IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU **

Minor George Cukor but even the most minor Cukor can be a delight. "It Should Happen to You" is the one about the girl who uses her savings to hire a billboard in the centre of New York and put her name on it. It's a one joke movie but when the girl is Judy Holliday the joke is never less than funny. It was also the film that introduced an outstanding young actor called Jack Lemmon whose instant star quality means that he almost steals the movie from under Miss Holliday's nose; almost but not quite. Her Gladys Glover may simply be an extension of her earlier Billie Dawn persona but who cares; she was a great comedienne who could keep the film's one gag percolating nicely for ninety or so minutes.

EVIL UNDER THE SUN *

"Evil Under the Sun" is actually one of the better Agatha Christie adaptations though it isn't very highly thought of. Perhaps that's because its 'all star cast' was just a little less 'starry' than usual or maybe it was just too easy to guess whodunit but regardless, it's good camp fun particularly when Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg are on screen; better still when they are on screen together. Rigg's a rich bitch just asking to be strangled, (but before she is, she gets to perform 'You're the Top' with a little hindrance from Maggie). Almost everybody else is wasted but Ustinov still makes for a marvellous Poirot. Silly then but hard to dislike.

YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET ****

Even at the very end of his career, (he was going on 90 at the time), Alain Resnais remained one of cinema's most original and innovative directors, choosing to introduce the cast of his penultimate film "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet", not as 'characters' but as themselves so the people seen answering their telephones are Michel Piccoli , Lambert Wilson, Sabine Azema and so on, who will continue in the film both as themselves and as characters in a production of "Eurydice" by Jean Anouilh as they watch it being performed by the Compagnie de la Colombe while stepping in and out of roles they once made famous.


What follows is a film within a film or maybe just a play within a film, (rather than simply a filmed play), performed by Resnais' stock company in a style straight out of Agatha Christie. It's like a documentary being played out as fiction and, of course, it's an exercise in great acting. Indeed, if anything, this is Resnais' comment on what constitutes 'acting'. As Resnais' stock company interact with the players of the Compagnie de la Colombe we have to ask are they performing 'roles' or simply being themselves?

Of course, the film itself is a tour-de-force by one of the giants of cinema who isn't afraid to strip everything away, (sets and all if necessary), to get to the core of his material while bowling us over with his technical virtuosity at the same time. I know the term 'masterpiece' is used much too often in the cinema but this really is a masterpiece and is shamefully neglected in the Resnais canon.

DEATH ON THE NILE **

An all-star cast, exotic locations and a good, if not very original. plot distinguish this otherwise workmanlike screen version of Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile", directed by John Guillerman and adapted by none other than Anthony Shaffer. Despite everyone's best intentions it's not in the same class as Lumet's "Murder on the Orient Express" but is vastly superior to the later "Evil Under the Sun".

Lois Chiles is the rich bitch heiress barging down the Nile on her honeymoon. When she's bumped off all her fellow passengers are suspects, mainly because each of them has a motive to kill her. It might all be a bit ho-hum were it not for the fact that the passengers include Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, David Niven and Jack Warden so there's a lot of bitchy fun to be had. Peter Ustinov is a less eccentric Poirot than Albert Finney which means he's basically upstaged by the film'sgrande dames. Enjoyable then, but no classic.

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN no stars

Hollywood being Hollywood, it didn't take them long to cash in on 9/11 with this terrorist attack movie in which a host of Asian terrorists, (very North Korean), slaughter half of Washington D.C. and take over the White House, holding the President hostage. "Olympus Has Fallen" is extremely violent, at times appallingly so, and suffers in being much too similar to "White House Down"  which came out at the same time. It may be technically proficient but is also in very bad taste.

A good supporting cast, (Aaron Eckhart as the President, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster as various officials), suffer stoically while Gerard Butler saves the world. As the bad guys, Dylan McDermott and especially Rick Yune have the best of it and are obviously relishing their roles. Unfortunately this is just the kind of nonsense a certain incumbent President might actually take seriously, thinking he's watching a documentary.

