THE STATUE

UK/US, 1971, 84 minutes, Colour.
David Niven, Virna Lisi, Robert Vaughn, Ann Bell, John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor?, Hugh Burden.
Directed by Rodney Amateau.

The Statue was written by Alec Koppel, playwright of such films as I Killed the Count, and Denis Norden, the witty commentator and wordsmith. They have concocted a 1970s-style sex comedy, the story of a statue and a puzzle about phallic issues.

Some are surprised to see David Niven in this film, though he carries off the central role with great aplomb. Others considered it more like a variation on a Benny Hill story.

Niven portrays a linguist who receives all kinds of honours including a Nobel Prize. His neglected wife, Virna Lisi, sculpts a large statue of him but alters the genitalia. The comedy is about his quest to find out who was the model for the statue.

This was the kind of film that was being made in the early 1970s given the changes of standards and permissiveness in plots during the 1960s. Later decades may well take this kind of film for granted, given the greater openness (or permissiveness) in the topics for films. It was directed by Rodney Amateau, television director who, at this time, directed Peter Sellers in Where Does It Hurt.

1. The impact of the film, entertainment value, quality as comedy?

2. The good taste of the film? Bad taste? Which sequences illustrated this best?

3. The colour, locations, breezy music, theme song, etc.? Appropriate for this kind of light comedy?

4. The quality of the screenplay in terms of comedy and taste? Dialogue, jokes, wit, situations? The handling of the comedy by the principal actors? By John Cleese?

5. Audience response to contrived situations like this? The humour, the cleverness? The obviousness?

6. How satirical was the film? Was the satire sharp, or was it overcome by the broad comedy? What was being satirised?

7. The validity of the sex theme? Prudery, audience response to the statue, the characters' response to the statue, the focus on the penis, the preoccupation with male sexuality, penis envy?

8. The significance and tone of the opening, a universal language, the Nobel Prize? The transition to preoccupation about the statue?

9. David Niven's style as Alex? Was he delineated well as a character? His work and ambitions? Relationship with his wife? Preoccupation about the statue? His search? The contrast with Rhonda? Her work an a sculptor? Her relationship with her husband? Response to his love, to his jealousy? The American ambassador and his relationship with them both?

10. The minor characters like Harry and his world of psychiatry and television, the lawyers, the Americans, the C.I.A.? What did they contribute to the quality of the comedy?

11. The importance of the details of Alex's search, photos, the baths, the show, wife-swapping on the yacht? The spying and the C.I.A., the United States backed search?

12. The presentation of the Americans and their attitudes and style? The C.I.A. and the elderly woman in charge?

13. How satisfactory was the solution? The humour? The irony for the American ambassador?

14. What entertainment value? Any other values?

THE SPANISH MAIN

US, 1945, 100 minutes, Colour.
Maureen O’ Hara, Paul Henreid, Walter Slezak, Binnie Barnes.
Directed by Frank Borzage.

Routine matinee pirate adventure, notable for its direction by Frank Borzage, a prominent director of the thirties,
and forties, The Mortal Storm. Maureen O’ Hara is once again a fiery heroine. However the tongue-in-cheek film is not particularly memorable. Maureen O’ Hara starred also in the pirate films, Sinbad the Sailor and Against All Flags.

1. An entertaining pirate film? For what audience? Young, old?

2. Audience expectations of the pirate film? The title of the Spanish Main, period settings, the sea, heroes and villains, glamorous heroine. heroics, intrigue? Battles? How well did the film use these conventions? Ordinarily, better than ordinarily?

3. Colour photography, the atmosphere of the Spanish Main, the ships, music. special effects for the battles etc.?

4. How credible was the plot? Laurent and the injustice done to him? Don Alvarado and his cruelty? Francisca and the destiny of her marriage? The entanglements of the plot? Laurent and his becoming the notorious pirate? The battles and resolution? Sufficiently credible for the purposes of the film?

5. Laurent as hero? The unjust treatment at the hand of Alvarado? His identity as the chief pirate? His attitude of revenge? His attitude towards Francisca? Towards his fellow pirates especially the vigorous woman pirate? The characters of the crew especially the vigorous woman?

