Kay Largo (1948)

"When your head says one thing and your whole life says another, your head always loses."

Frank McCloud travels to Key Largo to see the widow and father of his old WW2 pal but when he arrives at the hotel they own he finds it taken over by a group of mobsters and the old man and girl being held virtual prisoners. On top of having to deal with the deadly Johnny Rocco, a hurricane's moving in on them.
A storm's a'coming, and I don't just mean the weather!

Classic noir by The Treasure of the Sierra Madre director John Huston and the last to pair husband and wife team Bogart and Bacall on the big screen.

Lionel Barrymore, the great-uncle of Drew, plays the wheelchair bound father-in-law of Bacall. It's an excellent performance made all the more convincing by the fact that Barrymore himself was confined to a wheelchair by arthritis.
Edward G. Robinson is Rocco, the ultimate ageing gangster who wants nothing more than a return to the good old days of prohibition. The character was written as a cross between Al Capone and Lucky Luciano with Claire Trevor, Rocco's heavy drinking mall, being based on Luciano's real girlfriend. If James Cagney became king of the gangsters in films like White Heat and Angels with Dirty Faces then Robinson, Little Caesar  himself, was emperor.
The production was filmed almost entirely in a mock-up hotel at Warner Brothers and the lack of expansive sets (a little unusual for a Huston film), together with the threat of the storm, gives a feeling of building pressure and impending doom and allows for some great dialogue between the two main characters.
In a clever, if cruel, bit of direction Huston only told Claire Trevor that she was going to sing on the day of filming. Trevor wasn't a singer and had had no rehearsal, on top of that she was terrified of singing in front of Bogy and Robinson who were massive stars. The result was that her performance was nervous and shaky, exactly the effect Huston was after.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040506/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

"Even great men have to pee."

A small group of highly organised criminals have taken control of a New York City subway train. Mr Blue, Mr Brown, Mr Green and Mr Grey are demanding $1 million cash and, if they don't get it, they'll kill a hostage every minute. The mayor agrees to pay and the money is on its way but they're on a train, underground, how do they expect to escape? It's the job of Police Lt. Zachary Garber to find that out.

70s crime thriller by MacArthur director Joseph Sargent adapted from John Godey's best seller. One of very few 'tough-guy' roles by the great Walter Matthau before health problems ruled them out for him. Better known for his comedic roles in films such as The Odd Couple, he adds some nice comedy moments to what would otherwise be a fairly run-of-the-mill part. Robert Shaw is our head bad guy, Mr Blue, helping to kick-off a long tradition of British villain's in American action movies. I've said before that I'm a big fan of Shaw, who you will recognise as the shark fisherman in Jaws, and though he wins no awards he's as solid and dependable here as he ever was. You may also recognise Hector Elizondo as Mr Grey. He went on to appear in everything from Columbo to Monk to Pretty Woman in a long a varied career that is still going strong.

The story itself isn't particularly innovative, although apparently the Transit Authority refused to help because of fears there might be attempts to copy the crime and the real Mayor of New York had to step in to make them. The script however is good and snappy and the action rolls along well.
The film has been re-made 3 times, twice in Hollywood and once in Bollywood, but none of them were anything to write home about.

In a nice, unofficial, piece of tradition, since the making of this film no train has run from Pelham Bay Park Station at either 13:23 or 01:23.

Not anywhere near the quality of some of its contemporaries, this film is still fun and gripping enough to keep the viewers' interest.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072251/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt

The Dead Lands (2014)

"If I do not return...tell stories about me."

After his tribe are betrayed and slaughtered by an old enemy Hongi, the chief's son, vows to take revenge and retrieve his father's head. He follows the warriors who killed his family into the forbidden Dead Lands, the land of a fabled monster who kills and eats all those who trespass there. He joins with the monster, a warrior whose own family were murdered, and they hunt the killers together.

