The Lady Vanishes The Lady Vanishes, 1.15pm, BBC2, Sunday, August 22
Alfred Hitchcock neatly balances the thriller elements of this tale of a mysterious disappearance with a comedic tone as young socialite Iris (Margaret Lockwood) boards a train with a kindly old lady (Dame May Witty). When the older woman vanishes, Iris begins to doubt her own sanity after finding virtually everyone else aboard refuses to even acknowledge she existed but enlists the help of sparky academic Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) in the hunt. Hitchcock, as always, makes great use of his confined setting, which is stuffed to the carriage doors with fine character performances from the likes of Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford as a pair of cricketers to Philip Leaver as Italian magician Signor Doppo, somehow managing to seed in a darker mood with the lightest of touches. Read our full review
Airplane!, 11pm, Tuesday, August 16, ITV4
There's something infinitely rewatchable about.
Alfred Hitchcock neatly balances the thriller elements of this tale of a mysterious disappearance with a comedic tone as young socialite Iris (Margaret Lockwood) boards a train with a kindly old lady (Dame May Witty). When the older woman vanishes, Iris begins to doubt her own sanity after finding virtually everyone else aboard refuses to even acknowledge she existed but enlists the help of sparky academic Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) in the hunt. Hitchcock, as always, makes great use of his confined setting, which is stuffed to the carriage doors with fine character performances from the likes of Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford as a pair of cricketers to Philip Leaver as Italian magician Signor Doppo, somehow managing to seed in a darker mood with the lightest of touches. Read our full review
Airplane!, 11pm, Tuesday, August 16, ITV4
There's something infinitely rewatchable about.
- 8/16/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Whisky Galore Photo: Optimum Releasing
Whisky Galore, 10pm, BBC4, Thursday January 14
Seventy years has done little to dim the subversive joy of Alexander Mackendrick's Hebridean wartime comedy - which it's worth remembering, was his directorial debut. Compton Mackenzie's novel - which was inspired by the actual grounding of the SS Politician off Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides - springs to glorious life, bursting with colour despite the black and white. As the locals try to salvage 50,000 cases of Scotch from a stricken US ship while outwitting a pompous Englishman Basil Radford who has been sent to the island, the character and visual comedy build to dram fine effect. Read our full review.
The Angel's Share, BBC iPlayer, until December
If Whisky Galore! puts you in the mood for more of the spirit, then why not make it a double-bill with this Scottish charmer, which sees Ken Loach and...
Whisky Galore, 10pm, BBC4, Thursday January 14
Seventy years has done little to dim the subversive joy of Alexander Mackendrick's Hebridean wartime comedy - which it's worth remembering, was his directorial debut. Compton Mackenzie's novel - which was inspired by the actual grounding of the SS Politician off Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides - springs to glorious life, bursting with colour despite the black and white. As the locals try to salvage 50,000 cases of Scotch from a stricken US ship while outwitting a pompous Englishman Basil Radford who has been sent to the island, the character and visual comedy build to dram fine effect. Read our full review.
The Angel's Share, BBC iPlayer, until December
If Whisky Galore! puts you in the mood for more of the spirit, then why not make it a double-bill with this Scottish charmer, which sees Ken Loach and...
- 1/11/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Much of Ealing Studios’ core appeal begins right here, with T.E.B. Clarke’s astute look at the character of pragmatic, energetic Londoners, who in this fantasy face an outrageous situation with spirit, pluck, and a determination not to be cheated. What happens when a few square blocks of London discover that they’re no longer even part of the British Empire? A classic of wartime ‘adjustments,’ the ensemble comedy even begins with a Tex Avery- like ode to rationing.
Passport to Pimlico
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 20, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Sydney Tafler, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley, Philip Stainton, Roy Carr, Nancy Gabrielle, Malcolm Knight, Roy Gladdish, Frederick Piper, Charles Hawtrey, Stuart Lindsell, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Gilbert Davis, Michael Hordern, Arthur Howard, Bill Shine, Harry Locke, Sam Kydd.
Cinematography: Lionel...
Passport to Pimlico
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 20, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Sydney Tafler, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley, Philip Stainton, Roy Carr, Nancy Gabrielle, Malcolm Knight, Roy Gladdish, Frederick Piper, Charles Hawtrey, Stuart Lindsell, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Gilbert Davis, Michael Hordern, Arthur Howard, Bill Shine, Harry Locke, Sam Kydd.
