tick, tick...BOOM! *

 Jonathan Larson, in case you don't know, was the guy who wrote that mega and award-winning hit "Rent" but who was already dead from a brain aneurysm before the opening night. You might call it a tragic success story since Larson never lived long enough to know how much he was appreciated though if Lin-Manuel Miranda's film "tick, tick...BOOM!" is anything to go by Larson always knew just how good he was. He may never have been a 'success' during his lifetime but he was clearly gifted, (Sondheim was a fan), and not lacking in self-confidence.

The movie itself is based on Larson's less well known musical autobiography, a kind of one-man show complete with backing singers and band and Miranda opens it out very nicely so we aren't stuck watching a guy performing in a theatre and as rock-cum-broadway showtunes musicals go, it isn't half bad.

Larson, himself, is played by Andrew Garfield, a remarkably talented actor who can now add a fine singing voice to his CV. Unfortunately, he is also extremely annoying. If this was what Larson was really like let's say I find his brand of chutzpah very grating and Garfield lays it on with a trowel. Yes, it's nice his story is finally being told but I just wish I could have liked him more.

BEING THE RICARDOS ***

 The Ricardos, in case you don't know, were Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, probably the hottest married couple in America in the '50's and certainly the hottest married couple on television and Aaron Sorkin's excellent new film, "Being the Ricardos" is about one week in their lives, a week that began when Walter Winchell announced that Ball was a member of the Communist Party, (and this was during the blacklist), so Sorkin's film isn't a comedy, (though it is often funny), but another political picture from one of America's prime specialists in political pictures.

It's also a memory piece as a few of Lucy and Desi's collaborators in the present look back, not just at the week in question, but further back into the lives of the couple. We see their meeting and follow Ball's career; some of these flashbacks work and some don't. There is, of course, the potential for mawkishness but Sorkin is much too acerbic and canny a writer for that and, as he showed in "The Trial of the Chicago Seven", he's a fine director of actors. Nicole Kidman, in particular, is outstanding as Ball, sometimes bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Lucy I remember from television and while Javier Bardem may not look much like Arnaz he turns in yet another fine performance though it is Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance who almost walks off with the picture.

The period detail, too, is perfectly realised and there are brilliant recreations of some of the television shows that made Desi and Lucy, (and the fictional Ricardos),that most beloved of couples. Unfortunately, while the film is clearly a labour of love for Sorkin is it enough to ensure its success at the box-office? It's certainly relevant; the scars that America suffered during Trump's presidency haven't really healed and much of what's happening in America and American show-biz today, bears a disturbing similarity to the age of McCarthyism. At least Ball and Arnaz challenged the conventions of the time and won and Sorkin's heartfelt film is a tribute to their tenacity. Sadly, what they couldn't heal was the minefield that was their marriage and they divorced shortly after the events displayed but this isn't a sad movie; on the contrary, this pertinent film has its own sense of uplift and is a credit to Sorkin, Kidman, Bardem and all concerned.

LA RELIGIEUSE ****

 I'm not quite sure how seriiously Diderot meant his text to be taken when he wrote his novel "La Religieuse"; it's certainly anti-clerical and it did provoke a scandal. Here was a tale of savagery and what was perceived as sexual perversity within the Catholic Church and amongst nuns no less and, of course, the story told in "La Religieuse" can shock us even now even if we are a little more sophisticated.

Jacques Rivete filmed Diderot's "La Religieuse", (English title, "The Nun"), in 1966 and it's a classic, certainly one of the key French films of the period. It's the story of a young 19th century French girl with no prospects of marriage put, like so many of her contemporaries, into a convent. However, Susanne, (a never better Anna Karina), is a rebel and her rebellion takes the form of a lawsuit against her convent so that she can renounce her vows and go back into the world. However, the nuns have other ideas and she is subjected to all the horrors they can inflict on her.

When she loses her case she is transferred to a, let's call it a more 'open prison', where the nuns gambol and frolic like gay versions of the sisters in "The Sound of Music" and where the Mother Superior takes a more than motherly interest in Susanne and where even the local priest takes a less than religious fancy to her. The contrast to her former convent is deliciously perverse; religion is scorned and debauchary championed and poor Susanne is torn between the devil and the deep.

Rivette, of coursem films all this in his typrically austere style drawing excellent performances from his largely female cast and certainly giving it 'the look' of a proper period piece. It's also one of his most accessible films though it was never likely to pack the local cinema on a Saturday night. This is art-house fare of the best kind; intelligent and gripping and its reputation is richly deserved.

FEAR STRIKES OUT **

 "Fear Strikes Out" was both a sports film and a film about mental illness, topics that were fashionable when the film was made. It was also director Robert Mulligan's first film and it gave Anthony Perkins his first starring role. It could just as easily have been called 'The Jim Piersall Story' as it deals with the early career of the Red Sox player who fought mental illness for a good part of his life and the film makes no qualms about laying the blame at the feet of his domineering father, played by Karl Malden.

Knowing nothing about the real Jim Piersall I can't say how accurately Perkins embodies the role. He does seem a somewhat awkward athlete but is often superb in his more psychotic moments. Perkins was always a somewhat unlikely star; tall, gangly, good-looking and at least bisexual. I'm sure the studios must have wondered what to do with him and it took Hitchcock to find the perfect part. Unfortunately, after "Psycho" he was basically Norman Bates for the rest of his career. Mulligan, fresh from television, handles the fairly obvious material with some skill and did at least secure a nomination from the Director's Guild. Minor, perhaps, but still worth seeing.

SPENCER ****

The first thing you have to get your head around is that Pablo Larrain's new film "Spencer" isn't 'about' Princess Diana, at least not in any literal sense, although Diana herself is never off the screen. Perhaps a title at the beginning, 'a fable based on a true tragedy', is the clue. This is a fantasy or maybe simply a tragedy, (of the Shakespearean variety), in which everything is filtered through the gaze and the mind of a mad Princess of Wales, (Hamlet and the Court at Elsinore as imagined, rather than actually seen, by Ophelia). Larrain and screenwriter Steven Knight's Diana may as well be a fictional character since nothing we see is 'real' even if some of it may be true.