6. The contrast with Francisca and her vigour? A lady of Spain, being captured, her romance with Laurent? Her involvement in the intrigues and helping him?

7. Don Alvarado and an obnoxious villain? Sinister, cruel? Deserving of his fate? His assistants?

8. Comment on memorable sequences: the naval battles, the courtly styles, the various details of intrigue and escapes? The final fights?

9. The basic themes of this kind of matinee material: heroes and heroines, right and wrong. good and evil? The simple values of good must be done and evil avoided and punished?

THE SPECTER OF THE ROSE

US, 1946, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Judith Anderson, Michael Chekhov, Ivan Kirov, Viola Essen, Lionel Stander.
Directed by Ben Hecht.

The Specter of the Rose is one of the few films directed by prolific writer Ben Hecht. Hecht won an Oscar at the first Oscars in 1927 for his story of Underworld. He wrote a number of other plays, especially with his partner Charles MacArthur, their classic being The Front Page (filmed a number of times including as His Girl Friday). He also acted as a screen doctor up to his death in 1964.

This is an odd film, has a ballet background, a ballet dancer suspected of murdering his wife who then falls in love with another ballerina. A detective believes that it was murder and begins to investigate. Lionel Stander has a strong role as a journalist. Judith Anderson appears, primly and with the touch of vinegar, as the ballet mistress.

This is a little-seen film – an odd kind of film but interesting for the work of Ben Hecht.

1. The purpose of this film and its value? Written by playwright and screenwriter and directed by a writer? The staginess of the screenplay?

2. How would the film be described in identifying its genre: a ballet film, a theatre film, a melodrama, a love story? All of these? How well were they blended?

3. The style of mid-forties filming: black and white photography, sets, small budget? The casting of the stars and the appropriateness of the casting, especially the poet?

4. The Broadway background, the world of the ballet? A world of success and failure? The comment on the theatre and its way of life? Its effect on people? The framework of the film beginning with the dancing class with La Sylph and ending there? What had happened within that framework?

5. The re-creation of the ballet worlds La Sylph and her reputation? Judith Anderson's style? Her training of younger dancers, her cynicism? Her ambitions for success? Her warning that she was a cranky old lady supervising the dancers? Her fear about Andrei, her knowledge of the truth, her wanting to warn Reidl? Her returning to the same situation after the episode of the film?

6. How credible a character was the producer? His allusions to the contemporary Broadway scene? His ambitions, using people, lack of expertise in using money, lying, manipulating people, failure, trying to start in? The
comment on this type of producer?

7. The character of the poet? Was he credible? The casting of Lionel Stander? His language and his voice? His ironic comments, his love of Heidi, his perpetual presence and intrusion? His using the police for his own purposes?

8. How well did the film focus on the mystery? The presentation of Andrei and the revelation of the truth? An ordinary American pretending to be something better? Hie background and home life, his ballet success, the nature of his madness, his hearing the muses, his relationship with his wives? His success and his fits? The reality of the killing of his wife, the threat to Heidi? Her dancing with him and wanting to change him? His attempts on her life? Her protecting him? His look, his sound? The melodramatic overtones? The significance of the tour and his success, the Death Dance of The Spectre of the Rose, his illness and his dancing himself to death?

9. The character of Heidi and her hero-worship of Andrei? Her involvement? The sequence of the wedding and the dinner? Her dancing with him? Innocent helper, threatened? The aftermath of his death?

10. Comment on the themes of reality and unreality, truth, madness and sanity.

11. The significance of the title, the explanation of the ballet, the symbols of the ballet, the impact of music and dance? The impact of this madness in the world of art?

STAVISKY

France, 1974, 120 minutes, Colour.
Jean - Paul Belmondo, Francois Perier, Anny Duperey, Michael Lonsdale, Roberto Bisacco, Claude Rich, Charles Boyer.
Directed by Alain Resnais.

Alain Resnais had made a big impact in the 1950s with his short film about the concentration camps, Night and Fog, as well as Last Year at Marienbad. He also made Hiroshima Mon Amour. In the succeeding decades – for more than forty years – Resnais made a great variety of films, in his old age making light romantic comedies.

