CRIMEBROKER

Australia, 1993, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jacqueline Bisset, Massaya Kato, John Bach, Gary Day.
Directed by Ian Barry.

Crime Broker is a glossy thriller, set in Sydney, with local cast and an international star, Jacqueline Bissett. She portrays a magistrate, bored with her life,
giving advice for security van robberies. Gary Sweet is her accomplice. John Bach appears as her husband and Gary Day is the local investigator. Victoria Longley has a supporting role as a police woman. The film is an international co-production including Japanese money, hence the Japanese star - as the psychotic killer.

The film is quite smoothly made, designed for easy watching - and, one hopes, far fetched in its plot.

1. Entertaining police and crime thriller, the magistrate’s criminal contacts, investigation, international contacts? The plausibility of the plot? Resolution -
and morality?

2. The title, the focus on the judge, her work, interventions, cover-ups, going to action in the robbery?

3. The Sydney settings, city, offices, courts, banks? Musical Score?

4. Jacqueline Bissett and her work as a magistrate? Her performance in court? Her relationship with her husband? At home, love, comfortable arrangements? Her step-daughter and discussions and advice? Her contact with Blair, her disguise and routine, going to visit him, discussions? Her meticulous plans? Her collecting of the money? Surveillance and supervision? Her relationship with Goodwin, memories of the past relationship, not marrying him? His attentions, investigation? The Japanese expert, her having to entertain him? Taking him home? His advances? His pursuit of her,
the photo in the van? His plans, the affair, involving her? The robbery and the killing? His hold over her and her response? The art gallery anal the sexual en
counter? Her finally realizing his criminal mentality and madness? Her plan to trap him? The gallery and the robbery? The irony of his sending the tape and in
formation to Goodwin? The final confrontation with Goodwin and leaving it to him to make the decision and do what is right?

5. Dr. Okazaki? Young, arrival? Criminology expert? The attention of the police? The meeting with Goodwin and the clash? His observation of the robberies? The meeting with the magistrate? His attention, sexual advances? Discovery of the photo, the truth? His hold over her? The planning of the robbery, its execution, his ruthlessness and killing? The discovery of the truth about him? Serial killer, the murder of Blair, the discussions with Jill anal his killing her? The confrontation with the magistrate, the buying of the railway ticket? The robbery, the fight and his death? His revenge on the magistrate?

6. Frank, style at home, relationship with his wife, daughter? The art world? The Japanese guest? At the opening and the appeal for money? His clash with his wife over her affair?

7. Goodwin, police work, tough, the investigations? Friendship with the magistrate? The Japanese visitor? The truth? The final confrontation?

8. The police and their investigation? The nature of the robberies? Meticulous planning and timing? The deaths? Jill and her investigation - her discovering the Japanese in the picture, her death? His burying them in the abandoned warehouse and the magistrates discovering the bodies?

9. Variation on police thrillers and investigations? Security Van Robberies? The amorality of the magistrate, her being bored with her work, using her knowledge of the criminal mentality? The robberies as a hobby? Her involvement with the Japanese - the irony of criminology, the murder of the expert and the madman assuming his identity?

RICH AND FAMOUS

US, 1981, 117 minutes, Colour.
Jacqueline Bissett, Candace Bergin, Michael Brandon, David Selby, Hart Bochner, Steven Hill, Meg Ryan, Matt Lattanzi.
Directed by George Cukor.

Rich and Famous received, the tag 'Rich and Fatuous' from many viewers. This does seem to sum up this glossy soap opera. It has been adapted by Gerald Ayres (writer of Foxes) from John Van Druten’s Old Acquaintance which was filmed by Vincent Sherman in the forties as a vehicle for Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins . It was an enjoyable forties melodrama . The screenplay has been up-dated and very much modernised in the frank sex scenes, swearing style.

The film traces the up and down friendship of two women over twenty years. They are both writers and image the changes of life-style in the United States from 1959 to the early 80's. The leading actresses looked the part and Candice Bergen gives a good performance reminiscent of her Oscar-nominated role in Starting Over.

However, the film becomes a more and more unreal, contrived and self-conscious. There is a great deal of self-conscious and pretentious dialogue. This is a pity as the film was directed by veteran George Cukor, who directed so many elegant dramas and comedies from the early 30's and winning an Oscar for My Fair Lady in 1964.

