malcp Reviews

Davy (1957)

Worth seeing for Secombe's Nessun Dorma

[6/10 · 22 April 2024]

An Ealing comedy with Harry Seacombe, Bernard Cribbins, Bill Owen, Joan Sims and Kenneth Connor, where could it possibly go wrong? Unfortunately as a comedy though, this is neither fish nor fowl. The Mad Morgans troupe provides a fairly inane slapstick act, which is the backdrop to Seacombe's lead, but this film isn't a comedy at all, it's a drama with operatic moments and occasional funny bits and although the operatic moments are perhaps the best parts of the film, the drama that links them is more kitchen sink than opera seria and with only brief flashes of middling comedy illuminating otherwise quite shallow characters, it's all a bit thin. But it really is worth watching, the colour is vibrant and Adele Leigh's and Seacombe's two solos along with the Covent Garden Opera Company's extract from Wagner do save this mish-mash from the scrapheap and you could almost forgive all its many failings.

Imitation of Life (1934)

Important but compromised

[7/10 · 2 January 2023]

The lunacy of racial segregation provided the motivation for the film, but the immensity of directly confronting the issues raised by this, coupled with the need to produce a commercially viable film inevitably result in a weak compromise. The black side of the story, and it's characters are thinly drawn and underdeveloped although the actors do the best with what they've got. Within the context of the film, it's hard to see precisely what motivates the black characters to adopt their extreme positions and this is further weakened and diverted from by the resulting much greater focus on the conflict within the white participants where the point of division can be seen as far more universal and much easier to understand and relate to. Such compromises to the script were inevitable under the constraints of a society where separate but equal was mandated and where segregation of society by some unchosen hereditary factor was seen by many as not only desirable but necessary. Ninety years on, much progress has been made, but films like this one remain an important insight into just how slow and just how difficult the path to change has been.

Fish Tank (2009)

Well acted and an interesting story

[7/10 · 23 October 2022]

Whilst it's Daily Mail stereotypical depictions of council estate reprobates blindly drifting through a trough of repulsive scenarios is almost enough to deter anyone from taking this film seriously, at it's heart, the beautifully-played and realistically motivated Mia carries us along an uncomfortable but captivating journey. At it's best, this film reminded me of a Rainer Werner Fassbinder work, but the faults in the backdrop are more distracting than anything he'd have allowed. Another scene reminded me of Gregory's Girl, and I guess it's the child-like innocence behind the festering surface is what saves it. I was disappointed to see Katie Jarvis hasn't had the same sort of breaks as her co-star Michael Fassbender since this film. That raw talent is never enough on it's own to achieve success in fields like acting is to my mind is a much more accurate reflection of the truth behind what prevents characters like Mia from breaking away from Media stereotypes.

Hatred (1938)

Allegorical drama informed by an overwhelming political commentary, which may appear almost indecipherable

[5/10 · 24 July 2022]

To understand this film, you have to frame it within the perspective of French politics in the late 1930's. Polarisation of both left and right with little merit in either direction. Here, Mollenard represents the left; corrupt, impolite and insouciant. His wife the right; prim, polite and principled. Mollenard has a loyal crew who stand by him through thick and thin. His wife, who loved him once, now only values his absence and the accompanying status of his position as a Commander. His corruption is obvious, but he runs rings around his accusers, who are forced to hail him a hero when his corruption leads to a terminal fire on board his ship. Mollenard is no hero, but his stalwart crew act appropriately under the circumstances and arrive back exulted in their home port only for Mollenard to repulse attempts at pompous ceremonial conformity in favour of more uncouth antics. The loss of his ship forces Mollenard to rejoin his wife for an extended period and her hatred of him only increases. Unexpectedly Mollenard becomes gravely ill and facing his end in the most repugnant situation he can imagine, cannot even manage to take his own life. Finally his loyal crew are able to take him back to sea, where Mollenard dies amid the only peace he knows.