Stavisky is a departure for him at this time. It treats of an episode in French political history in 1934 which almost led to the downfall of government and civil war. Serge Alexandre Stavisky was a petty criminal, Jewish background, a conman who rose to great heights in French society, manipulating money – and generating losses. The scandal was finally exposed and a number of right-wing groups wanted to bring down the government.

Jean-Paul? Belmondo who had enjoyed success in a number of light-hearted farces and historical dramas, is excellent as the conman Stavisky. There is a very strong French supporting cast including Michael Lonsdale as his doctor and Charles Boyer, in his final performance, as a spendthrift aristocrat.

The film is an interesting revelation of French politics, life in Paris in high society between the wars.

1. The credibility of this film in content and in style? The reputation of Alain Resnais?

2. The director as a poet and essayist of the cinema? His interest in human and political themes? The importance of the fluidity of time? Its definition, yet its fluctuations? The interweaving of the strands of time and memory? The effect this has on the judgement on people, events? The film’s use of colour, the editing contrasts and comments? The use of locations, the attention to detail for example the flowers, the hotel, Biarritz, the details of the theatre, the Alps, the French settings, Paris and the rooms? The background music? The use of close-up and long shots etc.?

3. The contribution of the acting to this film? Its quality and in keeping with the techniques?

4. The significance of choosing this particular eight-month period of a historical era, for French politics? The impact for a French audience? for a non-French audience? The universal questions underlying these particular events and people? The atmosphere of France between the wars, the thirties, the extremes of the Left with Trotsky entering France, the extremes of the Right and political and financial corruption? The hopes of the Left being dashed? The Right being exposed as corrupt and in disarray? The confidence tricksters, the general European background, the police? The complacency of French aristocracy? The impact on ordinary people? How well explored were these themes?

5. How was Stavisky a symbol of all this international and French confusion? His background as a Russian refugee, his original identity and his covering of this, people's puzzle about it, their being impressed by his success? The nature of his swindles, for example the number of deals going during this eight-month period? His confidence in himself, yet his deceiving himself? His ultimately being outdone, depressed, to death? The Baron said that his death was the death of an era. How well did the film highlight this? Now did it use Stavisky for the understanding of
an era?

6. The significance of the Trotsky atmosphere at the beginning? Trotsky and his background, his exile? The values that he stood for? His relationship with his wife, friends? The importance of the permission to stay in France? The adoration of the ordinary people of Trotsky? Granville as representing this, his hopes, fears? The importance of public opinion? The exclusion of Trotsky? How well were the details of Trotsky woven into the plot, especially via GranvIlle? and Erna? Trotsky as a definite focus of time for the thirties?

7. The character and personality of Stavisky, the fact that he was played by Jean Paul Belmondo? The film's shrouding of the mystery of his origins, his father's shame and his burial? Stavisky’s return to the cemetery? His self-
importance, his names? The Jewish question? His lies to himself? The file and its disappearance? The fact that he was feted by society and government, that he made money, that he used bribes and an atmosphere of glamour, his hold on newspapers and communication?

8. How was he to be understood in the entourage of his friends, the Baron and his complacency and delight in being in Stavisky’s company, the hotel management, his reliance on his doctor, his lawyer? The police that he bribed? The way that they supported him?

. The contrast with Borelli? His working the accounts, his dependence on Stavisky, his betrayal of him, his telling this to Stavisky? The irony of our seeing this within the fluidity of the time?

10. Stavisky understood by his enemies? Bonny and his methods, his ambitions, his detailed study of Stavisky, his using every means to track him down?

11. How could Stavisky be understood by his relationship with Arlette? The visual presentation of Arlette as a princess, a princess in a fairy tale in the hotel, her dress, flowers etc.? Stavisky’s devotion to her and her love for him? The lyric tone of their sequences together? The importance of the sequences together especially at the time of his death? Arlette's judgement on his death?

12. How interesting were the details of the swindles, Stavisky’s skill in running them, the fact that he could overreach himself? The character of Montalban, his devotion to Arlette, his reliance on the Baron, his interest in gun-running and his dependence on Stavisky?