1. . Impact as the film as glossy soap-opera ? A film of the eighties? How successful?

2. Lavish production values, set, period, decor, costumes ? The director, the stars,
musical score?

3. The film's origins in a thirties play, forties melodrama? star vehicle updated
and 'modern’? Credible, persuasive?

4. The twenty years time span of the screen-play: the reflection of the times, changing American attitudes, the growth of the two women? Their striving for success
and being rich and famous ?

5. Themes of friendship, strengths and weaknesses, ups and downs, fights, concessions? The women’s point of view, of growth, friendship, career, success, love and needs, desperation, hopes? How much insights in the film ?

1.The portrait of Liz - in 1959 and her study success, the transition to her reputation in 1969, a literary novelist, her visit to California and her highbrow attitudes and talk, the contrast with Merry and Doug? The flight back to New York , sex comedy with Michael Brandon in the aircraft toilet? His comeuppance at the airport? Her taking Merry's soap-opera novel to the publisher? The change in 1975? Liz's continued success and reputation, the small output ? Merry’s change and its affect on Liz? Doug. and his love for Liz over the years, the proposal in the park, her rejection of him ? Merry's carrying on? Liz's reputation by 1981 – on the panel for literary awards, worrying about Debbie, putting up with Merry’s tantrums, the picking up the gigolo and the sexual encounter, the meeting with Chris and the sexual encounter, the meetings for the interview, the beginning of the affair, the lyrical New England scenes, the proposal of marriage?
The quarrel with Merry about the awards? The final reconciliation?

7. The portrait of Merry: the young heiress eloping in the late fifties, the late sixties house in Malibu, the Hollywood atmosphere and its artificiality, Merry as housewife? Doug's work, children? Her writing her novel in her spare time and asking Liz to promote it? 1975 and her success, wealth, change in style and personality, her screen personality on the talk shows and her trying to watch them , her enjoying the glamour? The clash with Doug and his walking out on her? Debbie and her growing up? 1981 and her brittle attitudes towards life, glamour, wealth, clashes with Liz? Wanting the prize? The big fight about the prize and the telling of truths about their friendship? reconciliation?

8. The truth told in friendship, the desperate fight at the reconciliation? The. mutual dependence for success and reputation? The rivalry and the friendship? The true love?

9. The picture of men in the film - Doug, and his stereotype of the successful husband, philanderer, leaving his wife, proposing to Liz, meeting Merry again and re-marrying? The gigolo and the sensual sexual encounter? Chris and his poise, interviews, the younger man with the older woman, the strengths of the love, the difference of age? The marriage proposal and Liz's inability to accept it? Jules Levi and the professional world of publishing?

10. American glamour and people being rich and famous? The American dream, the glossy lifestyle? How much depth, values?

11. The pretentious tone of the film - the number of celebrities filmed at the various parties, the quoting of literature and poetry, prizes? The epithet ‘Rich and Fatuous’ - and the film's deserving this?

GUNSMOKE

US, 1953, 79 minutes, Colour.
Audie Murphy, Susan Cabot, Paul Kelly, Charles Drake, Mary Castle, Jack Kelly, Jesse White.
Directed by Nathan Juran.

Gunsmoke could be called the archetypal range western. It has the familiar characters, the situations, the confrontations that were the formula for many westerns.

Audie Murphy, who had emerged in the early 1950s as an action star, especially in westerns, plays a young man who has been a hired gun. Charles Drake is his partner. They part and Audie Murphy’s character wants to ranch. However, he encounters a rancher played by Paul Kelly who is the target of a wealthy landowner. The wealthy man wants to sabotage the cattle drive so that it does not reach the railhead where it would supply meat for the workers and so prevent the railroad intruding into his territory. Obviously, the rancher has an attractive daughter who clashes with the young man but eventually falls in love with him. There is also the dancer and singer at the saloon who is a femme fatale.

The film is sufficiently confident in itself to treat all this material as if it were new and so create a good standard western that has stood the test of time.

Director Nathan Juran was an architect who became an art director and won an Oscar for How Green Was My Valley. He started directing action films in the early 1950s.

1.The title? Expectations? Fulfilment?

2.An archetypal western? Characters, situations, the range? The confrontations? Romance? Justice? Revenge?

3.The locations, authentic? Montana territory? The ranches, the towns and saloons? The cattle-droving? The musical score?

