FEET FIRST

US, 1930, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Harold Lloyd, Barbara Kent.
Directed by Clyde Bruckman.

Feet First is a sound film for silent comedian Harold Lloyd. It was not well received because it showed how Lloyd was a successful silent star rather than a man for sound films. In fact, the plot of Feet First is very similar to his classic Safety Last, including the climax where he dangles over the New York streets. In Safety Last, this was a classic scene with Lloyd and a clock. Feet First lacks the clock!

Lloyd came across more forcefully in silent films. His voice, and the dialogue he is given in this film, especially the insults when he is dangling over the city, do not make such a good impression. He was not to have a successful career in sound films.

The film is directed and co-written by Clyde Bruckman, a prolific writer of films for several decades starting in the early 1920s. He directed a number of films between 1925 and 1935. His second film he co-directed with Buster Keaton and was the classic Keaton film, The General. His final film for direction in 1935 was a collaboration with W.C. Fields on The Man on the Flying Trapeze.

1.Harold Lloyd as a silent film star? This film as an attempt to break into sound films?

2.The use of the silent techniques, mime, gags? The fixed tripod photography? Situations, angles? Cutting? The climax above the New York streets?

3.The Harold Lloyd persona, his appearance, glasses? The little man and his hopes, his deceit?

4.The plot from the films of the 20s and 30s, the corny touch, contrived?

5.Harold as ambitious, his working in the shoe department, his personality course, the results, motivations? The encounter with Barbara? The convention, the jokes? Lady Pilsbury? Charlie and the walk? The Tanners? His selling the shoes, his being flattered? Mrs Tanner and the disaster? Barbara and the party? The ship? His pretending to be a leather tycoon? His endeavours to pass himself off as the tycoon? The ship, trying to get off? Stowaway and hiding? The breakfast sequence and the dog? The joke with the sailor? The papers and being stuck? The coat for dinner? The further encounters with Mrs Tanner, Barbara and the differences, the difficulties? The port? The building routine? Harold Horne, as a type, humour, quick, the joke about the spoons, the shovel ending?

6.Barbara as the conventional heroine, attracted to Harold, the deceits, the happy ending?

7.Mr Tanner and the shoes, the capitalist background, Mrs Tanner and her buying?

8.The drinking, the party? The sailor stooge?

9.The build-up to the climax, the true identity, the fear, the balance, the timing – and the finale?

FRIGHT NIGHT

US, 1985, 106 minutes, Colour.
Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy Mc Dowell, Stephen Geoffreys, Jonathan Stark.
Directed by Tom Holland.

Fright Night quickly became a horror film classic, winning quite a number of awards in the mid-80s. It was written and directed by Tom Holland. Holland had written quite a number of horror screenplays and continued to do so over several decades. He directed several films, also in the horror vein. They included the initial Child’s Play as well as some versions of Stephen King novels, The Langoliers and Thinner.

The film has Chris Sarandon, surely one of the most suitable actors in Hollywood to portray a vampire. William Ragsdale portrays a young movie fan, an expert in horror films who becomes convinced that his next-door neighbours are a vampire and his carer. The only person he can think of to exorcise the house is the host of the horror movie show on television, a decrepit old actor played by Roddy Mc Dowell. The Ragsdale character and Roddy Mc Dowell’s character were to reappear in Fright Night Part 2 directed by Tommy Lee Wallace.

The film is wittily written, capitalises on audience familiarity with the conventions of the genre, also capitalises on Chris Sarandon’s menacing and suave screen presence and dramatisation of evil as well as the comic style of Roddy Mc Dowell.

1.An enjoyable horror film? Its use of the genre and its conventions? Relying on audience familiarity with them? A vampire in modern-day America?

2.The settings – the contrast between real life and the television studios? The city, the houses and streets, the nightclubs? The world of television and television movies?