Cinematography: Lionel...
- 12/31/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Modern spy movies have nothing on this Brit thriller produced just as war broke out -- Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood and Paul Henried clash with Nazi agents, and risk a daring escape to Switzerland. The witty screenplay is by the writers of Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes and the director is Carol Reed, in terrific form. Night Train to Munich Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 523 1940 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September, 2016 / Starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul von Hernried, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, James Harcourt, Felix Aylmer, Roland Culver, Raymond Huntley, Fritz (Frederick) Valk. Cinematography Otto Kanturek Film Editor R. E. Dearing Written by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder story by Gordon Wellesley Produced by Edward Black Directed by Carol Reed
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Alfred Hitchcock's successful series of 1930s spy chase thrillers -- The Man Who Knew Too Much; The 39 Steps --...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Alfred Hitchcock's successful series of 1930s spy chase thrillers -- The Man Who Knew Too Much; The 39 Steps --...
- 9/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Michael Leader Nov 2, 2019
Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, had a career that spanned 50-plus films. We think we can narrow it down to the 10 best.
Whenever geeky film conversations turn to the topic of the greatest British directors, a few answers frequently crop up: Charlie Chaplin, David Lean, Nicolas Roeg, and Michael Powell are just a handful of a list of potentials, but there is one man whose impact on film history outclasses almost all contenders: Alfred Hitchcock.
Born on the cusp of the 20th Century, Hitchcock came to define entire genres of cinema in a career that spanned over 50 years and over 50 films. His body of work - not to mention his rotund body itself - is both immense and iconic, full of tense thrillers, psycho-dramas, and adventure flicks that were not only wildly popular at the time, but inspired both critical re-evaluation and whole new generations of filmmakers in ensuing years.
Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, had a career that spanned 50-plus films. We think we can narrow it down to the 10 best.
Whenever geeky film conversations turn to the topic of the greatest British directors, a few answers frequently crop up: Charlie Chaplin, David Lean, Nicolas Roeg, and Michael Powell are just a handful of a list of potentials, but there is one man whose impact on film history outclasses almost all contenders: Alfred Hitchcock.
Born on the cusp of the 20th Century, Hitchcock came to define entire genres of cinema in a career that spanned over 50 years and over 50 films. His body of work - not to mention his rotund body itself - is both immense and iconic, full of tense thrillers, psycho-dramas, and adventure flicks that were not only wildly popular at the time, but inspired both critical re-evaluation and whole new generations of filmmakers in ensuing years.
- 8/1/2012
- Den of Geek
On top of a mesmerising plot, perfect casting and the greatest comic duo in British cinema, this comedy thriller derives special urgency from the troubled times in which it was made
Hitchcock and railways go together like a locomotive and tender. He loved them, they figure significantly in his work and never more so than in The Lady Vanishes. Much of what happens could only take place on a railway line – passengers delayed together by an avalanche; classes compartmentalised; strangers trapped together as they're transported across a continent; an engine driver killed in crossfire; a carriage disconnected and shunted on to a branch line; an intrepid hero struggling from one carriage to another outside a fast-moving train as other locomotives rush by; clues in the form of a name traced in the steam on a window, and the label on a tea packet briefly adhering to another window; and above...
Hitchcock and railways go together like a locomotive and tender. He loved them, they figure significantly in his work and never more so than in The Lady Vanishes. Much of what happens could only take place on a railway line – passengers delayed together by an avalanche; classes compartmentalised; strangers trapped together as they're transported across a continent; an engine driver killed in crossfire; a carriage disconnected and shunted on to a branch line; an intrepid hero struggling from one carriage to another outside a fast-moving train as other locomotives rush by; clues in the form of a name traced in the steam on a window, and the label on a tea packet briefly adhering to another window; and above...
- 7/24/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The novelist relishes Hitch's prewar comedy adapted by Gilliat and Launder because it both satirises and celebrates the English stiff upper lip
It might not be his best film, but Hitchcock never made anything warmer or more lovable than this. I must have seen it 20 or 30 times and can't imagine ever growing tired of it.