4.Reb and Johnny, as gunmen, on the range? Deciding to change? The parting of the ways? Curly and his attempt at shooting Reb? Reb arriving in town? His job with Telford? His taking his time?

5.Losing his horse, the stagecoach, the encounter with Rita? Her hostility? Her father, his situation? The meeting with Reb, the card game, Reb winning the ranch? Rita and her hostility? Telford and his making an offer? Cora and her influence?

6.Telford, the wealthy landowner, wanting to get all the land? Sabotaging Saxon? Trying to stop the railroad? The influence of Cora?

7.Cora, songs and dances, the past love for Reb? Advising Telford to get Johnny? The set-up?

8.Reb, the ranch, Saxon and his help? The mortgage? No money? Curly and the others staying on? The plans for the cattle drive? In action, the difficulties, Reb urging them on? Curly’s dissatisfaction? Leaving, going to Telford? The cook and his problems? The attack by Telford’s men? Going over the mountain? The difficulty of the wagon going down? Rita driving? Curly and his jealousy? The going into the canyon, the pretence of the bodies around the fire, the shootout?

9.The success of the cattle drive? Reb getting the money? Saxon being injured? His working with Reb? Reb going into town, the confrontation with Telford, with Johnny, Johnny shooting Telford? The happy ending?

10.Why are these straightforward westerns of the 1950s not stuck in their own time but still interesting?

A BUCKET OF BLOOD

US, 1959, 66 minutes, Black and white.
Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone, Julian Burton, Bert Convy.
Directed by Roger Corman.

A Bucket of Blood is essential viewing for anyone interested in the history of B-budget American film-making. Roger Corman emerged in the 1950s as a master of this kind of film, with a whole range of genres, films made often in five days, as this one was. The next year he made the original Little Shop of Horrors. He went slightly more upmarket during the 1960s with a series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, especially with Vincent Price. During the 1970s he made some much more ‘respectable films’ including The Red Baron. Corman was a strong producer, introducing many talents like Francis Ford Coppola and Jonathan Demme to film-making.

Dick Miller, who stars in this film, was a regular in Corman’s films as well as those made by his protégés.

The film was remade in colour and at greater length in 1995 with Anthony Michael Hall and Justine Bateman in the central roles.

1.The work of Roger Corman? Small budget, in a hurry? Yet defining aspects of the genres that he worked in?

2.The black and white photography, basic? The musical score?

3.The sensationalist title – any relevance to what actually happens on screen?

4.The credibility of the plot? The beatnik café, the inhabitants of the café and their art, pretensions? The world of art and the comments on art? The busboy, his sculptures – and the ironic responses to his works of art?

5.The club, Maxwell and his utterances? Leonard and his running of the club? Carla and her relationship with Leonard, her love for artists? The other members of the club – especially the soldier dressed in Civil war garb …?

6.Walter Paisley, Dick Miller’s screen presence, the busboy, feeling neglected, living alone, harassed by his landlady? Infatuated with Carla? Jealous of the artists? Looked down on? Going home, wanting to sculpt, his frustration? The cat, its death, making the sculpture? The response of everybody at the club? A work of art? The police coming and accusing him of having drugs, his having accepted them from the woman, being innocent, murdering the agent? Making a sculpture? The response? The girl, killing her, another sculpture? Leonard and his patronage, Carla and her admiration? His going to the factory and killing the worker? Another sculpture? The build-up to the exhibition? Everybody praising him? His declaration of love for Carla, her rejection of him? His pursuing her? The statues and the plaster coming free, the discovery of the truth?

7.The characters, the range of people at the club? Corman’s irony with them? Their pursuit of Walter, finding him hanged? The comment on the work of art?

THE CORPSE VANISHES

US, 1942, 64 minutes, Black and white.
Bela Lugosi, Luana Walters, Tristram Coffin, Elizabeth Russell, Minerva Urecal.
Directed by Wallace Fox.

The Corpse Vanishes is a below B-grade programmer. However, it is an opportunity to see Bela Lugosi. This time he plays a count (what else) with a countess who is ageing – which necessitates their abducting virgin brides, stealing their gland fluids to keep his wife alive and young. As with Frankenstein, there is a servant, this time a brutish moron, a dwarf and an old hag who is their mother.

