I’m sure that many (younger) viewers feel that TV drama has never been better; certainly, the budgets are higher; it often has actors of real quality, and it is more detailed (and nuanced?) in its adult content. But is the updated Shogun more absorbing than we found Richard Chamberlain’s? Do we really need a TV drama based on the Emily Maitlis/Prince Andrew interview? (And why make it? Chasing ratings, I suppose.) I do watch (and have made a study of) series from the 1950s and 1960s, and many of them hold up – whether for younger viewers (the 13-part The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe from 1964) or adults (Manhunt, from 1970, currently on Talking Pictures). The latter has some fine acting, too!
EVERYTHING WENT FINE (2021) Saturday 6 April 9.00-10.50pm BBC 4 P We have usually found François Ozon’s films to be rewarding – Frantz, for example. He tackles different subject matter in this sensitive drama – Sophie Marceau’s father has suffered a stroke and he asks that she help him with his assisted suicide. ON CHESIL BEACH (2017) Sunday 7 April 10.00-11.45pm BBC 2 Most members probably prefer Ian McEwan’s novella, but Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle are good casting and the locations are bound to please. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (1952) Thursday 11 April 5.35-7.20pm TP (Ch 82) Legendary director Luis Buñuel’s reputation was built on surrealist fare such as The Exterminating Angel (1962). So, making a restrained version of Defoe’s novel might seem odd – but it works. Indeed, Daniel O’Herlihy was nominated for an Oscar. The colour and print quality are usually below par, though. LOVE FROM A STRANGER (1936) Friday 12 April 7.05-8.50pm TP (Ch 82) This is a rarely seen – and early – adaptation of an Agatha Christie story. Ann Harding wins a small fortune and marries Basil Rathbone, little realising that that he likes to murder wealthy women . . . amazingly, Joan Hickson (later to play Miss Marple) has a small role. Two years later, Rathbone worked again with director Rowland V. Lee on Tower of London in which he played Richard III.
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HAPPY EASTER everyone! In film terms this means, of course, that the usual suspects are in the weekend line-up: Ben-Hur (1959), Easter Parade (1948) and The Wizard of Oz (1939), on Sunday; then The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), on Monday.
ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) Saturday 30 March 2.30-4.15pm BBC 2 Waterfront isn’t just one of the best films of the 1950s; it’s one of the best ever. A scintillating drama set in New York’s docklands it won 8 Oscars including Best Picture and one for Marlon Brando – who would have been 100-years-old this week. Ye gods! WATERLOO (1970) Tuesday 2 April 4.30-7.10pm Great Action (Channel 42) Consider this essential viewing if you haven’t seen it but went to see Napoleon last year. Some of the reviews for Waterloo were mixed but it remains a very good, old-style epic (no CGI, thousands of extras). And Rod Steiger (as Napoleon) and Christopher Plummer are both excellent. THE SECRET ARMY (2024) Tuesday 2 April 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4 P It might seem eccentric to recommend a documentary that examines another documentary made 50 years ago, but bear with me! The original The Secret Army was filmed by an American team that went to Northern Ireland and was given exclusive access to key IRA personnel. Unsurprisingly, political pressure was then applied and it wasn’t transmitted . . . IN HARM’S WAY (1965) Friday 5 April 10.45am-2.05pm 5 Action (Channel 33) For me, this is one of the most underrated films in the John Wayne canon. He teamed rarely with a director like Otto Preminger (in this instance, just once), and they both worked really hard – with minimum fuss (or clashes) on set – to make it work. There is a powerful cast, too, that includes Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal and Dana Andrews. Set in Pearl Harbor in 1941/42, the story unfolds like a combination of the novels From Here to Eternity and The Winds of War. Only some poor model work detracts from the overall effect. The TV premieres are missing this week, alas. This means that all four recommendations are of an older vintage although there are some interesting TV documentaries, if you are so inclined. Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods (Monday, 9pm BBC 2) is harrowing but looks brilliant; Lincoln: Divided We Stand (also Monday, 9.15pm on the PBS channel) is a 6-part series on the American president – and five episodes are on this week, so it requires some dedicated viewing. Finally, there is Bruce Lee: a Life in Ten Pictures which is on BBC 2 Thursday evening. It is 50 years since Mr Lee died, but he remains a cultural phenomenon. I have happy memories of engaging (under age) with kung fu films, back then. It was said that one of his kicks was so fast it wouldn’t register at 24 frames per second, so they had to slow the camera speed!
HONDO (1953) Sunday 24 March 7.10-9.00pm 5 Action (Channel 33) Often cited as the best John Wayne western not directed by John Ford (it’s up there, certainly), Hondo is literate, well paced and entertaining. The story concerns a cavalry scout who befriends a mother and her young son as the Apaches threaten. The Duke didn’t get on too well with Geraldine Page who went from the theatre to an Oscar nomination in her debut role here, but their teaming works. Originally it was shown in 3D and to see it in this format remains one of my great, so far unrealised, ambitions. THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH (1957) Monday 25 March 1.15-2.55pm Film Four The Show is a small, ripe-for-demolition cinema inherited by Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. The supporting cast is peerless: Margaret Rutherford as the dotty pianist, Bernard Miles as the doorman and Peter Sellers as the projectionist (Toby Jones doesn’t even come close). As much as our members enjoyed Empire of Light, this classic is a true love letter to small-town cinemas that is matched only by Cinema Paradiso. DAPHNE (2007) Wednesday 27 March 10.00-11.30pm BBC 4 Surely of interest to everyone is this more recent BBC TV movie about Daphne du Maurier and her relationships with Gertrude Lawrence and others. It is followed by a 1971 interview with the writer; apparently, it was the first to which she had consented. THE ROBE (1953) Friday 29 March 9.20-11.30am BBC 2 Relatively short for a Biblical epic, and famously the first film shot in CinemaScope (where the screen ratio is a minimum of 2.35: 1), The Robe is entertaining old-style Hollywood and was successful enough to warrant a sequel (Demetrius and the Gladiators). Richard Burton earned himself an Oscar nomination, but Victor Mature, Jay Robinson and Jean Simmons all look more comfortable before the camera. |
By David JohnsonChairman of Lyme Regis Film Society Archives
March 2024
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Updated 27.3.2024
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