Kudos to his collaborators, first of all. Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's screenplay is sharper than anything written for Hitchcock's other British films (or his American films, come to that – except possibly for North by Northwest) and you could make a strong case for regarding it as a Launder and Gilliat film rather than a Hitchcock one, if authorship has to be decided. That sometimes endearing indifference to nuances of dialogue and characterisation that marks even some of Hitchcock's best films is nowhere to be found here: the edgy banter between Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood really sparkles.
It might not be his best film, but Hitchcock never made anything warmer or more lovable than this. I must have seen it 20 or 30 times and can't imagine ever growing tired of it.
Kudos to his collaborators, first of all. Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's screenplay is sharper than anything written for Hitchcock's other British films (or his American films, come to that – except possibly for North by Northwest) and you could make a strong case for regarding it as a Launder and Gilliat film rather than a Hitchcock one, if authorship has to be decided. That sometimes endearing indifference to nuances of dialogue and characterisation that marks even some of Hitchcock's best films is nowhere to be found here: the edgy banter between Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood really sparkles.
- 6/16/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Although Ealing Studios did not exclusively make comedies – actually, less than ten percent of their output was comic – it is the run of comedies from the late ’40s into the ’50s that the studio is best remembered for, and it’s not difficult to see why. Under the leadership of Michael Balcon, the legendary British producer who also founded Gainsborough Pictures, they produced incredibly sharp, witty and likeable comedies ranging from the whimsy of a film like Passport to Pimlico to the razor-sharp black comedy of Kind Hearts and Coronets, also released in 1949.
The movies were quintessentially British, and often got funnier as they got darker precisely because the characters had to uphold good British virtues while getting away with political upheaval (Passport to Pimlico), theft (The Lavender Hill Mob, one of their best) or murder (Kind Hearts and Coronets). This paradox is prevalent in Passport to Pimlico,...
Although Ealing Studios did not exclusively make comedies – actually, less than ten percent of their output was comic – it is the run of comedies from the late ’40s into the ’50s that the studio is best remembered for, and it’s not difficult to see why. Under the leadership of Michael Balcon, the legendary British producer who also founded Gainsborough Pictures, they produced incredibly sharp, witty and likeable comedies ranging from the whimsy of a film like Passport to Pimlico to the razor-sharp black comedy of Kind Hearts and Coronets, also released in 1949.
The movies were quintessentially British, and often got funnier as they got darker precisely because the characters had to uphold good British virtues while getting away with political upheaval (Passport to Pimlico), theft (The Lavender Hill Mob, one of their best) or murder (Kind Hearts and Coronets). This paradox is prevalent in Passport to Pimlico,...
- 6/12/2012
- by Adam Whyte
- Obsessed with Film
Chicago – The unmistakable silhouette of the Master of Suspense will be cast over the Music Box Theatre during the final days of the holiday season. Ten of Alfred Hitchcock’s most beloved masterworks will be presented on the big screen in inspired double bills that illustrate the startling range and enduring brilliance of the legendary filmmaker.
Even if moviegoers have seen these titles eight dozen times on DVD, they will be amazed at how fresh the films play when screened in a packed theater. No filmmaker knew how to delight and frighten an audience better than Hitchcock. When Robert Osborne held a free screening of “North by Northwest” at the Music Box last year, it felt as if the picture had been made yesterday.
Every punchline scored a belly laugh, every moment of delicious tension caused viewers to lean forward in anticipation, and when the film ended, the packed house broke out into extended,...
Even if moviegoers have seen these titles eight dozen times on DVD, they will be amazed at how fresh the films play when screened in a packed theater. No filmmaker knew how to delight and frighten an audience better than Hitchcock. When Robert Osborne held a free screening of “North by Northwest” at the Music Box last year, it felt as if the picture had been made yesterday.
Every punchline scored a belly laugh, every moment of delicious tension caused viewers to lean forward in anticipation, and when the film ended, the packed house broke out into extended,...
- 12/22/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Chicago – Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” isn’t one of his most heralded films. You don’t hear it mentioned on most lists of the best works of arguably the most influential director who ever lived. And yet it was the third film chosen for The Criterion Collection and has now been given the upgrade and joined the esteemed Blu-ray ranks of the most important collection in the history of home entertainment. If you’re unfamiliar with this witty, delightful gem of a thriller, there’s no other way to experience it for the first time. And if you’re a fan of Hitchcock’s more famous films, do yourself a favor by checking out one of his earliest.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
“The Lady Vanishes” had actually been in production with a different director when Alfred Hitchcock came on board mostly to satisfy his British contract before heading to the States.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
“The Lady Vanishes” had actually been in production with a different director when Alfred Hitchcock came on board mostly to satisfy his British contract before heading to the States.
