CRY IN THE NIGHT

US, 1956, 75 minutes, Black and white.
Edmond O’ Brien, Bryan Donlevy, Natalie Wood, Raymond Burr, Richard Anderson, Carol Veazie.
Directed by Frank Tuttle.

A Cry in the Night is a brief police thriller. It tackles a subject which is perennial, the abduction of young women and their imprisonment.

This time the victim is played by Natalie Wood, the same year that she appeared in The Searchers. Her father, a policeman with a ready punch, is played by Edmond O’Brien? who won an Oscar for best supporting actor two years earlier for The Barefoot Contessa. Bryan Donlevy is the captain of police. Raymond Burr is yet another villain, this time something of a man with a very simple mind, but deadly in his abduction of his victim and keeping her. Carol Veazie plays his very unsympathetic mother.

The film was directed very efficiently by Frank Tuttle (his second-last film). A writer in Hollywood from the early 1920s, he had a strong career in the 1930s with directing brief small-budget films. In the 1940s he directed Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire and Lucky Jordan – and Ladd provides the voice-over introduction to this film.

1. How interesting a crime thriller, police film, human relationship drama?

2. The police films of the 50's? Police work and characters? Solving crimes? Villains? Sex crimes? A comparison with the development of the genre through the 60's and 70's. especially with television series and the police films of the 70s? How different? How do films like this compare?

3. Black and white photography, melodramatic moods? The narrative at the beginning? Location photography, police work and details?

4. The credibility of the plot? Owen and Liz and Liz’s family? Their being in lovers' loop? Harold Loftus and his mania, relationship with his mother, driven to action against his mother and his menacing Liz? Dan Taggert and the aggressive arrogant policeman ready to do violence for his family? The ordinary police? The interaction of all the characters in terms of aggression?

5. The focus on Liz as an ordinary young, American girl? her relationship with mother and father? at home and her father's dominance? Relationship with Owen? Owen as the ordinary and genial young man, his heroism at the end? The contrast with Taggert and his skill at his work, relationship with his wife, sister? His bullying the police, carrying a gun, threatening to kill, his aggressiveness towards Owen? The truth told to him by his sister? The final confrontation with Loftus? How much did he realise at the end, how much change?

6. The portrait of the police, the captain and his role? Taggert and his twenty years in the force? The particular details of care, bookings overnight e.g. the bigamous woman? An authentic atmosphere?

7. The character of Harold Loftus, watching the couple, violence towards Owen, kidnapping Liz and holding her, his place, the apricot pie, his hatred of his mother and his revelation about his mother to Liz? The gun? His wanting to have a friend? The reinforcement of this with the scenes with his mother?

8. The melodramatics of Liz trying to cope and escape, the final violence? The shooting of the policeman?

9. How convincing a portrait of a night in the city? Crime and criminals? Social attitudes leading to such crises?

CRY DANGER

US, 1951, 79 minutes, Black and white.
Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, William Conrad, Richard Erdman.
Directed by Robert Parrish.

Cry Danger is one of the several films made by Dick Powell after his period as a song and dance man when he became the tough Private Eye or gangster or hero. This is a slight example, but is well made, conventional gangster material but keeps interest throughout.

There are good performances by Richard Erdman as an alcoholic cripple and an early performance by William Conrad as a gangster. Rhonda Fleming is yet again a charming villainess. Directed by Robert Parrish who made quite a number of interesting films over the years as well as writing about life in Hollywood.

1. How enjoyable and interesting a thriller? Thriller expectations - from the 40's and 50's - plot, character, toughness?

2. The location photography in Los Angeles, black and white, the musical score and its dramatics? The atmosphere of ordinary people in Los Angeles, the police, gangsters, the streets, poverty and wealth? Authentic background?

3. Dick Powell and his particular tough style as hero? Audience sympathy for him, as hero, as victim? The conventions of the tough American hero with his stances, grim face, wisecrack remarks?

