lfisher0264 Reviews

Wallander (2008–2016)

Brilliant first episode

[8/10 · 30 November 2008]

Beautifully shot in great locations. Full of English character actors like David Warner and Malcolm Tierney. Kenneth Branagh is superb as the dour Scandinavian policeman. In the first episode, he faces a serial killer with an axe, some severely traumatised young people, a separated wife who's just "met somebody", a bolshy daughter, a father with incipient Alzheimers, a young criminal profiler who thinks he knows everything... It could be corny - especially the obligatory soapy stuff about the detective's home life - but the cast ACT instead of indulging in the overdone thesping that makes series like Waking the Dead unwatchable. OK, let's face it, it IS corny. The direction (and art direction) dazzle, but we can still see all the old cop show clichés. The style is ripped off from the French cop series Engrenage (which lifted its entire plot from Murder One). Doesn't stop it from being compusively watchable, tho.

Roberta (1935)

Elegant, stylish, and brings out the personality

[10/10 · 14 November 2008]

This movie has everything: frocks, dancing, songs.... I love those "Russian" songs by Kern, and Irene Dunne really can sing. She can act too - see the scene where professionalism forces her to be polite to John's fiancé. Fred and Ginger's dancing is transcendent and one of the great works of art of Western civilisation for the past 3,000 years. And Fred plays the piano too! (And is very funny.) He sweeps Ginger off her feet in the last scene, but when she proposes to him he's inarticulate - but he says yes, of course. And who wrote his amusing descriptions of the frocks? Could it have been Kern's old Broadway partner, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse? The only flaw is a running gag about a band member with a falsetto voice who tries to sound butch. How the groundlings must have laughed!

Galapagos (2006)

Vision on, sound off

[5/10 · 22 August 2008]

The photography is truly stunning and the animals, plants, scenery, waves, seals, sardines, rays, plankton are fascinating to watch. But the music is dreadful and distracting. Why does every moment have to be underscored with portentous pomposity? Tilda Swinton's narration is all on the same note, too. Every sentence is heavy with significance and an attempt to inject drama. Also, who writes wild-life film narration? Do they ever ask themselves if they're in the right job? This is the usual string of clichés, and sometimes is utterly ludicrous. The blue- footed booby's feet are "a handy brake". Feet are handy? Please! And the plankton float "in a sea of darkness" - they're already floating in the sea, you can't use it as a metaphor!!!! More facts please, and less appalling attempts at poetry. Turn off the sound and try different types of background music: Bach? Salsa?

Consenting Adults (2007 TV Movie)

Docudrama about the people who changed the English law on homosexuality

[8/10 · 20 August 2008]

This is really excellent, with a great sense of period - and that's not just the clothes and drab interiors, but the attitudes of mind. It has a great cast. Pip Torrens as the civil servant, Charles Dance as John Wolfenden who chaired the committee which investigated prostitution and homosexuality and recommended changes in the law. John Standing has a cameo as old Judge Lord Goddard. Haydn Gwynne is great as the liberal lady committee member. Many of those on the committee started the investigation full of revulsion for homosexuality, but they did their job and interviewed policemen and gay men to find out what went on. It's a quiet version of 12 Angry Men. In the end, of course, they recommended the changes to the law that took effect in the late 1960s - consenting adults could do what they liked in private, with an age of consent of 21. They had to do some horse trading to get that accepted, and b******y remained illegal, though they got the sentence reduced (it had been life imprisonment). Yes, many anti- gay attitudes are expressed, but they are in the context of the time and are necessary to tell the story. Sean Biggerstaff was good as Wolfenden's gay son, but I found his scenes a bit soapy and they went on for too long. The "gay son" was not invented for dramatic reasons, he is based on Wolfendon's real son, who sadly died young of alcohol-related causes. The photographs of the real-life Wolfendon's over the closing credits show that the production got their appearance almost exactly.

