So, the Avatar sequel has already passed the $1 billion threshold. Just as well since, apparently, James Cameron has said that it needs to take $2 billion to turn a profit! It reminded me of a conversation with Alec Orme a few years ago, when I suggested that, eventually, the norm would be blockbusters plus live events and little else. I think that day has come a little closer.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (2018) Sunday 8 January 10.00-11.55pm BBC 2                
I saw this at the Radway, when we could still catch medium budget films that tell a decent story based on events of significance. Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie do well enough, but at the time I felt that some of the modernist trappings were unnecessary. Even so, you will enjoy it – as long as you don’t compare it to Glenda Jackson and Vanessa Redgrave’s work in the early 1970s.  
BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL (1965) Monday 9 January 12.35-2.30pm TP (Channel 82)      
This is one of Steve McQueen’s least-known films, which is a shame. He gives a sincere, affecting performance as an ex-con returning to a small Texas town; Lee Remick is also very good as his wife and the small-town milieu is well presented.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) Friday 13 January 6.40-8.30pm TP (Ch 82)
Probably the best sci-fi film of the 1950s – and certainly light years ahead of its 2008 update – has Michael Rennie’s messenger trying to dissuade Planet Earth from hitting the self-destruct button. As I have alluded to in previous postings, it still annoys me when Robert Wise is thought of, first and foremost, as the director of The Sound of Music!  And, remember, in case fiction should ever become fact: Klaatu barada nikto! 

It saddens me to say it, but the days of the BBC showing a James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart season, or a season of classic westerns, at Christmas time, are long gone. As is being able to wallow, mince pie in hand, in a couple of dozen (free) exciting offerings during the festive break. Do we want the 1961 King of Kings at Easter and Christmas? Why not be daring and, at least, show the 1927 version (155m print, please). 
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) Monday 26 December 5.30-7.30pm BBC 2                
Seven is still probably the best western for those that can take or leave them: a great cast, splendid locations in De Luxe colour, several scenes to treasure and one of the best scores of any American film you care to name. 
GOODFELLAS (1990) Monday 26 December 10.15pm-12.35am BBC 2         
Confession time – certain films just seem to have escaped me over the years. I only caught up with De Palma’s The Untouchables a couple of years ago and I have yet to see The Usual Suspects. Ditto Goodfellas, Scorcese’s gangster classic starring De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci. So, without adverts or cuts, tonight seems to be the right time! 
1917 (2019) Tuesday 27 December 9.00-10.50pm BBC 1   P
Remember Russian Ark? Technically very accomplished – it is constructed as though Sam Mendes shot it in one long take – 1917 has a strong British cast and will grip you throughout. In the final instance, it cannot measure up to Paths of Glory (1957) or All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), but then few films can. 
NO TIME TO DIE (2020) Sunday 1 January 8.00-11.05pm ITV 1 (Ch 3)   P
ITV has pulled off a coup in the Christmas ratings battle, by unveiling Daniel Craig’s swansong as James Bond so soon after its cinema release. You know what the ride entails – just climb aboard!
THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS (1955) Monday 2 January 12.40-2.20pm BBC 2                
This is the original to Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen’s Operation Mincemeat (2022). It is based on the true story of a scheme devised to convince the Germans that the Allies were about to invade Greece and not Sicily. Dramatically, there is not a lot of difference between the two versions – they both do what you would expect them to in their respective years of production. 
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1957) Thursday 5 January 1.00-2.30pm Legend (Ch 41)                
Now we are talking! Marshall Thompson investigates strange goings-on (in b/w, of course) at an atomic research station in Canada. The director, Arthur Crabtree, works wonders on a tiny budget and, even today, it is still quite scary!
MANHUNTER (1986) Friday 6 January 11.05pm-1.00am BBC 2  
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) attracted all the publicity and the Oscars, but Michael Mann’s thriller is also very good. Brian Cox commands attention as Hannibal Lecktor. To sum up: whilst not as flashy, or frightening, as Silence, it is superior to its direct remake, Red Dragon (2002).               

I was so keen to recommend The Shootist this week (a great western, one of the best films of the 1970s and my ‘desert island choice’), but ITV normally edits it for content and so it would be sacrilegious to add it! Better to buy the DVD.
SCROOGE (1951) Monday 19 December 4.10-6.00pm Channel 5                
Scrooge is a 5-star classic that can be enjoyed over and over again. The set designs are superb, the pacing impeccable and we have the magnificent Alastair Sim in an interpretation of old Ebenezer that will never be improved upon. Not that he was everyone’s automatic choice at the time – George Minter, the Managing Director of Renown Pictures, had to defend his choice in print! 
THE GOOD LIAR (2019) Tuesday 20 December 9.00-10.45pm BBC 2   P      
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really do justice to the acting legends who top the cast: Ian McKellen as the con artist and Helen Mirren as his latest mark. In spite of that, if you feel like settling down with a glass of something and a mince pie. . . . 
HUMPHREY BOGART DOUBLE BILL (Thursday 22 December BBC 2): The African Queen (1.50-3.35pm) earned Bogie his only Oscar; Casablanca (3.35-5.15pm) remains, for many, the best film to come out of a Hollywood studio. 
ATTACK OF THE LEDERHOSEN ZOMBIES (2016) Friday 23 December 11.20pm-1.00am TP (Ch 82)
What better antidote to the usual Christmas fluff could there be, especially if you like to ski? I suspect that the title says it all! 