4. Audience interest in the opening, the release from prison, the newspaper headlines, the background of his story? Sympathy with Rocky as a person, his experience in prison? The irony of Morgan and Nancy and their eventual guilt?

5. The initial encounter with Cob and Delong, Cob as the tired policeman, his following Rocky around, discovery of the truth, wanting the gangsters to get rid of each other? The details of police method and style of the times?

6. The contrast with Delong? pleasant type, his relationship with Darlene and the irony of her pickpocket work? His drinking, his artificial limb? His helping of Rocky, of Nancy? The ironic wise cracks? His presence throughout the film? The pathos of his being shot instead of Rocky? Darlene's death and its repercussions on him? An interesting character?

7. Castro as typical villain, his lies, greed, Rocky's confrontation and violence with him? Victimising him with the Russian roulette and his fear in telling the truth? Typical gangster style?

8. The violence, the attempts on Rocky’s life and the irony of Nancy shooting at him? The gangsters with their machine gun killings? Delong and Darlene's deaths?

9. The conventions of set-ups , frames? Mrs Fletcher, the people paid not to tell the truth, lies? Rocky's reaction? Cobb’s reaction?

10. Rhonda Fleming's glamour as Nancy, her love for Morgan, for Rocky? her passionate protestations, her help? The irony of her double crossing? The smoothness of her lies at the end and Rocky knowing the truth – his regrets in giving her to the police, yet his self-satisfied feelings?

11. What changes in Rocky throughout the film? His bitterness about his life in prison, people lying to him. threats? His exposure of the truth?

12. This kind of tough American thriller and its themes of right and wrong, good and evil, heroism?

THE CRUEL SEA

UK, 1953, 126 minutes, Black and white.
Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratton, Denholm Elliott, Stanley Baker, Liam Redmond, Virginia Mc Kenna, Moira Lister, June Thorburn, Megs Jenkins, Meredith Edwards, Glyn Houston, Alec Mc Cowan.
Directed by Charles Frend.

The Cruel Sea is based on a novel by Nicholas Monsarrat (who also wrote The Story of Esther Costello). It was adapted for the screen by prolific screenwriter and novelist, Eric Ambler. It was directed by Charles Frend, a director of the more serious films at Ealing Studios including Scott of the Antarctic, Lease of Life.

The film is a no-nonsense presentation of war action. It does not have the high heroics of so many of the British film memoirs of World War Two of this period.

Jack Hawkins is excellent as the captain with Donald Sinden as his assistant. A group of prominent British character actors fill out the supporting roles. The film focuses on an escort ship and its activities in World War Two, accompanying the fleet, rescuing those injured by U-boat torpedoes. The film is not sentimental – but actually creates a strong atmosphere of life on board the ship, the bonds between the men and their working together in such difficult conditions in the atmosphere of war.

The Cruel Sea is considered by many amongst the top war films of all time.

1. How good a war film was this? Why were films like this so important in the 'fifties? Their impact then and now? The main differences? Are they important now?

2. This film was noted as a quality production. Was this evident? Where?

3. How important were films like this for British patriotism? For understanding the British spirit during the war? Britain’s view of herself and her war effort and heroism? How important was heroism in this film, ordinary heroism? Was the film convincing in this way?

4. The role of the sea itself in the film? As a friend supporting the ships? As an enemy ready to be cruel, and destructive, silent and equally destructive? As a sea which drowns men and swallows up ships? A cruel sea in war?

5. How impressive was the picture of the Navy and war? The building up of the Navy in war effort? The men’s backgrounds, civil captains, car salesmen. lawyers etc.? Their volunteering. preparation and training, their effectiveness? Had did the film portray this in its details?

6. The importance of training and skill for the Navy? The interest of these sequences in the film? The effect when they were able to destroy an enemy submarine? The disaster when they ware destroyed?

7. What was the impact of suffering and death in this film? The men going overboard, drowning and freezing? Their wounds? The effect amongst themselves? On men like Lockhart? On the audience? The meaning of suffering and death in war situations and effort? Fatality or heroism?