3.The atmosphere, tongue-in-cheek? Suggesting horror? Jerry as the vampire, the violence, the work of the vampire killer and the deaths? The transformation? Billy and the ooze, the struggle with the wolf, the house, the Living Dead? The effects and the lighting? Pace?

4.The blend of the serious and the humorous, nightmare? The song?

5.The opening, Charlie and Amy, expectations, the kids and sex, the television program, the coffin with Peter Vincent, the experience – and it all coming together at the end?

6.Charlie and his personality, his love of horror stories, watching the horror films? Amy and her huff? The mother? Ed? And his nickname of Evil? The coffin, the girl? Seeing Jerry, hiding in the bushes? Jerry’s home visit? At night, the terror? The police and Billy? Amy, Ed and their help? Peter Vincent at the studio, proving that Jerry was a vampire, the visit, fear, pursuit, the disco? The attack? Billy’s death? Jerry and Amy, the crypt, the seduction, the light? The credibility of all these goings-on?

7.Amy, the year, sex, anger, hurt, the visit of Peter Vincent? The five hundred dollars? The disco, Jerry, the seduction, bitten, her becoming a sex object? The end?

8.Ed and his being picked on, laughter, experience, cornered, luring Jerry, the cross, the struggle with the wolf?

9.Jerry as a vampire, the modern style vampire, the contemporary house? the dark, the sense of menace, Billy? Deaths, the visit and the threats? The inner ugliness, the crypt, the holy water, the pursuit, the seduction of Amy, clash and death? Billy as the henchman? His death?

10.Roddy Mc Dowell’s tour-de-force as Peter Vincent, television, the satire? Washed up, sacked? His fear, the five hundred dollars? The visit and the water, the mirror? His decision? Billy’s death? The cross and the wolf? Head, his techniques?

11.The supporting characters, Charlie’s mother, the neighbours, at the television station, in the club?

12.A satisfying variation on the vampire themes?

FORCED MARCH

US, 1989, 104 minutes, Colour.
Chris Sarandon, Renee Soutendijk, Josef Sommer, John Seitz, Rosalind Cash, Viveca Lindfors.
Directed by Rick King.

Forced March is an attempt to deal with the Hungarian Jews, their imprisonment in the concentration camps and their treatment, forty-five years after the event. Rick King (who has had a slight film career and television career as writer and director) imagines a group going to Hungary to make a film about the Holocaust. While there are re-enactments of the scenes for the actual film, there are counterpoints with the behaviour of the actual cast and crew.

Chris Sarandon is a star who is forced on the director to play the Hungarian poet at the centre of the film. John Seitz is the arrogant director. With the interactions between the two, the contrast between the Hungary of the past and the present, the behaviour of the Germans in the past and the German tourists in the 1980s, points are made about human nature as well as about the war and the Holocaust.

1.The impact of the film? For audiences in the 1980s? Now? The Holocaust themes? The film working at different levels?

2.The American and Hungarian settings? The contrast between the 40s and 80s? The re-creation of the 40s?

3.The structure of the film, audience attention, editing? The shifts of attention?

4.The title, the build-up to the march? The effect on Ben Kline and the audience?

5.The personality of Ben as a star, the Derringer TV series, his style, career, possibilities? His personal relationships, especially with his father? His memories? His not knowing the fate of his mother?

6.The deal with the film company, going to Hungary? The death scenes? His meeting Myra? The director, the effect? Hungary in the 1980s, the end of the communist era? The studios, the hotels, nightclubs for tourists, the garish style? Budapest, the Danube and its beauty?

7.Ben’s role, Miklos Radnoti? The poet, the patriot, his life and meaning? Ben’s attempts to understand him – using method techniques to understand him, the article about method for madness? His wife and memories, the poems, the guide and the professor? The director and his dislike of Ben’s performance and the criticisms?

8.The re-enactments, Paris, the return, his wife, love, creativity? The war, the detail of the work camps, the gaunt prisoners, the issues in the camp? The quarries?