14. How did the film build up suspense and tension by weaving the web around Stavisky, the inspector closing in?

15. Themes of irony in the dialogue, especially in the play by Giraudaux? The speeches about the spectre of death, the Baron’s attitude, Stavisky’s speaking these? Erna and her role within the theatre, the play, the spectre of death?

16. The effect of the failure on Stavisky, his depression, his wanting to flee, the death of an era?

17. The impact of the collapse, his fleeing, his being held up like a criminal, the police closing in?

18. The ugliness and violence of his death? Its conventional gangster look, the fact that he was a gangster, but the lack of stylishness in his death?

19. How important was the postscript about people’s reactions to his death, the court, the investigation, people pleading ignorance, the Baron excusing himself, Arlette and her judgement?

20. How valuable was the insight into human nature, the politics and finance of the 20th century?

THE STEAGLE

US, 1971, 87 minutes, Colour.
Richard Benjamin, Chill Wills, Cloris Leachman, Susan Tyrell, Diane Ladd.
Directed by Paul Silbert.

The Steagle is something of an unknown film. It was written and directed by Paul Silbert, the twin of Richard Silbert, set designer. Paul Silbert himself won an Oscar for the set design for Heaven Can Wait, 1978.

The film was cut against the director’s will by studio head, Joseph E. Levine. The experience is written up by Silbert in his book, Final Cut: The Making and Breaking of a Film.

The film stars Richard Benjamin who appeared in a number of films like this at the time: Goodbye Columbus, The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, Portnoy’s Complaint. Benjamin then went on to be a successful director. Cloris Leachman in this year won an Oscar for best supporting actress in The Last Picture Show. Chill Wills does a spoof of his eccentric cowboy screen image.

The film is set in the time of the Cuban missile crisis. Richard Benjamin portrays a professor who, thinking that the end of the world is at hand, decides to travel across the United States and become a different person in each different city where he stays. This leads to eccentric, 1960s and 70s-style satire.

1. How enjoyable was this film, how interesting? How much a curiosity item?

2. The significance of the title and its explanation in the film? A hybrid and artificial creature? The meaning of the theme from the title?

3. What are the characteristics of 'black' comedy? Its power on the audience? Provocative and telling? The use of irony and humour? How good a black comedy was this film?

4. How important was colour, music, location photography?

5. The importance of the structures a sense of journey, the atmosphere of realism, the living out of fantasy?

6. What are audience reactions now to the Cuban crisis? Does it seem dated? Did the film communicate the reality of the crisis well? Later history not justifying the fears of the crisis? response to this atmosphere?

7. How was the crisis used as a metaphor in the film? The threat for the end of peace, the end of the world, the end of known values? Was it convincingly used, and well?

8. How was Harold an ordinary man? The American everyman, the picture of him with his family, his work, lecturing? What values did he stand for? The presentation of ordinary American values of the sixties? His relationship with his wife? His wife and family as the ordinary American family?

9. Why did the Cuban crisis and its symbolism change him? The party and then his making love at the airport after the broadcast? The irony of the broadcast? President Kennedy's words, the airport and the noise? What happened to him then?

10. Why did he decide to set out on a journey of wish fulfilment? Not keeping his own identity? Is this what happens to people in crisis? Eat, drink and be merry?

11. The importance of the visit to Chicago? The fact that he was out of date? Louise and his liaison with her? The truth about himself?

12. As presented in the plane trips? His way of behaving? Impressing people?

13. The importance of the Las Vegas sequences? Las Vegas as a metaphor for ‘eat, drink and be merry’? The Reverend and his letting go of things? The hostesses turning into goodtime girls? Gambling, drunkenness, fornication? The last image of the Reverend?

14. Why the Hollywood setting for the end? The artificiality of the film world of Hollywood? The irony of the old actor and his stunts? His taking off of Humphrey Bogart and the accident? Re-fighting old battles in the light of the Cuban crisis? The achievement of Hollywood and America?

15. How disillusioning was this for Harold? How could he remake his life when the crisis was over? The significance of the train returning to New York?