The film creaks along – although it becomes quite lively with Luana Walters as a reporter, on the beat with weddings, but discovering the truth, going to the house of the professor who is an expert in orchid-growing (with poison on the bouquet to knock out the brides for their abduction).

Bela Lugosi really does a caricature of his Dracula performance. Director Wallace Fox directed quite a number of this kind of small-budget supporting feature film.

1.Interest in this kind of horror? Fluids to keep old women alive? Eternal youth? Bela Lugosi?

2.The production values, small-budget, small running time, inadequate performances, sets? Musical score and atmosphere?

3.The title and expectations? Bela Lugosi and his reputation?

4.The plausibility and implausibility of the plot? The weddings, the collapses of the brides? The preparations for the wedding? Patricia Hunter and her work as a reporter, suspicions, relationship with her editor?

5.Doctor Lorenz, sinister, taking the brides, the vehicles? His house, mansion, dungeons? Secret passages? His mortuary? His character, smooth talking? His relationship with his wife, her desperation? Patricia Hunter’s arrival, Doctor Foster and his collaboration? Inviting them to stay the night? The sinister goings-on? The brides?

6.The set-up, Patricia and her friend, the performance? The irony of Doctor Lorenz taking Patricia? The confrontation in the dungeon?

7.Doctor Foster, genial, hypnotised, romantic lead?

8.Fagah, sinister old woman, her two sons, their brutish actions, malice, their deaths? Lorenz and his arrogance? Fagah killing him?

9.The resolution – Patricia, the rescue, marrying Doctor Foster, the articles and her job? The defeat of evil?

THE NOOSE

UK, 1948, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Carole Landis, Joseph Calleia, Derek Farr, Stanley Holloway, Nigel Patrick, Ruth Nixon, John Slater, Edward Rigby.
Directed by Edmond Greville.

The Noose is a film noir from post-war England. It is a picture of Soho, black market in London, gangsters and their ruthless behaviour.

American actress Carole Landis portrays a journalist who pursues a black market killer in Soho, played by Maltese- American actor Joseph Calleia. Derek Farr is her ex-army boyfriend who rounds up a gang to confront the Soho gang. Stanley Holloway is an inspector. However, Nigel Patrick steals the film as a very cocky agent for the criminals.

The film was directed by Frenchman Edmond Greville who made a number of films in England in the late 40s, early 50s including The Romantic Age.

The film is interesting in retrospect, a focused picture of life in London in the years immediately following World War Two, especially the possibility of a luxury life given the black market and the role of gangsters.

1.Interest in London in 1948? Post-war London? The black market? Gangsters? Violence? The police?

2.The black and white photography, light and shadow? Soho, the buildings, the clubs, the church? The streets? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score?

3.The title, the reference to Sugiani and the gangs tightening on him? The literal noose and the murders by strangling?

4.Sugiani, the gangster boss, Italian background? Mafia behaviour? His character, his relationship with Annie Foss? His ruthlessness in ordering murders? Barber as his henchman? The members of his gang? His relationship with Bar Gorman? Bar and his breezy style, shrewdness, business? The newspaper exposes by Linda Medbury? His threatening her? The death of Annie? The cover-up? His wanting to silence Linda? Jumbo Hyde and his rounding up the gang? The fight in the club? His flight and death?

5.Linda, American, coming to England, her work with the newspaper, the expose? Annie Foss as the source of information? Her going to the mortuary with the inspector? Her relationship with Jumbo? The threats from Sugiani? Her abduction, her defying Sugiani? The confrontation with Bar Gorman? The ending with Jumbo?

6.Jumbo, ex-army, relationship with Linda? The confrontation with Sugiani, rounding up the gang, with Pudd’n and the men at the gym? Briefing them, the build-up to the fight?

7.Inspector Kendall, the investigations, the typical British policeman? The bribe from Gorman and Sugiani and his turning it against themselves?

8.Bar Gorman, Nigel Patrick’s breezy style, dominating the film, his patter, the conman, shrewd, the advice to Gorman? His family? The landlady? The confrontation with Linda? His comeuppance?

9.The portrait of Pudd’n and the members of the gym? The gang members? The contrast with Sugiani’s henchmen and their brutality, especially Barber and Sugiani turning on him?

10.The influence of the newspapers, the editor, the articles? A British film noir?