- 12/19/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
DVD Playhouse—December 2011
By Allen Gardner
The Rules Of The Game (Criterion) Jean Renoir’s classic from 1939 was met with a riot at its premiere and was severely cut by its distributor, available only in truncated form for two decades until it was restored to the grandeur for which it is celebrated today. A biting comedy of manners set in the upstairs and downstairs of a French country estate, the film bitterly vivisects the bourgeoisie with a gentle ferocity that will tickle the laughter in your throat. Renoir co-stars as Octave. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Introduction to the film by Renoir; Commentary written by scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by Peter Bogdanovich; Comparison of the film’s two endings; Selected scene analysis by Renoir scholar Chris Faulkner; Featurettes and vintage film clips; Part one of David Thomson’s “Jean Renoir” BBC documentary; Video essay; Interviews with Renoir, crew members,...
By Allen Gardner
The Rules Of The Game (Criterion) Jean Renoir’s classic from 1939 was met with a riot at its premiere and was severely cut by its distributor, available only in truncated form for two decades until it was restored to the grandeur for which it is celebrated today. A biting comedy of manners set in the upstairs and downstairs of a French country estate, the film bitterly vivisects the bourgeoisie with a gentle ferocity that will tickle the laughter in your throat. Renoir co-stars as Octave. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Introduction to the film by Renoir; Commentary written by scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by Peter Bogdanovich; Comparison of the film’s two endings; Selected scene analysis by Renoir scholar Chris Faulkner; Featurettes and vintage film clips; Part one of David Thomson’s “Jean Renoir” BBC documentary; Video essay; Interviews with Renoir, crew members,...
- 12/12/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed
This week I thought I would add a few holiday deals from Amazon for you to check out before getting into the week's new releases. Maybe you'll find something you like.
Blu-ray Deals Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box Collection ($49.99) The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Editions) ($49.99) Inception ($7.99) The Ultimate Matrix Collection ($32.99) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 ($9.99) The Dark Knight ($7.99) Batman Begins ($7.99) DVD Deals It's a Wonderful Life (60th Anniversary Edition) ($10.99) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 ($4.99) The Wizard of Oz (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition) ($7.99) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($5.00) The Hangover ($6.99) The Blind Side ($5.49) Gone with the Wind (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition) ($8.49) And now for today's new releases...
The Lady Vanishes (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] A great film and a solid presentation, and a disc owners of even the four-year-old DVD remaster...
This week I thought I would add a few holiday deals from Amazon for you to check out before getting into the week's new releases. Maybe you'll find something you like.
Blu-ray Deals Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box Collection ($49.99) The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Editions) ($49.99) Inception ($7.99) The Ultimate Matrix Collection ($32.99) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 ($9.99) The Dark Knight ($7.99) Batman Begins ($7.99) DVD Deals It's a Wonderful Life (60th Anniversary Edition) ($10.99) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 ($4.99) The Wizard of Oz (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition) ($7.99) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($5.00) The Hangover ($6.99) The Blind Side ($5.49) Gone with the Wind (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition) ($8.49) And now for today's new releases...
The Lady Vanishes (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] A great film and a solid presentation, and a disc owners of even the four-year-old DVD remaster...
- 12/6/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Release Date: Dec. 6, 2011
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Michael Redgrave (l.) and Margaret Lockwood do some investigating in The Lady Vanishes.
It’s great to see Alfred Hitchcock’s (Psycho) quick-witted and devilish 1938 comedy-thriller The Lady Vanishes get the Criterion treatment.
In the movie, beautiful Margaret Lockwood (Night Train to Munich) is traveling across Europe by train when she meets a charming spinster (Dame May Whitty, Suspicion), who then seems to disappear into thin air. The younger woman turns investigator and finds herself drawn into a complex web of mystery, adventure and even some romance.
Co-starring Michael Redgrave (The Browning Version) and Paul Lukas (The Ghost Breakers), The Lady Vanishes remains an audience favorite and one of the great filmmaker’s purest delights.