9.Leaving, the advice, his friends? The arrival, the camp and the treatment? The different cases? The black market and the book? The quarry, the self-injuries and deaths? The guards and their relationship with the prisoners? Talk, play, poetry? The tightening of control? War’s end, the moving, the firing of the camp, the groups getting ready for the forced march?

10.Ben and his relationship with Myra, sharing with her, the affair, discussions, leaving? George and his help? Staying at the camp, the set and its effect? His being gaunt, living the role, gradual understanding, the poetry?

11.Ben’s father, his worries? The walk, the photography? The explanation of his not being a Jew? The survival? Things not being okay but coming to terms?

12.Hungary and the Jews, the prejudice, the soldiers, the inevitable resentment, the hangings, the attack against fascism?

13.The personality of the director, his intensity, his attitudes towards Ben? The hanging sequence and redoing it? The executions, the squads, his demands on the actors being prisoners and to show fear at death?

14.The audience focusing on Ben, the shifts of attention between himself and his performance?

15.The march, safe or not, passing through the villages, weariness, the prejudices, Hungarian reaction, the Nazis? The wagon, deaths, the digging of the graves and the burials?

16.The poem, floating, the effect on everyone? A film evoking memories and understanding?

52 PICK UP

US, 1986, 110 minutes, Colour.
Roy Scheider, Ann- Margret, Vanity, John Glover, Robert Trebor, Lonnie Chapman, Kelly Preston, Doug Mc Clure, Clarence Williams III, Herschel Savage, Ron Jeremy.
Directed by John Frankenheimer.

52 Pick Up is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. Leonard is probably one of the main writers of top pulp fiction. He has been providing stories for films since the 1950s and moved into screenwriting himself. Some of his early stories include 3.10 to Yuma and Hombre. He began writing screenplays in the 1970s for Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd and Charles Bronson in Mr Majestyk?.

His novel, 52 Pick Up, was used as the basis for the 1984 film The Ambassador with Robert Mitchum, Ellen Burstyn and Rock Hudson. It was transferred from the sleazy world of Los Angeles to the political world of Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians, Robert Mitchum playing the ambassador and Ellen Burstyn his unfaithful wife. 52 Pick Up returns to the original location featuring Ann- Margret as a political candidate and Roy Scheider as her unfaithful husband.

Ann- Margret has a strong role in this film as does the model Vanity. John Glover is, as so often, a sinister villain. Kelly Preston has a small role in a pornographic context – and the pornographic director and actor, Herschel Savage and Ron Jeremy appear in party scenes.

John Frankenheimer started a career in cinema in the late 50s with a range of strong films after his work in live television. He was celebrated during the 1960s with such films as Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train. He then moved to directing rather big and spectacular films like Grand Prix. By the mid-‘70s he directed French Connection II and then Black Sunday. The subsequent twenty-five years of his career were very mixed indeed with some interesting films like the telemovie The Burning Season and some terrible films like the remake of The Island of Doctor Moreau.

1.This Los Angeles world, seedy and sleazy, tough and violent? Audience interest in immersing themselves in this kind of world?

2.The writing of Elmore Leonard, his skills, characters, sleazy situations, violence and crime? The work of John Frankenheimer and his interpretation of Leonard?

3.The film’s structure as a thriller: Harry and his life, his work, his lies, the seats? His relationship with Barbara? His relationship with Cynthia and the trap? His being caught, the threat to his wife’s politics, their discovery, the blackmailers, his turning the tables, cross-action, outsmarting the villains? His achievement by the end?