8. How important was the comradeship that emerged during the war? How did the ordinary details of interaction communicate this? Their meeting, life on the ship, meals and conversation, clashes of personality, success and sharing in it, disaster and sharing in this?

9. How central a character was Erickson? His skill in handling the ship? His relationship with the other men?

10. How interesting were the other characters especially Lockhart? As a parallel with Erickson? His attitudes during the war, his growth as a person? The importance of Julie in his life?

11. What did the minor characters contribute to the film? Morell and his legal background, his wife's infidelity? Bennett and his self-importance as First Lieutenant and his ineffectiveness? The other seamen and their time on shore, plans for marriage, Ferrarby and his wife? The importance of the party for the celebration of the submarine's destruction?

12. What did the film finally say about Britain's war effort and the Navy and its effect on people?

CRUCIBLE OF HORROR

UK, 1970, 91 minutes, Colour.
Michael Gough, Yvonne Mitchell, Sharon Gurney, Simon Gough, Olaf Pooley.
Directed by Viktors Ritelis.

The Corpse is a film about a dysfunctional family – leading into touches of a horror film. Michael Gough (later best known as the butler for Bruce Wayne in the Batman series) is a sadistic husband who idolises his son (played by Gough’s own son, Simon Gough) and physically and mentally abuses his wife and daughter, played by Yvonne Mitchell and Sharon Gurney. They decide that enough is enough, play to kill the villain and make it look like suicide. However, this is not what exactly happens …

Michael Gough is a strong and sinister screen presence. Yvonne Mitchell, a stage actress, had had a very successful career in a number of socially significant films of the 1950s and 60s including Yield to the Night, Woman in a Dressing Gown, Tiger Bay, Sapphire. The writer Olaf Pooley appears as Reid. The director had a thirty-year career, principally in directing British television series.

1. A successful and interesting horror film.

2. Comment an the techniques and structure of the film as being helpful for the story, horror, suspense, lesson?

3. The meaning of the title? Was it too sensationalistic?

4. Was the film itself too sensationalistic? Why?

5. How was the family situation built up in small details eg meals? How was the interaction of the family shown so that we understood the tensions there?
* The father? pedantic, obsession for hand washing, sarcastic, unfeeling, cruel even whipping his own daughter?
* Jane as a daughter, extravagant, her preoccupation with money, her kissing the visitor, the bitterness in being whipped, her deceiving her father?
* Edith as a wife, as a women, neurotic, her tensions in the family, her painting, her hatred?
* Rupert as a son, as offensive, as unfeeling, a younger version of his father?

6. Horror at the plan to kill the father? Did it seem reasonable or unreasonable? Was it possible for these two women to plan such a killing? Why were they pressed to kill him?

7. The sequences of the murder, Were they suspensefully shown? Compassion for the father? Sympathy for the mother and daughter?

8. How ironic was the fear and tension in the mother and daughter as they waited? How did the film build up suspense? the use of the telephone, neighbours, the absence of the son?

9. The inclusion of the dream sequences, effective? What did they mean?

10. How ironic was the conclusion? what went on? What did happened? What future did the family have together? Who won?

11. Any lesson in this horror parable?

THE CRUCIBLE

France, 1957, 145 minutes, Black and white.
Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Mylene Demongeot, Michel Piccoli, Raymond Rouleau.
Directed by Raymond Rouleau.

Les Sorcieres de Salem was filmed several years after the first Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The play attained notoriety in its time, specially seen as an attack on the Mc Carthy era and the witch-hunting of the Un American House activities. However, the play was so strong that it has survived the decades and has become an American classic.

This film version was written by playwright Jean- Paul Sartre. It had been produced on stage with the same cast and directed by the same director (who also appears as Judge Danforth).