THE PRESIDIO *

"The Presidio" is a slightly better-than-average San Francisco set murder yarn from minor cult director Peter Hyams that makes good use of its familiar locations though its familiar plot could do with a boost every now and then. Of course, anything with a scenery-chewing Sean Connery in the lead gets a brownie point from me. He's a colonel in the military police who has to team up with a cocky young cop, (Mark Hamon), who is dating his daughter, (Meg Ryan), after one of his staff is gunned down in what looks like a botched robbery. Unfortunately, despite being shot in widescreen, it has the feel of a made-for-tv movie and is just the kind of film that if watched on a wet afternoon just might take your mind off the weather. A couple of excellent chase scenes aside it's not one of Hyams' better movies.

LE DEJEUNER SUR L'HERBE **

A satirical farce from Renoir on the bourgeoisie, (naturally), built around the subject of artificial insemination and sex but too broad to make a real impact, a kind of Carry On Picnicing. Paul Meurisse is the priggish scientist running for President of Europe who wants to make babies the arificial way but who comes under the spell of Nenette, (Catherine Rouvel), quite literally thanks to a flute-playing shepherd who can conjour up a wind-storm if need be. It looks great, (Renoir shot it in colour), and there's a nice score by Joseph Kosma but in the Renoir canon it's really only a divertissement . Still, even a Renoir divertissement counts for something and this one is undeniably 'charmant'.

WHITE BOY RICK ***

Rick Wershe Jr's claim to fame, or infamy if you prefer, was that at fourteen he was the youngest ever FBI informant before becoming a kingpin drug dealer at sixteen. Yann Demange's (he made "'71"), film "White Boy Rick" is a 'Serpico'-like account of how Rick got into this and it makes for surprisingly sobering viewing. It didn't help that his dad, (an absolutely terrific Matthew McConaughey), was a low-life gun dealer and his sister, (Bel Powley, brilliant), a junkie. You might say that with a family like this, a life of crime was inevitable.

It's a tragic story that Demange never exploits and if it isn't quite in the same class as "'71" it may be because this is material we've seen too often in the past. In the title role newcomer Richie Merritt is excellent and the film looks terrific, (Tat Radcliffe was the cinematographer), moving nicely from Hollywood crime movie gloss to documentary realism often in the same scene. In the end, this is a grim, downbeat little movie but it's hard-to-believe true story is one worth telling and Demange tells it very well indeed.

PARASITE ****

If you must make a home invasion movie do it as a comedy and not as a horror film, right? Bong Joon Ho's "Parasite" arrives already festooned with awards and rightly so. In this gem a family of low-life con-artists manage to take over the home and lives of a softer and much richer family that in some ways mirror them. It's like "Us" but without the supernatural element. Of course, a scheme like theirs can't succeed without something going very wrong which, of course, it does turning "Parasite" beautifully and brilliantly into the blackest of comedy-thrillers that does finally manage to erupt into just the kind of horror flic we expected from the start.

With pitch-perfect performances from the entire cast and the smartest script of the year, not to mention the kind of home any family would be happy to invade, this is an instant classic. I can already see the American remake but it will never top this. It may not be quite as profound as it would like to be but for sheer cleverness it's up there with the very best.

I LOST MY BODY ***

A severed hand goes in search of the rest of its body in this beautiful and hugely imaginative animated feature from French director Jeremy Clapin while elsewhere, in what appears to be a parallel story, a boy grows up and goes in search of love and his place in the world.  "I Lost my Body" is the kind of animated film that really does qualify as a work of art, (the imagery throughout is gorgeous), though the subject matter probably disqualifies it as being suitable for children, (never mind the occasional sexual reference; the basic concept itself is pretty alarming). The version I saw was the dubbed 'American' print but since the dialogue is always highly intelligent purists have nothing to worry about. If there is any justice this should win the Best Animated Feature Oscar that almost certainly will go to "Frozen II".

CRYSTAL FAIRY AND THE MAGICAL CACTUS no stars

A drugs movie, (the title kind of gives it away), and a road movie filmed in Chile by the Chilean director Sebastian Silva but starring Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffmann as the young Americans out to experience the ultimate high. Like its stars, the film basically meanders along with the director's brothers for company and is apparently based on a real experience Silva had. Both Hoffmann and Cera are excellent playing the kind of people you might jump off a high building to avoid and the film itself isn't very pleasant. In fact it feels like something of an ego trip and one that is being made up as it goes along. Personally I found it just the kind of drugs movie to put you off drugs for life which I don't think was the director's intention.