It's set over the three days of Christmas at Sandringham, presumably after Charles and Diana have separated and Diana has returned for the holidays. In this version of events, that clearly never happened, she is already deeply disturbed, blaming the Royal Family and Charles' affair with Camilla for everything. The only affection she gets is from her two sons and her servants, particularly her dresser, (a superb Sally Hawkins). Her in-laws hover in the background like zombies ready to devour her and like zombies are mostly silent with only Charles and the Queen, (as well as William and Harry), given anything to say, (Charles tries to be sympathetic, the Queen doesn't). "The Crown" this isn't. Knight has no sympathy for any of them though it's never clear if he believes that they were responsible for Diana's supposed breakdown, Only dresser Maggie, (Hawkins), head chef Darren, (Sean Harris), and senior equerry Major Gregory. (a brilliant Timothy Spall), are prepared to indulge her and let her go her own way.

Of course, none of it is true. This could be any woman having a serious mental breakdown anywhere and at anytime and stylistically this is a tour-de-force built around a phenomenal performance by Kristin Stewart as Diana. Yes, she captures the mannerisms perfectly but is there any evidence that Diana was as off-the-rails as she's presented as being here and while the Royal Family are certainly as dysfunctional as any dysfunctional family could be, I've never for a moment believed they were ever this cold, (this is the chilliest Christmas of any screen Christmas I've seen), but this is not the point.

The fault lines governing relationships and the fragility of human behaviour is what has always interested Larrain and this film is no different. Despite streaks of humour this is far from comfortable viewing and it's unlikely it will prove popular at the box-office. Stewart's Oscar, however, is virtually guaranteed; this is as fine a piece of acting as I've ever seen and other Oscar contenders such as Jessica Chastain and Lady Gaga will have to resign themselves that 2021 just wasn't their year.

 

UNHINGED **

 The title says it all and with Russell Crowe in the lead you really should know what you've let yourself in for. He's the one who's "Unhinged", taking a very bad case of road rage out on poor Caren Pistorious. Mr Crowe has come a long way in his career and it's been mostly downhill, both in the looks department and in the acting stakes. Ok, so he was never Larry Olivier but back in the day old Russell had been known to carry a movie, even managing to pick up an Oscar along the way and to his credit he does bring a kind of Old Testament fury to his role as the mad motorist.

Derrick Borte's film kicks off in fine fashion. The pre-credit sequence shows just how unhinged Russell is while the credits themselves, a melange of violent, mostly road-rage incidents, sets the tone for what follows and as dumb, crazy psycho-killer movies go this piece of schlock-horror isn't at all bad. At least it does what it says on the tin and at under ninety minutes it never outstays its welcome. Check your brains at the door and there's a very good chance you'll actually enjoy this.

THE FRENCH DISPATCH **

 It's being described as the most "Andersonian', (am I making these words up just the way Wes does), of Wes Anderson's films and yes, "The French Dispatch" really is the synthesis of everything that's come before but rather than his masterpiece it looks like he may finally have run out of ideas. It's certainly his most visually striking film; image after image dazzles the eye and the technique is typically sublime but this most overt homage to 'The New Yorker' and its ilk is seriously short on substance.

We're meant to be somewhere within the pages of the magazine known as 'The French Dispatch' and yes, this originally based Kansas publication is now situated in the city of Ennui-sur-Blase, (so Wes can pay homage to Tati). What we get is an obituary, a brief travel guide and three stories. The obituary is for the editor, (Bill Murray, one of the few performers in a massively starry cast to actually make an impression), and the stories are taken from various sections of the magazine.

The first one, about a painter, (Benicio Del Toro), incarcerated in an asylum for the criminally insane, is a visual treat and is 'narrated' by its author, (a sublime Tilda Swinton). The bits with Tilda are in colour, the rest in black and white but the tale itself is even more inconsequential than what we're used to from Anderson. It's followed by a piece by Frances McDormand based around student revolt and starring a dull and seemingly disinterested Timothee Chalamet. I wasn't quite sure how long this story lasted but I was seriously bored by the end.

The third, (and best), is the work of a James Baldwinesque writer, very nicely played by Jeffrey Wright and is both the most frivolous and the most complex of the three stories with Anderson making brilliant use of animation to bolster the visual effect. There are moments here worth the price of admission; indeed there are moments scattered through this most Andersonian of films as good as anything in his canon but ultimately this is a film to look at rather than listen to. It would make a great coffee-table book as the covers of 'The French Dispatch' which accompany the end credits clearly shows. As for the movie itself, it certainly scores an A for effort but for everything else I'm afraid it's only a C+ this time round.

HOLY MATRIMONY **

 John M. Stahl's "Holy Matrimony" isn't much of a movie but it's a great vehicle for its stars, Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields. Based on Arnold Bennett's novel "Buried Alive" it's a comedy of mistaken identity. When his butler dies, painter Woolley allows everyone to think that it was he who died and when the butler is buried in Westminster Abbey Woolley assumes his identity and later marries the widow, (a splendid Fields), the butler was courting by correspondence. It's very funny in its daft way and is splendidly cast throughout. Nunnally Johnson was the producer and wrote the screenplay and does a very good job on both accounts. Minor it may be but it's very likeable.

LIMBO ****

 Ben Sharrock's absolutely superb new movie "Limbo" manages to be politically prescient while still channelling all the attributes of an Ealing comedy. The setting is a fictional Scottish island, as remote as they come, where asylum seekers wait, in a kind of limbo, to find out if their applications to come to live in the UK are successful. It's hero is Omar, (Amir El-Masry, excellent), a young Syrian who finds his new, hopefully temporary Scottish home, a place as alien as any on the planet. His loneliness is alleviated when he falls in with three other asylum seekers. He also has a gift for music, (he plays the oud), and it is this that finally sustains him and lifts him beyond the bleakness of a Scottish winter and the situation he finds himself in.

This is definitely a minimalist movie, a throwback in its way to the days of Bill Forsyth, and it certainly won't make anyone rush off to visit the islands of North and South Uist, Berneray and Benbecula, (whatever beauties they may have are hidden in the mist, the rain, the snow and the sea-spray). It's also very funny at times in its surreal fashion as well as heartbreakingly sad and it's superbly shot in the Academy ratio which gives the enclosed, claustrophobic feelings of its characters room to breathe but exploding, magnificently, into widescreen at a crucial moment and is further proof, should you need it, that British cinema is alive and kicking.

STATIONS OF THE CROSS ***

 Using an almost totally static camera director Dietrich Bruggemann divides his film into fourteen chapters, each one based on a particular station of the cross as young Maria prepares for confirmation. She's Catholic but belongs to a particular branch of the Church, (based on the Society of Saint Pius X), that believes some of the current Catholic teaching is wrong, a branch of Catholicism that is, perhaps, closer to puritanism. It is a rigorous approach to a rigorous subject and in filming it this way, Bruggemann puts his actors centre stage, particularly Lea can Acker who, as Maria, is never really off screen. Also by shooting it this way he could be making a documentary or simply filming a play. When the camera finally does move it comes as something of a shock.