The film recreates the period of Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s and the witch-hunts. The focus is on John Proctor, played by Yves Montand, and his wife Elizabeth, played by Montand’s wife, Simone Signoret. The catalyst for the witch- hunt is a young girl, Abigail Williams, played by Mylene Demongeot. The cast won a number of acting awards. Simone Signoret won a BAFTA award as best actress. Two years later she was to win a number of awards, including the Oscar, for her role in Room at the Top.

The film follows the play closely, has an edge given Jean- Paul Sartre’s rather pessimistic existentialism in his interpretation of Miller’s play.

There was a television version in the UK in 1970s, directed by Don Taylor, with Michael Harber as John Proctor and character actors Eric Porter, Daniel Massey, Dennis Quilley and Peter Vaughn in the supporting cast.

There was a very strong version in 1996 with Daniel Day Lewis as John Proctor, Joan Allen as his wife, Winona Ryder as Abigail and Paul Scofield as Judge Danforth, directed by theatre director, Nicholas Hytner.

This is an interesting film version, with its 1950s French perspective on Arthur Miller’s play as well as political situations in the United States.

1. The reputation of this play, Arthur Miller's reputation? Its status in the fifties? The fact that it could not be filmed in America in the fifties? The French version, Jean Paul Sartre and his adaptation of the play?

2. The use of French locations for North America, black and white photography, the atmosphere of the countryside and the town?

3. Was it evident that the film was based on a play? The focus on characters, situations and places, the strength of the dialogue? The exploration of themes? Was the film in any way theatrical?

4. The background of North America in the 17th century? The explanation of religious protest, the founding of a new colony, the isolation and the pressures, the background for religious hysteria mixed with Calvinistic longings for wealth and power? Miller was making 20th century parallels with this American society and issues. Was this evident in the French version?

5. The presentation of Salem, the countryside of Massachusetts, the town, the sea, the farms, the people within this rather primitive setting, working and trying to build up a society on religious beliefs?

6. How sympathetic and interesting were the people of Salem? The nature of their beliefs, especially religion? Their capacity for survival, their attitudes towards community and pressurising people to conform? The Puritan spirituality and repression?

7. What did the Proctors represent within this society? Marriage and its strengths and weaknesses? Religion? Conformism and a sense of duty, for example John's not wanting to go to church but finally going? The sense of duty and doing what one should at home and in the community? The dominant interest of the church? The question of personal sinfulness especially in John's lust and his relationship with Abigail? Elizabeth's jealousy and not confronting John? The Proctors in the eyes of their friends? The leadership that they were expected to exercise? What kind of characters were they in themselves? The strengths and weaknesses of their characters? Their relationship of love, John's erring in lust? Elizabeth's hardness?

8. What kind of person was Abigail in herself? Young, feminine, possessive, lustful, her evil? Her influence and her meanness? Seeing her in the background of the Proctors and within their household? Her seductions of John? His repentance and her playing with his sense of guilt? Her despising of Elizabeth? How strongly drawn was the character of Abigail? As a basis for the wider issues of the film?

9. The presentation of superstition with the Voodoo background within this puritanical community? The introduction of witchcraft by Tituba? Her leading the young girls out into the woods? The hysteria? The vindictiveness and Abigail’s use of this kind of witchcraft? Her hard scepticism and her using people and issues? The importance of John Proctor discovering this in the woods?

10. The presentation of the Elders, the parents? The impact of this cauldron of witchcraft and hysteria of them? Their inability to cops. their religious and social interpretations?

11. The film's presentation of the girls in their hysteria? How credible, the performances in themselves, the Court sequences? Showing where this kind of hysteria could lead when others were involved?

12. How clearly did the film present the horror of accusation, projections of guilt, the imposition on people. the trials, the frenzy, the way people behaved in the Court?

13. The jealousy behind the accusation of Elizabeth and John? Their being brought into prison and Court? The central sequence where John Proctor in order to vindicate his innocence asks for his wife's testimony? The dramatic importance of Elizabeth Proctor's lit?