4.Roy Scheider as Harry, in himself, impressions on the audience, on people? Wealth, the factory, the trucks, the work? Barbara and his deceiving her? The relationship with Cynthia, the irony of being caught? The blackmailers and his reaction, the video, the issues of money? His consulting, telling Barbara and her response? Playing the game but not paying? The murder video and its effect? His being framed? Going to the photographer, going to Doreen, the interrogation? Leo? Finding Raimy and confronting him in the projection room? Consulting about the books and the money? Setting Leo against Raimy? Barbara being kidnapped? Persuading Leo, the final set-up, the clash with Raimy, the explosion? His character, values and lack of values, behaviour, expectations? Interaction with friends? Money? The effect of this experience on him and his wife? His anger, turning the tables? Achievement by violence?

5.Ann-Margret as Barbara, professional, her love for her husband, her campaign, decisions, distancing Harry? His telling her the truth, the pain? Her decisions, the separation? Encountering Raimy, the truth, her making her own decisions? Fear, the intrusion, the kidnapping, her being drugged? The achievement at the end?

6.Raimy as villain, masked and cynical, the video, the party and the porn camera, murder, the theatre, games with Harry? The books, the room and his treatment of Leo and Bobby? His past? Mad and cruel, clashing with Leo, inciting Bobby, the plan for Harry? To kill Barbara and win – and the ending and the car and explosion?

7.Bobby and his role, Doreen? The smothering? Leo and the killing? Raimy and the gun, the incitement, in Harry’s home? The persuasion and his being shot?

8.Leo, his role, work, friendship, sweating? Fear and greed, betrayal? Harry’s visit, giving evidence, going to leave, dying?

9.Doreen, the girls, the models, the parties, pornography, the types at the party, society, the men and the prostitutes, the set-ups and the blackmail? Cynthia, her life, the party, the affair, collapse, her death?

10.The impact of the murder video?

11.The role of the law, justice? Advice to Harry, his deciding on his own justice and violence?

12.A glimpse of a particular aspect of Los Angeles society – and this moral and amoral world?

FLUTEMAN

Australia, 1982, 84 minutes, Colour.
John Jarratt, Debra Lawrance, Patrick Dickson, John Ewart, Michael Caton, Peter Gwynne, Sheila Kennelly, Emil Minty, Aileen Britton.
Directed by Peter Maxwell.

Fluteman is one of several films made by Brendon Lunny’s company for a children’s audience in the early 1980s. Another example was Run Rebecca Run.

This is a variation on the Pied Piper theme. A rainmaker comes to a town, the people don’t pay him for his services and he then gathers up the children to take them away. The film has an outback Australian setting, an authentic atmosphere – and has an appeal for children’s and family audiences.

1.A successful children’s film? Story, characters and dialogue, for young audiences? Interest, entertainment? Moralising?

2.The brevity of the film, colour photography, locations? Audiences identifying with the characters? Children with the children?

3.The title, expectations – fulfilled? The tone and the character, the Pied Piper variation? Audiences knowing the story of the Pied Piper and able to apply the story? The Australian setting, clothes, the parallel? The identity of the rainmaker?

4.The town, its name, the countryside, the landscapes, the drought, houses and school? The attention to detail?

5.The situation, the rain, the mayor, the leaders of the townspeople, hiring the rainman? Their refusal to pay him?

6.The focus on the children, the small group, at school, their homes, at play, their delight? The council meeting, the children’s needs? Believing the fluteman? The children delighted, following him? Their reappearance and the happy ending?

7.The fluteman, his appearance, age? Eccentric and different? The music and its effect? In the town, the work, the houses? People’s comments? The class and its delight? The pledge, the reactions the promises? The reporters? The rituals, the rain coming, the townspeople’s reaction? The threat, the threat to the children? Returning, the house, seeming selfish? Returning the children? Saving them? His departure and farewell? The poem? His good deed?

8.A Pied Piper story for an Australian audience?

THE FRUIT MACHINE

UK, 1988, 103 minutes, Colour.
Emile Charles, Tony Forsyth, Robert Stephens, Clare Higgins, Bruce Payne, Robbie Coltrane, Carsten Norgaard.
Directed by Philip Saville.