Criterion’s Blu-ray edition offers a high-definition digital restoration of the classic film with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack.
There are a number of bonus features on the Blu-ray...
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Michael Redgrave (l.) and Margaret Lockwood do some investigating in The Lady Vanishes.
It’s great to see Alfred Hitchcock’s (Psycho) quick-witted and devilish 1938 comedy-thriller The Lady Vanishes get the Criterion treatment.
In the movie, beautiful Margaret Lockwood (Night Train to Munich) is traveling across Europe by train when she meets a charming spinster (Dame May Whitty, Suspicion), who then seems to disappear into thin air. The younger woman turns investigator and finds herself drawn into a complex web of mystery, adventure and even some romance.
Co-starring Michael Redgrave (The Browning Version) and Paul Lukas (The Ghost Breakers), The Lady Vanishes remains an audience favorite and one of the great filmmaker’s purest delights.
Criterion’s Blu-ray edition offers a high-definition digital restoration of the classic film with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack.
There are a number of bonus features on the Blu-ray...
- 9/19/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Night Train to Munich
Directed by Carol Reed
United Kingdom, 1940
The title of Carol Reed’s 1940 wartime comedic thriller hardly tells the whole story. Perhaps hoping to capitalize off of the success of the two-years prior The Lady Vanishes, Night Train to Munich would have you believe that it’s an equally contained picture. That famous writers Frank Laudner and Sidney Gilliat wrote both is perhaps then, of no coincidence.
While there is an immensely successful third act that does take place primarily aboard a train, the film is far more sprawling and unfairly overlooked at the expense of its supposed successor.
Scientist Dr. Bomasch (James Harcourt) is forced to free Prague at the invasion of the Nazis. His daughter Anna (Margaret Lockwood) escapes from a concentration camp with the help of fellow internee Karl Marsen (Paul von Hernried) and meets her father in England, where father and daughter take...
Directed by Carol Reed
United Kingdom, 1940
The title of Carol Reed’s 1940 wartime comedic thriller hardly tells the whole story. Perhaps hoping to capitalize off of the success of the two-years prior The Lady Vanishes, Night Train to Munich would have you believe that it’s an equally contained picture. That famous writers Frank Laudner and Sidney Gilliat wrote both is perhaps then, of no coincidence.
While there is an immensely successful third act that does take place primarily aboard a train, the film is far more sprawling and unfairly overlooked at the expense of its supposed successor.
Scientist Dr. Bomasch (James Harcourt) is forced to free Prague at the invasion of the Nazis. His daughter Anna (Margaret Lockwood) escapes from a concentration camp with the help of fellow internee Karl Marsen (Paul von Hernried) and meets her father in England, where father and daughter take...
- 9/6/2011
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
Throughout the classic comedies produced by Ealing Studios in the ’40s and ’50s run both a lightness of touch and a subtly unsentimental look at human character. Their classics all involve crime and greed: for money and the freedom that comes with it in The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob, for money and social standing in Kinds Hearts and Coronets. But the (amateur) criminals in the latter two are gentlemen; very English and very charming. In The Ladykillers, the gentility is merely a disguise for professional criminals. Often, the apparent civility of polite society helps their characters veil their repressed, anarchic sides.
The first of Ealing’s run of classic comedies – which also includes The Man in the White Suit and Passport to Pimlico – was Whisky Galore!, the first movie directed by Boston-born Scotsman Alexander Mackendrick. It was produced by Ealing’s legendary Michael Balcon and co-edited by Charles Crichton,...
The first of Ealing’s run of classic comedies – which also includes The Man in the White Suit and Passport to Pimlico – was Whisky Galore!, the first movie directed by Boston-born Scotsman Alexander Mackendrick. It was produced by Ealing’s legendary Michael Balcon and co-edited by Charles Crichton,...
- 8/9/2011
- by Adam Whyte
- Obsessed with Film
Captain America: The First Avenger (12)
(Joe Johnston, 2011, Us) Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan. 124 mins
Unsurprisingly, this is the most patriotic of the summer's superhero movies, but there are few surprises all round. The story is largely what you'd imagine from the trailer: wimpy 1940s do-gooder undergoes a fast-track Charles Atlas course, then socks it to the evil über-Nazis. It's like Inglourious Basterds meets Indiana Jones, although the wholesome tone and white-bread heroism diminish the effects-driven spectacle, and the real second world war is reduced to mere set dressing.
