Orson Welles).

Welles plays Harry Lime and he is one of cinema's most iconic characters; he may be in only three scenes but he dominates the picture. Joseph Cotten is his friend, Holly Martin, an American writer determined to find out what happened to Lime. Trevor Howard is the British major out to expose him and Alida Valli is the actress in love with Lime. Robert Krasker's expressionistic black and white cinematography is among the most luminous in all of film; he shot it mostly in the ruins of Vienna and won a richly deserved Oscar while Anton Karas' zither music is justly famous. The director was Carol Reed who out-Hichcock's Hitchcock in his handling of the material. It was once voted the best British film ever made; who am I to disagree?

EX MACHINA ***

As mad scientists and their robot movies go, Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" is, as Jean Brodie would say, the creme de la creme. Before this, Garland wrote "The Beach" and "28 Days Later" both of which left me seriously underwhelmed, (I wonder if Danny Boyle's flaccid direction had anything to do with that), but here he's in command and how... "Ex Machina"
is visually superb, highly intelligent and beautifully played by a never better Oscar Isaac, the consistently brilliant Domhnall Gleeson and a terrific Alicia Vikandar. Perhaps Garland's greatest achievement lies in taking an over-worked formula and making it feel so original. It's also the scariest robot picture since 2001... creating a real sense of unease rather than simply giving us a series of shocks. Consequently this is the year's best horror film as well as the most entertaining.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE! no stars

Atrocious and proof, if proof were needed, why movie franchises aren't always a good thing; indeed, if this is anything to go by, sequels and franchises of any kind are mostly to be avoided. In fact, the only resemblance "The Magnificent Seven Ride!" has to Sturges' classic is in having seven so-called 'heroes' fighting some Mexican bandits and in stealing the title. Otherwise this is truly inept.

Lee Van Cleef is now the leader but apart from Michael Callan you can forget trying to recall the names of the others. The dialogue is woeful, (or is it just Van Cleef's line readings?), the revenge element unpleasant and the 'direction' of one, George McCowan, virtually non-existent. This is a travesty which should be avoided at all
costs.

SAVING MR BANKS ***

Of course "Saving Mr Banks" is sentimental, that's only to be expected; this is Disney, after all, in every sense of the word but John Lee Hancock's wonderful film is also deeply moving and hugely entertaining. Indeed I don't think I've enjoyed a film quite as much this year. The story, or rather the stories, for there are two of them, for anyone not familiar with the plot, involves the making of the film "Mary Poppins" or rather how the author of the original books, P L Travers, came to relinquish the rights to one, Walt Disney. The other story is about how a young girl in Australia in the early years of the last century came to acknowledge that the father she loved above all else had feet of clay but was neither angel or devil but simply an ordinary, flawed individual. That little girl, of course, grows up to be P L Travers and that father, in need of saving, becomes her Mr Banks.

So this is a serious film as well as a sentimental film and it deals with very real and very deep emotions but it does so in a way that is light, funny and universally appealing. It is beautifully written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith and superbly directed by Hancock. It's also brilliantly played by a first-rate ensemble cast. Tom Hanks makes Uncle Walt something of a hugely likeable rogue who will use the most subtle kind of emotional blackmail to get what he wants. It's a grandstanding performance, to be sure, and if he doesn't win an Oscar for "Captain Phillips"

then surely his performance here should make him something of a front-runner. There's lovely work, too, from Paul Giametti as Travers' driver during her time in Hollywood and, somewhat surprisingly, from Colin Farrell as the father who becomes the real-life inspiration for Mr Banks. But ultimately this is Emma Thompson's show; as the starchy author Thompson turns in a career-best performance that again must surely make her a front-runner in the Best Actress stakes. What's most remarkable is just how close Thompson comes to the real-life Travers as can be evidenced from listening to the tapes we hear over the closing credits. Yes, this movie is a total delight and I loved every supercalifragilisticexpialidocious minute of it.