You also know from the film's title, "Stations of the Cross", that Maria's journey will be a physical one as much as a spiritual one and will involve pain of one kind or another and Bruggemann certainly puts us through the mill. You can't make a film based on the stations of the cross without making your audience suffer. Mercifully, we aren't talking Gibson's The Passion of the Christ" here but this is still a disturbing picture. It's also a superb one and it does mark Bruggemann out as one of German cinema's most prodigious talents. See this.

KAJILLIONAIRE ****

 Miranda July's sublime, off-the-wall comedy stars an almost unrecognizable Debra Winger, (she's become the new Ruth Gordon), and Richard Jenkins as the world's seemingly two worst petty criminals, Evan Rachel Wood as their sullen, withdrawn daughter known only as Old Dolio and a superb Gina Rodriguez as the Puerto Rican girl they recruit or rather who recruits them.

Being a Miranda July picture you know this won't conform to other movies about crime or criminals. It's very funny in an almost surreal fashion and its LGBT subplot fits perfectly into the scenario. It's also surprisingly touching and while it may not appeal to a multiplex crowd it's still a little gem that has cult movie written all over it.

THE DRY *

 I'm sure the Australian outback isn't quite as bad as it's painted in the movies but in film after film it seems to be a landscape full of ignorant rednecks, or whatever the Aussie equivalent is, who are capable of the most extreme violence at the drop of a wide-brimmed hat. The latest addition to what is now almost a genre in its own right is Robert Connolly's "The Dry" which begins with an apparent murder/suicide and continues with the subsequent investigation by city cop and friend of the family involved, Eric Bana, still looking remarkably fresh-faced at fifty-two. It's an investigation that's tied up with the death of another girl years before and in which Bana may have been involved.

It's a slow-paced, reasonably well-acted movie, beautifully shot by Stefan Duscio. The problem is we've been here before. I know there's nothing new under the sun but a good murder mystery needs originality  and a bit of a kick and this doesn't really have either. It's certainly very watchable and it never insults our intelligence; it's just never very exciting. The title, "The Dry", refers to the fact that it hasn't rained in almost a year.

TROUBLE IN MIND no stars

 If you can imagine a cross between "Bagdad Cafe" and "1984" done as a gangster flic you might be half way to getting Alan Rudolph's "Trouble in Mind", that is if you really want to get it. Most people didn't which is hardly surprising since this virtually plotless film smacks of the worst kind of art-house pretentiousness that mid-eighties American cinema could come up with. Rudolph directs it skilfully enough; the problem lies with his dreadful screenplay which doesn't allow talented performers like Kris Kristofferson, Genevieve Bujold, Keith Carradine, Lori Singer and Joe Morton the opportunity to develop their one-dimensional characters though Dirk Blocker and an almost unrecognizable Divine make for a couple of entertaining gangsters.

It's all set around Bujold's coffee-house in Rain City, (Seattle, actually), where the lives of the various characters come together but these aren't lives you can get involved with. This is a movie that doesn't work as a comedy, a drama or a thriller; it's nothing really except a waste of two hours of your life. The only plus is another splendid Mark Isham score and Marianne Faithful's voice on the soundtrack.

NO TIME TO DIE ****

 They tried to tell us it's too long and at 163 minutes "No Time to Die" is indeed the longest of the Bond movies but don't let that colour your judgement; this is still one hell of a rollercoaster ride and if Daniel Craig, in his final appearance as Commander Bond, is looking his age, remember he's now 'retired' and probably closer in demeanour to a middle-aged spy than at any time in the franchise. You must also remember that the Craig Bond's, unlike those of his predecessors, have followed a trajectory from "Casino Royale", (the first of the Ian Fleming novels), right through to the present, each one a kind of sequel to the one before and while Craig may not be everyone's favourite Bond he is, at least, unique in that respect. You might even say the entire Bond saga belongs to him.

The next point to consider, of course, is is it any good or rather is it as good as the others and the answers to both questions is a resounding yes. This is an action flic of the first order, exciting, funny and, for the most part, intelligent. It's also surprisingly old-fashioned. Here is a Bond movie that goes back to the roots of the franchise, all the way to "Dr. No" in fact. The gadgets are still there and used to good effect but this is a much more character driven piece and in Rami Malek it has one of the great Bond villains, (could Malek become the first Bond villain to pick up an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor?).

Admittedly the plot is quite far-fetched. We may not be in "Moonraker" territory but you may still have to see the film twice just to figure out what's going on. Also in keeping with previous Craig Bond's it's not afraid to introduce plot twists that should have a lasting impact on the series, presuming, of course, that the producers wish audiences to take any forthcoming films seriously. In what we now know will be his last appearance in the role it would be nice to say that this is Craig's film and while he certainly brings gravitas to the part it is Malek who steals the movie and if the film itself isn't quite the best of the series it's certainly up there. If this doesn't bring the punters in, nothing will.

EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE *

 "East Side, West Side"; the title, of course, refers to New York but this is no "Street Scene" and there's hardly a tenement in sight. This is Manhattan and these are the socialites whose apartments overlook the park and the river. Yes, we're in high society where James Mason is married to Barbara Stanwyck but is inclined to dally with Ava Gardner and yes, this is a star-filled Manhattan that also includes the likes of Van Heflin, Cyd Charisse, Gale Sondergaard, (as Stanwyck's mother despite being only eight years older), as well as a certain former First Lady. Mervyn LeRoy directed and Isobel Lennart wrote the screenplay from Marcia Davenport's best-selling novel. It's also a very studio-based New York and the tale, which also involves murder, never rises above the level of soap-opera. The classy cast just about saves it.

THE GREEN KNIGHT no stars

 You would have to go back to "Excalibur" to find an Arthurian movie that looked or sounded remotely like David Lowery's "The Green Knight". This is the Middle-Ages as gritty and downright dirty as they come, (think Richard Lester or "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"), while still aiming to deliver the fantastical, magical goods a genre picture like this requires.

The hero of our tale is Gawain, (Dev Patel, excellent given the material he has to work with), who, in the film's opening scene, becomes something of a hero after defeating the Green Knight who has challenged him to a Christmas duel in what appears to be the court of King Arthur but there's a catch; there's an addendum to the duel and Gawain's life isn't quite the same afterwards as he rides off to meet the Green Knight for round two the following Christmas.

Lowery's film is certainly no "Ivanhoe" but an adult fairy-tale that deliberately sets out to alienate a mass audience. This is an art-house movie that might please the critics but is unlikely to prove popular at the box-office. Indeed it's hard to figure out exactly what audience it's aimed at.

