UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE

US, 1966, 120 minutes, Colour.
Sandy Dennis, Ruth White, Patrick Bedford, Roy Poole, Eileen Heckart, Sorrel Books, Ellen O' Mara.
Directed by Robert Mulligan.

Up the Down Staircase is the film version of Bel Kaufman's bestseller of 1965. It takes up the problems of a difficult school in New York and a young teacher's first experience there: her idealism, her disappointments and finally her breaking through barriers to communicate. At times the school looks like a caricature, but busy schools like this must look like a caricature to the outside observer until the realities of the persons inside are discovered. This is what happens here. The stories and interactions of characters are somewhat predictable but are moving and entertaining in the film.

Up the Down Staircase invited comparison with To Sir With Love which was released soon after and was far more successful at the box-office because of Sidney Poitier. This film can stand on its own feet quite well and is probably much more 'realistic' in its approach, handling of the problems and its solutions than To Sir With Love.

Sandy Dennis appeared in this just after her Oscar-winning performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She received an award for this film in Moscow. She has since made The Fox, Sweet November, A Touch of Love, The Out-of-Towners?. Audiences divide over liking her as she has a number of acting and facial mannerisms. The supporting cast are mainly from the New York stage. Ellen O'Mara, as Alice Blake, was voted best supporting actress for 1967 by the association of top American critics. Director Robert Mulligan has a delicate flair for humanising problem situations, for instance To Kill a Mockingbird, Love with the Proper Stranger, The Pursuit of Happiness, Summer of '42.

1. What did the name of the film suggest - especially in the context of the running of a school?

2. How did the first 15 minutes or so of the film create an impression of a busy school on the first day of classes? Was this a caricature? Do you think schools would be as busy and as rushed as this? Do you think some schools would be worse?

3. Calvin Coolidge was a problem school. First impressions of the students there - by their expressions, clothes, manner of acting: note the mixed race problem with Irish, Spanish and Middle European names, the percentage of blacks and whites?

4. First impressions of the teachers? Were they caricatured too much? Impressions of school organisation and bureaucracy - the numbers of forms, bells etc?

5. What kind of a teacher was Sylvia Barrett? Were you in sympathy with her as she started her career and yet seemed to be getting nowhere? What should she have done to have got better results sooner?

6. Discuss some of the other teachers as teachers, as persons, as people dedicated to a work of forming persons:

• Dr Bester: his assembly speech, the staff meeting and the plans for the building, his supervision of Miss Barrett's class, his handling of Mr Barringer after Alice's attempted suicide, his views on the school and exposing the children to education as he tried to persuade Miss Barrett to stay.
• Beatrice Shooter; her 16 years at the school, her perseverance and trust; her talk to Sylvia about the block - where the children spend 18 hours a day, the odds for success at school, the children's last chance and possibly the teacher's last chance; her trying to persuade Sylvia to stay by talking about the polite attention she would get at a private school, the love without risks.
• Mr Barringer: charming externals; cynical, his writing - about another world from that in which he lived; his reading of Sylvia's suggestions; his treatment of Alice at the dance and her letter; his explanation of his action to Dr Bester; his cynical intrusion into Sylvia's class.
• Henrietta Pastorfield: miking life pleasant for the students; her crush on the boy.
• The Psychologist: her CC's etc., yet her putting a generation's work into her classifying, her appreciation of Sylvia's remarks.
• The Nurse: the rules about wounds and giving the children tea.
• The Librarian: interested only in books and tidiness.
• Mr. McHabe: was he a good deputy principal - always on the job (the school was chaos before he came); his philosophy of fear in education; was he feelingless? Why did he do his job? Comment on the detail of his method, e.g. supervising, corridors, the dance - were they realistic?

7. Discuss the principal students, their needs as persons and in the school, their problems, their limited vision of themselves and life: Alice Blake, Carol (Carmelita) and her friendship for Alice, Rusty O'Brien, Eddie Williams, Jose Rodriguez ("Me" and his acting as the judge), Harry (and his mother's intrusive visit on parents' night), Roy (and his mother's talk on parents' 'night), Linda, Lou, Joe Perroni (why did he underachieve, why did he have such chips on his shoulder; why did he think sex was Miss Barrett's only motivation?)