Our Day Will Come (18)
(Romain Gavras, 2010, Fra) Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthelemy, Justine Lerooy. 83 mins
Edgy provocateur alert! Expanding on the redhead persecution theme he developed in his Mia video, Gavras's debut follows ginger alienation to its conclusion, as Cassel and Barthelemy head out on the highway to oblivion, without a map or a ferry timetable.
Arrietty (U)
(Hiromasa Yonebayashi,...
(Joe Johnston, 2011, Us) Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan. 124 mins
Unsurprisingly, this is the most patriotic of the summer's superhero movies, but there are few surprises all round. The story is largely what you'd imagine from the trailer: wimpy 1940s do-gooder undergoes a fast-track Charles Atlas course, then socks it to the evil über-Nazis. It's like Inglourious Basterds meets Indiana Jones, although the wholesome tone and white-bread heroism diminish the effects-driven spectacle, and the real second world war is reduced to mere set dressing.
Our Day Will Come (18)
(Romain Gavras, 2010, Fra) Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthelemy, Justine Lerooy. 83 mins
Edgy provocateur alert! Expanding on the redhead persecution theme he developed in his Mia video, Gavras's debut follows ginger alienation to its conclusion, as Cassel and Barthelemy head out on the highway to oblivion, without a map or a ferry timetable.
Arrietty (U)
(Hiromasa Yonebayashi,...
- 7/29/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The Ealing classic about Scottish islanders attempting to liberate a boatload of alcohol comes up sparkling in this wonderful reissue
This summer has seen a string of classic Ealing reissues, and continues with this: beguiling, subversive and a complete joy. Basil Radford plays a flustered Englishman sent to command a Home Guard force on a remote Scottish island during the second world war. He is pop-eyed with indignation to find that his men, along with the entire civilian population – maddened by a wartime alcohol shortage – are secretly intent on plundering 50,000 cases of whisky from a shipwreck. This tale of an outsider failing to come to grips with a tight-knit community could be screened as a triple bill with Local Hero ("Oil-money galore") and The Wicker Man ("Occult conspiracy galore"). Insouciantly, the film finally reveals that the mass pilfering drove whisky prices up, and eventually caused another booze famine. So victimless crime doesn't pay?...
This summer has seen a string of classic Ealing reissues, and continues with this: beguiling, subversive and a complete joy. Basil Radford plays a flustered Englishman sent to command a Home Guard force on a remote Scottish island during the second world war. He is pop-eyed with indignation to find that his men, along with the entire civilian population – maddened by a wartime alcohol shortage – are secretly intent on plundering 50,000 cases of whisky from a shipwreck. This tale of an outsider failing to come to grips with a tight-knit community could be screened as a triple bill with Local Hero ("Oil-money galore") and The Wicker Man ("Occult conspiracy galore"). Insouciantly, the film finally reveals that the mass pilfering drove whisky prices up, and eventually caused another booze famine. So victimless crime doesn't pay?...
- 7/28/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A striking stage presence for more than 60 years and a familiar face on TV
Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.
The role remained one of her favourites,...
Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.
The role remained one of her favourites,...
- 7/27/2011
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
"To the west, there is nothing, except America."
Revived at Edinburgh Internbational Film Festival, Alexander Mackendrick's first film, Whisky Galore! (released in the USA as Tight Little Island) is regarded as a perennial classic in Britain but not so well-known elsewhere. Inspired by a real-life incident, the wrecking of a ship carrying a cargo of whisky off the coast of a Scottish island where that vital social lubricant had been cut off by wartime shortages, it's an easy-going comedy and in some ways the ur-text behind Bill Forsyth's Local Hero (1983).
Even in his modest first film, Mackendrick's indebtedness to German expressionism leads to some rousing sequences, kinetic montages of conspiratorial islanders, who have to circumvent the English home guard official who is determined that the shipwrecked cases of scotch should sink to the sea bed rather than be illicitly salvaged. As with all the great Ealing comedies, the...