16. What values did the film stand for? Explore? How valid a commentary on American society and life? How valuable was the film in sympathy for the hero, and insight through him?

STEEL ARENA

US, 1973, 98 minutes, Colour.
Dusty Russell.
Directed by Mark L. Lester.

Steel Arena is almost a documentary about stuntmen. However, there is a loose underlying story.

The film focuses on a group of stuntmen and their death-defying performances. The central focus is on Dusty Russell as himself, doing all kinds of leaps and jumps – including an attempt to jump a hundred feet into the air. As might be expected, this is a film for adrenalin thrills.

It was directed by Mark L. Lester, something of an exploitation director who made a number of interesting films in the 1970s and 80s including Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, The Class of 1984.

1. Was this an enjoyable film? For whom was it made? (Was it too particularly American?)

2. How successful was the documentary atmosphere of the film? Was it hindered by the editing style with the long takes and fade outs? Should it have moved more quickly? Were your surprised to find that real drivers and promoters acted the parts in the film? Did this make a difference to your response? The fact that real people were enacting their own lives?

3. What did the film have to say about this particular aspect of American life? The people involved in sport? The people who go to watch? The particular interest of people in cars, machines, their capacities, risks, thrills, human endeavour and ambitions in this kind of world?

4. How did the opening part of the story prepare us for the film? The smuggling? The shooting and the thrills of the road chase? How well filmed was the initial chase? What did it reveal about Dusty Russell? What made him so enjoy his driving and eluding thnose chasing him? Is this quite understandable? Does it appeal to the same in the audience?

5. Dusty Russell was a real person, not an actor. Was this evident in the film? Was it ironic that a real driver should play such a part? What kind of person did he appear to be? Was he sympathetic? Were his friends sympathetic? His picking up the girl? Did he relate to her in a human and h humane way? What sequences illustrate this best?

6. How interestingly filmed was the stock car rally? What was your response to this exhibition of car smashing? Why do people enjoy this? Is it a healthy kind of sport? Why?

7. How interesting was the picture of the circuit of stunt riders? What makes a stunt driver tick? Did the film show this? Did it explore it well? Which sequences best illustrated this?

8. What comment on the audience who watched the circuit drivers did the film make? Did it approve of thern? Did it criticise them in their search for thrills, accidents? Or did it simply show a mixture of people who enjoye?1 it
and people who exploited it? How is this illustrated?

9. Do audiences appreciate the skills of the drivers and their stunts? Did the film emphasize this aspect of their techniques? Have they the right to take such risks with their lives and the lives of others? How strong are their nerves? How strong are their personalities?

10. Was the promoter a sympathetic character? Did he understand his drivers and look after them well? Was he a greedy man? Was he just an advertising man, arranging his tours the best possible way? (What did you think of the fact that a real promoter played this part?)

11. Did the film indicate well how human problems sach as jealousy can enter in? How the has-beens find it difficult to keep up and want to assert themselves? Was the villain too obviously villainous? Was the second rate driver too obviously a pathos victim?

12. How realistic and shocking were the death sequences? Did this alter your opinion of the type of challenge that such driving offers and whether the drivers should take such risks?

13. Were you shocked at the end with Dusty’s death? What had he achieved in trying to break his record? Was this a worthwhile enterprise on his part?

14. Comment on the way that the dive was filmed in slow motion and with the gradual progress of the dive? The ballyhoo that went before it? This as typical American town behaviour? The curious people and the ambulances?

15. What comment did the film make about the camp followers, the girls especially who associate with the drivers? What are they after? Are they too casual for any human relationships?

16. Do you think this film was made as an advertisement for these drivers? As a warning? As simply exhibiting this way of life? Was it a successful film?

STELLA DALLAS

US, 1937, 106 minutes, Black and white.
Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, Alan Hale, Marjorie Main, Tim Holt.
Directed by King Vidor.

A famous ‘women's picture’ of the mid-thirtees. Produced with great flair by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by King Vidor (who made such memorable silent films as The Crowd and was to make notable films like Northwest Passage, Duel in the Sun, War and Peace), the film is a vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance.