It is well played, and it is nicely shot, but the few moments of comedy do little to deflect the endless vitriol, and while this story may have been laudable at the time, it now weighs very heavily upon the overall narrative and it's merit is more historical than entertainment.

Happy Land (1943)

Well-played, but a dubious premise

[6/10 · 9 May 2022]

Perhaps it's because I'm an atheist, but I found the storyline difficult to swallow. Stories with similar ghostly apparitions usually follow a plausible logic, but for this film that seems to have gone out the window. I can understand why it was used, I can only guess that the character they picked for the ghost was chosen so the film wouldn't appear to have copied other films too closely, but whatever the reasoning,while it might have worked as a pivotal plot device in a discussion, for my money it just detracts from what otherwise would have been a competent and nicely acted look at life, loss and recovery in war-time. Don Ameche in particular gives a wonderful performance, but there is no getting away from that mis-placed ghost.

Make Mine a Double (1959)

Hasn't aged well

[4/10 · 7 May 2022]

Although you can still find amusement in this farce (The misheard "Hitler is in his bunker" still seems outrageously near the knuckle for such a family film), It's difficult to appreciate how successful this film was when it was originally released. The situations all seem rather tame or childish and exploit scenarios and interplay between characters that may strike anyone under the age of fifty as peculiarly obtuse. The slapstick just seems needlessly timid. All that siad, audiences loved it when it was released, perhaps you will too.

My Old Dutch (1934)

Unsurprisingly sentimental, but very nicely balanced

[8/10 · 17 March 2022]

Reflecting something of the song itself, the film depicts the ups and downs of Lil (played by Betty Balfour) and Bert (Michael Hogan) over their forty years of married life. Gordon Harker plays their somewhat curmudgeonly lodger Ernie. Its unchallenging, but doesn't get bogged down in sentimentality, reflecting the realities of family life during the period with humour, stoicism and occasional sadness. The majestic Florrie Forde has a minor role and there are snatches of several of the songs that she helped make famous in the film.

Interlude (1968)

Moving exploration of passion and relationships

[9/10 · 15 March 2022]

Virginia Maskell as Antonia is absolutely masterful in her subtlety in this captivating film. In a role that could so easily have been overplayed, she is mesmerising, showing no discernible edge or bitterness, but still managing to reveal to herself and to the audience slowly and gradually the recognition of why her relationship is disintegrating and the sense of loss that accompanies that awareness. She transforms what is ultimately a familiar melodrama into something else altogether. Though far more screen time is devoted to the affair between Oskar Werner and Barbara Ferris, Its easier to see that their passionate relationship is built on unsafe ground, but only as the film progresses can we see that the apparently robust marriage was also never built on reality. A successful conductor is perhaps easier to frame as an idol, conjuring lovesick dreams of some imagined persona in others, rather than the reality of the person, but neither woman recognise their view of Stefan in this light and as things move on, Sally, just like Antonia begins a long search for a fault in another rather than a recognition of her own blindness. The music seems rather overpowering at first, but gradually it becomes an integral part of this tale, which is sadly but so beautifully told.

Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1963)

Old-fashioned daring-do

[7/10 · 9 March 2022]

Probably not quite right for anyone over the age of 12 and under the age of 55. But it is what it is, more of a 1930s rollocking adventure production than 1960s, but with the benefit of full-colour and the many talents of Patrick McGoohan and some nice horses. The gang's masks are amazing, as it McGoohan's cackling, and the many cunning plans and escapades are just clever enough to satisfy and outwit the dreaded King's men although more analytical teenagers might be more inclined to tear them to shreds. Don't take it too seriously and you'll find that you probably quite enjoy it.

The Paradine Case (1947)

Selznick's cuts or Hitchcock's misdirection?