Maori action movie from Fijian/Kiwi director Toa Fraser. Though not very well known outside New Zealand, he directed the well-received My Talks with Dean Spanley starring Sam Neill and Peter O'Toole. Hongi is played by the young and pretty James Rolleston quite convincingly. The warrior/monster is played by Lawrence Makoare. Makoare has been around as an also-ran for quite a while with bit parts in two of the Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit. This is one of his few lead roles and he's very good. A big man with a big presence he really steals the show.

I went into this movie feeling it was going to be exploitative and overly violent and to an extent I was right. It pushes a 'mystic' theme, having them take mushrooms to speak to their dead ancestors, but it's well handled and it is integral to the story. There is a lot of bloody violence, it's an action movie after all, but again it's well done and the fact that it's Maori weapons and martial arts make it interesting and a break from the norm.
Over all I ended up really enjoying it. It's something different and the action was good. Well worth a look.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3399916/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_3

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

"I made an oath that I would revenge the wrongs her family had done her. It was no more than a piece of youthful bravado, but it was one of those acorns from which great oaks are destined to grow. Even then I went so far as to examine the family tree and prune it to just the living members. But what could I do to hurt them? What could I take from them, except, perhaps, their lives."


Louis Mazzini, the tenth Duke of Chalfont, sits in the cell of the condemned and awaits the executioner's rope. As he does so he reads his memoirs. It is the story of his family, the D'Ascoynes, of how they shunned his mother for marrying for love, of how they denied his existence and of how they died. A story of how he loved two beautiful women, one honest and pure, one lustful and dangerous, and of how he was betrayed and sent to the gallows for the one crime he did not commit.

This wonderful Ealing Comedy by director Robert Hamer stars Dennis Price as Louis Manzzini and, briefly, his own father and Alec Guinness as almost everyone else. Sadly, due to his excessive drinking, Hamer didn't manage many credits as a director but those he did - The Long Memory, Dead of Night and School for Scoundrels - are some of the hidden gems of British cinema. Dennis Price, whose real family past relates more to the people he murders in the movie than the part he plays, gives what is without a doubt his best on-screen performance. The son of a brigadier-general, he was expected to go into the army or church but instead chose acting appearing on stage with both John Gielgud and Noel Coward. Alec Guinness takes on 8 roles playing the whole of the D'Ascoyne family, 9 if you include the portrait of one of their ancestors that he also sat for. It's an incredible feat that includes dashing young men, an Admiral, a vicar and even a suffragette. The technicalities of doing such a thing, years before split-screen or obviously any sort of CGI, were many and he pulls it off beautifully. In the church scene where all the family are gathered they had to make a special platform for the camera and used blackened glass to position each of the family members. After each part was shot the film was wound back, the glass moved, Guinness made-up as the next character and the next piece filmed. It took 2 days to make the 3 minuet scene and a cameraman slept on set over night to be sure nothing was moved.

The two female leads, those that aren't Guinness that is, are played by Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood. Both beautiful, charming and talented actresses.

Due to the production codes of the time an alternative ending was filmed for the American release. I wont tell you any more about it as I don't want to spoil the end of the movie for you but more information can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_Hearts_and_Coronets#American_version

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041546/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

"Look at that, two cops wishing me luck. I'm doomed."

After a group of gang members are ambushed and killed by the police their leaders issue a Cholo, a blood oath to kill with no fear or want for their own lives. The four leaders arm themselves and go out on the hunt. When they commit an extreme act of violence, the father of one of their victims follows and kills one of them. They chase the man to a police station and instigate a siege. Meanwhile, the police are transporting a group of prisoners that includes the dangerous Napoleon Wilson to San Quentin when one of them gets sick. They've no other choice but to stop the bus at the nearest police station and wait for a doctor. The closest one is the soon-to-be-shut-down Precinct 13 and the only people there are a rookie lieutenant and a couple of office workers. As they wait, a man runs in. All of a sudden the phone lines are cut and the small group find themselves in a fight to the death.