Revived at Edinburgh Internbational Film Festival, Alexander Mackendrick's first film, Whisky Galore! (released in the USA as Tight Little Island) is regarded as a perennial classic in Britain but not so well-known elsewhere. Inspired by a real-life incident, the wrecking of a ship carrying a cargo of whisky off the coast of a Scottish island where that vital social lubricant had been cut off by wartime shortages, it's an easy-going comedy and in some ways the ur-text behind Bill Forsyth's Local Hero (1983).
Even in his modest first film, Mackendrick's indebtedness to German expressionism leads to some rousing sequences, kinetic montages of conspiratorial islanders, who have to circumvent the English home guard official who is determined that the shipwrecked cases of scotch should sink to the sea bed rather than be illicitly salvaged. As with all the great Ealing comedies, the...
- 6/21/2011
- MUBI
Michael Redgrave in the "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" segment in Dead of Night (top); Gene Tierney in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Dragonwyck (middle); Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (bottom) Turner Classic Movies' horror/mystery/suspense Halloween marathon kicks off this evening with a showing of the 1945 British classic Dead of Night, which, 65 years later, remains one of the best efforts in the psychological-horror genre. Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti ("Christmas Party" and "The Ventriloquist's Dummy"), Charles Crichton ("Golfing Story"), Basil Dearden ("Hearse Driver" and "Linking Narrative"), and Robert Hamer ("The Haunted Mirror"), Dead of Night stars a number of top players of British film and stage, among them Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver, Basil Radford, Sally Ann Howes, and, best of all, Michael Redgrave as an unbalanced ventriloquist. Also this evening, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, a sumptuous David O. Selznick production starring a flawless Joan Fontaine as "I" de...
- 10/29/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
How would Sky Sports News react as the votes were counted on a tense election night?
Those of you familiar with Hitchcock's film The Lady Vanishes may remember the characters played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne continuing to obsess about cricket, as war clouds gathered over Europe, and little old ladies bizarrely were put in charge of important messages about troop movements. Well, on election night, I think I found the modern equivalent.
I thought it might be quite fun, as the marathon election programmes began, to turn to Sky Sports News to see if they were even acknowledging that an election was taking place; and blow me if they were not reading out county cricket scores. Having just switched over from some economic expert reporting that in New York the Dow Jones was falling faster than Vanessa Feltz on a bungee rope, it was strangely soothing to find...
Those of you familiar with Hitchcock's film The Lady Vanishes may remember the characters played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne continuing to obsess about cricket, as war clouds gathered over Europe, and little old ladies bizarrely were put in charge of important messages about troop movements. Well, on election night, I think I found the modern equivalent.
I thought it might be quite fun, as the marathon election programmes began, to turn to Sky Sports News to see if they were even acknowledging that an election was taking place; and blow me if they were not reading out county cricket scores. Having just switched over from some economic expert reporting that in New York the Dow Jones was falling faster than Vanessa Feltz on a bungee rope, it was strangely soothing to find...
- 5/10/2010
- by Martin Kelner
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor who brought sympathetic dimensions to the comic twerp Bertie Wooster and the shrewd detective Lord Peter Wimsey
Actor known for his roles as the archetypal blithering Englishman
Playing the archetypal silly ass was the sometimes reluctant business of the stage, film and television actor Ian Carmichael, who has died aged 89. In the public mind he became the best-known postwar example of a characteristic British type - the personally appealing blithering idiot who somehow survives, and sometimes even gets the girl. One of his most characteristic and memorable sorties in this field was his portrayal of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim – the anti-hero James Dixon, who savaged the pretensions of academia, as Amis had himself sometimes clashed with academia when he was a lecturer at Swansea. Appearing in John and Roy Boulting's 1957 film, he was able to suggest an unruly but amiable spirit at the end of its tether,...
Actor known for his roles as the archetypal blithering Englishman
Playing the archetypal silly ass was the sometimes reluctant business of the stage, film and television actor Ian Carmichael, who has died aged 89. In the public mind he became the best-known postwar example of a characteristic British type - the personally appealing blithering idiot who somehow survives, and sometimes even gets the girl. One of his most characteristic and memorable sorties in this field was his portrayal of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim – the anti-hero James Dixon, who savaged the pretensions of academia, as Amis had himself sometimes clashed with academia when he was a lecturer at Swansea. Appearing in John and Roy Boulting's 1957 film, he was able to suggest an unruly but amiable spirit at the end of its tether,...
- 2/7/2010
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
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