14. The possibility of reprieve in Mary? Commonsense possibly prevailing? The pressures on her to lie? The malevolent influence of Abigail and the girls? Her trying to put herself into a frenzy? The hysteria when she finally went into frenzy?

15. Comment on the authority figures presented in the film: Danforth and the conducting of the trial, the strengths and weaknesses of his character, authority within this kind of background and the inability to cope? The varying town officials and their pressures?

16. How well did the film show that this kind of hysteria can spread, false accusations, false information, malevolent attitudes towards innocent people?

17. The film stressed the social background of the times. the uprising against the authorities in Salem, coinciding this with the executions?

18. The final sequences between John and Elizabeth? How well were they reconciled? Their mutual understanding? John Proctor as hero coming through this crucible of suffering to some kind of human stance to be admired? Did the same happen to Elizabeth? This as background to the executions? The picturing of the executions, the safeguards that the authorities took? Those in uproar discovering the dead people?

19. How was the theme of Salem society presented, with something rotten within the fabric of this society? What was wrong? Why did it manifest itself in this way? What could be done about it? Issues of human nature, society, religion? Good in human nature, the potential and capacity for evil?

20. What was left when this uproar and upheaval in society had subsided? The significance of the title?

CROSS WINDS

US, 1951, 95 minutes, Colour.
John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Forrest Tucker, Alan Mowbray, John Abbott.
Directed by Lewis R. Foster.

Cross Winds is a conventional action adventure, with a New Guinea setting, a group of people all trying to find lost gold, diving under the waters of New Guinea to recover it. John Payne is the hero, Rhonda Fleming the leading lady, Forrest Tucker the villain.

The film was written and directed by Lewis R. Foster, a prolific writer as well as a film director from 1929. During the first half of the 1950s he made a series of action adventures with Rhonda Fleming and the leading man being either Ronald Reagan (The Last Outpost, Hong Kong, Tropic Zone) or John Payne (The Eagle and the Hawk, Passage West).

1. An entertaining popular adventure? Of the 50s? Style and treatment? Now?

2. The adventure ingredients: location, New Guinea, greed and gold, adventurers, disillusioned heroine, villains? Particular ingredients of treatment e.g. action sequences? Final confrontation and deaths of villains? Romance?

3. Colour photography, the atmosphere of New Guinea? Music? Theme song?

4. How credible was the plot? A credible New Guinea? Administration, adventurers, head hunters? Sufficient for these purposes? How realistic did it have to be?

5. Steve as hero? War background, taken in, his explaining himself to Katie and the bond between them as wanderers? The false arrest? Reaction to the trial and imprisonment, to get the boat back? The encounter with Duke and Mousy? The expedition, his reaction to the plots and counterplots? The heroism in rescuing Katie? The deal with Jumbo and the getting of the gold? Coping with Katie’s disillusionment? The final fight, the deaths? The inevitable happy ending? A suitable hero for this kind of film?

6. Katie as the appropriate heroine? The explanation of her background as widow, war, work, presence in Port Moresby? Her drinking, love for adventure? Her reaction to Nicky? Going on the flight? The importance of the exhilaration of being on Steve’s boat and the effect on her? Being rescued, feeling that she had been used? Her participation in the final fight, happy landing,? A sufficiently credible heroine?

7. Nicky as villain and his death? Jumbo and his smooth talk and double dealing? His making good at the end? Duke and Mousy and the comedy about the remittance men? But the sinister comedy because of their murders? Their double deals?

8. Comment on the sailing sequences, the fights with the hunter, the underwater photography?

9. Themes of greed, good and evil, adventure? Romance? Why the popular appeal of this kind of adventure?

CROSSPLOT

UK, 1969, 96 minutes, Colour.
Roger Moore, Martha Hyer, Alexis Kanner, Bernard Lee, Francis Matthews,
Directed by Alvin Rakoff.