[6/10 · 4 March 2022]

To know that almost an hour of footage was cut after Hitchcock had finished this film, has to unlock the mystery of why this is such an unsatisfactory ensemble. Keane's growing infatuation with Mrs Paradine is woefully undersold and comes across as a fuddled mess. The coldness of Mrs Paradine is more bland and detached than crystal clear and the twist, when it finally comes, provokes more of a shrug than a shock. Finally, despite the script, it appears more that Mrs Keane is simply a difficult woman, rather than someone facing an unexpected betrayal from her dearest love. Hitchcock wasn't perfect, but it would be marvellous to see if the original version showed rather more mastery than this strange fare. Neither fish nor fowl, it has interesting moments but as delivered, is generally unpalatable.

Superstore (2015–2021)

Wonderfully cringeworthy

[8/10 · 3 March 2022]

Any series that maintains such a high standard of comedy in these days of binge-watching has to be worthwhile and to my mind this is about as close as any American situation comedy series has ever got to the standard of Fawlty Towers. Over its course, it does err on the side of caution in a few spots and is always at its weakest when things get a bit too slushy and predictable (and I don't mean the slushy vomit). At the end of its sixth season, I hope it looks again at material from the likes of Ricky Gervais to ensure it continues to embrace the sheer awfulness of much of what colours our everyday life, because reflecting that that will always be its greatest strength.

Remorques (1941)

Where lies the Captains true passion?

[8/10 · 26 February 2022]

A steady, reliable Captain, a rock in a stormy sea, carries his stable persona home. Its not how he once was, when he met and married his wife Yvonne and before the sea had tamed him. She now wants him to return to land, she has a serious illness, but is afraid that if he was confronted by this he'd leave the ocean for her and would realise his real love for her had gone. The Captain sees things very differently, his wife, his job, his crew demand a steady hand, he believes he would love more time with his wife, but without realising it, responds to the dependence of his crew much more than he does to hers. The story turns, when a valuable salvage operation is sabotaged by another hand and instead of success, becomes a meagre but niggardly failure for the Captain. He can do nothing to temper this slight, to quit his job would leave his crew unemployed and though he talks of this to his boss, he hides this from his wife. The other turning point is a beautiful, lonely woman, rescued during the salvage operation, fate throws her and the Captain together when both are mentally at there lowest ebb and each glimpses the other as a rope to climb. Their brief fling is interupted almost before its started as the Captain's wifes illness suddenly takes a turn for the worst. Though he rushes back to her side and resumes his strong, steady role, we hear no response to her dying plea for an avowal of love, only his anguish. As she dies, the sea calls again with another SOS and despite all that has happened, he is powerless to resist her call.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

It's great, but Melody is better

[8/10 · 25 February 2022]

To my mind this is childhood romance through the eye of an adult whereas Melody (1971) seems entirely much more from the perspective of someone around 12. This also has a slight overuse of stylistic devices which, while I accept are an integral part of Wes Andersons raison d'etre, just seem to intrude enough to prick the bubble of innocence. A lovely film regardless.

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Fantastic animation can't hide a meandering lack of focus

[7/10 · 4 February 2022]

Set aside the awesome graphics and interesting characters and you're left with a bit of a mess of a film. A beautiful mess undoubtably, but it's almost as though someone thought that in itself was enough, but this isn't avant-garde, it presents itself as a story and as such it's self-indulgent and unfocussed. Interesting plot devices lead nowhere in particular but appear to have been invested with a significance that altogether escaped me. The backdrop of the film is a war, but whether the films motivation is to say something about that war or war in general or anything else relating to the characters whether allegorical or literal, it's just too meandering to say, it's just lots of little scenes that, while connected and lovely as snippets, don't go anywhere and often seem to go on for far too long. Sometimes less is more.

Charly (1968)

Awful caricatures give a moralising parody of a fantastic piece of work

[5/10 · 27 January 2022]

Flowers for Algernon is a wonderful book and If you've read it and are looking for a cinematic interpretation, then don't be misled by the Oscar for Best Actor. I should have know from the font used for the introductary titles that this would be bad. Anyone who has worked with children or adults with learning difficulties will recognise the central performance in this film is about as accurate a portrayal as a white actor portraying a native american having applied body paint, picked up a bow and arrow and said How! I can only conceive the rational behind Charly's behaviour and Alice's behaviour in the film comes as a result of bigoted prejudice and it is almost incomprehensible to me that that this comes from the same pen as the screenwriter for 'In the Heat of the Night.' Certain elements of the novel survive, to perhaps salvage something, and the soft focus romantic interlude has some charm although it requires an almost incalculable leap of faith to accept it's premise. Overall, I suspect Cliff Robertson's performance here gave inspiration to certain passages in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder. You have been warned!