The Fruit Machine is the name of a gay club. This film focuses on two teenagers, friends, who witness a murder at the club. The film shows the development of each character, their interdependence, the dangers as they are on the run.

The lead actors had little experience in performance before this film. However, in the background are quite a number of classical British actors including Robert Stephens, Clare Higgins, Robbie Coltrane.

The film was directed by Philip Saville who had a long career in writing and directing from 1960. During the 1960s he made such films as Oedipus the King, The Best House in London. He was still making films at the beginning of the 21st century including the Canadian Gospel of John which utilised the whole text of the gospel with the voice-over by Christopher Plummer.

1.Interesting comedy, drama, thriller? People on the fringe?

2.Britain in the 1980s, London and the suburbs, the clubs? Brighton? Different facets of society?

3.Friendship and bonds, homosexual friendship, love? Mutual dependence, protection? Exploitation? The young men on the fringe? Their sensibilities?

4.How authentic the atmosphere? Reality and fantasy? A movie? Eddie and Michael, the mimicry, the memories? The pursuit – and the discovering of the dolphins, the transition to the concern about the dolphins, dreams and Turtle Diary?

5.Eddie and his background, his mother and her stories, father, taunts, his sensitivity? Friendship with Mick? Knowing himself, accepting himself? His fey manner, yet nice? Mick as a rent-boy? The bonds? The club?

6.Running away? The record, the star? Vincent and Eve? Gatecrashing? Alien yet charming? Michael stealing and Eve holding him? Vincent and Eddie and their discussions?

7.Mick and Eve, Mick and Vincent, the lies? Eddie making the enquiries? Mick and his brutality?

8.Eve and the walk, the dolphins? The campaigner, the beach? The show and the reactions? Visiting the dolphins – and the dream?

9.Annabel and the club, Robbie Coltrane and his style? The strip joint, age, permit, business, the killer?

10.The killer, the brutality, the toys, the pursuit, the attack? Eddie, the dolphins and death?

11.Eddie and his dying, the dream, Mick freeing the dolphins before his death?

12.A blend of realism and symbolism?

IL CRISTO PROIBITO (THE FORBIDDEN CHRIST)

Italy, 1950, 99 minutes, Black and white.
Raf Vallone, Rina Morelli, Alain Cuny, Gino Cervi.
Directed by Curzio Malaparte.

Il Cristo Proibito is a significant religious film as can be gauged by its title. It was written and directed by Curzio Malaparte, his only film. He was better known as a novelist and writer, dying in 1957.

This film was awarded a special prize of the city of Berlin at the festival in 1951. It is interesting in its memory of World War Two.

The film focuses on a soldier returning from a way. He is played by Raf Vallone (who appeared in many Italian films during the 50s including Bitter Rice and became an international star with such films as The Cardinal and The Godfather III). The soldier is intent on revenge against the man who betrayed his brother and caused his death. When he returns to the village, he finds a strange character, Antonio, who is willing to be the sacrifice instead of the guilty man. He is portrayed by Alain Cuny (Fellini’s Satyricon and other French and Italian films).

The film is a story about redemption, set in the context of the Italian experience of World War Two and its aftermath. It is very strong on a theology of redemption and expiation.

Malaparte also composed the musical score for the film.

1.The impact of the film in its time? Italy in the 1950s? The immediate aftermath of the war? War memories? Style and themes, styles of film-making? The impact now?

2.The work of Curzio Malaparte: journalist, screenwriter, director? His personal allegiances? Italy and Christianity?

3.The black and white photography, the detail of the village itself, the neo-realism and atmosphere, the musical arrangements – and the compositions by the director?

4.The film taken as a realistic drama? How credible? Insight and message? The film taken as an allegory? The title indicating allegory?

