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.

Well, the Oscars have been and gone with Oppenheimer winning the serious awards (Best Film, Actor, and Director). There was a modest surprise with Emma Stone winning Best Actress rather than Lily Gladstone. Some of the hosting and presentations were awful, but there were at least two moments of class involving Christopher Nolan and the delightful Da’vine Joy Randolph who won Best Supporting Actress. This brings me nicely to my main complaint of recent years: name-above-the-title major players such as Robert De Niro and Ryan Gosling being nominated for ‘supporting’ roles. Sorry, but these categories should be for character actors who work at the coalface year on year and who do not always receive the praise, and recognition, they deserve.
DOCTOR FAUSTUS (1967) Sunday 17 March 9.00-10.50pm Legend (Channel 41)             
Richard Burton was a high-profile actor in the 1960s but this film, which he also co-directed, wasn’t successful, and doesn’t turn up all that often. It’s an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s play; it isn’t very good but, as a curio, might interest members. Elizabeth Taylor is also in the cast.
NAME ME LAWAND (2022) Tuesday 19 March 12.05-1.45am Channel 4    P             
Despite its strong critical reviews, Lawand has a late (early?) slot due to its subject matter. A documentary that follows a six-year-old Kurdish refugee who is deaf, it is both insightful and moving. Well, at least coming to a terrestrial channel in addition to the BFI Player subscription platform, makes it available to a wider audience (or to insomniacs).
WAY OF A GAUCHO (1952) Wednesday 20 March 3.05-4.55pm Talking Pictures (Ch 82)             
Cult director par excellence Jacques (Night of the Demon) Tourneur made this rather good Argentinean western. It has style and some affecting moments – particularly the one when Rory Calhoun stands on his horse to see better the lay of the land. Excluding Randolph Scott, Calhoun made the best co-feature westerns between 1953 and 1959 by which time he was investing in his TV series The Texan (which was also one of the better half-hour western shows).
HOTEL DU LAC (1986) Wednesday 20 March 10.00-11.15pm BBC 4             
BBC 4’s weekly offering from the archives won two Baftas, an award going also to Anna Massey in the lead role – as a novelist ‘exiled’ to a Swiss hotel.
HERE WE ARE (2020) Thursday 21 March 10.20-11.50pm BBC 4    P             
The terrestrial premiere of our successful Israeli film from last season: you’ll remember Aharon who is desperate to look after his autistic son Uri, rather than see him move to a specialist home. Our members’ score was 87% and the Radio Times gives it 5-stars.