Mystery!: Campion (1989–1990)

Sparkling take on the books

[9/10 · 3 August 2008]

Peter Davison is an excellent Campion and Brian Glover perfect as the lugubrious Lugg. I've just watched Look to the Lady. The adaptors had the sense to stick to the book with all its weirdness and ghosts that aren't - or are they? Additional dialogue by Alan Plater might have been improvised by Campion himself (I love the bit about not being about to find eye of newt at Fortnum's or Harrods). All the actors are good, and the stately home plus ruined monastery is perfect. My only gripes: poor Beth is forced to wear some of the dowdiest outfits I've ever seen on an actress. All in shades of mud, lacking any shape and with awful additional frills, capes etc. And Professor Carey's last line is changed to the cliché'd quotation "There are more things in heaven and earth..." I think in the book he says "My very dear young man, it doesn't do to think too much about these things." Barbara Jefford is good as Mrs Dick, but some of her dialogue revealing her true horribleness is cut. Read the book - it'll send shivers down your spine. It's one of Margery Allingham's best.

Roadhouse Girl (1953)

Awful but fascinating

[1/10 · 23 June 2008]

...or as film historian Matthew Sweet has just called it - intoxicatingly drab. It's a steal from The Postman Always Rings Twice. Marilyn is married to an older man who owns a petrol station and a cafe. But she prefers garage hand Maxwell Reed, despite his ridiculous grease paint eyebrows. Her husband comes home unexpectedly from a business trip and threatens her - her boyfriend hits him and wouldn't you know it, he hits his head on the edge of a table like they always do. A passing motorist guesses there's some funny business going on, but he fancies Marilyn and he helps her turn the cafe into an "American bar". Which attracts a groovy young crowd despite being on the side of a lonely road in the middle of nowhere. He continues to pursue Marilyn, offering her everything she's always wanted. Meanwhile in the background is Marilyn's creepily devoted maid, Rose. You can tell it's going to end in tears. The location is brilliant - the tacky bar and the shabby Victorian house as a setting for Marilyn, who is ultra glamorous - as they used to say back then. Unfortunately the direction and acting are pretty dire. Reed was always wooden (though appealing). The playboy/spiv seems to have wandered in from the local amateur troupe. Even Vida Hope as Rose struggles -- not surprising since she's given nothing to do except express sickly adoration. (Hard to do when you're a natural comedienne.) Have a listen to the script, though, it's a lot cleverer than the cast make it sound.

Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008 TV Movie)

Great acting, great period detail

[8/10 · 12 June 2008]

...and entertaining. What a brilliant cast! Geoffrey Palmer as a die-hard Tory, Penelope Keith as an unexpected supporter, Joanna David as a sympathetic party hack and of course Sam West as a clenched Ted Heath. How lovely all the girls look in those sexy 50s clothes (especially clutching bright yellow "Beryl" china). Light- hearted? I don't think Ted Heath really carried a torch for Maggie, and the writers couldn't resist slanting gags about Mark getting lost in the sand and Carol reading the Jungle Book (jungle - jungle, geddit?). Also the dialogue is quite anachronistic - nobody said "level playing field" or "discriminated against because I'm a woman" back then. Andrea Riseborough is good (and goodlooking) but her Maggie is a bit of a caricature. Subtle, but a caricature. I wish we'd gone further into Thatcher's career and followed the development of that swooping, elocuted voice.

Today We Live (1933)

How old Cary Grant? Old Cary Grant fine, how you?

[2/10 · 11 May 2008]

Couldn't believe it! Clipped sentences? Good grief! Know what? All true! Real people ever talk like this? Don't think so. Good girl! Stout fellow! Stiffen upper lip! Only reason given movie 2 instead of 0 Gary Cooper such a dish. Movie as a whole ridiculous unless you like watching endless biplane dogfights. Seemed endless, anyway. Think all Franchot Tone's dialogue dubbed. When Crawford and Young make a special effort to sound British they come over as Irish. Handy tip - we Brits clip words, not sentences. And somehow we manage to draaaaaaaawl at the same time. But that's only if we've been to a really good public (that's private to you) school.