John Carpenter's second major movie is another lesson in budget film making. Shot in only 20 days and for the (comparatively) tiny sum of $150,000, Carpenter wrote, directed, edited and even wrote the score for this modern day Western. And a Western it is. Napoleon's repeated line of "got a smoke" is an homage to Howard Hawks and his use of jokes about cigarettes in his Westerns, Carpenter edited the film under the name John T. Chance, John Wayne's name in Rio Bravo and one of the film's early working titles was The Anderson Alamo, the Alamo being one of the most famous sieges in the history of the old West. On top of that there are lines, action and shooting techniques (both camera and gun) borrowed from everything from Once Upon a Time in The West to The Wild Bunch.
The cast were relative unknowns with Tony Burton and Charles Cyphers probably being the most recognisable. Burton landed good rolling parts in all of the Rocky movies as Apollo's trainer and Cyphers is a stalwart member of the Carpenter 'crew' along with making many appearances in TV programmes. Austin Stoker, the lieutenant, had previously had a role in Battle for the Planet of the Apes  before becoming a blacksploitation star and Darwin Joston, Napoleon, would do well in both Eraserhead and The Fog.

Though the concept is a little silly the dialogue is good, the opening is nicely shocking and the action is well paced and fun. On top of that, the soundtrack, like in most of John Carpenter's films, is great.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074156/?ref_=nm_knf_t1

The Longest Day (1962)

On the 6th of June 1944, 71 years ago today (the day of writing),  Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. British, Canadian, American, Free French and Dutch, troops from every corner of the Commonwealth and beyond had come to wrestle Europe and the world from the grip of Nazi oppression and for many this star studded extravaganza is the definitive movie of that action.

Rather than there being one or two staring roles the direction team of five led by Darryl F. Zanuck, the man who founded Twentieth Century Fox, filmed it as a series of cameos. Henry Fonda, Richard Todd, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum all take a turn along with a handful of extremely good German actors on the other side.

The production was lavish to say the least. 23,000 active troops along with 22 ships from the US 6 fleet and 2 Spitfires from the Belgian Air Force all took part in filming meaning that Zanuck was in charge of more troops than any single General during the real landings.
Richard Todd, who had been at the D-Day landings as part of the British 6th Airborne Division, was asked if he would like to play himself in the film but ended up playing his commanding officer. The beret he wore was his own old uniform.

For a film with 5 directors, 6 writers and a dozen or more massive stars it all works very well. It's nearly 3 hours long but it has to be, it was a long day (the longest) and there's a lot to get in.
This is one of the last true epics and in honour of the day I recommend your watching it.

I'll leave you with some lines from the poem The Fallen, written by Laurence Binyon for the casualties of the British Expeditionary Force in 1914:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

Green for Danger (1946)

After a man dies on the operating table of a British country hospital one of the nurses declares that it was murder and not only that, she knows who the murderer is! Later that night and before telling anyone who the killer is she is found dead. Enter the enigmatic Inspector Cockrill of Scotland Yard. The Inspector has five suspects, two doctors and three nurses but in order to find his murderer he must contend with rumours, back biting, a voice on the radio and a love triangle.

Sidney Gilliat, who wrote such classics as The Lady Vanishes and Millions Like Us, both directed and wrote the screenplay for this great British who-done-it. Trevor Howard, best known for Brief Encounter, and Leo Genn are the two suspect doctors fighting for the hand of the lovely Sally Gray. The excellent character actresses Megs Jenkins and Rosamund John are our other two nurses and possible murderers. Topping the table of great British actors in this movie however is Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill. Sim plays the Inspector as a gangly, slightly comedic but incredibly insightful, hiding in bushes, falling over gates but always on the case.

Leo Genn is often over-shadowed when talking about British actors of the mid 20th century. A little too English and a little too soft to make an impact as a male lead he gave some wonderful co-star performances, most notably as Starbuck in Moby Dick and Petronius in Quo Vadis.