CLASSE TOUS RISQUES ****

Both Bresson and Melville are reputed to be big fans of "Classe Tous Risques" and it's easy to see why; either man could have directed this classic French gangster picture. The actual director was Claude Sautet and it's one of the greatest second films in movie history, (in the 15 year period between 1956 and 1970 Sautet made only 4 films). He made this one in 1960 around the time of the New Wave and while it's more traditional than something Godard or Truffaut might have done, nevertheless Sautet brings to it a freshness of approach that other gangster pictures of the period seem to lack. From the absolutely stunning opening sequence it's clear that this film will be infused with a good dose of existential angst as well as the requisite thrills that a really good gangster movie needs.

Two fugitives, (Lino Ventura and Stan Krol), have decided it's time to get out of Italy and back to France as the net closes in around them but they need money. They commit a foolhardy, though daring, daylight robbery and go on the run. This opening and the chase that follows is as good as anything in crime movies. The money they make, however, is hardly enough to sustain them, (Ventura has a wife and two sons to support), so they must rely on a network of friends and criminal associates and men on the run, already operating on the very edge, need all the friends they can get, however untrustworthy they may be and these guys friends prove to be very untrustworthy indeed but when tragedy strikes Ventura seems to have no option.


With the possible exceptions of Dassin's "Rififi" and several of Jean-Pierre Melville's classic gangster pictures this remains one of the greatest of genre films and is all the better for being, fundamentally, a low-key character piece. Ventura is perfect as the world-weary thief who would really rather just settle down and raise his family and he is matched by a young Jean-Paul Belmondo as the stranger who becomes his only real friend and ally. The brilliant black and white cinematography is by Ghislain Cloquet, (it was shot largely on location), and it is beautifully adapted by Sautet, Pascal Jardin and Jose Giovanni from Giovanni's novel.

WILD BILL ***

This slice of British realism marked the directorial debut of actor Dexter Fletcher and has all the propensity for sentimentality but Fletcher keeps things suitably tough and the highest compliment I can pay it is that it's as good as the best of British television. Fletcher also co-wrote the film, (with Danny King), and brings both a good deal of humour and tenderness to proceedings. He also draws excellent performances from his cast. In the title role, Charlie Creed-Miles is outstanding as the father, recently released from prison, trying to forge some kind of relationship with his two young sons, (Will Poulter and Sammy Williams, both first-rate). Worth seeking out.

SITTING BULL *

The critic Dilys Powell once said there were no bad westerns; there were great westerns, there were good westerns and there were westerns and I suppose you could say Sidney Salkow's film "Sitting Bull" falls into the last category. As you might guess from the title it culminates in the Battle of Little Bighorn which, given that this is fundamentally a B-Movie western, is actually quite spectacularly handled while the movie itself falls into that small group of films to offer a sympathetic view of the plight of the Native American.

J. Carrol Naish is Sitting Bull and Dale Robertson, the cavalry man who's on the side of the Indians. Its view of history may be a little off the wall but it's a perfectly accessible 'Cowboys & Indians' picture which makes you wish it were better written and acted; the on-again-off-again love affair between Robertson and Mary Murphy is frankly embarrassing. Not a great western, then and maybe not even a good western but as Dilys might say, not a bad one either

LES AMANTS ***

Louis Malle's follow-up to his debut "Lift to the Scaffold" was an elegant tale of adultery among the French upper-class, superbly photographed in widescreen black and white by the great Henri Decae. While "Les Amants"certainly broke new ground in its frank treatment of sexuality, (it is still one of the most erotic films ever made), it was also decidedly old-fashioned. The New Wave would have to wait another year for Truffaut and for Godard. Malle's movie belonged to a more  traditional time in French cinema, albeit with a more radical edge. Ophuls could have made it or Renoir, (Malle shares the same sense of wonder in and affection for the French countryside as Renoir did and has made a film as romantic as Ophuls might have done). The lovers are Jeanne Moreau, superb in one of her earlier roles, and Jean-Marc Bory and the husband is Alain Cuny. (An earlier lover is Jose Villalonga and they all spend time together at Cuny and Moreau's chateau; the French are so civilised about these things). Malle would, of course, make better and more profound films but this is still pretty remarkable.