THE MORRISON MURDERS

US, 1996, 90 minutes, Colour.
John Corbett, Jonathan Scarfe, Gordon Clapp, Maya Mc Laughlin.
Directed by Chris Thomson.

The Morrison Murders is based on a true story. It focuses on two brothers, John Corbett (Northern Exposure and later, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and Jonathan Scarfe (to play Jesus in the telefilm Judas five years later). Their parents have been killed along with their younger brother.

The film is not so much a murder mystery – it is evident that the younger brother did the crime. However, the drama is on the disbelief of the older brother, the hostility of his wife, the suspicious behaviour of the killer brother and his gradually revealing the truth.

Gordon Clapp from television’s NYPD Blue is the local sheriff. The direction is by Chris Thomson, New Zealand-born director, who made a number of films and television movies in Australia as well as some in the United States. He directed The Empty Beach and Kylie Minogue in The Delinquents.

1.An interesting crime drama? Based on a true story? The Georgia setting? The credibility of the characters, the crime, the investigation?

2.Georgia, the town, the houses, police precincts? Authentic? Musical score?

3.The title, the focus on the family, on the brothers? The opening and Luke discovering the bodies, his reaction, with his girlfriend? His absent brother? The suspicions?

4.The drama, the screenplay indicating that Luke was guilty? The suspicions on Walker? The dramatic tension between the two? Luke and his extravagant behaviour, the sheriff and his investigations? Patti and her suspicions and hostility? The final revelation of the truth?

5.The character of Luke, young, resenting his strict father, his mother with her Bible morality, her making the younger brother a favourite? His working as a truck driver? Inheriting the money, the extravagance with the car, the jewellery? Marrying Kimberly? The suspicions, his reaction, failing the lie detector test, refusing to take another, falling out with Walker? Moving away? The return, out of money, his pride in the baby, wanting a job, Walker and gaining his confidence, the revelation of the truth, his arrest?

6.Walker, serious, hard done by his father, the flashbacks and his father’s treatment, the favouritism of Bobby? His work, the company, relationship with his wife, the children? His not believing that Luke could kill the family? The sheriff and his interrogations, suspicions? Patti and her hostility? Luke taking the children and bringing them back? His witnessing the interrogation by the psychologist? The fall-out with Luke? His return, his agreement to be wired? The confession? A future?

7.The sheriff, his suspicions, interrogations, work, concerns? The psychologist’s interview with Luke?

8.Patti, her love for Walker, the family, suspicions of Luke, discussions with the sheriff? The taking of the children? Her not wanting Luke in the house, calling the police?

9.Kimberly, devotion to Luke, her parents and their strictness? The marriage, the baby, her disillusionment at the end?

10.A picture of an ordinary family, jealousies and anger? Violence and murder? Investigations?

BOPHA!

US, 1993, 120 minutes, Colour.
Danny Glover, Malcolm Mc Dowell, Alfre Woodard, Marius Weyers, Maynard Eziashi, Malick Bowens.
Directed by Morgan Freeman.

Bopha! was made just before Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa. It was made in the transition period from apartheid to freedom in South Africa (and was filmed in Zimbabwe as South Africa was not available).

There were a number of films during the 1980s about apartheid in South Africa, coming from American film-makers including Cry Freedom and A Dry White Season. The South African Mapantsala was made at this time as well as a television movie about Nelson Mandela.

After 1994 a number of films have been made by the South Africans themselves as well as a number of films about South Africa including Goodbye Bafana and Catch a Fire, focusing Nelson Mandela as well as the anti-apartheid activists who were branded as terrorists.

This film was directed by Morgan Freeman, his only directorial work.

Danny Glover portrays a policeman in 1980, a time when black police were considered traitors to the cause. He wants to do the right thing, especially by his family, including his wife played by Alfre Woodard (who had played Winnie Mandela in the telemovie about the Mandelas). Maynard Eziashi is their son, caught up by the influence of the anti-apartheid activists. Malcolm Mc Dowell portrays the head of the Special Branch.

The material is familiar, but it is interesting to see a film that was made in 1993, immediately after the events that it portrays. It shows the human dilemma of those caught up in an unjust system.

1.Audience interest in South Africa? The apartheid era? Post-apartheid? The experience of the South African blacks? Whites? Struggles and prejudice?

2.1980, the townships, life in the townships? The perspective of the early 1990s?