8. How did Sylvia Barrett handle these children's problems? Well? Was she correct in her attitudes to Mr McCabe?, e.g. in her defence of Joe Perroni, (she reported him about the knife, stood up for him as regards the exam)? Should she have talked to Alice - what else could she have done there?

9. How were the class discussions on "A Tale of Two Cities" and the trial about Silas Marner the high points in the film?

10. What did you learn about the nature of the teaching profession, its difficulties, its creativity, its dedication, its rewards?

11. Was Sylvia Barrett a born teacher? What is a born teacher?

12. Was the film too optimistic? Was it joyful? Was it sentimental?

UNMAN, WITTERING AND ZIGO

UK, 1971, 108 minutes, Colour.
David Hemmings, Caroline Seymour, Douglas Wilmer.
Directed by John Mac Kenzie.

Unman, Wittering and Zigo is a psychological thriller that takes us into the world of Lord of the Flies and If..... Critics have made comparisons, but these are probably unfair as the present film remains on the level of psychological menace rather than exploring the bases of evil and malice. As such, it could disappoint audiences that it did not go further. But on its own terms, it is quite good, combining a real world of school activities with the nightmare horror of a class that has murdered its form master.

David Hemmings produced this version of a Giles Cooper play (screenplay by novelist Simon Raven). A small joke worth noting is in the cast at the end where the roll is given including Zigo, who has been absent the whole term: Zigo - absent. An unusual piece of macabre interest.

1. The title referred to the least three names on a roll-call. Was this an effective title? What reaction did it evoke when you first heard it?

2. Were the credit sequences successful in creating a mood of suspense and fear? Did you know what was happening? How did the subjective shots of the falling over the cliff involve the audience and prepare it for what was to follow? The funeral?

3. Did the remote coastal setting have an important role in the film? Why? How?

4. What were your first impressions of the boys? Were they an average group of boys? How did the camera's picking out their faces contribute?

5. What kind of school was Chantry? Was it a normal school or was it eccentric? How did the headmaster symbolise the school? Was he a typical headmaster?

6. Was John a sympathetic character? Why did he want to teach? Was he ready for a teaching Job?

7. How did the sequence of the tour of the school, classes, the refectory contribute to the atmosphere? How did they contrast with the sequences of John and his wife moving into the cottage and setting it up?

8. Was John capable of managing boys in a classroom? What did the sequences of his first day show? Was he helped by his friendship with the art teacher?

9. Did you believe the boys when they first revealed that they had murdered their form master? Was the episode credible? Were the boys evil?


10. How did they get John under their control? Why did he get no support from the headmaster or from his wife? Did he do the best he could? What else could he have done?

11. Did particular boys stand out as leaders - in the class? Which one? Why? How did they intimidate John? -e.g. at climbing practice, in his office, etc?

12. Why did it seem necessary to John to search out the ringleader and so control the boys? Why did he find it hard to get the leader?

13. How was Wittering made the centre of the audience's attention without their realizing that he had planned the murder - centre of the class scuffle and ridicule, their mocking him at the gym with John's wife, his singing in the choir?

14. How did John relate to his wife? Why was she dissatisfied? Why did he rely on the pub so much?

15. Was the potential rape sequence handled well - their brutality, their clumsiness, their goading of Wittering?

16. Why did Wittering kill himself? Was this dramatically plausible? Did it bring the film to a head? How?

17. Was this a film with a theme about human inner drives so evil as Lord of the Flies or if....., or was it just a sensational story with a touch of horror? Why?

18. How was evil explored in the film - evil will? selfishness? fear? resentment? intimidation? the playing with power? revenge? brutality?

19. What did the film have to say about human nature?

20. The film was set in an English school. Did this imply any comment on or criticism of English schools or education systems?

UPTIGHT

US, 1969, 104 minutes, Colour.
Julian Mayfield, Ruby Dee, Raymond St. Jacques, Roscoe Lee Browne, Frank Silvera.
Directed by Jules Dassin.

Uptight suggests tension, American tension, and the film is a tense look at the urban African American problems, black impatience and black power.

Director Jules Dassin had quite a range of interests and cinema successes including Rififi, He Who Must Die, Topkapi and Never on Sunday. He collaborated with actors Ruby Dee and Julian Mayfield in their adaptation from Liam O'Flaherty's novel of Irish tension, The Informer (filmed by John Ford in 1935 with Victor McLaglan). A similar thing was done with an adaptation of the Irish Odd Man Out to The Lost Man with Sidney Poitier in 1969.