GOD'S POCKET **

Philip Seymour Hoffman's last film was this very strange blue collar drama set in the New York district of the title. It's closer to being a darkly surreal comedy than a drama, though the jokes seem to have been removed. It centres around the events, spread over 3 days, following the death of young lowlife Leon. He is killed by a fellow worker, an elderly black man whom Leon liked to taunt, but his death is passed off as an accident. Nothing about the picture seems 'realistic' except, perhaps, the milieu in which it is set.

It's certainly well played by a very good cast but it also feels inconsequential. It was in part written by the actor John Slattery, who also directed, from a novel by Peter Dexter and is just too off-the-wall to be dismissed. It's a small picture that seems to want to be bigger and when it was over it left a somewhat acrid taste in my mouth.

TALE OF TALES **

Not all fairy tales have happy endings. In his book "The Uses of Enchantment", Bruno Bettlelheim explored the darker, Freudian side of fairy-tales and Stephen Sondheim elaborated on Bettelheim's concept in his musical "Into the Woods". There are no real happy endings and things get very dark indeed in Italian director Matteo Garrone's English-language debut "Tale of Tales". These are fairy-
tales for grown-ups; this isn't a film for children.

There are three distinct tales running through the film, linked by the common theme of kings and kingdoms. Garrone serves up sea monsters and ogres, ugly sisters and a lot of jealousy. There is much blood-letting and, perhaps, more sex than we are used to in this sort of thing. It's highly imaginative and gorgeously designed and it constantly subverts our expectations. Good performances, too, from an international cast that includes Salma Hayek, Toby Jones, Vincent Cassel and John C Reilly. Not really the kind of thing that will go down well at the multiplex but the art-house crowd should lap it up.

DEN OF THIEVES **

"Den of Thieves" is certainly no "Heat". For a start it lacks that De Niro/Pacino dynamic that made "Heat" such a great movie but as heist movies go, it's definitely a cut above average despite an overly complicated plot, due in large part to director Christian Gudegast's decision to cut between what the police are doing and what the thieves are doing. It starts and ends brilliantly with a couple of terrific gun-battles while still managing to sustain our interest midway through, the way a good heist movie should. Unfortunately it's a film that borrows much too readily from Mann's classic in a way that isn't so much homage as rip-off. Nevertheless, if you like action flicks this is certainly the business.

DRUM BEAT **

This handsome Delmer Daves western is virtually unknown and is unusual, not just in being based on fact, (though like so many 'factual' based westerns I'm sure it plays fast and loose with the truth), but in dealing with the government's efforts to stop the Indian wars. Alan Ladd is the former Indian fighter tasked with getting renegade Charles Bronson back on the reservation and bringing about peace, though firstly he has to overcome opposition from both sides. The action sequences, of which there are many, are outstanding though, despite having already played Shane, Ladd doesn't look too comfortable in the saddle any more than Bronson makes for a convincing Indian. A much more effective Native American is Marisa Pavan as the Indian girl in love with Ladd. White folks, good and bad, include Elisha Cook Jr, Robert Keith and Audrey Dalton as the woman who finally nabs our hero. The real star of the picture, however, is J Peverell Marley, the cinematographer responsible for the stunning widescreen and on- location photography.

THE GUILT TRIP no stars

"The Guilt Trip" really ought to have been a lot funnier than it is but this sentimental mother and son bonding picture takes a long time to get going and even when it finally does it never builds up anything like a head of steam. Fundamentally this road movie is nothing more than a vehicle for Barbra Streisand, (looking terrific, by the way), in the biggest part she's had in years. She pulls out all the stops and injects as much humour into the part as the feeble script allows. The son who ends up driving cross country with her, (don't even think of asking why), is Seth Rogen and it's almost impossible to decide which of the two is more annoying.