This is a delightfully enjoyable film and well worth a look.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038577/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_62

La Femme Nikita (1990)

" There are two things that are infinite: femininity and means to take advantage of it."

Nikita and her junkie friends commit a robbery at a pharmacists. When the police turn up there is a shoot-out and three cops are killed. Nikita, the only one left alive after the smoke clears, is arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Two mysterious men turn up and inject her with something. She wakes alone in a white room. A man in a black suit comes in and Nikita, thinking she is dead, asks if she is in heaven. The man is Bob. He tells Nikita that he works for the government and that with training she can too, or she can die. She chooses the training and after several years she is no longer a junkie punk, she is an assassin.

Luc Besson's second international hit and the one that really forged his career as an action writer/director is an innovative action thriller with a refreshingly strong female lead. Anne Parillaud gives her best performance as Nikita, tough, sympathetic and fairly complicated. Bob is played by Tchéky Karyo, a Turkish born, French raised actor. Well respected in France, he's appeared in several Hollywood blockbusters (Goldeneye, Bad Boys) that didn't really give him space to show the quality he has as an actor. Again, the viewer feels real sympathy for Bob, the government man who falls for Nikita. There are two extremely good cameos. The first from the beautiful Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim, Lift to the Scaffold) as the woman brought in to teach Nikita how to dress and use her elegance as an asset and the second from Jean Reno as Victor the 'cleaner'. Victor is brought in to dispose of the bodies and sort things out when a mission goes wrong. The expressionless psychopath is a precursor to the part Reno will be playing in Besson's next motion picture, Léon: The Professional, and although it's quite a small part in this film it's a memorable one.

The production feels a little cheap in parts but the action is explosive and the lead actors are very good.

The film spawned two pretty awful remakes, one from Hong Kong called Black Cat and one from the US staring Bridget Fonda, and two long running and very popular American TV series.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100263/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_55

The Three Musketeers (1973)

Farcical and slapstick re-telling of the classic Alexander Dumas novel made by Help! director Richard Lester.

A young man travels to Paris seeking fame and fortune in the service of the King but before he arrives in the big city he is attacked and insulted by a one-eyed man who knocks him on the head and breaks his father's sword. On arrival he immediately challenged to 3 successive duels by Musketeers, the very men he has come to join. After making friends with the men he becomes embroiled in a chain of events that will lead him into conflict with the deadly Cardinal, take him over the sea to England to a conference with France's oldest enemy and place him in the service of the Queen.

Of the dozen or more versions of Dumas' novel on screen, writer George MacDonald Fraser's is by far the most fun. More like a feature length Goon Show or a movie by Monty Python and originally meant as a vehicle for the Beatles the film is played for laughs from start to finish. Made at a time when it was the height of production to cram your cast list with every big name you could get this film did just that. Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay are the Muskateers, Raquel Welch and Faye Dunaway the love interests and Charlton Heston and Christopher Lee are the Cardinal and his henchman Rochefort. The film also features cameos from Joss Ackland, Spike Milligan and the great Jean-Pierre Cassel.

The production was massive, the sets and costumes spectacular but it was beset by all sorts of problems. The Producers elected to film both this and its sequel, The Four Musketeers, at the same time. This led to a lawsuit that claimed the actors had been tricked into thinking they were only filming one movie. The actors, represented by the Screen Actors' Guild, won and this led to a change in contract clauses that stated that it had to be made clear how many movies were being filmed at any one time.
Oliver Reed suffered an extremely bad stab wound to the throat during the filming of the windmill scene and during the making of the third film, The Return of the Musketeers, the great character actor Roy Kinnear who played Planchet the servant fell from his horse and sadly died.

This is the first of a series of very fun and amusing family movies that are much more likable than the original book.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072281/?ref_=nv_sr_4

Idiocracy (2006)

"The years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes the genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections."