Visually, it's often remarkable, again mixing fantasy and realism to good effect. The cast are also well chosen but, Patel aside, are given very little to do though that most brilliant of young Irish actors, Barry Keoghan, has no trouble stealing the movie in his couple of scenes. The real problem lies both in the film's length and almost total lack of action. Gawain's adventures are singularly unadventurous and ultimately the film comes across as both boring and pretentious, unforgiveable sins in a film of this kind. Still I can see Razzie glory come the awards season.

BROTHER ***

 This Russian film about a young hitman in St. Petersburg could just as easily have been set in London or New York; killing for profit's the same everywhere, isn't it, and yet Aleksey Balabanov's terrific thriller "Brother" seems peculiarly Russian. You wouldn't really find these characters in London or New York and what happens here wouldn't necessarily happen there, at least not in this fashion.

Danila, (Sergey Bodrov, excellent) is a young ex-soldier who gets into trouble at home so his mother packs him off to live with his older, well-off brother in St. Petersburg. The thing is, however, big brother is a hitman and very soon Danila is, too. The thrills Balabanov serves up aren't the ones you expect. This is a character study like Melville's "Le Samourai" but our young anti-hero is a rank amateur compared with Delon, although he does know his way around a gun. Danilo thinks he's a big shot but he's just another young boy with a passion for rock music, (the film has a terrific score). Even the ending isn't the conventional one. See this.

THE STRANGE COLOUR OF YOUR BODY'S TEARS no stars

 Anyone who's seen "Amer" will know what to expect...or maybe not, since Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani's "The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears" takes giallo-homage weirdness to new heights. We're in visual and audio overdrive here; this is like Argento on acid. It may not make much sense, if any, but then dreams and nightmares very seldom do and this is a fever-dream of a movie.

There's no point in even attempting to describe what passes for a plot; best to just let it all pass over you like the body's tears of the title. Giallo may be the most obvious influence but this horror movie isn't aimed at a mass audience and it will have a very limited appeal. It may look like brilliant cinema from a couple who clearly know their stuff but I found it very difficult to sit through and, worst of all, it seems endless.

AMER **

 Ten minutes in and you can see that "Amer" has all the makings of a genre classic, not that much of what you're watching makes any kind of literal sense. A little girl, Ana, is experiencing the terrors of the adult world around her in a series of superbly edited, fragmented shots. There is very little dialogue; we see things through the eyes of this child. The genre in question is the horror movie, or perhaps more specifically the 'giallo'. "Amer" hails from Belgium and marks the debut of its co-directors Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani but it could just as easily have been made by Argento.

Here is a film about sex and death and the monsters that lurk in our imagination and in our nightmares and it covers three stages in Ana's life; childhood, adolescence and maturity. Of course, it won't appeal to everyone and you will never see it down in your local multiplex but it's a bold and often brilliant piece of cinema, stunningly shot in widescreen by Manuel Dacosse, (each chapter in Ana's life has its own distinctive look). Catch it if you can.

OF MICE AND MEN ***

 

American poetry and one of the best of all screen adaptations from literature. Lewis Milestone made "Of Mice and Men" in 1939 and it's a beautiful piece of work, a classic. This version sticks closely to the theatrical adaptation and it's a great actor's piece. Burgess Meredith is George and Lon Chaney Jr. Is the slow-witted, gentle giant Lenny and they are both superb but then they are only part of a great ensemble that includes Roman Bohnen, magnificent as Candy, Charles Bickford as Slim, Leigh Whipper as Crooks, Bob Steele as Curly and Betty Field as Curly's wife. It was also that rare thing for the time, an intelligent, adult entertainment that eschewed melodrama; it's a genuine American tragedy and it can take its place beside John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath" as the perfect screen version of a Steinbeck novel. The original score, which is wonderful, is by Aaron Copland.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM *

 Quite honestly, this is a pretty terrible film; more high camp Hollywood than the Bard of Stratford-On Avon and yet this production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", co-directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, has its moments, at least when the players are on screen, (the simpering Athenian lovers are something of a comedown even if Olivia De Havilland does make for a lovely Hermia while the fairies are just strange and not in a good way).

Reinhardt did it originally on stage and this is that version with added special effects and some very good Oscar-winning cinematography by Hal Mohr. It's got an all-star cast though most of them are clearly unsuited to Shakespeare, (Dick Powell claimed he didn't actually understand what he was saying), yet the two best performances are perhaps the most unlikely. James Cagney gets to display his magnificent Bottom and a fifteen year old Mickey Rooney makes for a delightfully demented Puck. Hardly ever shown now, it's a genuine curiosity but that doesn't mean it's worth seeing.

THE VAULT ***

 I love a really good heist movie because a really good heist movie has to be super-smart as well as exciting if it's to hold our attention and entertain us and the best heist movies are classics of their kind. "The Vault" may not be quite 'classic' material but it's still hugely entertaining, superbly plotted and very exciting. If, on close inspection, the plot has more holes in it than a large Swiss cheese, who cares; this is a guilty pleasure of the most pleasurable kind and one of the best heist movies in a very long time and like a lot of heist movies, especially since the name-checked Danny Ocean hit a few casinos in Vegas, this one has you routing for the thieves.

The boss of the operation is Irish actor Liam Cunningham while gang members include Sam Riley, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Luis Tosar and Alex Stein but the self-appointed mastermind is Freddie Highmore, a twenty-two year old engineering genius whose brain is needed to crack the vault. The setting is Madrid during the World Cup and the job is to retrieve some rare Spanish coins seized by the Spanish government from Cunningham during a salvage operation.

Of course, if you can actually follow what's happening step-by-step you're a smarter cookie than I am but then you don't go to a heist movie to see a step-by-step guide on how to rob a bank; you go for the sheer fun to be had watching others do it and Jaume Balaguero's "The Vault" is a fun movie of the first rank. The only surprise is why it went straight to Amazon, at least here in the UK, as it has box-office success written all over it.