The director is someone called Anne Fletcher who clearly hasn't a clue about comedy or indeed film-making or could it possibly be that she was so in awe of being constantly in the presence of The Greatest Star, (she is by far and everyone knows it), that she forgot about everything and everyone else or could I be missing something entirely and this is really a psychodrama about fraught family relationships chock full of Freudian undertones? Whatever, it's still mostly mediocre fare.

THE 39 STEPS *

If Hitchcock's version of "The 39 Steps" is the Mona Lisa then this version is the Mona Lisa painted by a second-rate art student or even a not-very-talented child. It was directed by Ralph Thomas, which says a lot, and written by Frank Harvey and they change things just enough not to make it a carbon copy, using actual Scottish locations and casting Kenneth More, who is a very different Richard Hannay from Robert Donat.


Actually More was a very personable actor and it's he, and he alone, who makes this as entertaining as it is; just don't expect too much from the poor man. Taina Elg is the pretty but pretty non-descript heroine though Barry Jones is an excellent villain and Brenda De Banzie does her best to banish thoughts of Peggy Ashcroft. Photographed in colour by Ernest Steward so its also quite easy on the eye.

THE HELLIONS no stars

Another contender for the worst film ever made. "The Hellions" was a South-African western with a British director and a largely British cast, modelled on "High Noon" but an insult to Zinnemann's classic; indeed something of an insult to 99.9% of westerns in general. It has all the tropes of a good western but none of the qualities and is poorly acted by a cast who really ought to have known better but then they have some pretty terrible dialogue to contend with. The only pluses are some highly colourful photography from future Oscar-winner Ted Moore and the gunfight that ends the film is both unexpected and reasonably well handled by director Ken Annakin. Nevertheless, this is one to avoid.

SINISTER no stars

As horror movies go, "Sinister"
displays more imagination than most and produces the requisite number of chills. Unfortunately all this happens in the last 15 minutes or so. Up until then this is mostly a case of missed opportunities to scare the living daylights out of us as true-crime writer Ethan Hawke and his family move into a house where four people were murdered so that he can write a book about the events. It's the kind of film in which no-one acts rationally but then in horror movies no-one acts rationally anyway; if they did there would be no movie. It also doesn't help that Hawke is such an annoyingly smug son-of-a-bitch, (no change there, then), about whom we don't give a damn and yet he's really the only real character in the film. There are certainly worse horror movies, (this one is surprisingly gore-free), but you still have to sit through a lot of dross to get to the good bits.

ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS *

Frank Sinatra produced "Robin and the Seven Hoods" as a vehicle for himself and his Rat Pack and it's an amiable enough affair, (there are a few very good musical numbers including the great "My Kind of Town" but one song advocating the glories of the gun would be unlikely to make the cut today). As you can guess from the title it transposes the Robin Hood legend to prohibition-era Chicago with Frank as Robin Hood, Dean Martin as Little John, Barbara Rush as Maid Marian etc but it's Peter Falk's Guy Gisbourne and Bing Crosby as a character called Alan A Dale who walk off with the picture, As Sinatra's trusty black sidekick Sammy Davis Jr does a bit of Stepin Fetchit schtick that you might find offensive.
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THE COWBOY AND THE LADY **

Leo McCarey was one of the co-writers of this romantic/screwball comedy which might account for the fact that it is several notches above the average, (though Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman and a whole host of others are also said to have contributed), and is both very funny and very likeable. Like so many other comedies it's based on the premiss of mistaken identity, in this case when cowboy Gary Cooper assumes rich Merle Oberon is a lady's maid. Naturally they fall in love. H C Potter directed, very nicely indeed while the excellent screenplay is credited to S.N. Behrman and Sonya Levien. Both Cooper and Oberon are very good indeed though a decent supporting cast are given too little to do. It won an Oscar for Best Sound Recording and was also nominated for it's score and for Best Song.