5.Raf Vallone as Bruno? His life in the village, relationship with his mother? His going to the war, the war experience, the return, prison? His discovering the village again? Jules, his death? The betrayal to the Nazis? The behaviour of the Nazi force? The effect on Bruno, the powerful motivation, consumed by revenge? His reactions, the detail of the walk, watching, asking questions? With his mother at home? Silence? Maria and Nella? Antonio and his place in the village, Bruno’s friendship with him, the relationship? Antonio and the confession, his death? The achievement of vengeance? The truth and its effect? The contribution of Bruno’s mother? Pinin and his contribution? The encounter? Impotence? The final effect, Bruno prostrate, asking why? Bruno as a character, his experience? As a symbol – of post-war Italy?

6.The detail of life in the village, the experience of the war, the occupation, the bloodshed, the betrayal, secrets and the keeping of secrets and the consequences?

7.Bruno’s mother, her having to cope, her own secrets, her finally revealing them?

8.Maria and Bruno, Jules, the secret, coping? The difference with Nella? The handing over to the Nazis? Pinin?

9.Pinin in the village, shadow, secret, guilt, hiding? Confrontation, fear? Death?

10.Antonio as the forbidden Christ, simple, a friend, a carpenter? His secret? The effect on Bruno? The confession and the murder? Martyrdom? His motivation and the consequences? Final veneration?

11.The film as poetic? The blend of realism with the poetic, the buildings and the streets, the grape festival, the butchers’ heads, the masks? The symbolism of the Festival of the Cross? The crypts? The gallery?

12.The overall impact of the film as presenting World War Two but with Catholic and religious symbolism?

FOOTROT FLATS: THE DOG’S ---TAIL--- TALE

New Zealand/Australia, 1987, 71 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: John Clarke, Peter Rowley, Rawiri Paratene, Fiona Samuel, Peter Haydon, Marshall Napier.
Directed by Murray Ball.

Footrot Flats and its characters are a byword in New Zealand. Whether they have travelled much further than the Southern Hemisphere is open to question. However, this animated film version was welcomed in New Zealand and won a number of awards for 1987.

Murray Ball, the creator of the comic strip on which the film was based, wrote the screenplay and directed the film as well. He was able to get a number of very strong New Zealand voices for his characters, especially John Clarke for Wal, Peter Rowley for Dog.

The film brings the characters alive, the focus on the Dog, his friendship with Jess and his trying to start a family as well as trying to keep Wal and Cheeky, his girlfriend, apart. There is also some philosophising in the background, the meaning of life, as well as how to deal with the human menaces in the Dog’s life.

The film is episodic and shows Wal and his trying to get the affections of Cheeky and the rivalry from Spit Murphy. Dog, of course, is trying to win the affections of Jess. Local colour is given with Wal trying to make a good impression with the All Blacks selectors at one of the rugby matches on the weekend. Rangi and Pongo also have to save Wal’s prize stag from the Blackwater Station where the Murphys live – with their vicious dogs and deadly croco-pigs. These are all part of the life of the small town of Raupo which is the scene for the comic strips.

Audiences will enjoy the New Zealand aspects of the film – but it has the capacity, with its humorous mixture of stories of humans and dogs as well as philosophy, of bringing enjoyment on a universal scale.

1.The impact of the comic over many years in New Zealand. The popular comic strip? The particularly New Zealand character, tones, backgrounds?

2.The style of the layout, the characters, bringing the characters to life? The skill in the voices? The musical score?

3.New Zealand, the town of Raupo, a sense of place?

4.The farms, out in the countryside, the farmers? The helicopter, disasters? Socials in the town? Football matches?

5.The creation of animals and their life with people?

6.The farmer and his story, a New Zealander, his voice, life and work, the property, the Dog, the shearing of the sheep, the weekend football match, the girlfriend, the helicopters, the disaster, the football?

7.The range of people, the types, on the farm, the shearing etc?

8.The Copter family, their mania? The Murphy family?

9.The kids, their help, play, Rangi? Work? The football selector?

10.The dangers, the flood, the sheep and the cattle? Stranded and rescued?