Metropolis (1927)

Must be seen

[9/10 · 4 May 2008]

The futuristic city has inspired architects ever since (look Shanghai -it's still being built). The story is a weird mix of old and new.There's a bit of the Golem, a touch of Caligari, a hint of Wells' Time Machine. And in this strange future city is a half-timbered house out of old Prague, hiding an alchemist - I mean scientist. The interior of the house is Tardis-like, with labyrinths of tiny rooms, a laboratory full of neon coils and a vast empty hall. Also in the city is an outsize Expressionist Gothic cathedral with looming gargoyles - or is one of them Charles "Hunchback" Laughton? Yes, some of the acting seems ludicrous to us, and the robot's erotic dance seems to involve a lot of shoulder hunching. I like Freder but can't help laughing at his speeded-up, elbow-pumping run. And why must the male characters, including Freder, wear obvious, thick wigs? Though it makes it possible for Joh's hair to turn white from fright as he watches his son fight on the cathedral roof . Despite the awful wigs and thick makeup, though, we do care for the characters, especially Freder and Josaphat, and even Joh, the Thin Man, Grot and Rotwang (it means Redwing).

This Island Earth (1955)

Cheesy but the best Roquefort

[6/10 · 25 January 2008]

"Whether you consider me a devil or a saint is not important. What is important is that you're here on this space ship." It's the "secret institute in the middle of the desert with international staff" plot, which Andromeda Strain did so well. Here it's a gracious southern mansion which contrasts well with the futuristic gizmos lying about in the Victorian sitting room. It turns out to be run by extraterrestrials who are so clever they can even make videoconferencing work. What's it all for? Their cover story is that they're working for world peace - or is it just "an end to war"? A threatening idea in the cold war? Anyone who comes out with that line is bound to be a commie - I mean, alien. Love the painted planet, with phallic buildings designed by Erich Mendelssohn. They're probably going up in Beijing now.

Stolen Babies (1993 TV Movie)

Excellent movie based on a true story

[5/10 · 17 January 2008]

This movie stars the lovely Lea Thompson and tells how her character, Anne Beales, uncovers a "baby farming" scandal in the rural American south in the 40s. The story is told plainly and the historical detail is done well, down to clothes and local shops in small towns. The chief villain is a Miss Tan who runs an unlicensed children's home and seems over-keen on removing children from their homes, or their "illiterate whore" mothers and selling - I mean "giving" - them to rich, needy, childless parents. Lea Thompson sets her jaw and tries to see justice done. Make sure you have a large box of tissues by your side when you watch this movie.

The Man in the Brown Suit (1989 TV Movie)

Fun adventure based on very early Christie

[5/10 · 1 January 2008]

People like to badmouth Christie for writing "cosy" mysteries set in English villages where everyone has servants and all the characters are made of cardboard. She wrote some in that genre, but also subtly sent it up, and Miss Marple always said that if you really wanted to see life in the raw you should live in a village. Man in the Brown Suit is NOT a cosy village mystery, but a thriller of the type Christie wrote from time to time. In the book it's quite clear that it's a take off of The Perils of Pauline. Christie also used a trip she'd made round the world with a larger than life character that she turned into Sir Eustace Pedler. (PS her husband went too.) She even manages to get in her favourite sport - surfing. (Bet you never knew Agatha was a keen surfer.) I'd love to see this film again. The makers don't seem sure whether or not it's a spoof, and spoof Christies never work. (There's an awful version of the ABC Murders - and didn't that star one Tony Randall?) Tony Randall is awful in this. The character should be able to convince whatever getup he is wearing. The film is saved by sticking to the book and by casting actors who do a good job whatever they're asked to do (Edward Woodward, Rue McLanahan step forward). The stuffy secretary Padgett is brilliantly played by Nickolas Grace, miserable in an Elvis costume that was the only fancy dress in the shop that fitted.

Blackout (1954)

Window on 50s London

[2/10 · 24 November 2007]

It's too long and confusing and all the tension ebbs away while you try to follow the convoluted plot. The fun part is revisiting London of the time, especially the genuine interiors - from Chelsea Studio to furnished (in 1900 taste) flat to shagpile'n'modern sculpture penthouse. The beautiful girl acts as well as the artist's wooden lay figure. Why couldn't Dane end up with painter Eleanor Summerfield? I suppose we're meant to think "Oh ho, the cops are following him because they think he'll lead him to the real killers!", but this is very clunkily done. And yes, the scene in the Polish pub (Polish pub???) is utterly unnecessary.

