TALE OF TALES **

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

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

DEN OF THIEVES **

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

DRUM BEAT **

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

THE GUILT TRIP no stars

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

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

THE 39 STEPS *

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


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

THE HELLIONS no stars

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

SINISTER no stars

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

ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS *

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

THE COWBOY AND THE LADY **

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

DESERT FURY **

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

NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER **

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

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


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

PRIVATES ON PARADE **

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

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON **

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