11.The various dogs, Dog and his friends? Dog’s story? His going away, the river, the rats?

12.The sheep and the shearing?

13.The humorous detail of incidents, comic strips coming alive?

SHANGHAI NOON

US, 2000, 110 minutes, Colour.
Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu, Brandon Merrill, Roger Yuan, Xander Berkley, Jason Connery.
Directed by Tom Dey.

Shanghai Noon proved to be a very popular film for Jackie Chan. After many decades of entertaining people with all kinds of action adventures, he reached international and American popularity with his two Rush Hour films. Shanghai Noon and its sequel Shanghai Nights are even better than the Rush Hour films. Part of this is his teaming with Owen Wilson with his rather laidback, ambitious yet failure to achieve kind of personality. They work very well together.

The title is a pun on a Chinese High Noon. Jackie Chan’s name is Chon Wang and a lot of jokes are made about John Wayne as a name for somebody in the west as later there are jokes about Wyatt Earp. There are also jokes about Lee van Cleef with the sheriff being Nathan van Cleef.

Jackie Chan, while getting older, still has an ebullient sense of humour his choreographs very interesting fights. Owen Wilson at this time was emerging as a star performer in Ally Mc Beal and was to move into serious films as well as becoming one of Charlie’s Angels. The villain at the beginning is Sean Connery’s son, Jason Connery.

The director is Tom Dey who made the Eddie Murphy- Robert de Niro spoof Showtime and the very successful romance with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Mc Conaghy, Failure to Launch.

The film opens with some spectacular scenes in China, makes a transition to the Wild West, takes us into the world of the Indians (with some laconic rather modern subtitles for Indian comments), to the saloons of Carson City, to gunfighters and train robberies, to the Chinese working on the railroads, to a big confrontation in a church. Most audiences will find it quite enjoyable – and those who like Jackie Chan’s martial arts work will be more than satisfied.

1.A popular entertainment? Action adventure? The comic touches?

2.The opening in China, the spectacle of the Forbidden City, the rituals? The transition to the west, the railroads, Carson City, the Indians? An authentic atmosphere of the west – with the touch of parody? The musical score?

3.The basic situation, Princess Pei Pei and the marriage plans, the commands of her father? Her being abducted? Taken to the west, the renegade Chinese, his gang? His command over the railroads and the Chinese workers? His wanting to use the princess?

4.Jackie Chan as Chon Wang, his work as a servant in the palace, his loyalty and obedience? His martial arts skills? His uncle, going to America in the team? On the train, with the gold, the robbery, the death? Chon Wang and his fighting on the roof of the train, separating the carriage with Roy on it, falling off the train? His wandering, finding Roy in the desert buried, giving him the chopsticks to get out? His trying to get to Carson City, the encounter with the Indians, his rescuing the chief’s son, the fight with the axes? His being welcomed by the Indians – finding him strange, his night with the chief’s daughter, their being glad that he was not a white man? His going to the town, to search for the princess? The sheriff and the bar, the fight, finding Roy again? Their fighting together, their being put in jail? Their annoying each other, the urinating on the cloth, bending the bars, getting out of the jail – with the help of the Indian chief’s daughter? The pursuit by the sheriff, the pursuit by the other bandits? The bonds with Roy, their becoming partners? Roy training him with the gun and other aspects of the west? The build-up to the finale, the confrontation with Lo Fong, Nathan Van Cleef and his pursuit? Everybody in the church – the choreography of all the fighting in the church, the bell? The final shoot-outs, the happy ending – the princess, staying in America, Roy and the Indian woman?

5.Roy, Owen Wilson’s comic style, laconic drawl, self-inflation? The robber, the gang on the train, Wallace and his mad approach? The fight with Chon, his ridiculing his name? Being buried in the desert, the chopsticks and getting out, gambling, teaming up with Chon after their fight, the prison sequence, the escape, his training Chon, the pursuit by the sheriff, the confrontation in the church? The two working together, allies?