Somewhere in the Night (1946)

Confusing but enjoyable

[5/10 · 11 October 2007]

Nancy Guild is one of those heroines who look wry and quizzical all the time while delivering would-be funny lines. I love the bad girl's comeback to one of Nancy's cracks "Oh, are we going to have repartee?" Of course we are, this is a noir. One odd thing about the dialogue - why do the characters explain to each other what a private eye and a shamus are, and what a crystal ball is used for? Notice the scale of charges outside the fortune teller's gaff, though - The past! The present! The future! Cards! Palmistry! Psychoanalysis 10 cents! Yes, the trappings and the patter change, but the game stays the same. There are good settings and interiors, especially in the house of the lonely woman whose father is in the sinister sanitarium. But why is Nancy's living room full of Staffordshire figures and early Victorian portraits? Is this to indicate what a nice girl she is really even though she makes her living in a seedy club? But surely she wouldn't be able to afford to buy antiques? (And if some of the dialogue reminds you of All About Eve, it was reused - to better effect. I'm somebody. You certainly are. You think?)

Trio (1950)

Even better than Quartet

[8/10 · 30 August 2007]

The makers have chosen the best people for the job, and set the scene wonderfully. Every interior is full of detail that tells you all about the people who live in it. Whether the period is the 20s (the first story), the present (ie 1950) for the middle story, or the 1910s (the last), costumes and settings are lovingly observed and created. I love the fussy costumes of the two old ladies in the sanatorium - exquisite lace overlaid by the finest Shetland shawls. Roland Culver as Ashenden is very appealing, but never mind the soppy young lovers, it's Raymond Huntley as the man who resents his wife's health and independence who harrows our emotions. He usually played comical, pompous types, but here he is subtle and convincing and very impressive. The China Seas (great 30s film starring Gable and Harlow) stole the plot from the Mr Know All episode (and also nicked a story by Kipling). I wish we saw more of Naunton Wayne as the jealous husband - though he has a good moment looking melancholy in a Mexican hat. I love that posh bird who plays his wife, too.

Blithe Spirit (1945)

Interesting relic

[3/10 · 25 August 2007]

I love watching early colour films - you mean those 40s clothes weren't all grey?

Margaret Rutherford dominates this movie. Her "eccentric" garb is actually rather attractive and yes, she has an amazing hourglass figure. But I feel she was given her head rather too much. She probably developed this characterisation over many performances, and nobody told her "If it gets a laugh, leave it out." She does too much deranged fooling about when she's supposed to be surprisingly down to earth. The Madame Arcati joke is that mediums were usually portrayed as wispy females in long drapery. Arcati behaves like a retired headmistress (We'll really put our backs into it!). The contrast between her breezy, commonplace manner and her wacky beliefs isn't really brought out.

Just because all the actors are English (apart from Cummings), the Americans feel they have to use the words "Brit", "stiff", "lip" and "upper". Oh, give it a rest! The three main characters lose their tempers constantly and make risqué remarks (Did he make love to you? Yes, but very discreetly - he was in the cavalry!).

Flame in the Streets (1961)

Good "issue" drama about race relations in 60s London

[7/10 · 18 August 2007]

This film has just been screened on British television. I hope it comes out on DVD. The central characters are excellent, especially Brenda de Banzie as the mother who initially can't bear the thought of her daughter going out with a Jamaican. She has other problems, though - her husband is always out at union meetings and treats her like a piece of furniture, she thinks. De Banzie was good in parts like this. Wilfrid Brambell is in a rare straight role as old Mr Palmer, inserting Jiminy Cricket like advice. It's always fascinating to see a window on the past of the city where you live. Those (bathroom-less) workers' cottages by the river would now be desirable residences. And Notting Hill is full of people living on trust funds these days. The central character Gabe is likable and we hope he recovers from his burns. Minor roles give a natural performance and show that people who are "different" are as diverse as "we" are. Worth seeing.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

I can watch it again and again

[10/10 · 18 August 2007]