THE LINCOLN LAWYER *

"The Lincoln Lawyer" is a reasonably entertaining thriller but it's also extremely far-fetched and really not much of a movie. A good cast work very hard with the cliched material as hot-shot lawyer Matthew McConaughey is hired to defend rich mother's boy Ryan Phillipe on a charge of rape and assault only to find the ghost of a previous case coming back to haunt him.  McConaughey works hardest of all, sweating, fretting and generally behaving badly while Phillipe is ice-cool. Marisa Tomei is also in the mix as McConaughey's ex-wife and another lawyer but she's basically wasted, being decorative rather than dramatic. About the best you can say is that it's John Grisham lite.

OUT OF BLUE **

A metaphysical murder mystery directed by Britain's Carol Morley but set in New Orleans, moving at a funereal pace, taken in turn from a novel by Martin Amis and not only mystifying but art-house pretentious at times, "Out of Blue" really ought to be a total dog of a movie and yet its very weirdness and a couple of excellent performances, (Patricia Clarkson, Jacki Weaver), sustain it.

Clarkson is the detective investigating the murder of physicist Mamie Gummer, a murder that has all the hallmarks of those of a long dormant serial killer. Given that Clarkson proceeds in an almost catatonic state with suspects popping up out of the woodwork this isn't your typical thriller. Indeed it's hardly 'thrilling' at all but it's always interesting. James Caan is the dead girl's father, a superb Jacki Weaver is her mother and Toby Jones, a very nervy suspect. I haven't read Amis' original novel; perhaps it explains more than the film does but this is sure to divide audiences every which way.

AFTER THE FOX no stars

A mess but one that's partly redeemed by a real star performance, "After the Fox" was a daft caper comedy made in Italy by none other than Vittorio De Sica with a screenplay by the American playwright Neil Simon and starring Peter Sellers as an incompetent Italian criminal, (lots of disguises and silly voices), though in the end it isn't Sellers who redeems the film but Victor Mature, wonderful as a vain, ageing movie star, talked by Sellers, posing as a Neo-Realist director, into making a movie as cover for a heist. Subtle it isn't and as a satire on the movie business it never rises above pantomime, (De Sica appears as himself). It's also only sporadically funny, proving that farce, even with Sellers in the lead, wasn't really De Sica's thing.
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BAD DAY FOR THE CUT **

Despite "Game of Thrones" being filmed here, Northern Ireland is certainly not Hollywood so this Northern Ireland based revenge thriller is something of a pleasant surprise. It marks the feature film debut of Chris Baugh who obviously knows his territory, both literally and metaphorically. The plot may be derivative but it's very stylishly handled with fine performances all round, particularly from Nigel O'Neill as the middle-aged farmer who goes looking for revenge and answers after his mother is murdered. We may be in County Antrim but we could just as easily be in the American Badlands and Belfast could just as easily be Detroit and there's a nice streak of grisly humour running through the picture. Not that I ever doubted it but proof that there is local talent here after all.

90 DEGREES IN THE SHADE **

A genuine oddity. This Raymond Stross produced/Jiri Weiss directed British/Czech co-production disappeared almost before it was released despite being nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Foreign Film in the English Language. It was written by David Mercer, set and filmed in Prague with a British and Czech cast, all of whom were dubbed.

Anne Heywood is the assistant manager of a shop who is having an affair with her married boss, (a miscast James Booth), while helping him steal from their employers. Things come to a head when an auditor, who fancies Heywood, starts snooping around. He is played by Rudolf Hrusinsky, one of the Czech actors in a cast that also includes Ann Todd and Donald Wolfit.

It's superbly shot in black and white by Bedrich Batka with a terrific jazz score by Ludek Hulan. Though fundamentally 'British' it looks and feels like something from the Czech New Wave and had it been made entirely in Czech, rather than very stilted English, its critical reputation might have been much higher. As it is, it's a strange, compelling picture ripe for rediscovery.