DESERT FURY **

A cracker of a film noir in colour. John Hodiak is the gambler with a dead wife, Lizabeth Scott is the broad who looks like her, Burt Lancaster is the sheriff in love with Scott and Mary Astor is simply terrific as Scott's hard-as-nails mother; oh, and then there's Hodiak's henchman played by a then unknown Wendell Corey who is obviously gay and in love with Hodiak and who will do whatever it takes to keep him for himself. Yes, "Desert Fury" has an edge to it that other noirs of the period didn't. Robert Rossen wrote the screenplay and it may be safe to say that it was probably the best thing Lewis Allen ever did. A small classic.

NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER **

Highly controversial at the time of it's release and still disturbing today "Never Take Sweets from a Stranger" now feels like a polemic which somewhat dilutes its effectiveness as a thriller. It's extremely well-intended if a little on the dull side. The subject is child abuse; of course, being 1960 the abuse in question is never actually shown and is actually not even looked on as abuse by anyone other than the parents of the abused child.

Felix Aylmer is admirably and bravely cast as the old man who gets a couple of little girls to dance naked for him while he gets off on it. Unfortunately Aylmer is a local bigwig while the family of one of the abused children are newcomers to this closed community who then gang up against them, taking the side of the abuser's family. (The family of the other little girl don't seem to want to know). Consequently the film is as much about the abuse of power as it is about sexual abuse.


It was a product of Hammer Studios and sold as a 'horror' film but it's a very serious and sober picture, a message movie rather than an outright thriller. It is well written and Patrick Allen and Gwen Watford are fine as the parents while Niall MacGinnis as Aylmer's attorney and Alison Leggatt as the little girl's grandmother are outstanding. Today the film remains virtually unseen and while it may be no masterpiece at least you have to admire its intentions.

PRIVATES ON PARADE **

This screen version of Peter Nichols' largely autobiographical play was scripted by Nichols himself and directed by Michael Blakemore, better known for his work in the theatre so it's certainly faithful to its theatrical origins and it does preserve for all time Dennis Quilley's legendary performance as Acting Captain Terri Dennis, the campiest queen in the camp, while the rest of the cast, the cream of British acting talent, are all pretty good, too. It was, of course, sold as a vehicle for John Cleese, who was the biggest 'name' in the cast, in the part created on the stage and with a lot more subtlety by Nigel Hawthorne who, at this point in this career wasn't 'name' enough to carry a picture. Cleese is very funny but it's a much broader performance than Hawthorne's. Of course, there's a serious side to it as well, set as it is in the jungles of Southeast Asia just after the war when the British were fighting the communists and there's a well-handled sub-plot about a corrupt sergeant, (a first-rate Michael Elphick), selling arms to the enemy. And it's utterly un-pc; the racist, sexist, homophobic jokes would probably be considered much too near the knuckle today but taken as a period piece and as a piece of old-fashioned music hall it's very enjoyable. The pastiche musical numbers, with Quilley as Dietrich, Carmen Miranda etc, aren't half-bad, either.

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON **

"Hyde Park on Hudson"is so light and gossamer thin as to practically evaporate before our eyes and yet it has its own peculiar charm. It's about a visit to America by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939, basically to drum up support from FDR for the war effort and it's all seen through the eyes of Daisy Suckley, the president's 5th cousin and, as it turns out, one of his several mistresses. But this isn't a film about politics or history or even relationships. You mi ght say that if it's about anything it's about the past filtered through the haze of time and considering the personages involved and the significance of the events portrayed, not a great deal actually happens. The director is Roger Michell who has done better, more substantial work but it is often very well acted. Bill Murray is remarkably good as Roosevelt and Laura Linney gives Daisy a surprisingly steely backbone. As the royal couple Samuel West and Olivia Coleman are both excellent while Olivia Williams gives Eleanor more charm that she probably had. A minor film then but a hard one to dislike.

