23 - 29 MARCH 2024

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.