Wonder Man (1945)

The Special effects are really good

[3/10 · 23 December 2021]

Seriously, the script is awful, the songs are awful and there is little here in terms of an enjoyable movie that would satisfy anyone who is not desperate for anything that might distract them from the war. Watch Danny Kaye in Hans Christian Andersen, because here his virtuosity is so absolutely wasted that watching the film for anything other than the special effects and his beautiful hair does him a disservice.

Mr. Lord Says No (1952)

Dated, even as it was being filmed

[5/10 · 9 September 2021]

The Festival of Britain seems to be remembered fondly today, but it wasn't always the case. While the festival itself was a great success, it was seen in some quarters as a flamboyant political gesture, showing scant regard for the struggles of the British people facing long hours at work, rationing and ever increasing officialdom. The play arrived in time to capitalise on such sentiments and the 'great plan' thwarted at the last minute by a minor blunder by the ever-correct officials bought a knowing smile. Architects who in their efforts to satisfy the political demand to wave the flag of our great nation had inadvertently set Whitehall on a direct collision course with the very apotheosis of Britishness. As everyone knows, England is not only a nation of shopkeepers, an Englishman's home is his castle and some lines cannot be crossed. The play was a success to begin with and Dandy Nichols and Tom Gill reprise their roles in the film, but, the Festival was short-lived and having been an undoubted success, the driving force behind the play also became more than a little lost. Our sympathy remains with the Lords, but unlike 'Passport to Pimlico' which explores similar themes, this is about an ideal rather than a community fighting officialdom, its about one families sentimental attachment to their home. The denouement, when it comes is very much an anti-climax, and without the contextual basis for the humour, the whole thing flounders. It may be an object lesson for budding comedy writers on what to avoid, but aside from the stellar Dandy Nichols otherwise has little to offer to the viewer.

Happy Is the Bride (1958)

Amusing by the numbers comedy with a fine cast of British stalwarts

[7/10 · 7 September 2021]

No great surprises, but well-played and cheerfully delivered, if somewhat predictable comedy goings on with more British character actors than you can shake a stick at. Cecil Parker is in especially good form and Irene Handl and Joyce Grenfell as always conjour humour out of next to nothing.

Navy Heroes (1955)

An enjoyable film, and a small glimpse of beautiful Wales

[7/10 · 17 August 2021]

I last saw this film in the 1970s and on the copy I saw recently the colour has deteriorated quite a lot since then. Back then I saw it just before I went exploring the Welsh countryside for several weeks myself and was pleased to find the reality just as rich and lovely as it was in the film and putting the story to one side, there was something about how the film captured the quiet but dramatic atmosphere of this part of Wales that wasn't artifice. That factor is much less obvious watching the film today, where it tends to look a lot more artificial (it is at one point in the film for obvious reasons!), and with the Welsh road network vastly improved since then, Aberdovey is no longer the back of beyond that it it felt back then. Kieron Moore makes a convincing Naval Officer and though that part of the backstory is a little thin, his efforts to get to grips with a random group of youths is (from my own personal experience) much more true to life than many other films of this ilk. In School kids can be a nightmare, but take a small group and stick them in a strange environment and it rarely turns out like Lord of the Flies.

The Girls (1962)

Nadezhda Rumyantseva steals the show

[7/10 · 6 August 2021]

An effervescent Nadezhda Rumyantseva transforms this modest comedy. Her winsome innocence might be a touch overplayed at times, but it keeps the film light and touching when it might otherwise be trite and overly sentimental. It's not the greatest rom-com, but it's well worth watching.

Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

When Joanie and Chachi don't do responsibility

[6/10 · 2 July 2021]

I'm not sure who to blame for this movies failings. I haven't read the book, but it's almost like, for the most part, rather than the real life people it depicts, we're seeing caricatures of them. Glenn Close perhaps gets closest to reality, before she goes and kicks the 'bad kids' off the doorstep and thereby magically transforms J. D's life, which should beggar the question, how can that same person have so dramatically failed Bev? It's a bit like an episode of the Jerry Springer show, one can argue these people are in a situation that is nobodys fault but their own, but that ignores the context of what ingredients are needed for a happy life. The dire failings in education, opportunity, housing and support that, hinder rather than prevent J. D from achieveing his aims are all alluded to, but you end up with the impression that it still would have been fairly straightforward for him if his mum hadn't taken drugs.

The Edge of All We Know (2020)

A remarkable peek at some of the elite of human intellect

[7/10 · 20 June 2021]

If you've read A Brief History of Time and understood it, then this assemblage of two simultaneous, closely related, but very different projects by some of the finest minds on our planet may disappoint. If you've tried to read it and couldn't quite grasp the concepts, then you are probably going to enjoy this rather more. It's an outsiders view of a group of theoretical physicists, cosmologists and astrophysicists attempting to realise concrete conclusions involving some of the most difficult theoretical concepts and complex collaborative exercises ever. While ultimately it may fail to satisfy either audience entirely, it's well constructed and a generally entertaining peek at some very remarkable humans working at the very edge of all we know.

The Guns of Navarone (1961)

Inexplicable changes to the novel dilute its narrative

[7/10 · 7 June 2021]

The novel is very much a comic-book gung-ho action-packed thriller, but has characters which are better-drawn and ultimately more believable than those in the film. On IMDB several comments allude to an anti-war message within the film, which, if there was one, is far too diluted to really notice. Perhaps this does help to explain some otherwise inexplicable changes to the novel, I don't know - the changes don't seem to make any sense as they reduce tension, the 'team' dynamic and make a story which was already somewhat stretching credulity slightly less believable and makes strongly drawn characters somewhat less significant. It certainly raises interesting questions about the making of the film which while ultimately competent and entertaining is perhaps a somewhat weakened action-thriller than it might otherwise have been.

Yesterday (III) (2019)

Fantastic idea - slightly underwhelming storyline

[7/10 · 4 June 2021]

Some aspects worked really well, the ten-minute song contest, the early trackside recording studio session and the discoveries of what's different about the 'new' world. Others less so, the disinterested parents were far too sketchy, the film relied on one superstar where the addition of several tiny walk-on roles by others would have really pushed the 'world's greatest song writer' aspect and most of all the seemingly guiltless Jack. The dynamic of his relationship with Ellie before the change was too obtuse and however average his own songs had been, the element of tortured guilt for a 'nice' artisit in using so much of someone elses work should have been a much more serious factor to play on and to help develop his character. All that said, I enjoyed the film, but not Danny Boyle's greatest and perhaps someone other than Lily James - it's not that she isn't wonderful, it's just that the range of parts she seems to get are so similar!

Far into the Night (1943)

A pretty accurate and entertaining take on life in the AFS in London during the first years of the second world war

[8/10 · 9 April 2021]

This film was based on the diaries of a serving AFS fireman who won the British Empire Medal before being invalided out and serves as a fine tribute to the AFS's work. It gives a realistic impression of the early days of the 'phoney war' in 1939 when rather like the home guard, the AFS wasn't taken seriously and was thought of by many as a bunch of disorderly Army dodgers. The change of tactics by the Germans that bought about the London Blitz soon corrected that perspective and the scale of the bombing and devistation is captured extremely well with special effects that are second to none for the time. Trinder's comedic mugging is balanced out by other members of the fire crew and the storyline provides a very good take on the highs and lows the AFS had to face. Given when it was made (1943)