AGE OF CONSENT *

There's a touch of the Gulley Jimsons as well as Paul Gaughin to the artist that James Mason plays in Michael Powell's final 'proper' feature film "Age of Consent". It isn't very good but it's also a hard film to dislike; it's as if everyone involved is having a holiday in one of the most beautiful places on earth, (Dunk Island in Queensland), and having more fun than we are.

It is, then, thin on plot but strong on scenery. Others enjoying the sun and the sand are a young Helen Mirren, (the wild spirit who becomes Mason's muse), and Jack MacGowran, (the scrounger who comes to stay). There is some wildly misplaced comedy as well as a lot of well-cured ham from the supporting cast, (Mason and Mirren, at least, are nicely subdued), and if it is something of a comedown for its director it still manages to exude a peculiar charm all its own.

THE NAKED TRUTH **

A genuinely funny British farce dealing with blackmail and murder and splendidly played by a great cast of British comic actors, (Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Joan Sims and Dennis Price). Price is the blackmailer and Sellers, Terry-Thomas and Mount, together with model Shirley Eaton, (long before someone thought of painting her gold), are his victims who plan to murder him but, as with any good farce, things don't go quite according to plan. The underrated Mario Zampi directed from an original and highly ingenious script by Michael Pertwee. Perhaps you need a very British sense of humour to really appreciate this but if you are blessed with such a thing, it's a real treat.

THE SPIKES GANG **

From a time when the western was trying to appeal to a younger audience by making movies that featured boy protagonists rather than men, ("The Culpepper Cattle Company", "The Cowboys" and here, "The Spikes Gang"). This time the boys are Gary Grimes, who wisely gave up acting, Charlie Martin Smith and someone called Ron Howard who appeared in a popular tv series and I believe went into directing.

They're runaways from home who prove to be pretty useless at everything they turn their hand to until outlaw Lee Marvin takes them under his wing, at which point they become pretty good at killing. It's a typically amoral tale where even killing is played largely for laughs, at least at the beginning before it turns tragic along the lines of "Bonnie and Clyde", though this is never in that class and while it may not be the best thing Richard Fleischer, or for that matter Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr, ever did it is still an unusually grim tale which might account for why it's now almost totally forgotten when others of its ilk are more fondly remembered.

THE NANNY **

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who the nut job is in "The Nanny". This is Bette Davis in post "Baby Jane/Sweet Charlotte" mode. She's nanny to disturbed little Joey, (an excellent William Dix), who may or may not have drowned his little sister in the bathtub. Joey is a sulky little sod given to rather extreme practical jokes, (little pretending to hang himself), but one look at Mary Poppins Davis and you might be inclined to run a mile. That fine and underrated director Seth Holt directed his excellent psychological chiller well adapted by producer Jimmy Sangster from Evelyn Piper's novel. Davis is superb but so too are Wendy Craig and Jill Bennett as Dix's mother and aunt. It has now built up something of a cult reputation.

9 FINGERS *

With elements of "Kiss Me Deadly" and Lars von Trier's "Europa" and a lot else in-between this decidedly daft film is a kind of Kafkaesque 'thriller' minus the thrills. It won its director, F.J. Ossang, the best direction prize at Locarno though I have no idea what the competition was. It certainly looks the part even if it doesn't make a lot of sense; this is an art-house movie for smart kids who like this sort of thing. You could say it's very 'French'. Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike it. I was actually rather bemused by it. Ossang is undoubtedly a skilled film-maker but he's also an acquired taste.