3.The locations, the re-creation of the period, authentic, the townships, interiors? The musical score?

4.The title, the initial explanation, the use of the chant? Symbol?

5.Apartheid and its history? Racism? White superiority? Separation? The law and its oppression of the blacks? The reliance on security and security forces? The language of apartheid?

6.Danny Glover as Micah? As the focus of the film? The tyre killing? His family, the old school? With his boss, the training? The humiliation of the black police? Issues of information, raids, leniency and severity? His relationship with his son, his fears, his hopes for his son? The clash, the arrests? The security forces, de Villiers and his severity? Torture, killings, ‘suicides’? The consequences, the demonstrations, Rosie and her terror, the funeral, death? What Micah stood for?

7.Zweli, his pride, relationship with his father, mother, at home, the 1980s, at school, his girlfriend? The Afrikaaners? Sport? The meeting with the activist, the escape? The clash, his being shot, his father’s concern? The end – and the new Africa?

8.Rosie, as wife and mother, at home, her love, work, her fears, coming home and finding it disturbed, the end?

9.The boys, classes, employment, heroism? Silent opposition? Death?

10.The demonstrations, school, the funerals?

11.The leader and the caravan, the torture, his death?

12.Van Tonder, more sympathetic, his wife, the issue of suicides?

13.De Villiers, his character, snarling, security, superior, his henchmen? The choices, the lies, race issues? Torture?

14.The teacher, character, language?

15.Themes of injustice, oppression? Strategies for anti-apartheid movements? Terrorism? A world of anger?

16.The overcoming of apartheid – and the hopes in the 1990s?

JOE AND MAX

US, 2002, 109 minutes, Colour.
Leonard Roberts, Til Schweiger, Peta Wilson, Richard Roundtree, David Paymer.
Directed by Steve James.

Joe and Max is the story of the contest between Joe Louis and Max Schmelling.

Joe Louis was the American champion, the hero of the African Americans in the 1930s. Max Schmelling was a German boxer, patronised by the Nazis, looked on by Hitler as a conqueror of the inferior race.

The film sketches in the background of each man, his character, career, the build-up to the initial confrontation. At first Schmelling beats Joe Louis and is received in Nazi Germany with great honour. However, in the return bout, he is beaten by Louis.

American race issues emerge. The situation of the 1930s and the Nazis is also strongly emphasised.

Til Schweiger, popular German star, is effective as Schmelling. Peta Wilson is Anny Ondra, the German film star who is his wife. Veteran Richard Roundtree plays the trainer. David Paymer plays Schmelling’s agent, a Jewish agent who is interested in the sport and not in social and racial issues.

The film traces the experiences during the war where Louis campaigned for bonds and then was taxed by the American government. Schmelling and his wife survived the war, hostility from the occupying Americans afterwards, but was then put on the board of Coca- Cola. The film shows some scenes of the two men meeting in later life and their respect for each other.

Direction is by Steve James who made the Oscar-nominated documentary Hoop Dreams as well as the telemovie on the runner, Prefontaine.

1.A boxing story? An African American story? A German story? Nazis, the 30s, white America?

2.The strong emphasis on history, the characters and stories in the context of their history? Sport, rivalry, friendship?

3.The re-creation of the 30s, Nazi Germany, the SS, the appearance of Hitler? Authorities and celebrities in Nazi Germany? Films and film stars? Sport and the social consequences?

4.The contrast with the United States, the Depression, race issues, African Americans in sport? The promoters? The fights, the trainers? Political implications? African American support of Joe Louis? The celebration of his victories? The war experience, post-war?

5.The character of Joe, his background and family, his character, seemingly upright, his training, strength? The promoter and his moral guide? The bouts, the build-up to the fight against Schmelling? The clashes and the interviews? The fight, the defeat? His wife, his other women, her embarrassment? His repentance? His wife and the humiliations in the restaurants, her declaration of love for her husband but leaving him? Training, the meeting, the final win and its effect?

6.Max Schmelling and his age, his love of boxing, German personality? Joe Jacobs and the promotion? The Jewish promoter? Max’s wife, her film career? Their bonds? Going to the United States, the interviews, confidence, comparisons with Joe? His winning, returning a hero? Hitler’s welcome? The further training, the return, his significant defeat?