The story of a pushy young woman who marries and who causes the marriage to break up, the film focuses on her relationship with her daughter and her inadequacy of feeling in bringing her up. The situations are somewhat dated and contrived. It is very much a picture of the past. However, on the level of communication and feeling,
the film makes quite some emotional impact. (An 80s remake starred Bette Midler, Stella.)

1. The film's reputation: ‘women's picture’, soap opera, human drama? As a reflection of filmmaking of the thirties?

2. The production values and their impact: the Massachusetts setting, working class background, picture of society? A portrait of America in the twenties? The quality of the black and white photography, score?

3. The film as a vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck? Her skill, convincing the audience of the character of Stella Dallas, her emotions, conflicts and crises and decisions?

4. The focus of the title on Stella, the focus of the whole film on her as a character and her life? The introduction to her at the gate and her flirting with Stephen Dallas, the encounter with her brother, with her family? The clash at home and her using the lunch situation to meet Stephen Dallas, her dress, flirting in his office? The happy chance of the introduction? The transition to their going to the cinema dates, getting to know each other, marriage? Audience interest in her and awareness of her flirtatious nature, scheming? Yet a simple straightforward character in her way?

5. The marriage and its background, the lack of depth and her inability to handle it well? Wealth, society, servants? The birth of the baby and her reaction to the nurse looking after her? Her wanting to be up and about and involved in things, dances etc.? The crisis in the marriage and the break-up? The effect on her?

6. The character of Stephen, the background of his isolating and hiding himself, relationship with Helen and the letter in the typewriter? The attraction to Stella and her being a compensation for his loneliness? His responding to her, enjoying her company? The reasons for the marriage and the basis? The lack of success of the marriage?

7. The film's portrait of motivations for marriage, suitability and unsuitability, mistakes, separation and divorce?

8. The bond between Stella and Laurel? Watching Laurel’s growing up, Stella helping her? The importance of the long sequence about the party, the preparations, the dress, the gifts? The irony of Stella’s reputation and the phone calls and the messages about the people not coming? The loneliness of mother and daughter going to the party? Stella getting over this, Laurel getting over it? Laurel’s visits to her father, the enjoyment of Helen and the children? The contrast with home and Stella making her dresses? The repercussions on Laurel of the different homes and the ways of living?

9. The portrait of Laurel? A convincing adolescent girl, the bond with her mother, father? The enjoyment of Helen's company and the boys? Her reaction to her mother's decision about going to live with her father? Her dislike of Ed (and the memory of his coming in when she was trying the party dress'), hurt by her mother's attraction towards Ed? Her reaction to Helen and her father's revelation about coming to live with them. her return to her mother and her disappointment? Her marriage, future?

10. The relationship between Stella and Ed? The importance of the train ride and the long, sequence with the itching powder, their laughing, the ladies' reactions? Circumstantial evidence and people gossiping and judging?

11. Ed as a contrast to Stephen? The bond with Stella, practical joking and laughing, good time, drinking? The bonds over the years? Stephen's encountering him and his disdain? Stella’s using the photo to persuade Laurel to go to her father?

12. Helen as an attractive person, the other woman, her support of Stephen, her children her charm with Laurel's visits? Her talking as her alternate mother and yet her not being overbearing? The contrast between Helen's approach to Laurel and Stella’s?

13. The ending and the marriage, Stella being one of the crowd looking in the window, her defiant attitude as she walked off at the end and her smile? What would her future be?

14. The film's portrait of people, family relationships, love? Old style American manners and expectations? The contrast now? The film and the sad aspects of life. learning through mistakes? Insight into human nature?

STILETTO

US, 1969, 98 minutes, Colour.
Alex Cord, Britt Ekland, Patrick O’ Neal, Joseph Wiseman, Barbara Mc Nair, John Dehner, Titos Vandis, Eduardo Cianelli, Roy Scheider, Lincoln Kilpatrick.
Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski.

Stiletto is a 1960s Mafia thriller, anticipating the Godfather films and their many imitators.