The build up to Christmas wouldn’t be the same without Jane Austen in there somewhere, as refreshing as a lemon sorbet, to cleanse one’s film palate. See the first entry below!
EMMA (2020) Saturday 10 December 6.35-8.35pm BBC 2                
This recent version works very well indeed. Anna Taylor Joy is delightful as the titular heroine and Bill Nighy, Rupert Graves and Miranda Hart offer splendid support.
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) Sunday 11 December 9.00 – 10.50pm Sky Arts (Ch 11)
I hope this is the restored 108m version, but if not it still screams ‘masterpiece’ two minutes in! Charlton Heston is a Mexican narcotics agent and Janet Leigh his wife; Orson Welles directs and plays Hank Quinlan, a slimy detective; Marlene Dietrich pops up in a telling cameo appearance and Henry Mancini contributes a great score. 
Author’s note: you could gift wrap for me all the Marigold Hotel films, Quartet and Mama Mia; add Eddie the Eagle and The Phantom of the Open; throw in a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and I still would not swop you for the opening shot in this film! 
A BUNCH OF AMATEURS (2022) Tuesday 13 December 10.00-11.35pm BBC 4   P      
You might have caught a BBC news item, last month, on the Bradford Movie Makers. This delightful, and rather endearing, Storyville documentary takes us into their world of camaraderie (mostly!) and amateur film making. The club came into being in 1932 and has met every Monday since – what an amazing story!

With Christmas on the way, we remain resolute in avoiding Christmas films – for now – and suggest you take a look at the following: 
COW (2021) Sunday 4 December 10.30pm-12.05am BBC 2    P             
This week’s British film premiere is a unique, affecting and excellent documentary from Andrea Arnold (director of American Honey and 2011’s Wuthering Heights). It follows the daily life of dairy cow Luma (and her calf) – without a voiceover commentary.
ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959) Wednesday 7 December 9.00pm-1215am Talking Pictures (Ch 82)
Anatomy is a superb, and groundbreaking, courtroom drama. James Stewart is the country lawyer for the defence; he, George C. Scott (as the prosecutor) and director Otto Preminger all did some of their very best work here – and that is saying something! It was revelatory because of its honesty in presenting openly the details of the case. Stewart surely used this portrayal to inform and augment his Hawkins on Murder TV movies in the 1970s, but they did not reach the heights of this film.
WINGS OF EAGLES (1957) Friday 9 December 1.45-4.00pm 5 Action (Ch 33)         
Wings of Eagles is the least typical, and almost certainly the least seen, of the John Ford-John Wayne collaborations. The Duke plays Hollywood scriptwriter Frank “Spig” Wead, the former aviator who suffered a serious spinal injury. The Fordian military camaraderie/slapstick, of which he was fond, does some harm here, but Wayne gives a moving and well-judged performance in his third partnership with Maureen O’Hara. Ward Bond is also great value as film director ‘John Dodge’, clearly having a ball as his mentor (and tormentor) Ford.  

As the World Cup enters its second week, and we seek to avoid the obvious alternatives (Dr Zhivago or The King’s Speech), here are three options that offer something different.
MOGUL MOWGLI (2020) Sunday 27 November 10.15-11.40pm BBC 2    P             
One of our most exciting new talents, Riz Ahmed, plays an energetic MC who is diagnosed with a degenerative disease. His bewilderment and anger might be a little fierce for some, but surely we need to give fresh talent its head? 
IN COLD BLOOD (1967) Wednesday 30 November 9.00-11.45pm Talking Pictures (Ch 82)
A striking (in b/w) and celebrated adaptation of Truman Capote’s book – a true-life account of two young robbers who killed an entire family. Robert Blake is light years away from his role of Little Beaver in the Red Ryder westerns of the 1940s and Richard Brooks again shows what an underrated director he is. All in all, this is one of the most accomplished films of the 1960s.  
NEXT OF KIN (1982) Friday 2 December 9.05-10.55pm Talking Pictures (Ch 82)         
Rarer than a rarity is this horror offering from TP’s Cellar Club. Filmed in New Zealand and New South Wales, on a modest budget, there can’t be too many films that are set in a haunted retirement home. There are some genuinely scary moments, if it has survived its transition to Freeview intact!