SUMMER OF SAM no stars

Something of a misfire. Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam" isn't a total dog but it comes close and is full of missed opportunities. Like the much better "Do the Right Thing"
it tries to balance several stories and isn't directly concerned with the killer or indeed the killings but with a disparate group of people living in the New York borough where the killings took place. The fact that none of these people are remotely interesting is certainly problematic; they are, for the most part, dull caricatures and an outstanding cast, (John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, Adrien Brody, Ben Gazzara, Patti LuPone, Anthony LaPaglia, Bebe Neuwirth), are largely wasted. Only Brody's bisexual punk emerges with any credit. A tighter script might have helped. The film wasn't really a success and it's easy to see why.

THE CHALLENGE *

"The Challenge" (or if you prefer "It Takes a Thief"), may not be "Rififi" or "The Killing" but this John Gilling directed crime movie isn't nearly as bad as people would have you believe. In fact, it's a consistently fast-moving, surprisingly tough picture with a decent cast that includes Anthony Quayle and Carl Mohner as crooks under the thumb of  unlikely crime boss Jayne Mansfield. Yes, that's right - Jayne Mansfield, who isn't just miscast here but is perfectly dreadful and was probably the main reason the movie bombed, (was casting her really such a good idea in the first place?). Still, she turns almost every line she utters into a howler and is just one of the reasons the movie is so damned entertaining. Nice black and white photography, too, by Gordon Dines and a good use of locations.

A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE no stars

This updating of George Eliot's novel "Silas Marner" to contemporary America is just weird enough to be of more than passing interest but if its story-line seems far-fetched to say the least, remember it's a Victorian melodrama that was probably hard to swallow even when Eliot wrote it. Steve Martin is the Silas Marner character who finds a baby abandoned in the snow and through her finds a new meaning in life. The child's natural father is corrupt politician Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney is Byrne's wife who wants to adopt the child.

Given the material, (Martin did the screenplay himself), they aren't really that bad and it's always good to see Catherine O'Hara, (the local woman with a soft spot for Martin), in any role and at least Martin does manage to inject a degree of comedy into the proceedings that just about alleviates the overall yuckiness. The director was Gillies MacKinnon, better known for somewhat more hard-nosed pictures. This has a 'made-for-tv' feel to it and is much too cosy for my tastes.

THE BIG PICTURE ***

"The Big Picture" is a tale that begins with a murder among Paris' nouveau riche and is one that wouldn't disgrace Chabrol or even Hitchcock, though perhaps it's still too early to call its director, Eric Lartigau, the new Chabrol, though his direction is superlative. At its centre is an absolutely terrific performance from Romain Duris as a man who kills his wife's smug lover and then tries to reinvent his life by taking on the dead man's identity. For a time it looks like it may be a one-man show and it's a tour-de-force. The source material is a novel by Douglas Kennedy and set, not in France but in New England while the beautifully constructed script is by the director and Laurent De Bartillant and the superb cinematography is by Laurent Dailland. All in all, a total pleasure from beginning to somewhat unlikely but nevertheless hugely satisfying end.

SIDE BY SIDE **

Don't let Keanu Reeves' involvement put you off, as it almost did me. "Side by Side" is a terrific documentary that examines the differences between the use of traditional film and the development of digital photography. It's mostly made up of talking heads, primarily directors and DPs, but their passion and enthusiasm for the medium is infectious. There aren't too many examples of the uses of either and often the film seems more like an excuse for why digital is preferable to film; it's almost a valedictory to film and that depresses me. Younger and younger audiences are growing up knowing only digital and are losing out on the beautiful, pain-staking imagery of over a 100 years of film.

I admit film fades and great movies have been lost but give me the black and white glories of Gregg Toland over a lot of what we are seeing today anytime. Is there room for both? Of course; art is all-embracing. I know I'm old-fashioned in my love of old movies and that, in time, the digital revolution will probably, (hopefully), produce masterpieces as great as "Citizen Kane" and "Psycho". I love high definition and the clarity of well shot digital films but for me it will never match the thrill I got seeing for the first time D W Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916) on a large cinema screen.
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