THE VALLEY OF DECISION **

A big, thick best-selling novel has become a big, thick slice of Hollywood ham. "The Valley of Decision" may not be much of a movie but thanks to its all-star cast and the big thick plot, it is very enjoyable. At forty-one Greer Garson was a tad on the old side as the new, young Irish maid to the Scott family, well-to-do mill owners in Pittsburgh, where she falls in love with her employer's son, Gregory Peck, in real life twelve years Garson's junior.

Needless to say, their romance doesn't blossom since there is bad blood between their fathers and trouble at the mill. Garson's father is the perpetually hammy Lionel Barrymore, (who else), while Peck's is the perpetually stiff Donald Crisp, (who else), and others in the large cast include Gladys Cooper, (in one of her rare 'nice' roles), Dan Duryea, Marsha Hunt, Marshall Thompson, (showing great promise), and a young Jessica Tandy as the socialite determined to get her claws into Peck. It was, of course, a huge hit and Garson got another Oscar nomination, despite being miscast. As for Tay Garnett's direction, let's just say he didn't let it get in the way of the story.

PURSUED ***

Raoul Walsh's strange, noirish Western isn't much seen these days but "Pursued" is still something of a classic. It was an original screenplay by the novelist Niven Busch and is told in flashback by Robert Mitchum who is the pursued of the title. He's the adopted son of Judith Anderson who took him in after his family is killed. The thing is, it was Anderson's brother-in-law, Dean Jagger, who was responsible for the family's murder to begin with. Subsequently, Mitchum is haunted by memories of his past as he finds himself falling in love with his adoptive sister, Teresa Wright.

You might say, then, that this is far from being a conventional western yarn. I mean, in how many other westerns do you find a romantic relationship developing between a brother and sister, even if they are not blood relatives, or where a brother-in-law and sister-in-law can be so diametrically opposed in what is a family feud. The performances are mostly fine but the real star of the picture is James Wong Howe's stunning black-and-white cinematography. This film may not be as well-known as it should be but it has certainly built up a considerable cult reputation.

UNDER THE SAND ***

A psychological drama more than a psychological thriller, Francois Ozon's "Under the Sand" gives Charlotte Rampling one of her best roles, gamely seized with both hands, as a woman whose husband disappears while o
n holiday. Ozon details her subsequent emotional breakdown in almost forensic detail as she comes to believe he's still with her, totally denying his absence as Ozon muddies the water by having the husband, (Bruno Cremer), with her on screen during these scenes.

It was only Ozon's fourth feature and already it demonstrated his versatility being markedly different from the three films that preceded it, (he would later go on to show his mastery of almost every genre). What really distinguishes this from similar films is the simplicity of tone and the almost total lack of drama. It was also the film that really established Ozon as a major player in French cinema and he hasn't looked back since.

LUNACY ****

"Lunacy" is Jan Svankmajer's homage to Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis De Sade, (it's full of allusions to "Marat/Sade"), and as he tells us himself, is a horror film and not a work of art. It is certainly the first and I would argue it is also a work of art of quite a high order. It combines live-action with Svankmajer's trade-mark animation in giving us a study of what we might call 'the banality of evil' unlike almost anything else in cinema. It is a film that moves from a barely recognizable present to some kind of past as easily as it does from live-action to animation existing in a kind of no-man's-land between the real and surreal in a manner almost guaranteed to give you the very literal creeps; this is the real thing. Yet there is also something tongue-in-cheek about the horrors Svankmajer inflicts on us. There is a giddy perversity to the picture that to a degree dissipates the director's attack on the institutions he appears to condemn. This is as much a very bizarre celebration of hedonism as it is an attack on the communist regime. There's also an asylum in the film that makes the one at Charenton look like a Wendy House. Perverse, yes but also utterly extraordinary and undoubtedly one of Svankmajer's masterpieces.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH **

There's a creature in "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" that simply can't be believed. You know the creature I'm talking about, of course? Yes, that's right; Pat Boone playing a Scotsman and once he starts into Jimmy Van Huesen's treatment of Robbie Burns' "My Love is Like a Red Red Rose" you know you are watching a fantasy. Still, he looks very fetching in a kilt though this being a U certificate, I'm sure he's wearing something under it.