ALIAS NICK BEAL *

 Another variation on 'Faust', this time from John Farrow with a miscast Thomas Mitchell as the Faust character, a decent District Attorney who, somewhat inadvertently, sells his soul to become Governor and Ray Milland as his Mephistopheles, "Alias Nick Beal". It's certainly not in the same class as William Dieterle's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and Milland is unusually stiff as the devilish Beal but its combination of old-fashioned fantasy and film noir still works and even without the direct reference to Old Nick this tale of a good man who sells out is a familiar one. This may not be the best version but the Faust legend has always proved popular and this was no exception, (it's quite highly thought of in some quarters). It's certainly stylish and it looks just fine but the pace is funerally slow and it's left to Audrey Totter as the temptress with a conscience to give the picture what lift she can

I WAS AT HOME, BUT... ***

 The title might make you think of Ozu's masterly tale of childhood "I Was Born, But...", however German director Angela Schanelec's "I Was At Home, But..." is an altogether more challenging affair, typical of the woman who made "The Dreamed Path". It's also a film about childhood, or at least a film with a child as one of its principal protagonists, but this rigorous and admittedly difficult film totally belies any cosiness or sense of closure, turning its attention instead, not so much on the child, but on a distraught mother who appears to be having some sort of breakdown.

Something, perhaps terrible, has happened to the child in question but Schanelec doesn't feel the need to explain it or even to explain the subsequent actions of anyone involved. We seem to have been dropped into the middle of something we don't understand and are left to work things out for ourselves. This is what life is like, she is telling us, not what we usually see when we go to the movies. With only a few films to her credit she is an already established auteur as well as one of cinema's great female directors and her work demands to be seen; just don't expect the obvious or even to be entertained but if you are prepared to enter into her world you will be amply rewarded.

MADCHEN IN UNIFORM ****

 A legend amongst LGBT films, Leontine Sagan's "Madchen in Uniform" is also so much more. This German film, made in 1931, not only presents us with a positive view of a lesbian relationship but it also highly critical of the rules and regulations prevalent in Germany at the time and it's extremely unlikely it would have been made even a few years later.

Set in a German boarding school, standing in for the nation and ruled over with a rod of iron by its disciplinarian headmistress, (Emilia Unda, terrific), a young girl, (Hertha Thiele), falls in love with her teacher, (Dorothea Wieck). That is the film's core but around it swirls a whole host of relationships and incidents, all beautifully handled by first-time director Sagan, (who only made two subsequent films in a very short-lived career). Indeed, on the strength of this film alone it's clear she could have been one of the major film-makers of her generation. All the performances are excellent, particularly that of Thiele as the fourteen year old schoolgirl, (she was actually twenty-three at the time). In some respects this is a film that could sit quite comfortably on a double-bill with Lindsay Anderson's "If..." and its status as a classic is richly deserved.

SHIVA, BABY ****

 

Emma Seligman's "Shiva Baby" is very definitely a movie in miniature, (it only runs for 77 minutes), but its bright, widescreen palette belies the fact as does the immense skill of everyone involved. It's a Jewish comedy of the old school but with a razor sharp edge, (think Elaine May), and it almost all takes place at a shiva, the 'after-party' following a funeral though we are initially introduced to its central character Danielle, (a terrific Rachel Sennott), having sex with her sugar daddy, Max (Danny Deferrori) in his apartment. You see, Danielle supplements her income, the one she gets from her rich parents, as a sex worker, not because she needs the money but because she seems to enjoy it and you can just imagine her reaction when she runs into Max at the shiva with wife and baby in tow.

The film, Seligman's first feature, began life as an 8 minute short which she has now expanded into the cinematic equivalent of a really good short story and as comedies of embarrassment go this is a gem. Sennott is a star in the making but then everyone in this film is pitch-perfect especially Molly Gordon as Danielle's ex-girlfriend, (yes, she's bisexual), and Polly Draper as the archetypal pushy but loving Jewish mother. Throw in a score by Ariel Marx that seems to be priming you for some 'Psycho'-like action and you have one of the very best films of the year.

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY no stars

 If you're wondering what Mick Jagger gets up to when he's not prancing around the stage as a seventy-eight year old Rolling Stone I can tell you he's acting, and not very well, in "The Burnt Orange Heresy". It's based on the book by Charles Willeford and it's about a theft of sorts, here a canvas and it's carried out by a very devious art-critic, (the very unattractive Claes Bang), who is hired to 'steal' it by rich, reclusive Jagger from equally reclusive artist Donald Sutherland, (excellent). Needless to say, things don't go quite according to plan.

It's an interesting yarn that director Giuseppe Capotondi never develops, (he actually makes a thriller plot boring), though the beautiful and talented Elizabeth Debecki almost redeems it when she's on screen but ultimately this is a film with no meat on the bones and it just drifts along to its highly unsatisfying conclusion. Best just give it a miss.

GARDEN OF EVIL **

 Unusual and slightly above average western about three treasure-seekers in Mexico, (Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark and Cameron Mitchell). Who are hired by American woman Susan Hayward to rescue her husband who is trapped in a gold mine in Apache territory. Even if none of the actors are at their best here, director Henry Hathaway keeps things ticking along nicely and it's certainly a handsome looking picture, shot in Cinemascope by Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl Jr. And with a good Bernard Herrmann score. Plot-wise it takes a little while to get going and if the title "Garden of Evil" hints at perhaps something a little more risque than what's delivered it's good matinee fare nevertheless and in the Hathaway canon is certainly undervalued.

UNCLE SILAS *

 As hoary old Victorian melodramas go "Uncle Silas" is as ripe as they come which isn't to say that it's a stinker. It's based on a Sheridan Le Fanu novel so you should have some idea of what to expect and it's been adapted for the screen by Ben Travers. Am eighteen year old Jean Simmons is the heiress who comes to live with her murderous uncle after her father's sudden death. Derrick De Marney camps it up as Uncle Silas and a totally over-the-top Katina Paxinou is Simmons' hard-drinking and scheming governess and they are the most entertaining things in the picture which is actually very handsomely designed and beautifully shot by Robert Krasker. A decent supporting cast that includes John Laurie and Esmond Knight hams it up just as you would expect them to and while anything resembling suspense is conspicuously absent the film is still good daft fun nevertheless.

WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE? ***

 Bernadette is the kind of woman you would cross the road to avoid and who would also cross the road to avoid meeting you and she's just the perfect character for Cate Blanchett to add to her portfolio of oddballs. She's also married to something of an oddball, (Billy Crudup), who's some kind of computer genius and between them they have managed to create a nice, normal teenage daughter, (newcomer Emma Nelson, superb), and they all live in a Seattle mansion that is literally falling apart. But Bernadette isn't just a sociopathic oddball; she is, or was, a great architect who dropped out and whose midlife crisis has lasted a couple of decades.