Crossplot is a very conventional espionage thriller, all the usual ingredients but with an anticipation of Roger Moore’s style that he used in the James Bond series. Very much a ‘take it or leave it' ironic thriller.

1. The significance of the title? How entertaining a thriller, comedy thriller?

2. The qualities of the film? How conventional? taking Hitchcockian traditions and using them well or not? The genre of the innocent bystander drawn into politics and the thriller? Assassination attempts, demonstrations, political intrigue, kidnappings, heroism unexpected on the part of the hero, romance? How well blended were they? Ingredients?

3. Colour photography, British locations, musical score? Special effects especially for the actions of the hero, the destruction of the villain?

4. Was the plot credible? The cross-plots? The assassination preparations, the marchers for peace and Lord Etherly and his involvement and cover? The advertising agency, Marla as the interlocking personality? Jo Grinling as villain? The foiling of the attempts and the various dangers for Gary Fenn? The happy resolution and the saving of the victim?

5. Roger Moore’s style as Gary Fenn? Suave hero, wisecracking remarks? Work in the advertising agency, the seeking out of Marla, the involvement with Jo? The demands made on him for some kind of heroism? Surmounting the dangers and bringing everything to a conclusion? Comic book style hero?

6. Jo as the suave businesswoman? The irony of her being the villainess? How credible the association with Lord Etherly, their plots for the Marchers for Peace and the preparations for the assassination?

7. The gallery of supporting characters from the world of advertising, fashions, the British aristocracy, the protest marches, politics, the police? How well sketched - sufficient for this kind of film?

8. The style and pace of the film? The memorable action sequences, especially the threats to life? The assassination attempt and its being foiled?

9. Conventional themes of good and evil, villainy and motivations, the innocent hero and his responding to challenge?

CASINO ROYALE

UK, 1967, 131 minutes, Colour.
Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Orson Welles, Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer, John Huston, Kurt Kasznar, Jean- Paul Belmondo, Terence Cooper, Barbara Bouchet, Angela Scoular, Jacqueline Bisset, Anna Quayle, Derek Nimmo, Ronnie Corbett, Bernard Cribbins, John Bluthal, Geoffrey Bayldon, Duncan Macrae, Graham Stark, Richard Wattis, Percy Herbert and, uncredited, Anjelica Huston, Burt Kwouk, John Le Mesurier, David Lodge, Stirling Moss, Caroline Munro, Peter O’ Toole, David Prowse.
Directed by Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph Mc Grath, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, Richard Talmadge.

Casino Royale was the one title that the Cubby Broccoli Company did not have the copyright for. It was decided then that this film would be a send-up of the Sean Connery Bond films of the 1960s. It had many writers including Wolf Mankowitz and uncredited and additional dialogue by Woody Allen, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller (Catch 22), Terry Southern (Candy), Billy Wilder and Peter Sellers. And it had the listed number of directors.

Peter Sellers is James Bond and sends up the character very well. However, David Niven appears as Sir James Bond in the very dapper British style. Woody Allen appears as young Jimmy Bond (perhaps some anticipation of Mini- Me and Mike Myers in the Austin Powers series). Ursula Andress, who had appeared in the first James Bond film, Doctor No, is Vesper Lynd.

The film does follow something of the outline of Ian Fleming’s novel with Orson Welles as Le Chiffre. However, there is an enormous number of cast, many prominent actors doing cameos – with Deborah Kerr either dressed in disguised as a nun or hanging from a Scottish castle wall.

The film echoes the Swinging 60s in London and can be seen as something of a historical reflection of the period.

The film was, in fact, nominated for an Oscar for best song by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, the well-known ‘The Look of Love’. Herb Albert and his Tijuana Brass contributed a title song.

With the copyright recovered, Casino Royale was filmed very seriously in 2006, bringing in Daniel Craig as James Bond, a much more serious, down-to-earth interpretation of the character with Eva Green as Vesper Lynd.

1. The film was a spoof of James Bond films. It was also a satire on them and on the spy films. How successful was it? Why was it made?