James Mason plays a Scotsman, too, but one with Mason's inimitable voice and off they go on a journey to the centre of the earth. It's all nonsense, of course but Henry Levin's widescreen, large-scale version of Jules Verne's novel is hugely entertaining. They are accompanied on the journey by Arlene Dahl, (well Mason does need some romantic interest), a blonde Icelandic hunk called Peter Ronson who was better known as an athlete and a duck called Gertrude, (it's that type of picture), and on the way they encounter dinosaurs and the lost city of Atlantis. Boone's red, red rose is Diane Baker but she has to stay at home in Edinburgh. There is also a villain and he is the only one to get his comeuppance, (naturally).

THE STANDOFF AT SPARROW CREEK no stars

I didn't think it was possible for anyone to make a Tarantino rip-off that's less exciting than watching paint dry but first-time director Henry Dunham has done it. A group of militia men gather in a large warehouse on the night when a lone gunman has gunned down a number of police and then through a series of questions and answers one of them tries to figure out who among them might be the shooter. This is what's commonly called 'a talking picture' that's so talky it could be on the radio, (it certainly isn't very visual). It wouldn't have been so bad if the talk was actually worth listening to or if the all-male cast were better but this is irredeemably bad and almost totally incomprehensible.

BOY ERASED **

Considering the earnestness of the subject matter, (gay conversion therapy), Joel Edgerton's film "Boy Erased", (something of a labour of love; he wrote it and directed it and plays the head of the institute), is a lot more engaging than it might have been, not to mention being a lot less preachy and as you can probably gather from the cast, it's very well acted. Lucas Hedges is the gay teenager outed to his parents, (his father is a Baptist preacher), and then finds himself in a gay conversion programme run by Edgerton.

It's the kind of picture that once upon a time would have worn its credentials, like medals, on its puffed-out chest but Edgerton keeps it nicely, and surprisingly, low-key and no-one overplays their hand. Crowe hasn't been this good in ages, Kidman is her typically wonderful self, Hedges fulfills the promise he showed in "Manchester by the Sea" and Edgerton is marvellous as the unconventional would-be analyst. It could have been more 'exciting', (maybe it's a mite too low-key), but neither is it exploitative or sensationalist and it's good to see a gay-themed film that doesn't follow convention.

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE ***

At 141 minutes it's certainly on the long side and it's not perfect, (mucking about with the time spans and juggling several plots it sometimes feels clever just for the sake of being clever), but nevertheless Drew Goddard's "Bad Times at the El Royale" is still hugely imaginative and really good fun, something most movies  just aren't these days.  The plot or plots may stretch credulity but a terrific cast, (Cynthia Erivo, Chris Hemsworth and Lewis Pullman have the best of it), and Goddard's imagination, (he both wrote and directed it), carry the day and despite its length it moves with the speed of a rollercoaster, pulling a few genuine surprises along the way. Tarantino may have been an influence but Goddard, who also made "Cabin in the Woods", is still going places all on his own.

THE DRIVER ***

A classic cult movie from a classic cult director. You only have to look at the way they describe the cast in the credits, (Ryan O'Neal as The Driver, Bruce Dern as The Detective, Isabelle Adjani as The Player etc.), as well as a parred down plot bordering on the existentialist to figure out it was destined for cult status. It's certainly not a conventional thriller as Dern's dogged cop goes all out to bring down O'Neal's almost silent driver and basically that's it; one great chase after another and some of the best stunt driving in the movies. Add to this Hill's brusque, hard-boiled dialogue and good performances all round, (O'Neal's superb and we should also mention Ronee Blakley, wasted in too small a role, as well as the always reliable Matt Clark), and you have a movie worthy of its reputation. Nicolas Winding Refn paid homage to it when he made "Drive" with another Ryan as the driver.