The film opens with the funeral of Martin Luther King and a group of 'New Negroes' in Cleveland watching the regrettable passing of the old non-violence martyr but thinking ahead to the time when they are their own law and power. The story is one of betrayal and pursuit of the betrayer and is a good thriller, but the black problems come to the fore, especially city problems and changing phases of policy.

Not a masterpiece, the film has a kind of journalistic pace and intensity which means that we enjoy reading the message even though the message is a sombre one. In this way it is an effective film on race problems.

1. How were the film and its message affected by the setting of the story immediately after the death of Martin Luther King and making the killing incident part of the riots associated with this funeral?

2. What would the immediate impact of the King assassination setting be on a black audience and how would it dispose them for the film? What would be the impact of the assassination setting on a white audience and how would it dispose them for the film?

3. Is the Cleveland problem typical of other urban areas in the US?

4. The film was based on a story of the Irish Troubles. Is there any parallel here in the oppressors, the oppressed and the tactics for liberation? (Remember the parallel also between Odd Man Out and The Lost Man.)

5. The Cleveland power group was anti-Martin Luther King's attitudes - the non-violent attitudes had not succeeded; it is time for change, for violence and for action independent of all whites. Do the film as a whole and its makers subscribe to this theory?

6. Tank is the principal character. Why did he betray Johnny - note his sorrow at King's death, his fondness for drink, his age, his past record of action in the mills, idolised by Johnny and his friends, his lack of intelligence and weak will, his dependence on the favour of others. Again, he was rejected as old and outmoded by the power committee and Johnny's name used against him, yet he was prepared to be used by then. Note also the pressure on his love to provide money for the mother and her children.

7. Was Tank an effective deceiver? What did he learn about his actions from the way he used the reward money? Easy-going, liking to be liked, even generous?

8. How anti-white is Uptight? The power group don't want to be letting any whites help them no matter how willingly. Tank is treacherous also because he succumbs to the whites. The black who collaborated with the police is a homosexual and is presented unsympathetically.

9. Discuss the comment on black-white relationships in the carnival scene where Tank preaches a comic sermon on the black takeover and everyone is shown in distorted mirrors. The scene is cleverly funny but the meaning seems deadly earnest.

10. What basis of law, power and justice did the power group have for their trial, condemnation and execution of Tank? (Note the academic thinking in the power group. While the henchmen are still in jeans and jackets, the leaders are in neat, Black-Muslim? clothes and wear spectacles.)

11. The film begins and ends with, a chase and music; discuss the relative merits of the chase sketches and song about Johnny at the opening and then the purgatory-like wandering of Tank through his familiar world until he is swallowed up in it and in death - the previously plaintive humming and organ music of the Time is Tight theme works into an evocative climax.

UP THE JUNCTION

UK, 1967, 119 minutes, Colour.
Suzy Kendall, Denis Waterman.
Directed by Peter Collinson.

Up the Junction is in the tradition of the 'kitchen sink' dramas of the early sixties. By the end of the decade these dramas were being filmed in colour and wide-screen. The atmosphere and mood of the earlier films continued, but language and frankness became more explicit. The film is based on stories by Nell Dunn (as was Kenneth Loach's Poor Cow), and presents typical contemporary attitudes to life, work and pleasure.

The story and language of the film are quite blunt, yet the jokes, the gossip, the swearing can be heard in any office, factory or even secondary school. The central character is Polly Dean, a rich girl from Chelsea, who wants to escape from society hypocrisy and live a poor, earthy, hard-working life in Battersea across the Thames. Her work, her friends, their entertainments, their difficulties, become hers. Though she never really fits into their society (they themselves would like to escape from it), she idealises it, only to be disillusioned.

The actress is Suzy Kendall and the film was directed by Peter Collinson whose film subjects have ranged widely: The Penthouse, The Long Day's Dying, The Italian Job, You Can't Win 'Em All, Fright.

1. Did the theme of a rich girl trying to avoid the hypocrisy of wealthy society by working in and with the poorer areas of society seem convincing to you: Why?

2. What was Polly searching for in her move from Chelsea to the Battersea factories, flats and pubs?

3. What were the values of her friends, Sylvie, Ruby and Peter? As regards poverty? work? the rich? pleasure? sex? right and wrong? life?