Private Joe Bauers, the most average man in the US army, is chosen to be the subject of an experimental hibernation project. He is frozen alongside a woman called Rita but when a prostitution scandal hits the army base in which they are being stored, the experiment is forgotten about and rather than their being re-animated a year later they find themselves waking up in a world 500 years into the future. There hasn't been great progress however and mankind's intelligence has suffered badly. Everything is in disrepair, buildings are held together with string and the most popular show on TV is called Ow, My Balls! After being arrested, Joe is given an IQ test and found to now be the most intelligent man in the world. Will he be able to use his new found intelligence to save mankind and find a way back to his own time?

Clever and well written satire by Mike Judge, the man behind Office Space and Beavis & Butt-Head. Luke Wilson, a man with a naturally confused look about him, is good as our average Joe, bumbling around in the future trying to come to terms with man's idiocy and Terry Crews who you may know from The Expendables or Brooklyn Nine-Nine is very funny as Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, the ex-wrestler turned President. There are some nice performances all round but it's the sets and visual jokes of a distopian, dilapidated future that are the real winners and a damnation of the American consumer society. From Ow, My Balls to Starbucks being a brothel it's gag after gag in a style you'd expect more from Carl Reiner and Steve Martin.

The film did very badly on an early screening and that led to Fox sitting on it for more than a year before giving it a very limited release with almost no marketing. Subsequently however it has gained something of a cult following (Fox even licensed out the "Brawndo" drink for sale, though it's no longer available) and a well-deserved reputation as something of a hidden gem. Watch to the end of the credits for an extra scene that, after 10 years, I'v only just found was there.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt

Sanjuro (1962)

"You're too sharp. That's your trouble. You're like a drawn sword. Sharp, naked without a sheath. You cut well. But good swords are kept in their sheaths."

Sanjuro, the ronin, is awoken by a group of young samurai discussing their troubles. Their uncle, the local Chamberlain, has been kidnapped by a corrupt official who is trying to force him into signing a confession to say that he is the one who is corrupt. Once he has done this he will be forced to commit Seppuku and the clan will be in the hands of the official. Sanjuro is both amused and annoyed by the ineptitude of the young men and when the officials samurai turn up  to arrest them he not only saves them but decides to fight on their side.

Toshirô Mifune teams up again with director Akira Kurosawa for the second outing of Sanjuro the Yojimbo (bodyguard) in this action/comedy. Taken from a novel by Shûgorô Yamamoto it was originally meant to be made before Yojimbo. For reasons I don't know it wasn't, but after the first ones commercial success and a couple of re-writes it was made as a sequel. Far more script based than Yojimbo, that is to say with less action and more story, there's more room to focus on Sanjuro's personality, his sardonic nature and his interplay with the people around him including, for the first time, women.

Mifune's method is as always wonderful to watch. His rolling of his shoulders, his scratching (Kurosawa suggested he played him as a wolf), his tough leadership and shyness around women give his character real substance, as does his attitude towards Hanbei Muroto, the main antagonist who is played by Tatsuya Nakadai and who also played Unosuke, the gunslinging bad guy in Yojimbo.

Less well known than it's prequel, probably due to it's not having been remade as a western, this film is both funnier and more thoughtful than Yojimbo and is the equal of any of the great Samurai movies with the possibly exception of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, a film I shall tell you about another time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056443/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_113

The Wild Bunch (1969)

"If they move, kill 'em!"

Iconic and violent western by blood and guts master Sam Peckinpah.

It's 1916 and the days of the old west are numbered. A group of ageing outlaws ride into town dressed as soldiers and after one last score, but it's a set-up and a bloody shoot-out ensues. Bank robbers, townspeople and even horses are all killed in the mayhem but a number of the 'Bunch' escape, hotly pursued by bounty hunters and an ex member of the gang. They make their way to Mexico, stopping off at one of their number's home village. After meeting with Mexican General Mapache they agree to rob a train for the guns it contains. Things initially go as planned but when Angel, one of the gang, sees his woman with the General he looses his cool and shoots her. They get him out of there but the General doesn't forget and it leads to a final and bloody confrontation on a grand scale.

Starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan, this film is widely held to be one of the top ten westerns ever made. Peckinpah went all out in the action from the outset, they're said to have used around 90,000 blank rounds during filming, and the use of a mass gun battle to open the film, something that would normally close a movie, is suggestive of a running theme of an ending of a way of life. William Holden (Bridge on the River Kwai, Sunset Blvd.) is very good as Pike, the leader of the Bunch, as is Robert Ryan who plays the old friend coerced into tracking them but it's the co-stars who pull the whole thing together. Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones are always good and Ben Johnson, a genuine cowboy and rodeo world champion, along with Emilio Fernández give the film some authenticity. Fernández was a real soldier for Huerta in the 1923 revolution and after being captured he escaped to America before becoming one of Mexico's greatest actors and directors.

Some of the movies best known scenes, the train robbery and the famous 'walk' to get Angel, were ad-libs by the actors and the majority of the Mexican soldiers in the final shoot-out were real Mexican cavalry hired from a local barracks.

I've said before that I think over 2 hours is too long for most movies and if I'm honest I'd say the same for this one but the action keeps it going and there's nothing that feels superfluous.

Ben Johnson once said that the girls that he and Oates bathe with in the wine were real prostitutes hired from a local brothel so that Peckinpah could tell people that Warner Bros. got hookers for the cast.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065214/?ref_=nm_knf_t3

Jûsan-nin no shikaku/13 Assassins (1963 & 2010)

"I presume you are the Akashi entourage of Lord Naritsugu. By the order of His Shogun's subject Shinzaemon, we commemorate your passage with arrows!"

I've decided here to talk about both an original film and its modern remake in the same article as this is one of the few times the two are comparable.

In mid 19th century Japan, a sadistic Diamyo (Lord) and half brother of the currant Shogun rapes a woman and murders her husband. In order to bring attention to the crime, a high official commits Sepuku on the doorstep of Edo Castle. Incensed by this the Diaymo, Lord Naritsugu, murders an entire family.  Sir Doi of the Akashi Clan, one of the Shogun's highest advisers, decides something must be done to stop Naritsugu and so he summons tactical master Shinzaemon Shimada. Shinzaemon puts together a small party of a dozen men to kill Naritsugu and his men as they travel across the country but Hanbei Kitou, Shinzaemon's  childhood friend, has been ordered to protect the Shogun's brother and he is the one man in all Japan who could do it.

Originally made in 1963 by director Eiichi Kudô and then remade in 2010 by Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer), this is an action story with underlying themes of brotherhood, honour and loyalty. Neither film is particularly subtle but the first approaches both the rape and murders with nice cinematic techniques. The second is, as you would expect, a lot more graphic in its violence and although a lot is done scene for scene with the first the final showdown is quite different and works well. The set-up is quite similar to Severn Samurai and the second version embraces that fact in its characterizations, in particular with Koyata the hunter who is called a 'country samurai' in the first.
Neither of these films could be considered masterpieces but they are both very good in their own right. Miike's does appeal more to a modern audience with its flashy violence and colour but the stiffness of the older one gives it an authenticity I enjoy.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057212/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1436045/?ref_=nm_knf_t1

The Straight Story (1999)

"What do you need that grabber for, Alvin?"
"Grabbin'."

Alvin Straight is 73 years old. His eyes are bad, his hips are stiff and he can't drive anymore but when the brother he hasn't spoken to for ten years has a stroke he decides he needs to see him. Rose, Alvin's daughter, can't take him and there are no buses to take him the 240 miles from Laurens, Iowa to Blue River, Wisconsin and so Alvin builds a trailer and hitches it to his 1966 John Deere ride-on lawn mower.