ALL IS TRUE no stars

You certainly can't fault the look of Kenneth Branagh's "All is True" or Branagh's desire to get it right. This is his film about the last days of a certain William Shakespeare, Esquire, playwright and poet of this parish and Branagh plays Shakespeare, (naturally). The script is by Ben Elton and it does feel like one artist's, (or in this case, two artist's), tribute to another though it's clear that Elton and Branagh are no Bards. This may be a gorgeous looking film, well acted, especially by Ian McKellen as the Earl of Southampton and the object of Will's deepest affection, (it would appear Mr Shakespeare was at least bisexual), but otherwise very much on the dull side. There is drama to be had from the material, (intrigues etc. amongst the family), but it never comes to life. This is an airless film that just about creeps along. Kudos and prizes certainly to Cinematographer Zac Nicholson; otherwise very much a waste of time.

THE LAUNDROMAT *

A tragic accident on a lake in which 21 people died is the catalyst that kicks off this surreal comedy-drama about the Mossack-Fonseca scandal and what came to be known as the Panama Papers. It's certainly entertaining but too cartoonish, (not to mention, too complicated), to really hit home despite an all-star cast headed by Meryl Streep as a woman whose husband was one of the lake victims and whose digging into what turned out to be one hell of a giant fraud brought matters to a head.

Others involved include Gary Oldman, (outstanding), as Mossack and Antonio Banderas as Fonseca as well as Sharon Stone, David Schwimmer, Jeffrey Wright and Matthias Schoenaerts. The director is Steven Soderbergh and this is one of his 'entertainments' but it's one of his lesser ones. It's like an illustrated lecture but one where the lecturer is so unsure of his material he has to keep cracking jokes, not all of them that funny. It's certainly not a complete disaster but once it's over you're unlikely to remember a single moment.

A WALK IN THE SPRING RAIN no stars

Terrible! This middle-aged romance served as a late vehicle for Ingrid Bergman as a professor's wife who embarks on a disastrous affair with a Tennessee Mountain Man, (an over-the-top Anthony Quinn in full-throttle Zorba mode). It was based on a novel by Rachel Maddux which Stirling Silliphant thought enough of to produce and do the screenplay but by 1970 love stories were for the Ryan O'Neals and Ali McGraws of this world and not for a couple of over-the-hill old fogeys from yesteryear so the film flopped and disappeared. As Bergman's husband, Fritz Weaver isn't at all bad but otherwise "A Walk in the Spring Rain" is a film no-one might want to keep on their C.V's.

ZOMBI CHILD ****

Beginning in Haiti in the early sixties, "Zombi Child" deals with voodoo and is one of the best and most poetic horror films in many a moon. It is obvious from the title and the setting that we are meant to think of a much earlier film with a similar setting but that would appear to be where the comparisons with Jacques Tourneur's "I Walked with a Zombie" ends for in the next scene we are in contemporary France and a group of schoolgirls are being taught French history in a very white classroom.

What follows is a deliciously unsettling movie that manages to encompass the pains of teenage romance with a tale of the 'undead' as a metaphor for colonialism and it actually works. I can't think of too many examples in recent cinema where two opposing themes have been as beautifully united as they are here. In some ways it's closer to something like "The Neon Demon" or the recent remake of "Suspiria" than it is to Val Lewton. Here is a film with a creeping sense of dread, (we've all seen films in which schoolgirls are not as sweet as they appear to be), and the grand guignol finale is as spooky as a good horror movie should be. It also confirms director Bertrand Bonello as one of the most exciting talents working anywhere today.

BEANPOLE ****

Russia in the days immediately following the end of World War II. Two young women, scarred from the horrors they have encountered, do what they can to survive in what, fundamentally, is a living hell. "Beanpole" is every bit as depressing as that short synopsis might suggest. It's also only the second feature from the young Russian director Kantemir Balagov, (he's not yet thirty), who might yet turn out to be the greatest Russian filmmaker since Tarkovsky and like Tarkovsky he certainly doesn't believe in compromising.

This is a grim but deeply humanist picture, deeply engaged with its devastated characters. Shot in rigorous close-up with an astonishing use of colour and magnificently played by Vikoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelyygina as the two women in question this is great cinema and a welcome relief from so much of the highly commercial crap that Hollywood turns out these days though being Russian and 'art-house' this will never get the audience it deserves. Nevertheless, Russia thought enough of it to put it forward as their entry for this years Foreign (now 'International') Film Oscar. It would certainly be a very worthy winner.