Harold Robbins, popular writer of such films as The Carpetbaggers, The Adventurers, contributed to this film. It is the familiar story of a suave character who, behind the scenes, is a Mafia hit-man. When he decides to retire, the Mafia chiefs decide that they don’t want him to retire – except at the hands of hit-men whom they send out to get him.

Alex Cord was in a number of films as hero at this particular time but had a short career as a star. The film has a strong character cast as well as some cameos from people who were to emerge like Charles Durning, Raoul Julia and M. Emmett Walsh.

The film was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski who made his name as a television director. Familiar material.

1. Was this a good thriller? Why? What were its best features?

2. Did this thriller offer much insights into organisations like the Mafia and their working?

3. Was the theme of the film well portrayed in the monochrome initial sequences? How did it show that Cesare was under the power of Mateo?

4. Was Cesare an interesting central character? Was he too repellent? Did the audience have any sympathy with him? How did this effect the audiences interest in the film?

5. What are your reactions to this world of money dealings, power, crime, casino dealing? Why?

6. Was Baker a sympathetic character? Did he uphold the law well? Did he have any right to work outside the framework of law? Why had he become obsessed with Mateo? How did this obsession ruin his life? Were you expecting him to be killed at the and? (His eyes were the final focus of the film).

7. The prosecutor - did he have the correct ideas about law? Procedure, about the deportation of Mateo?

8. Mateo and his power? how sinister a person was he? How do people like him come into power? Did his character and his behaviour give insights into mafia chiefs? (The relationship of his work in America to the head in Italy?)

9. How easy is it for a criminal to live in this world? What must be the reactions of police and investigators who have to live with this kind of world and have to combat it? And find so many avenues closed to them and frustrating?

10. The two female characters - were they interesting, sympathetically presented as real persons? What function did they perform in the film?

11. Comment an the effectiveness on the cinematic techniques of presenting the murders.

12. Mateo’s pressure on Baker? did this generate suspense? Did you at all hope that he would become
Mateo’s victim? Why?

13. What was the Impact of Baker's coming to the end of his search, finding enough evidence, but shooting Mateo vindictively? The impact of his being shot?

14. Have films like this any other value then mere entertainment? Why?

THE STOOGE

US, 1952, 100 minutes, Black and white.
Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Polly Bergen, Eddie Mayehoff.
Directed by Norman Taurog.

One of the earlier Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies. While there are comedy routines and music. the film attempts a more serious tone. It is partially successful and veers towards the sentimental. A similar approach was tried in That's My Boy about the same time. Director Norman Taurog directed the pair in many of their films.

Martin plays a typical role and in a selfish singer who tries to succeed alone. Lewis is the stooge who has talent and in really the life of the act. It takes a dramatic confrontation for Martin to realise the truth - and the denouement in which he acknowledges the truth comes rather quickly, especially in dramatic terms. Polly Bergen is a pleasant heroine. The film is an interesting example of a popular comedy duo of the fifties, the difficulties about show business and team work. It shows also the direction in which each of the two went after their split in the mid-fifties.

1. Audience expectations of a Martin/Lewis comedy? Their popularity in the fifties? Their individual contributions? Their work as a team - reflected in the work of the team in this screenplay?

2. The comedy conventions, Jerry Lewis' routines? His particular comic style - the little man put upon, sentiment, nice, immature, a kid? yet being very influential? Dean Martin's suave personality, singing style? The leading ladies as subservient to the leading men in some romance, comedy? Black and white photography, Broadway and theatres of the thirties?

3. The basic plot - the setup of the two characters, the lights on the Great White Way and the dim bulb? The establishing of Bill as a successful musical star? The showing of Ted as foolish and a stooge? Mary and Freckle Face in support? The agents, the managers of the theatres?

4. Bill and his marrying Mary and his self-preocpupation, his trying to go alone, his choice of Ted as stooge, the success of their act? Bill not wanting to acknowledge this, his being saved by Ted, for example when drunk, Mary's birthday? The Broadway contract and his missing Mary's party? Mary's confrontation with him at the agent's office? His failing, apology to the audience, the happy ending with Ted supporting him after their fight? A credible character type?