Beautiful and incredibly emotional film from David Lynch that is based on a true story. Shot in sequence, something I think always adds to the reality and honesty of a movie, this film has two of the best performance you're ever likely to see.

The wonderful Richard Farnsworth, who made his debut 63 years earlier in the Marx Brothers picture A Day at the Races, really deserved to win the Oscar for this, his last film (Kevin Spacy won it for American Beauty but Farnsworth was better). His tour de force as Alvin Straight is a perfectly pitched mix of heart wrenching and heart warming that manages to both terrify and up-lift the viewer at every turn, or hill. Gregory Peck was originally intended for the part of Alvin and although I'm a great fan of his I can't imagine how awful and creepy that would have been. No one could have played this delightful old man better than this delightful old man.

Sissy Spacek plays Rose, Alvin's daughter who has her own terribly tragic story, and again she deserved much greater acclaim then she was given. Unrecognisable from the girl covered in pig's blood 20 years earlier her performance is full of emotion and her method near perfect.
The scenery of mid-west America, though admittedly mainly corn and wheat fields, is stunning and beautifully shot by Freddie Francis who made The Elephant Man and Dune and when coupled with the haunting soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti it really is something else.

I simply love this film. Yes it's slow, yes it's a story about an old man on a lawn mower, there is no sex, drugs and rock'n roll but when a story is right it's right, what more do you need?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166896/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_26

Funeral in Berlin (1966)

A year after the Ipcress File Michael Cain is at it again as Harry Palmer, the smart talking cockney spy.

The Russian general in charge of security at the Berlin wall wants to defect to Britain. Harry Palmer is sent to check him out and makes arraignments with a German named Kreutzman to fake a funeral and bring him over. All is not as it seems though and when he is picked up by a beautiful Israeli spy Harry starts to suspect there's more to it then just a defection.

Director Guy Hamilton, in between Goldfinger and Battle of Britain, takes a turn at the Palmer franchise. More seriously done than his other spy movies, all Bonds, Hamilton sticks with the Czech cinematographer Otto Heller who made The Ipcress File which means that the low shot, sideways angles that are the hallmark of the first film are here too, though some of the snappier dialogue is missing. Heller's earlier titles included The Lady Killers, Victim and Peeping Tom. One story to come out of the production is that, during filming in Berlin, Russian border guards would use mirrors to disrupt filming meaning some takes had to be done over and over or from much greater distances than first intended.

Though superior in many ways to the spy stories that would follow it, this film was somewhat eclipsed by the others. The world didn't want the drabness of the Wall, men in macs and glasses, it wanted sex, fast cars and gadgets and Guy Hamilton, together with Harry Saltzman, would give them just that. Bond was here to stay and it would be another 13 years before John le Carré's little man George Smiley would be on our screens, dragging us back to the not very glamorous reality of the British Secret Service.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060437/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

And Then There Were None (1954)

Another piece of Sunday Afternoon fun. Based on the Agatha Christie play, rather than her original book, this is part who done it and part who'll make it through.

Ten people, including a husband and wife, a retired General, a Judge, a Doctor and an adventurer are invited for a weekend on an isolated island by the mysterious Mr U. N. Owen. At exactly 8 o'clock on the first night a record is played accusing each of them of having been responsible for someones death. Most deny their part, some become angry but one, a crazy prince and professional party-goer, admits drunkenly hitting a couple in his car. As he does so he takes a drink and immediately drops down dead. This is the first of a series of deaths that seem to play along the same lines as the nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians. Mr. Owen is bumping them off one by one but who is he and who, if anyone, will survive?

French writer/director René Clair chose a wonderfully varied and international group of character actors to front this classic murder mystery. C. Aubrey Smith, the ex test cricketer, plays the General, Irish actor and Oscar winner Barry Fitzgerald plays the judge and Walter Huston, who also won an Oscar for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, is the doctor. It very much feels like a play on film, which is exactly what it is.
Perfect after lunch family fare.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037515/?ref_=nm_knf_t4