THE TAMARIND SEED ***

One of Blake Edwards' best and certainly one of his most underrated films, "The Tamarind Seed" is equal parts romantic drama and suspenseful spy movie. Julie Andrews works for the Home Office and Omar Sharif is the Russian Military Attache who meet while on holiday in the Caribbean and whose relationship comes under scrutiny from both sides of the political divide. An outstanding supporting cast, (Anthony Quayle, Dan O'Herlihy, Sylvia Syms, Oscar Homolka), Freddie Young's widescreen cinematography and director Edwards' highly intelligent screenplay are all major pluses while both Andrews and Sharif are excellent as the mismatched lovers. In fact, this is just the kind of film Mr. Hitchcock might have made at one time and Mr. Edwards certainly doesn't let the side down. A hugely satisfying film on every level.

THE MIND OF MR. SOAMES ***

A new take on the Frankenstein myth. Terence Stamp is the man in a coma since birth but kept alive in a kind of oxygen tank, who is awakened after 30 years. Alan Cooke's "The Mind of Mr. Soames" is an unusually intelligent piece of sci-fi which, like Mary Shelley's novel, is really about the relationship between the doctor who 'awakens' him and his 'creature' , the unfortunate Mr Soames who might have been better off had he been left in his tank. In these roles Robert Vaughan, (the doctor), and in particular Stamp, (Soames), are excellent. If the plot proceeds along a somewhat predictable path, the superb handling and good performances all round, more than redeem it. Not really a success when it came out, it is now destined for cult status.

DAY OF ANGER **

As was so often the case, the only thing that lets this spaghetti western down is the atrocious dubbing. Otherwise Tonino Valerii's "Day of Anger" is a remarkably fine and suitably violent addition to the genre with Giuliano Gemma's garbage-boy being taught the art of gun-figting by gunslinger Lee Van Cleef. The setting is one of those corrupt western towns where almost everyone's a villain so when they get their come-uppence you can't help but feel a degree of satisfaction.

Van Cleef may not be much of an actor but he had real star presence and he's at his best here. It's harder to judge Gemma's performance since it's not his voice we are hearing but he was certainly photogenic and handles the role with aplomb. Enzo Serafin was responsible for the superb widescreen cinematography, (it was shot in Spain), and, perhaps not surprisingly, the film has built up something of a cult reputation.

BORN TO KILL **

Excellent, now totally forgotten Robert Wise thriller. The plot may be on the preposterous side, (Claire Trevor is the divorcee who gets involved with a double-murderer who has an eye on her foster-sister's money). Lawrence Tierney is the killer and it's a nice, tough performance from an underrated actor but this is basically Trevor's film; she's as hard as nails and while she may appear to be 'the victim', she's really a rattlesnake with a nice touch in hats. There's also a very good supporting cast that includes Walter Slezak, Elisha Cook Jr., (do he and Tierney really share a bed!), Esther Howard and Philip Terry. Indeed, this is perfect noir terrirtory even when it goes off the rails and is full of characters rotten to the core. The source material was James Gunn's novel 'Deadlier than the Male' and the first-rate script is by Eve Green and Richard Macauley.

HALLOWEEN *

Yep, it's October 31st but 40 years later and Michael Meyers has escaped, (again).  Jamie Lee Curtis is now the grandmother and naturally she's mad, bad and dangerous to know, spouting cliches by the dozen, but this "Halloween" is more of a remake that a sequel to Carpenter's masterpiece so it's basically business as usual. For a film like this to work we don't really need surprises but we do need shocks and unfortunately David Gordon Greeen doesn't seem to be the man to deliver them.

Carpenter had the knack of scaring the living daylights out of us, mainly by a judicious use of the widescreen; Green just pours on the bloodletting. That said, this is still one of the better films in the franchise; a little bit of what we already know certainly comes in handy. Unfortunately, apart from Curtis no-one else makes much of an impact and it's sad to see Will Patton wasted as an over-the-hill policeman. What's even sadder is there's two more movies in the pipeline.