4. Discuss your attitudes to Ruby and her abortion, Polly's helping her, Ruby's agony and the speed with which she forgot her suffering.

5. Discuss the presentation of factory life and the work, the company, the conditions, the jokes, the hum-drum situations of gossip, scandal.

6. Was Peter an attractive character? a strong character? Can you understand his attitude to Polly at the end of the film?

7. What happened to Polly in her story after the film ended? To Peter, to Sylvie, to Ruby?

8. Is it fair to say that life for the character in this Battersea situation was, and had to be, a cult of materialism - clothes, beauty, pleasure, comforts, companionship?

9. Was Polly realistic? or an idealist?

10. Are people born into poverty and work situations grateful to people who ache to share their lives? Or are the poor longing to get out of their poverty?

THE UGLY AMERICAN

US, 1963, 120 minutes, Colour.
Marlon Brando, Arthur Hill.
Directed by George Englund.

The Ugly American was a best-seller in the late 50's and was topical on its release in 1963. November 1963 saw the assassination of President Kennedy and the coup against President Diem in South Vietnam. There is no mistaking the setting of this film and its presentation of the conflicts in Asia. Now the film is interesting to ponder in its stances of 1963.

Marlon Brando is Ambassador Mac White in Sarkhan. He goes with liberal attitudes based on long friendship with popular Sarkhan leader, Deong. His experience of terrorism in Sarkhan forces him further right and into stronger militaristic stances which cause even more violence and disorder. He fails his mission - a position seemingly proven by what has happened.

The film was panned on its first release - Marlon Brando's acting, the political situation probably turned critics against it. Actually, it is quite a good film and its issues are certainly worth discussing. Marlon Brando is quite good as Mac White. (This performance came after his portrayal of Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty, 1962.)

1. Although fiction, did this film give insights into some of the realities of Communism, war and political stances in South East Asia in the 60's?

2. Any bias to left or right in this film?

3. The title emphasised the Ugly American. Did the film bear out the title? How? Why?

4. What political and diplomatic issues were raised during MacWhite's interrogation?

5. 1960's equivalents to Deong? What did he stand for?

6. How realistically did the film show the kind of terrorism that goes on?

7. What was the significance of Freedom Road? Of what was it a symbol? Development? Peace? freedom? United States help?

8. The film used a lot of commonplace slogans of politics and the press: What meaning did the film give these phrases?

9. How well did Deong and Mac White understand each other? How well informed was each about the other's background and way of thinking?

10. What attitude towards Communism did Mac White take? Did the film take the same attitude?

11. What contribution to your understanding of the film's issues did the hospital make? The symbolic slaughter on freedom road?

12. What was your reaction to the intricacies of the politics in the coup, the Prime Minister and the forces using Deong?

I3. MacWhite? was shown as a tough ambassador. Why was he forced (or was he?) into move and more of a right-wing position?

14. Why was Deong killed?

15. Was the irony of the ending too heavy? What was the point?

16. The book was written in the late 50's and the film released in 1963, the year of American and Vietnamese assassinations. How well did the film anticipate realities?

URGE TO KILL

US, 1988, 100 minutes, Colour.
Karl Malden, Paul Sorvino, Shirley Knight, Catherine Mary Stewart, Holly Hunter, Alex Mc Arthur, William Devane, Timothy Patrick Murphy.
Directed by Mike Robe.

Urge to Kill is a highly melodramatic telemovie - but interesting nonetheless. It focuses on a young man, violent in temperament, put in an institution for four years for the killing of his girlfriend. On his release, the father of the girl becomes obsessed with his presence and uses every means to have him certified. He uses his second daughter but gradually alienates her and she comes to the support of the young man.

The film is very well acted - most of the characters particularly well-drawn and interesting from the boy himself to Karl Malden's obsessed father, to his daughter, to the parents of the boy, played by Paul Sorvino and Shirley Knight. The film is a picture of a small American town, prejudice. it is also the story of justice and human rights and concern.

1. An interesting telemovie? Drama, melodrama? Characters and situations? Issues?

2. A drama for the audience at home? Realism? Audiences identifying with characters? Experiencing the situations and tensions? Judgments and emotional response? Insight?

3. A portrait of the town of Bannon? Authentic atmosphere, location photography: homes, hospitals, courts, the weir? The musical score and its strength, for moods?

4. The title and the emphasis on violence, psychological urge to violence? Psychological violence in society? Hospital treatment? Asylums? Law and pressures? Bo and his urge to violence? Tom and his ultimate urge?