7.Schmelling’s neighbour, making the suits, the Jews, the shops, the closures, Kristalnacht, his seeking refuge, Schmelling welcoming him, his wife and her performance, the tensions, the intrusion of the SS, the pretence, the effect?

8.Schmelling and the fight, the defeat, Hitler turning off the radio, Goebbels and his comments about inferior races? The propaganda books and the introductions written for Schmelling? His being framed, reputation, American dislike of him?

9.The survival of the war, post-war poverty, their house, the destruction by the Americans, their hostility? The approach by Coca-Cola?, his acceptance? The GI treatment of the rebuilding of the house?

10.His visit to Joe, the bonds between the two, talking, sharing, transcending the past?

11.Joe Louis on his own, the war effort, the bouts, raising bond money, being presented with a tax bill, the harsh treatment?

12.The sad aspects of Joe Louis’ life, the final honours after his death? Schmelling and his long life?

13.A 20th century story?

THE GHOUL

UK, 1933, 77 minutes, Black and white.
Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Hyson, Anthony Bushell, Kathleen Harrison, Ralph Richardson.
Directed by T. Hayes Hunter.

The Ghoul was made in England after Boris Karloff’s success in Frankenstein as well as The Old Dark House. Karloff was to portray sinister characters throughout his whole career in film and on television. In the 1960s he worked for Roger Corman in a series of horror films and made Targets with Peter Bogdanovich.

The film has a very strong British cast including an unrecognisable Cedric Hardwicke as well as veteran Ernest Thesiger who was to appear with Karloff in Bride of Frankenstein. Anthony Bushell is the hero, later an actor and film director (The Long Dark Hall). Veteran actress Kathleen Harrison (better known for her housemaids or as Mrs Huggett) is the heroine’s friend. It is Ralph Richardson’s first film, appearing as a parson – with a secret.

The story is somewhat preposterous but relates to the interest in Egyptology at the time. Boris Karloff was to appear at the same time as The Mummy.

In this film he portrays a professor who has a jewel which will give him immortality. Various Egyptians are after it as is a greedy lawyer played by Cedric Hardwicke and the professor’s servant, played by Ernest Thesiger. In the meantime, the professor’s nephew and a cousin are brought into the action – and are threatened, as is the heroine’s friend.

There are many strong aspects of the film and its atmosphere but, as with a number of British films at the time, it seems fairly creaky now. The director was an American who went to England, T. Hayes Hunter.

1.The popularity of this kind of film in the 1930s? In retrospect? A Boris Karloff film, a Boris Karloff character?

2.British production values, the mansion, the homes, the interiors? The musical score? Black and white photography?

3.The familiarity of the plot, audience interest in Egyptology, the digging up of tombs, transportation of statues, jewels? Beliefs in the gods? In immortality? The academics and their giving themselves over to the Egyptian religions? Professor Morlant, his dying, his career, his selfishness, his domination of his servant, wanting to be buried in a particular place, wanting to come alive again, get the jewel, surrender himself to the Egyptian gods and have immortality?

4.Boris Karloff as this kind of character, his appearance, his voice, manner of walking, speaking? His death? His rising again? His walking through the house, searching for the jewel, the threats, attempting to kill Betty? Going to the temple, surrendering himself, carving the images on his chest? Nigel Hartley deceiving him? His death?

5.Broughton, sinister, the lawyer, wanting the jewel? Going to the house, his searching for the jewel? The interactions with Betty and Ralph? His fear with the risen professor?

6.Laing, the Scotsman, the servant, doing his master’s will? Wanting the jewel? His fears? As a character?

7.Betty and Ralph, the younger generation, the family, the clashes? Their going to the house together? Betty under threat? Ralph as disagreeable? Finally in the tomb, the fire, with Nigel, the explosion and getting out? Conventional characters?

8.Kaney, the friend, a more vivid personality than Betty? Her romantic attitudes? Meeting Mahmoud? Flirting with him, making the coffee, her fears, screams? Shutting her eyes and not talking? Her finally getting the jewel, the threats, saving the day?

9.The Egyptians, the initial threats, Professor Morlant killing the man in the woods? Mahmoud and his investigation, wanting the jewel?

10.Nigel Hartley, the conventional parson, his helpfulness? The revelation of the truth, a robber? The fight in the tomb, the fire?

11.The popularity of this kind of horror film in its time? Considered as something of a classic – now seen in retrospect?