2. Was the story of any importance? Did it retain the interest? Was the style of the story to the films advantage or disadvantage? Why?

3. The irony of David Niven portraying the real Sir James Bond and the implication that Sean Connery was a substitute prepared by the secret service? Was this humorous and satirical idea well used in the film? The preparation of other James Bonds, especially Peter Sellers?

4. The mock heroics of the film were emphasised. How funny were these? What were the best examples? Especially heroics of David Niven and Peter Sellers?

5. Where was the satire in the character of Sir James Bond as portrayed by David Niven? In the bumbling spy as portrayed by Peter Sellers? How did Ursula Andress satirise the 'Bond' girl? Was Dalia Lavi more convincing as a Bond girl? The satire in Mata Hari as portrayed by Joanna Pettit? Orson Wells as Le Chiffre? His magic? Le Chiffre as the typical Bond villain? The satire on gadgets, persons, on situations (e.g. the lion park and Born Free, Ronnie Corbett and the German impressionist room etc.)? The explosions of the finale? was this all overdone? And the fact that everybody finished up dead? The satire of having Woody Allen as the arch villain?

6. The use of the music to enhance the film - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass with the theme? The Bond Street theme of Burt Bacharach? The use of the song ‘The Look of Love’ with Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress?

7. How entertaining was the film in itself? Could it only be entertaining if the audience was aware of the real James Bond films? Why?

CISCO PIKE

US, 1972, 94 minutes, Colour.
Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, Gene Hackman, Harry Dean Stanton..
Directed by Bill L. Norton.

US, 1972, 95 minutes, Colour.
Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, Gene Hackman, Harry Dean Stanton, Viva, Roscoe Lee Browne, Severn Darden, Antonio Fargas, Howard Hesseman.
Directed by Bill L. Norton.

Cisco Pike has interesting credentials. It was the screen debut of singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson who continued for almost four decades as singer and actor. The film also stars Gene Hackman as a corrupt policeman. Karen Black is Kristofferson’s girlfriend and Harry Dean Stanton is his pal.

The film shows the drug scene in Los Angeles in the late 60s and early 70s. Kristofferson’s character spends a lot of his time driving around Los Angeles trying to offload a big deal in marijuana. He encounters Gene Hackman who wants the money for himself. Karen Black is his girlfriend – although in the anti-hero spirit of the times, Kristofferson is high and betrays her.

The film is interesting, if dated, in its re-creation of a particular subculture of the period. It was written and directed by Bill L. Norton who also made Gargoyles and More American Graffiti in the 1970s. From 1985 for more than two decades he was prolific in directing television films and episodes and television series.

1. Did you like this film? Was it interesting and entertaining?

2. Did it give insight into America in the sixties, at least into the sub-culture of drugs and the West Coast?

3. Cisco Pike as a character: as a singer of the sixties, who had got older, who had a past to remember but no present to rely on, who had dealt in drugs but who had reformed? Was he an interesting character in his situation?

4. Sue: what kind of girl, why in love with Pike, how sensible and understanding. was she a real help to him?

5. Leo Molland: What made him tick? His motivations, his work as a policeman, what had gone wrong with him, why was he so bitter? How was his downfall as a person shown by his trafficking in drugs? Was he in any way likeable or pitiable?

6. The predicament for Pike: Pike's suspicions about whether Holland's plan was a set-up or whether he was genuine, and the suspense that this created for him. and for the audience? Pike and the style in which his attempts to sell the drugs were filmed, the impact of this as realism? The parties the rich, the eccentric, the pressures that he felt? What did you feel about the morality of all this?

7. The obsessions of the policeman, and his growing mad obsession, continual watching, his being chased finally and killed? Was this inevitable? Why?

8. Pike's friends: the strange world of those involved with drugs? Are they easily understood? E.g. Myrna, Lynn, the music man?