5. The mood of the opening: the football match, the support, Bo and his success, Lisa and her support, Drew and his watching? Bo's anger after the match in the locker room? The hotel? His going to the weir, the anger with Lisa, Lisa’s falling and the transition to his waking? The puzzle about her death? His violent urges? What really happened? His obliterating what happened? His waking in the hospital - after four years of treatment?

6. Bo in himself, his family background, skill at sport, at home? His response to Lisa? The treatment, his return home? His reaction, his parents and their joy, his father's drinking, his mother's love? Tom and his hostility? Wyn and her enmity? Her father pressurising her to write the article? Delivering the concrete and his being bashed and hospitalised? Wyn's interview with him? His coming back home to remember, his experiences with Wyn and his being able to recall Lisa? His father's hostility? Listening to him, clashing with him? The support of his mother? His ultimately hitting his father? Wyn and her friendship, warnings? The committal proceedings, his being a victim? The court proceedings and their injustice? His being released, wanting the truth, taking Wyn to the airport, the re-enactment of what happened, his remembering? Lisa's pregnancy, his love for her? The confrontation with Tom? How expected was Tom's shooting him? The portrait of a character? Victim, responsibility?

7. Tom as a pillar of society, the bank, a loving father? His position in the town? Influence on the law? His anger at Bo's return? Lisa on a pedestal (the way he spoke of her, re-watching her films)? Wyn and his love for her, his comparing her with Lisa? Influencing the article? His reaction against her second article? Argument, his being hurt and taking the doctor hunting? Pressure on Wyn? The bribes and Wyn's leaving the house, confronting him? His vindictiveness in the court? His being exposed? His going to the weir, indicating that he knew that Lisa was pregnant, shooting Bo? His hold on his daughters? Obsess-ion and madness? Urge to kill?

8. Lisa as attractive, watching the football, at the weir, her pregnancy, the accident of her death? The arranged marriage? Her not wanting to offend her father? Victim of Bo and her father?

9. Wyn and the comparisons with Lisa? Her work on the paper, discussions with the editor? Her writing the article for her father? Her feeling that she had incited violence? Bo's mother and her discussion? The interview in the hospital, being fair? Changing her attitudes, discussions with her father, warning Bo, the hunt and the pressure? Arguments and leaving, the comparisons with Lisa? The discovery of the cheques, her going to the office and copying them, watching her father watch the films? Her dilemma in court? The dilemma between her father and Bo? Her exposing her father? Her going back to college, the re-enactment of the death? Her horror at the shooting of Bo? Her future?

10. Bo's parents: his father and his work, drinking, reputation in the town, clashes, denouncing his son, willing to commit him, taking the bribe? His mother and her love for her son, the welcome home, her illness, the visit to the paper, discussions with Wyn, the revelation about the bribes? Her grief in the court?

11. The editor and his running the paper, interest in Wyn, his concern about the town and the voicing of issues?

12. The police and their investigations? The young black friend of Bo, his friendship, marriage - and his advice and warning for Wyn?

13. Public opinion, the law, the judge, the lawyers, the slipshod case? The men working the concrete and their bashing Bo? Drew and his rivalry, his support of Bo in the court?

14. The final images of Tom and his being condemned, his insanity? Themes of the American family, paternal possessiveness, children breaking out, love and marriage, pregnancies?

UP IN CENTRAL PARK

US, 1948, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Deanna Durbin, Vincent Price, Dick Haymes, Albert Sharpe, Tom Powers.
Directed by William A. Seiter.

Up In Central Park is a Deanna Durbin musical, one of her last. It teams her with popular crooner Dick Haymes and with Vincent Price, already suavely menacing as Boss Tweed of New York. (A more detailed look at his New York is found in Scorsese's Gangs of New York with Jim Broadbent as Tweed). Irish actor Albert Sharpe gives a delightful performance as Deanna's father (ten years later he was to be Darby O'Gill in Darby O'Gill and the Little People).

The film portrays corruption in the city of New York, Irish immigrants and rigged voting, newspapers and exposes. The music is by Sigmund Romberg - though not particularly memorable. Another entertaining Deanna Durbin musical.