6.Princess Pei Pei, in China in the west, being rescued, her ability to fight, the confrontation with Lo Fong? Happy to stay in America?

7.Lo Fong, his killing of Calvin Andrews after Andrews abducting the princess? The Chinese working on the railroads? The confrontation with Chon, his defeat?

8.The sheriff, his name, tough, pursuing the fugitives, his deceiving Roy with the bullets in the gun, Roy killing him with one bullet?

9.Wallace and the other members of the gang? Manic? Final confrontation?

10.The popular western ingredients and their being used to entertain as well as the satire and parody to amuse?

FORBIDDEN

US/UK, 1984, 114 minutes, Colour.
Jacqueline Bisset, Jurgen Prochnow, Irene Worth, Peter Vaughan, Avis Bunnage.
Directed by Anthony Page.

Forbidden is based on Leonard Glass's ‘The Last Jews in Berlin'. It highlights two characters at the outbreak of World War Two: Countess Nina von Halder, played by Jacqueline Bissett, a veterinary student who falls in love with a writer-poet, Fritz Friedlander, played by Jurgen Prochnow. She is now critical of Hitler and the Nazis. He is a well-to-do Jewish German who has chosen not to leave Berlin. The film is reminiscent of the romances of yesteryear. While documentary and news footage is inserted, the action is people-centred, the ordinary lives of people in Berlin (much as we are used to seeing films about ordinary people during the war years in London. The film works on an emotional level, the sensitive treatment of the love of Nina and Fritz, the activity of the Underground helping Jews, the continual tension with Gestapo agents and Jew-catchers. Filmed on location in Germany, the supporting cast includes Irene Worth and Peter Vaughan.

1.A strong drama? For the television audience? For an 80s audience? Now? The value of going back into the World War Two past? Jewish-German? issues?

2.The German and Berlin settings, the re-creation of period, detail and atmosphere? The use of newsreel – and moving into colour? The audience being immersed in Berlin and its way of life? The Tangerine Dream score?

3.The title, provocative, as regards the presence of the Jews in Germany, the attitude of the Gestapo and the Nazis, of the law? Moral issues? The book and the last Jews?

4.The introduction to Germany, Hitler and his achievement, the waging of the war, the presentation of the war in the media? Questions? The Gestapo and its ability to spy? Gathering information, passing it on to authorities? The Jews, the people setting out to catch Jews? Youth and the bashings? The Gestapo searches, even continuing as defeat was looming?

5.The Jews in Germany, their status in 1938, persecution, people leaving? Those deciding to stay? Ruth and her husband? The judge, Berlin, the French magazine? The growing violence? The Swedish and their helping, the underground? Hiding Jews, the techniques? Those caught? The Jew-catchers? Max and his being sentenced to forced labour? The jokes, the drinking? The religious aspects? Death, song – and wanting to save people?

6.Jacqueline Bisset as Nina, her background, way of life, studies?

7.Fritz, the fruit, the party, the meeting, the affair, Ruth, the villa, danger? Pregnancy and hiding? His farewell? The rules – the sofa, oppression, exercise? Bertha? The farewell to the mother? Hospital – and the coffin? Growing tension, secrets, clashes? The day out and the catcher? The train, staying, the failure to find him in the sofa? Death? The religious dimension?

8.Ruth, her style? Bertha, the reasons, the decisions, farewell and death?

9.The picture of the SS, the Gestapo personalities, the interviews and the nature of the interviews? The searches?

10.Erika, the arrest, homosexuality? Father, in hospital?

11.Mrs Schmidt, the cleaning, snooping?

12.The church and the underground, the help from the Swedish, hiding the Jews? The influence of Dietrich Bonhoffer?

13.The Russians, their motivations, behaviour?

14.Nina, the war years, her helping the Jews, her cover, her own personal life, relationships? The effect of this experience on her?