5. Jerry Lewis, as Ted - the initial comedy routines, his being sacked from his job, his ability to be the stooge in the theatre, his comic contributions - especially the Maurice Chevalier impersonations, when he went on instead of Ted? His comic and singing styles and skills, for example in the finale? His relationship to his mother, the love for Freckle Face, his loyalty to Bill, devotion to Mary? A sentimental American hero?

6. Mary as the long suffering wife, her love for Bill, her career? Her appreciation of Ted? The birthday party and Bill's missing it, his serenading her? Her confrontation with Bill? The happy ending? Freckle Face as a comic variation on this theme?

7. The agent and his friendship with Bill, the advice about the stooge, his disappointment, for example at the review party when Ted was overlooked by Bill? His tearing up Bill's contract? The former partner? The manager of the theatre? the producer?

8. The musical interludes, for example the serenading of Mary, the singing of the song in the restaurant?

9. The comedy routines and their success? The particularly American style of Jerry Lewis's comedy?

10. A basic story about pride, loyalty, love? The Martin and Lewis treatment of this popular theme?

STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF.

UK, 1966, 100 minutes, Black and white/Colour.
Millicent Martin, Tony Tanner.
Directed by Philip Saville.

Stop the World, I Want to Get Off is a musical written by Anthony Newley. Its most famous song is ‘What Kind of Fool Am I’. Newley was to write a number of musicals including The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd and songs for Doctor Dolittle in which he appeared. This film has added material by Alan and Marilyn Birdman, lyricists who contributed with Marvin Hamlisch to such songs as ‘The Way We Were’.

Millicent Martin portrayed the role on stage and Tony Tanner was the stand-in for Anthony Newley. In fact, the film is rather a filmed version of the stage play and seems very restricted in comparisons with other musical films.

Newley was an eccentric as actor, writer, director, singer – and this is a film, as the title indicates, about the meaning of life.

1. How enjoyable was this film? As a film? As a recorded version of the stage performance? Using television techniques? Did the film successfully combine stage, cinema, television techniques? The credit sequences and the preparing for the show? The actors involved and their makeup? The use of masks? The live audience and the applause? The moving around the stage and back to the audience? Did this distract from the film? Could it have been done otherwise?

2. All the world’s a stage. How, in this film, is the stage the world? How valid is it to have the stage as the world? The impact of this technique? The stage as a circus arena for this film? Men as clowns, with masks and makeup? The comic overtones of the film and its meaning, comedy for laughs and for exploring human foibles?

3. How effective was the miming and the impact of the miming? The use of song and dance, the use of places on the stage. the actors portraying several characters, such details as miming for a factory? The use of vaudeville techniques, for Stop the World? The fact that the father was unseen and music used for his replies? Does mime have more impact than realistic acting? Why?

4. What was the basic theme of the film? As illustrated by the title? Its irony and how it punctuates the film?

5. How is the film a modern morality play? The presuppositions of morality plays and fables for enjoying this film? Littlechap as modern everyman? Evie as modern everywoman? How was this illustrated?

6. The emphasis was on the modern world. How pessimistic a view did the film take? How cynical? The dialogue, incidents, songs?

7. How well was Littlechap portrayed in song, mime? The birth sequence and his schooling, his ambition and drives? His ordinariness, wooing his wife, her pregnancy? His work and promotion, Sludgepool? The birth of the first child? His position and relationship to his father-in-law? To his Russian mistress, to the Japanese? His not wanting the birth of the second child? His growing snobbery? Visit to America? Ageing? Opportunist campaign? Old age? Self discovery? Is this meant to be a pattern of everyman’s life in fact? How did the songs illustrate the
exploration of the theme?

8. What insight into everywoman did Evie’s character give? As a 'Typically English’ girl? pregnancy, marriage, children, patience and impatience, support in old age?

9. How important was the satire on Britain and on Russia, Japan, America? How entertaining was this? What points were being made? The use of the same song and its variiety? The same actress giving expectation for
audience entertainment?

10. How important was the satire on typical human situations? (On Britain and Russia, America?)

11. How striking were the songs and their impact: "Lumbered", "Once In A Lifetime”, "What Kind of Fool Am I?"?

12. How much insight and wisdom was there in this morality play?