AGE OF CONSENT *

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

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

THE NAKED TRUTH **

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

THE SPIKES GANG **

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

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

THE NANNY **

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

9 FINGERS *

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

SUMMER OF SAM no stars

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

THE CHALLENGE *

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

A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE no stars

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

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

THE BIG PICTURE ***

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

SIDE BY SIDE **

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

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

Julie Harris created the role of Frankie, the 12 year old tomboy who can't come to terms with her older brother's marriage, in the Broadway production of Carson McCullers' "The Member of the Wedding" and she's magnificent recreating the role in Fred Zinnemann's film version. It was her screen debut and she was nominated for the Oscar. She was also 26 at the time and makes for a very convincing 12 year old; it was a tour-de-force. Zinnemann also wisely cast Ethel Waters as the black housekeeper Berenice and 10 year old Brandon De Wilde as Frankie's young friend John Henry, also both from the original Broadway production. They, too, are superb.


The piece itself is slighter than its reputation might suggest and Zinnemann does nothing to open it up. Edward and Edna Anhalt did the adaptation and their script retains a good deal of McCullers' poetry. Fundamentally, though, this is an actor's piece and it's the three principals who carry it. It isn't much of a film but at least it preserves three great theatrical performances and that's enough.

TRIAL AND ERROR **

Minor and small scale this screen version of John Mortimer's "The Dock Brief" may have been but it's frequently very funny and boasts two outstanding performances from a BAFTA nominated Richard Attenborough as the mundane, mild-mannered and mostly morose husband accused of murdering his wife, (a rumbustious Beryl Reid), and Peter Sellers as his mediocre if well-meaning barrister. It was perhaps a strange little movie for these two stars to have made at the time and it wasn't really a success but it's likeable in its stagey way and there is a very nice supporting performance from David Lodge as a somewhat over-enthusiastic lodger.

RAINY DOG ***

This strange movie about a Japanese hitman stranded in Taiwan and saddled with a young son he didn't know he had would probably sit comfortably on a double-bill with Cassavetes' "Gloria" though this is a lot more enigmatic. It was the second film in what became known as Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Trilogy and it has a slightly mystical quality you may not associate with the director. Personally there were times I found it hard to get a handle on the plot and if you are looking for a typical Miike picture you will probably be disappointed. The title, "Rainy Dog" is certainly apt since it rains here more than in almost any movie I can think of. As the mostly silent, philosophical killer Sho Aikawa is excellent and his performance should remind you of Alain Delon in Melville's "Le Samourai", (this movie is almost in the same class). It is certainly sufficiently unusual to command attention and is far from the usual run-of-the-mill Yakuza flic.