"Where'd you go, Bernadette" is a Richard Linklater comedy so you know we are in oddball territory to begin with. What you might not realise is that it's also very funny and naturally more than a little sad. It's like a walking, talking New Yorker cartoon brought to glorious life and not just by Blanchett, (no-one does crazy quite like her), Crudup and Nelson but by a terrific supporting cast headed by Kristen Wiig and with pitch-perfect turns from Judy Greer, Zoe Chao, Laurence Fishburne, David Paymer and Steve Zahn. I loved every crazy, off-the-wall and marvellously moving moment.

JERICHOW **

 Yet another variation on "The Postman Always Rings Twice". "Jerichow" is a Christian Petzold film so you know it's going to be a more esoteric, slightly off-the-wall thriller. Petzold is not a conventional director even if his plots tend to be. Thomas, (a taciturn Benno Furmann), a dishonourably discharged Afghanistan veteran, needs a job so after doing a favour for drunken businessman Hilmi Sozer, he ends up working for him and his beautiful, unhappy wife so you can imagine what happens next but, like "Transit", his very un-Casablanca like take on "Casablanca", this doesn't quite stick to the formula and perhaps you can tell that it won't from the unrelated opening scene.

Petzold doesn't really go for the big dramatic flourish so this tale of lust and murderous thoughts is surprisingly low-key but like the James M. Cain novel it's loosely based on, it all ends in tears. Indeed there are times when you wish Petzold would just opt for the more melodramatic course; as a thriller this is just a little short on suspense. The three leads are fine and there's a neat twist or two towards the end giving the film a more tragic dimension a more conventional ending would have lacked. Not Petzold's best film, then, but certainly worth seeing.

YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH **

 Coppola's first film in ten years was this very strange and somewhat unwieldy adaptation of Mircea Eliade's novella about a professor who, after being struck by a bolt of lightening, regresses to a much younger self, (a kind of Benjamin Button in reverse), allowing him to go find his 'lost' love and continue his life studies, beginning during the rise of Nazism in Europe and moving into the atomic age. It's the kind of wordy, literary picture that the American cinema often tackled as if doing us a favour by bringing the great works of literature to the masses and which, in too many cases, were often just clunking bores but then this is Coppola, a man never afraid of experimentation or of taking a risk so "Youth Without Youth" is, if nothing else, a bold movie.

It was a failure, of course. Critics no longer raced to find a lost master making a grand comeback and audiences, the few that went to see it, found it bewildering and bewildering it is. Tim Roth, a great actor who has never really been given his dues, is the professor and he's perfectly cast here but Coppola's screenplay does him no favours while poor Bruno Ganz is straddled with the awkward role of the doctor who helps him while Coppola, who despite his best efforts, is still guilty of literaryitis, (this is wordy in the worst possible way). Who did he think would go to see it? On the plus side, like so much of Coppola's work, it looks terrific. Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. bathes the film in a gorgeous autumnal glow. Yes,  it may ultimately be a failure but it's an honourable one and is still worth seeking out.

FRIENDS WITH MONEY ***

 If this small gem of a movie feels at times like an extended episode of a really rather good television series, don't knock it. Good television these days is often so much better than many mainstream movies. Nicole Holofcener made "Friends with Money" in 2006 and the friends, as we have come to expect from Holofcener, are female though the title is a misnomer since not all the friends have money. They are Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack and Jennifer Aniston and Aniston is the poor one. She's also the single one; the others are married to Simon McBurney, Jason Isaacs and Greg Germann and like all good friends they not only interact but interfere in each other's lives.

As you might also expect from Holofcener, "Friends with Money" is often very funny, touching and whip-smart and all four women are superb with Aniston proving the real surprise. The men mostly trail behind them though Britain's McBurney is excellent as McDormand's husband that everyone just assumes is gay while Scott Caan makes for a terrific sleaze-ball of a personal trainer who will sleep with any woman that moves. Never destined for mainstream success, this may have slipped off the radar but it's a movie that cries out for rediscovery.

THIRST **

 If you know the original source novel it may take you awhile to recognize Zola's "Therese Raquin" in this tale of a vampiric priest, transposed to present day South Korea. The priest is Father Sang-hyun, (a superb Kang-ho Song), whose crisis of faith leads him to take part in a somewhat extreme medical experiment and since this is also a horror film, as well as an off-the-wall adaptation of a literary classic, naturally the experiment goes wrong and very soon the good father is lusting after blood and the nubile young wife, (Kim Ok-bin, also superb), of an old boyhood friend.

"Thirst" is a Chan-wook Park film so you know there will be a lot more sex and blood than religion and its horrors will be poetic as well as extreme. Park may be one of Asian cinema's foremost stylists but you mustn't take any of this too seriously. Since Dracula we've had all sorts of vampires, some exploring the myth with a high degree of seriousness, others poking fun; Park tries to combine the two with a reasonable degree of success. It's certainly stylish and it's certainly different and yes, it even manages to get Zola in there, too. Just don't expect too much of him.

MAGNUM FORCE **

 With a screenplay by John Milius and Michael Cimino, "Magnum Force" really out to be better than it is but then you realise the director is Ted Post so maybe we should be thankful it's as good as it is. Post was a jobbing director of limited talent so you might say he was really only as good as his material. "Magnum Force" was the second, in what turned out to be, the 'Dirty Harry' franchise and as follow-ups, (as opposed to sequels), go this is an enjoyably crude yarn.

This time round a group of rogue cops, (David Soul, Tim Matheson, Kip Niven and Robert Urich), are dispensing their own brand of justice, killing bad guys, (and anyone else who gets in their way), and it's up to Harry to stop them. Are you in any doubt that he would? It's a good plot and, to be fair, Post handles the action sequences with considerable aplomb. Unfortunately Clint walks through it as if on autopilot but then, as actor, he too was really just as good as his material.

ONE FROM THE HEART ****

 When Coppola made "Finian's Rainbow" quite early in his career he took the hokiest of old Broadway shows and revamped it for the hippies so why suppose his next musical would be any different? Knowing that the musical as a genre is pure fantasy from the very start, with "One From the Heart" he created a Las Vegas that didn't exist, (he built it in the studio), with a pair of star-crossed lovers who couldn't sing, or at least didn't sing, but rather than dub them he got Tom Waits to write an original song score and then sing it off-screen with he and Crystal Gale standing in the for leads, Frederic Forrest and Teri Garr.

This was a musical for cineastes and jazz aficionados. It cost a fortune and it lost a fortune and it bankrupted Coppola but it was obviously 'one from the heart', as filled with Coppolaesque passion as his 'Godfather' movies or "Apocalypse Now" and it looks ravishing, (Vittorio Storaro and Ronald V. Garcia did the cinematography and Dean Tavoularis and Angelo Graham designed it).

