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Reviews
You're Telling Me! (1934)
You're Telling Me!
You're Telling Me! -
Pretty good W.C Fields film with plenty of wry one-liners. Like many comedy features of the 1930s, it doesn't outstay its welcome – clocking in at just over an hour.
Fields plays amateur inventor Sam Bisbee. A chance meeting with a down-to-earth princess quickly elevates his reputation when she visits his hometown and looks him up, especially in the eyes of snobby Mrs Murchison (played to perfection by Kathleen Howard). Her son Bob Murchison wants to marry Bisbee's daughter Pauline and Princess Lescaboura's arrival certainly helps sway his mother's haughty attitude and approval.
Chief among delights in this film are Bisbee's madcap inventions – including a device to knock out burglars who chance to sit down, although my favourite moment is when Fields is accidentally handed a jug of roach killer instead of liquor. On being handed the real liquor jug, he decides he doesn't like the taste and opts to continue swigging the roach killer!
Dad's Army (1968)
Great Casting
Dad's Army -
Whilst a few set-ups (and more than a few sets) could be a bit ropey from time to time and you can sometimes hear actors fumbling through their lines, we forgive such trifling matters watching repeats of Dad's Army as almost every episode's a joy in spite of them.
What stands out most is casting that's second-to-none. Arthur Lowe fits into Mainwaring's shoes entirely convincingly. As do Le Mesurier, Dunn (well, when he'd been made up), Laurie, Lavender, Beck, and Ridley into their boots. Once these characters begin interacting with each other, it's guaranteed to raise laughs from adults and children alike; especially the implicit class opposition between short, rotund Mainwaring and dapper, laidback Sergeant Wilson. The vicar, verger, and ARP warden are also expertly cast.
There was the odd hiccup. Private Cheeseman didn't really work as a replacement for Walker, the only funny attribute of make-up-the-numbers Private Sponge is his surname, and the first and (what's left of) the second series don't really match the quality of those transmitted after the transition to colour. But at least fifty of the eighty episodes are an absolute hoot.
Only Fools and Horses (1981)
Groovy!
Only Fools and Horses -
I watched the original broadcasts of the series shown around 1989 and remember being helpless with laughter as a kid; especially at the one in which Rodney has to pretend to be fourteen and join "The Groovy Gang". Another episode had me on the brink of tears, when a Simply Red song's playing and Del Boy's the only person left in the room where Rodney's wedding reception's been held. Most people in Britain will recall these moments. They're repeated week-after-week on UKGold and yet never seem to wane.
John Sullivan and an impeccable cast managed to deliver a sitcom to amuse all the family and still retain a bit of an edge. The very early episodes could be hit and miss, with David Jason and Nick Lyndhurst just about saving weak moments in a few scripts, but the writing got better....Much better, and between say 1987 and 1993 there were many classic episodes. Batman and Robin sketch aside, the last six episodes marked a bit of a decline. It took away some of the magic when the Trotters actually became millionaires and the show became perhaps too much a mainstream staple to maintain its edge, but it's still one of the great British sitcoms.
Frenzy (1972)
Underrated Hitchcock Thriller
Frenzy -
Frenzy is more of a classic Hitchcock movie than some that many highly rate. The plot is more pheasably constructed and the dialogue is more realistic than North By Northwest, for example.
Some amusing British actors are given a chance to shine. Notably Vivienne Merchant and Bernard Cribbins, who contribute amusing interludes balancing out the more graphic scenes.
John Finch is a slimmer dare-I-say-it more attractive version of a young Oliver Reed. His character Dick Blaney (tongue-in-cheek or what?) goes around calling everyone "B*stards!". Even women.
SB
North by Northwest (1959)
Play It Cool
North By Northwest -
On watching this movie as a sixteen year old, I was thrilled at the scope of the chase unfolding before my eyes. When I watch it again last night, I wasn't as impressed due to paying more attention to the corny exchanges between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. The crop duster episode still seemed the most enthralling sequence of the film; not only as a result of masterful suspense, but also because there's no opportunity for cringeworthy innuendo.
A few films from the 1950s, such as this one and Anatomy of a Murder, had daring scripts, but now seem too forced. If a man used Thornhill's lines on a night out in this day and age, he'd be shunned and laughed at no matter how handsome he is.
SB
Comfort Blanket (2003)
Bright, Breezy Short Film
Comfort Blanket -
You can feel a heart beating behind every frame in this highly evocative dreamscape, within which a boy pursues a girl through sunlit streets and across endless fields in a surreal world only themselves appear to inhabit, illuminated by the holy yellow glow of street lamps during especially vivid night shots.
Steele's debut exudes all the more charm considering what's achieved with the low budget. It's essentially a bright, breezy student film lifted like a balloon to the sky by a lovely soundtrack.
SB
Perfect Eyes (2003)
Idyllic Vision
Perfect Eyes -
Much like predecessor Comfort Blanket, Steele's second short exhibits impressive visual technique and strong surreal imagery to convey an adoration of female beauty in accompaniment to an equally affecting song.
Initial (only?) screenings proved controversial on account of the prolonged main image in the gym, but I found the overall effect of this two-minute film quite calming and wistful. It reminded me of how my hormones rushed that little bit faster when I was younger.
SB