The novel is like a shooting script for the film - in fact it's written like a film. When Mary Astor played this role she was about 35 and had just had a baby. She loved her bizarre hairstyle which was created just for her to tame her very curly hair. She had been a child star noted for her fine features and porcelain- doll appearance. That doll-like pretttiness, just beginning to tarnish, is perfect for the role of Brigid. Brigid is a woman who has traded on her looks and her "ladylike" persona (and total lack of morals) to live off men for years. She may be worrying that it won't work for her much longer. What she needs is a really big score - like a piece of the Maltese Falcon, or maybe all of it for herself. Mary plays her brilliantly. Her face seems to be burning away from within, and apart from her first appearance in Sam's office, where she was pulling out all the stops, she looks tired and haggard. So much for those who complain she's not a "babe". Another piece of trivia: gunsel was slang for rent boy, not gun man (according to Raymond Chandler). Yes, I agree that Guttman's voice saying "It's fake! It's phony" is dubbed on. And what happens to Sam's bed? In later scenes it has become a sofa and it wasn't the fold-up type... You can tell how many times I have seen this movie, the only one I've given 10 points to.

Carry on Sergeant (1958)

Worth watching more than once

[7/10 · 10 August 2007]

One of the early batch of black and white Carry Ons which were so much better than the later, smuttier ones which seem to have become THE carry-ons. If you like this, you'll like Nurse, Cabby, Spying and Regardless. So what happened to British humour? Well, back then we had something called "censorship", and an official censor who went through the scripts crossing out anything risqué. This meant that writers and comedians had to be pretty ingenious and somehow the jokes were much funnier as a result. When everything became possible we were reduced to the single entendre. Anyway, back to the plot - I'd forgotten how hilarious Capt. Potts is, with his formulae for everything. Bob Monkhouse is good. I never get Kenneth Connor but he's not too irritating here, perhaps because he has an actual character to play instead of being let loose to gibber at will. Many of the cast were probably in the British army. I know that Private Williams, K. was in the army in Burma so no wonder his drill looks quite professional. He is sending up his own character here - he was a self-educated and highly intelligent man who liked to show off. He's also playing an overbearing middle class character, whereas he was - as his fans knew - a London boy whose Dad was a barber in Kings Cross.

The Hidden Room (1949)

As good as they say

[8/10 · 10 August 2007]

If you like this film, see if you can get hold of DEAR MURDERER, which has a similar plot and stars Eric Portman and Greta Gynt as the cuckolded husband/ faithless wife, with Dennis Price as one of her lovers. Again, murderer and victim share a long chat and seem to quite like each other. It was made a few years earlier, I think. But that doesn't stop this film being brilliant, with excellent playing from all the protagonists. Storm seems a thoroughly unlikeable woman. Presumably she stays with her husband because he is coining it as a psychiatrist in Harley Street with rich private patients. On my DVD cover a "Wayne Naughton" is credited - surely they mean Welsh comedian Naunton Wayne who is brilliant here (as always) as the Superintendent. He's one of those eccentric detectives, but he doesn't overplay his hand as Alistair Sim might have. He has a sad little speech about how he thought about marriage for so long that he missed the bus. A liking seems to spring up between him and Dr. Riordan, too.

Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)

Overlong mishmash

[3/10 · 16 June 2007]

TMM goes on, and on, and on... but some bits are genius. The lift that only works if you tapdance - brilliant. Julie Andrews' performance - wonderful. James Fox - pretty good. You have to understand that it's a product of its time, and a film apparently made by a committee, some of whom understood what they were doing, and some of whom had no idea. The 60s were fascinated by the 20s, which, owing to the weird vagaries of historical perspective, were just transiting from an embarrassment best forgotten to a quaint and amusing era. Where do you think all those short skirts and bobbed hairstyles came from? Revisiting the 20s on stage was a fad (imagine Private Lives with Maggie Smith directed by Noel Coward). In TMM, Julie Andrews does a brilliant 20s act complete with gestures and ridiculous dialogue ("I'm a modern!"), and she looks lovely in the clothes. But nobody else seems to be in on the joke. Another running gag is a parody of old 20s movies - and Julie and James seem to be the only actors who have watched any. Carol Channing had made a corner with her daffy 20s girl act but her contributions here are a cringe. They could all be dispensed with. Her "joke" - that she's an older woman with lots of lovers - is tasteless. Mary Tyler Moore is just totally lame. Bea Lillie is not bad. The Chinese villains aren't bad either, especially when it's their turn to operate the lift. Philip Ahn as Channing's Chinese butler is as dignified as he always was, but he's only there as a red herring (is Channing part of the plot?). The terrible slapstick finale where the Chinese villains are humiliated is ... no, I can't think of any more synonyms for "embarrassing".