If Coppola's films can be divided into 'the big successes' and 'the smaller cult movies' then this is the cult movie to end them all. Is it a masterpiece? Perhaps, but I think it is let down just a little by Armyan Bernstein and Coppola's screenplay which is formulaic and banal. Of course, could this be part of the fantasy, Coppola's way of divorcing everything, including what's said, from the real world? Again, perhaps. It's certainly a movie you will either relate to totally or run a mile from but if you liked "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" you'll love this.

DON'T LOOK BACK ****

 D. A. Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" is one of the great documentaries. An intimate portrait of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK it's also one of the few films about 'celebrity' that feels both truthful and unforced. Pennebaker may have idolised Dylan but his film is never sycophantic yet is so deeply affectionate it almost hurts and Pennebaker's use of the close-up is extraordinary. This may have been his way of getting as close to Dylan's 'soul' as was possible since Bob's utterances are, perhaps, less profound that we might expect and it's left to the songs to speak for him.

Dylan, himself, comes across as a likeable, if not always modest, young man, (at one point he compares his singing voice to that of Caruso), easily approachable by fans and the obsequious journalists who seem to want to build him up and pull him down at the same time, clearly not understanding a word he says or sings. Subsequent Dylan films have explored in even greater detail his progress from unkempt youth to Nobel-Prize winning elder statesman but if you really love Dylan this film is the gift that keeps giving.

TEXAS LADY **

 21 years after winning her Oscar as a runaway heiress in "It Happened One Night", Claudette Colbert was the "Texas Lady" who, by rather roundabout means, inherits a newspaper in a small Texas town where she comes up against corrupt cattle barons Ray Collins and Walter Sande and their hired gun Gregory Walcott. If, on the surface, Tim Whelan's western seems like a slight affair, think again. Horace McCoy's screenplay crams more plot into the films 80 odd minutes than most films manage in 3 hours, (and remember he was the author of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?") and while not always the most probable of plots, it's nevertheless very entertaining. Of course, Colbert herself was always one of the most likeable and watchable actresses ever to come out of Hollywood even if, as here, she's somewhat miscast and a good decade older than her love interest. Barry Sullivan. Minor perhaps but a curio that's worth seeking out.

MIDNIGHT LACE **

 What's not to love? Doris Day, in gowns by Irene, no less, being menaced in the London fog by a mysterious, unseen man threatening to kill her while a cast that includes Rex Harrison, John Gavin, Myrna Loy, Roddy McDowell, Natasha Parry and Herbert Marshall swan around wondering if she's actually being menaced or just imagining it and if she is being menaced which of these prime suspects is doing it? You see, Doris is rich and it seems everyone else isn't and would kill for her money.

"Midnight Lace" was a 1960 Ross Hunter production, directed by David Miller and based on a little known Janet Green play with the terrible title "Matilda Shouted Fire" but if it's a fairly creaky thriller it's also a hugely entertaining one. You know, of course, that Doris is going to be alright since that most urbane of police inspectors, John Williams, is on the case, (well, he did bring Ray Milland to justice), and you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out the villain long before the end. It may not be much of a film but it is a great guilty pleasure.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW **

 Sometimes it's nice to see a director normally given over to highfalutin literary-based works slumming it which is precisely what Joe Wright is doing here. "The Woman in the Window" is another literary adaptation, (it's from an A. J. Finn novel), but it's a far less po-faced one than Wright usually gives us. In fact, as adapted by Tracy Letts, this is just a slice of grand guignol and it's great fun, referencing Hitchcock, (most obviously "Rear Window"), and film noir in general.

Amy Adams is the agoraphobic former child psychologist who spends her time spying on her new neighbours who all seem to be as loopy as she is and, of course, if you've seen "Rear Window", and who hasn't, you know what happens next; right, murder most foul though it's at this point that things start to diverge from Hitchcock's masterpiece. Did Amy really see a murder or is she as mad as a hatter?

Since we've seen variations on these themes countless times before, this is where the guessing games begin and if the punchline is a little less effective than it might have been you can always chalk it down to that old saying 'there's nothing new under the sun'. Adams, of course, is terrific and is ably backed up by those fine actors Gary Oldman and Julianne Moore, (but don't expect too much from Jennifer Jason Leigh who seems to have been denied permission to speak in this movie). It's trash or at best, pulp fiction; a junk-food movie from a man who, in the past, fancied himself something of a Michelin Star chef and I really enjoyed it.

DAUGHTER OF THE NILE ****

 Another early Hsiao-Hsien Hou film that reveals his great capacity for tenderness and for getting deep inside the family psyche, in this case a family living on the margins. Lin is the "Daughter of the Nile" of the title, a fantasy character in a graphic novel she's reading. In reality she's the oldest sister in a family of petty criminals, struggling with her education as well as her background and almost everything is seen through her eyes.

The plot hardly matters; this is an observation of life in a very westernized Taipei in the eighties; we could be almost anywhere in America or in any UK city where people steal for a living and call it work and even back in the eighties it was clear that Hsiao-Hsien was a master filmmaker and a great director of actors. The performances here are beautifully naturalistic with Lin Yang outstanding in the lead. It's a little rough around the edges, perhaps and maybe a little too indebted to Ozu's style of filmmaking but it remains an essential work in the director's canon nevertheless and shouldn't be missed.

SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME ***

 Of course by now everyone reading this should know that Chloe Zhao is only the second woman to win the Oscar as Best Director and that her film "Nomadland" also won Best Picture. What many people may not know is that "Nomadland" was only Zhao's third feature film, the others being the very moving and blissfully beautiful ""The Rider" and this, "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" and that together they make an extraordinary trilogy of films about the American hinterland. "Nomadland" had a major star at its centre but for the most part was populated by real people playing variations of themselves and while this is fiction and scripted, "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" could be a documentary with Zhao again using non-professional actors in major roles. Visually the obvious influence is Malick but Zhao's films are uniquely her own and if you watch these films back to back they are unmistakeably Zhao's. This did reasonably well on the festival circuit but was obviously never aimed at the mass market. If you haven't seen it, seek it out. Like "The Rider" and "Nomadland" it's a gem.

THE TIN STAR ***

 Anthony Mann made this superlative western after completing the last of the Jimmy Stewart westerns, ("The Man from Laramie"), and before he made the Gary Cooper starring "Man of the West" and somehow it got lost along the way despite having been nominated for a BAFTA Best Film award.  Instead of either Stewart or Cooper, Mann cast Henry Fonda as the laconic, decent bounty hunter who take a greenhorn young sheriff, (a beautifully cast Anthony Perkins), under his wing.