9. Jessie: as a hopeless heroin addict; his death; Cisco and Sue dumping the body? What else were they to do?

10. The ending and the shooting? As a pessimistic ending to this kind of film?

11. Why did Cisco go on alone at the end; how ruthless, how irresponsible? What had he learnt? How disillusioned was he ? What future did he have?

12. Will this film be relevant always? Or is it already a glimpse of a world that has gone, that fashions have changed?

THE CONCORDE AFFAIR

Italy, 1979, 96 minutes, Colour.
James Franciscus, Mimsy Farmer, Edmund Purdom.
Directed by Ruggiero Deodato.

An Italian production, with international settings including New York, London, the Caribbean. Filmed with gloss and with compliments to British air industries for collaboration with Concorde sequences, the film is an attack on the multinationals and their using of further destruction to their own financial interests. The Concorde is a threat to Latin American and South American air sales.

Joseph Cotten and Edmund Purdom embody very well, the villains in their New York offices. Hero is James Franciscus as a hard-bitten reporter who performs all kinds of heroics. Van Johnson appears as the sturdy pilot of the second stricken Concorde. There are all kinds of heroism, plots, saving of the Concorde by a phone link-up with London security. Brief, full of conventions, yet blending them quite well for undemanding popular entertainment.

1. The impact of the film in itself, entertainment, reflecting the trends of the seventies with the disaster films?

2. An Italian production and its values, international locations, international atmosphere? Colour photography, the score? Using the conventions of the disaster genre? Borrowing from such films as Airport 77?

3. Audience views on the Concorde and its use, its hazards to ecology, fuel usage, manufacture and money deals? The pros and cons? The film's praise and presentation of the Concorde, its thanks for technical cooperation? The technical aspects and security and safety of the Concorde and airports?

4. The attack on multinationals and their operations? The presentation of the personalities and their ruthlessness, the head and his shooting at the beginning, the management of the meetings, the paying of blackmail, the theory of war for protection of interests, the buying off of opposition? The motivation of the men? The critique of the multinationals?

5. The impact of the initial crash and the way that it was handled, the visuals, the human element? The irony of Jean and her surviving? The second crash and the repetition with the further explanation of the microwave oven, the failing of power? The security contacts, the simulation and the, discovery of the faults?

6. The focus on Moses Brody as hero, the hard-bitten reporter, his life in New York and his callous attitudes? His presence with the research for the Concorde crash? The communication from Nicole and the background of her being in Antilles, the fishermen and their rescue of Jean and the brutality of their deaths? Moses' arrival and the puzzle, George and the beating up in the alley, George's plan, the underwater exploration, George's death? Moses wanting to prove himself, failing to persuade the consul, the rescue of Jean, the danger hazards, the heroism and the rescue? The American reporter of popular fiction?

7. George and his relationship with Nicole, his helping and rescuing Moses, the underwater exploration? The lack of proof of the disappearance of the Concorde but the audience seeing it on video?

8. Jean's story? her being rescued, the photography and her being used for the blackmail, her escape attempts, her reaction to the rescue, the participation in the chases, her guidance over the telephone and Moses helping her to do this, the gratitude she received at the end?

9. The underwater photography, its contribution, the exploration, the fights?

10. The chase sequences and their conventions, the humour of the bank hold-up and the shoot-out?

11. The consul and his role, his collaboration with the search his disregard of Moses and his reputation, the attempts to find Moses and Jean?

12. The melodramatics of the link-up, the presentation of the Concorde in flight, the people on it, the various steps for the sabotage, the breakdown, the power failure? The safety of the Concorde? Moses and his role reassuring Jean after the dangers of the shooting and the chase?

13. The sketch of the characters on the plane, the variety of people, their reactions? The pilot and his control?

14. The happy ending with the safe landing, Moses and his farewelling of Jean, the company and their planning to buy off Moses, his counter-plans to expose them?

15. The use of the disaster trends and conventions, or popular audience enjoyment of these? The basic human values of life and survival, danger, heroism?