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Doesn't live up to Streep

[3/10 · 28 May 2007]

Streep's performance is great, and I love her speech about why Andy is wearing a cerulean top (and it's NOT because she's got no taste). There is a genuine moral to this tale, probably not the one the makers intended: when you leave university and find not everyone is clamouring for your services, learn a little humility. And whatever you're doing, care - even if it's flipping burgers. But I expect idealism wins in this film - I didn't make it to the end. If you work at a magazine, it is too painfully like real life. A few random comments: I suppose Anne Hathaway was wearing a padded bra before the makeover. One day, though, can we have a film about an ugly duckling who becomes a swan where the duckling really is a bit more ugly than the luminously beautiful Miss Hathaway? Couldn't she have looked a bit more like a candidate from What Not to Wear? And finally, of course the villain has to have an English accent!

Vera Drake (2004)

Why does she have to be a saint?

[5/10 · 20 May 2007]

This really is a museum-like recreation of working class life in the early 50s. The characters are well-drawn and well-acted and you hope against hope that Reg and Ethel will make a go of it. So then, Vera's a sympathetic abortionist. But why does she have to be a saint? Actually I think commenters have over- reacted. People are always telling each other what a marvellous person Vera is, but she's a normally nice person. OK, so she looks after her old mum. Who else is going to? She invites the lonely Reg round for tea - but it's obvious to the audience that she's looking out for a boyfriend for her daughter. And why is Ethel so downtrodden? Could that be Vera's fault? Also, I don't think her performance in the second half of the film is soooo amazing. She just cries all the time! Does this mean someone is acting? There's a lot of speechless crying in Secrets and Lies, too. And Juliet Stevenson was always commended for her crying. Another thing - her abortion technique would have caused death most of the time, according to a midwife writing in the Guardian. We don't see the results (a miscarriage which you had to suffer on your own - you couldn't call for help as you were breaking the law). The story does bring out women's ignorance of how their bodies worked - Vera tells them they'll "come away" after a few days. These are the words used by the abortionist in Cynthia Payne's autobiography (written with Paul Bailey). Also Vera tells the police she just helps girls start their bleeding again. This is probably how many women thought of it. Ultimately, though, in someone else's words, Leigh is "preaching to the choir." And ultimately this film is something it tries very hard not to be - sentimental.

Five Angles on Murder (1950)

One of my top 20 films

[9/10 · 6 May 2007]

This film repays several viewings. It's not just Astra who changes according to who's telling her story. People's memories of themselves are also flattering. Astra's sister Katie as remembered by Mrs Finch is a nasal-voiced slut. As remembered by herself she is as gracious as a member of the royal family. When we see her with the police (and this we assume is "reality"), she is much nicer than Mrs Finch's view of her, but more lower-class than her own self- image. In the minds of Mrs Finch and Mr Pollard, Astra is always seen in a shaft of light, her voice is like an angel's - and her dressing gown is clean. Katie has the unkindest view of Astra - seeing her as a round-shouldered slattern with a growing out perm, a filthy dressing gown, someone who sleeps in her makeup and (ripped) stockings. Though it's pretty clear that Astra supplements her fortune telling with prostitution, Katie - who is pleasant enough to have Bob fall in love with her - seems to be exaggerating Astra's vulgarity. But at the very end, when the Inspector tells Pollard "This is what really happened" we see... Astra herself, not seen through the distorting lens of another character. And she is the hunched, harsh-voiced woman in the dirty dressing gown.

Apart from the unusual psychological detective story (who killed her? who was she?) this film is great for the background of the little seaside town, the shabby fairground, the little houses unchanged for 50 years.

In Which We Serve (1942)

England hasn't changed that much

[8/10 · 29 April 2006]

Coward was originally a working class Cockney - maybe that's why his voice was exaggeratedly clipped and upper class. Actually his accent is all his own - it's an actor's version of the dialect. It's very comforting to look a this film and notice how class ridden society was then, and how the film patronises the lower orders. Of course we modern people would never behave like that!

Come and visit - you'll find us as obsessed with class as we ever were.

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