It's a very simple, traditional piece, shot in black and white by Loyal Griggs and dealing very much in black and white issues.  It is a movie with straightforward heroes and villains, (Neville Brand is principal among the bad guys), a strong heroine, (Betsy Palmer), and even a sweet, likeable kid, (Michael Ray).  If it lacks the psychological undercurrents of other Mann westerns it more than makes up for it in good old-fashioned action and suspense and of all his westerns this may be the most underrated.

MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN **

 You know that "Motherless Brooklyn" is going to be a different kind of crime movie from the brilliant opening sequence which introduces us to its narrating anti-hero, a Private Eye with Tourette's Syndrome, played by the film's director, Edward Norton. The sequence is superbly set up but it doesn't explain anything and the bad guys in the scene are shot in shadow and in ends with a killing; yes, we know this movie is going to be 'different'. The period is the late fifties, perfectly captured in Beth Mickle's design and beautifully shot by the great Dick Pope which gives the film the noirish look Norton is after and it's very well cast with Norton himself terrific as the Tourette's inflicted shamus. So far so good.

Unfortunately the plot, (corruption in high places), is old hat and as a director Norton is more interested in flash than form; even his use of a hard-boiled narration is a cliche. This is a film eager to be liked but wanting to be original at the same time and failing at it. It's certainly not dismissible; Norton, when he's good, as he is here, is always worth watching and it is certainly a beautiful looking picture. It's just that with a better script, (which Norton also wrote from Jonathan Letham's novel), it could have been so much better and at almost two and a half hours, it's way too long.

STRANGER IN THE HOUSE no stars

 Georges Simenon's 1940 novel "A Stranger in the House", rechristened "Cop-Out" for the American market and transferred to Swinging Southampton, (yes, Southampton), in the sixties was the only film to be directed by the writer and producer Pierre Rouve. It's really quite atrocious despite a cast headed by James Mason, Geraldine Chaplin and, again for the American market, Bobby Darin. Mason is the drunken former barrister who comes out of retirement to defend daughter Chaplin's boyfriend, (newcomer Paul Bertoya who, despite his good-looks, quickly disappeared from the scene), on a charge of murdering Darin. For some reason, Rouve took the 'arty' approach rather than the conventional one and the film's all the worse for it, working neither as a drama nor a thriller. It's badly acted, (even by Mason), badly directed and the denouement, delivered Poirot-style at a twenty-first birthday party, is jaw-droppingly awful. Often thought of as a 'lost' movie, this one would have been better staying lost.

MY OCTOPUS TEACHER ***

 If "My Octopus Teacher" does win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature as predicted, (it's already won the BAFTA), I don't think I'll be complaining even if I think "Collective" the better film and the more worthy winner but that's only because "Collective" tells the more important story and is the more radical film. "My Octopus Teacher" is fairly radical, too, and as documentary filmmaking goes it's a beautiful job of work with some of the finest 'natural' cinematography I've ever seen, ("Blue Planet" eat your heart out).

It even has a plot of sorts and two leading players. One is Craig Foster, an explorer and cinematographer whose daily dives to a kelp forest in the seas off South Africa leads him to the films second character, a female octopus that Foster becomes very attached to and who, it would appear, becomes very attached to him, literally at times. Octopuses, it turns out, are highly intelligent creatures and Foster's octopus seems more intelligent than most, an 'alien' creature that can recognize an individual human being and want to be with that human, albeit in her own natural environment.

Of course, the octopus is also a wild animal in a wild, natural environment and much as he might want to Foster knows he can do nothing to change that; as we say, he has to let nature take its course while at the same time allowing himself to be 'taught' by the octopus, taught not just to care about the octopus itself but creatures in general and, strange as it may seem, interacting with this creature brought Foster closer to his own son. Superbly photographed and edited, its only fault lies in Foster's rather deadpan narration. He may be a nice guy but is somewhat dull in his delivery; luckily his camera speaks volumes.

NIJINSKY no stars

 Before becoming a film director with the musical remake of "Goodbye, Mr Chips", Herbert Ross had been both a dancer and a choreographer so if anyone was going to make a big screen biopic of ' the greatest ballet dancer who ever lived', aka Vaslav Nijinsky, who better then than Ross who already had his biggest screen success with "The Turning Point", a movie about two ageing, bitching ballet queens but while "The Turning Point" had proved popular with both critics and the public was that not down to leading ladies Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine? "Nijinsky", however, was a different kettle of fish entirely. The bitching ballet queens here were of the male variety and would audiences really buy a picture about a long dead male ballet dancer that many people might not have even heard of? But then, who can say what movies succeed and what fail. "Nijinsky" could potentially be an 'Amadeus' or a 'Heaven's Gate'.

In the end it was neither but a pretty, decorous scroll through Nijinsky's greatest hits with enough of his private life thrown in to keep the punters happy, (nothing like a little bit of scandal, be it gay or straight, to liven up an otherwise dull ballet picture). As Nijinsky, dancer George de la Pena is easy on the eye and certainly light on his feet, whenever Ross permits us to see his feet, but he wasn't much of an actor. As Diaghilev, Alan Bates is unusually stuffy while a supporting cast of mostly British thespians, (Alan Badel, Colin Blakely, Ronald Pickup, Jeremy Irons and Janet Suzman) do exactly what's expected of them while the talented Leslie Brown is utterly wasted as the dancer's missus. The film itself trundles along like the war horse it is and while it's never dull neither is it in any way memorable.

THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL **

 This contemporaneous Gothic thriller is courtesy of Robert Wise who knew a thing or two about this kind of yarn, (he did make "Curse of the Cat People" and "The Body Snatcher", not to mention "The Haunting"). This also has a nice Hitchcockian flair with a touch of the 'Rebecca's' about it as well as "Suspicion". Valentina Cortese is the concentration camp survivor who steals a dead friend's identity so she can come to America only to find when she gets there that her friend's young son has inherited a fortune. Of course, she is only posing as his mother and in no time at all is married to the boy's guardian, (Richard Basehart). There's also a sexy Mrs. Danvers character, played by Fay Baker, who's being looking after the boy, so you know things aren't going to end well for somebody.

Overtaken in many people's affections by several of Wise's later films this is still an excellent and underrated suspense movie. Of course, you don't have to be Agatha Christie to figure out which way the plot's heading, particularly when a handsome former soldier from Valentina's past enters the picture so originality isn't the film's strong suit but Wise keeps it ticking along very nicely while the titular "House on Telegraph Hill" is both attractive and sinister in equal measure.