TWO SHOTS FIRED ***

Starting with a very unlikely premise, (16 year old Mariano finds a gun and for no apparent reason shoots himself twice but survives), Martin Rejtman's "Two Shots Fired" then proceeds off in all manner of different directions as the people in Mariano's orbit, (family, friends, acquaintances and people he doesn't know at all), come and go and communicate in short sentences as if to the beat of a metronome. You could say it's a movie about 'real life' but not as we know it, neither a comedy nor a tragedy but some strange hybrid of both with Rejtman cementing his reputation as the Argentinian Kaurismaki. The one-note performances are pitch-perfect though it is hard to feel anything for anyone just as it's almost impossible to identify with any of the characters. That said, it's totally unlike anything else; from shot to shot you're never quite sure where it's going to go next. Quite wonderful, in fact, if you're in the right mood.

NO DOWN PAYMENT **

It may not be Peyton Place but this tight-knit Californian community is still plagued by marital infidelity, heavy drinking, domestic abuse, rape and, of course, racial prejudice. Martin Ritt's "No Down Payment" benefits from being well-written, (Philip Yordan), nicely photographed in black-and-white Cinemascope, (Joseph LaShelle), and it features a good cast of up-and-coming Fox stars headed by Joanne Woodward, (very good), though it's Tony Randall and Pat Hingle who walk off with the picture. Considered very daring and adult in its day, it now seems pretty tame but it did pave the way for a number of 'grown-up' American movies in the late fifties and early sixties and is actually a very good example of its kind. Worth rediscovering.

STREET SMART *

"Street Smart" is a mostly mediocre movie, (most Globus and Golan productions were mediocre movies), directed by Jerry Schatzberg, (I expected more from the man who made "Scarecrow" and "The Panic in Needle Park"), that still managed to pick up a slew of acting prizes thanks to Morgan Freeman and Kathy Baker, both excellent as a murderous pimp and one of the women who works for him. Between them, they just about redeem an extremely far-fetched story about a journalist, (Christopher Reeves, far from his best), who makes up a story about a New York pimp that is taken to be true by the Establishment and in particular by the courts. There is something rather unpleasant about the stereotyping in a movie that, I gather, is really about the dismantling of stereotypes. It's Reeves' character who comes up with name 'Street Smart' for the title of his article; Street Stupid would have been more appropriate.

TICKET TO HEAVEN no stars

It's not terrible but it's not good either. "Ticket to Heaven" came out at a time when 'cults' were the new 'Big Thing' or maybe just the next Big Thing, a scary alternative to Hippiedom. It's the story of David, (handsome, vacant Nick Mancuso), who is sucked into one such cult but is then 'kidnapped' by his friends and family and deprogrammed. It's heart is obviously in the right place but the treatment is mediocre. As an 'anti-cult' movie it's no better than the kind of propoganda a cult itself might produce on the cheap, poorly written, directed and acted and in hindsight it's hard to believe that people actually took it seriously. These cultists are more like the Brady Bunch pretending to be the Adams Family.

KRAMER VS. KRAMER ***

It may not be the masterpiece many people claimed of it when it first opened but "Kramer vs. Kramer" is still one of the finest, grown-up American pictures of its decade. It could have been unbearably cute but writer/director Robert Benton, adapting Avery Corman's novel, approaches the subject with such a degree of honesty it is both unsentimental and very moving; he even manages to get a great performance from seven year old Justin Henry as the child caught in the middle of a bitter divorce, (he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor).

Of course, at its heart is a magnificent performance from Dustin Hoffman as the single father, doing a remarkable job of raising his son when his wife, (relative newcomer Meryl Streep), walks out on him in order to 'find herself'. The plot involves Streep's attempt to gain custody of young Henry a year after leaving him. This was Meryl's first Oscar winning performance, (in the supporting actress category), but I find her work here highly mannered. Much better is Jane Alexander as a friend and neighbour who comes to Hoffman's rescue; hers is a lovely, natural performance, totally without affectation.

A good deal of the film's strength lies in the little domestic details of Hoffman's relationship with his son and in the way Hoffman deals with the issues confronting him. Seldom has a Best Actor Oscar been more richly deserved. It's also a great New York picture; Nestor Almendros did the superb cinematography. Unfortunately Benton never lived up to the promise he showed here and in his earlier films, "The Late Show" and "Bad Company" and has done nothing comparable since. No masterpiece then but a good, strong American drama that is still well worth seeking out.