1. The popularity of Deanna Durbin, Universal Studios production values, Sigmund Romberg's music?

2. Black and white photography, period settings and decor, costumes? New York?

3. The musical score, Sigmund Romberg, lyrics?

4. The world of the migrants, the Irish, the dreams for America, their being used, given jobs, trusting the American bosses, learning, the Constitution, disillusionment?

5. Mr Moore and Albert Sharpe's style? His background, the canny Irishmen, his dreams, the number of votes, the care of the animals, the encounter with John Matthews and his tough stance, love for Rose, the interview and the loss of his job, the dinner with Tweed, the reading lessons, the discussion with the Constitution and her comments on Tweed, reading the Constitution, arguing with Rose, teaming up with Matthews, the confrontation with the mayor and getting his documents?

6. Rose and her hopes, the encounter with John, the charm of Tweed, the attraction, not believing John, slapping him with the paper, taken in by Tweed, the set-up, dinner with John, her singing, the opera audition, her relationship with Tweed,
angry with her father, her hearing the truth, disillusionment, happy ending?

7. Vincent Price as Tweed: New York boss, supremacist attitudes, suave and smiling, his hold over the mayor, not letting him speak, his range of cronies, offering jobs, the poultry from the zoo, the confrontations with Matthews, with Moore and giving him the job, taking the job away, the irony of the dinner with Rose and her father, his seductive manner with Rose, the audition, his being exposed, taking it with dignity?

8. John and his earnestness, the paper, reprimanding Moore for feeding the animals, the slap, in love with Rose, clashes with Tweed, the dinner, the mayor and the expose?

9. The mayor as puppet, giving everything away, keeping the documents?

10. Tweed's cronies, their support, the opera audition, the voting, leaving him at the dinner?

11. The teacher and her comments on corruption, on America?

12. Entertaining musical, picture of American society, American dreams?

THE UNSUSPECTED

US, 1947, 103 minutes, Black and white.
Claude Rains, Joan Caulfield, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Michael North, Hurd Hatfield, Fred Clark.
Directed by Michael Curtiz.

The Unsuspected is a very entertaining thriller, in the vein of Laura and Hitchcock's films. It was directed by Michael Curtiz, best known as a director of action films at Warner Pros. in the '30s and '40s, he moved to musicals and comedies in the '40s and '50s. This is his main psychological thriller.

Claude Rains is expert as Victor Grandison, the central character. He is matched by Joan Caulfield as the charming and threatened heroine. The film has all the Warner Bros. production style with a score by Franz Waxman.

A very entertaining thriller.

1. A popular thriller? Audiences used to Hitchcock's style? Mystery, suspense?

2. Warner Bros. production values: black and white photography, the world of radio? Victor's world? Light and darkness? Night and day? Shadows? Editing and pace? Mystery and suspense? The musical score?

3. The atmosphere of the '40s: the post-war period, the popularity of radio, lifestyle, travel?

4. The effectiveness of the murders at the start? Establishing the mystery? Enticing the audience? Clues?

5. Claude Rains' performance as Victor Grandison? Rains' suave style? Sinister? Charm? His work on radio, the storytelling? Victor as a person, sociable, the party? Althea and Oliver? Jane? His relationship to the world of radio and its personalities? His relationship with Matilda, his devotion towards her? His suave manner and friendliness with Steve? Matilda's return, the crises? The beginnings of his schemes?
The recordings and his killing of Althea? His skill in setting up plots? Sending Oliver to his death? Matilda writing the suicide note? Press and his taking Steve in the trunk? Grandison's relationship with the police? His final broadcast - and his suave response to his undoing? The final image of his going to prison?

6. Matilda: the portrait, her death, the sudden news of her return, the photographers at the airport, the shock news of her marriage with Steve, her devotion to Grandi, the immediate clash with Althea and her response to Althea's jealousy, moving rooms? Her being jilted by Oliver and her reaction to him? The puzzle with Steve? Fear of amnesia? Gradual attraction towards him? Friend ship with Jane, concern about Roslyn? Her believing Grandi, the writing of the note, the accepting of the drink? Her waking? The chase and being reunited with Steve?


7. Steve and his entry into the house, the mystery of his presence, the story of his marriage, the checking of details? Althea throwing herself at him? The police and her reaction? The airport sequence with Matilda? Her not believing his story? The gradual revelation of his links with the police and with Jane? His links with Roslyn? His seeing Grandison with the recording, testing it out? His being put in the trunk?

8. Althea and the portrait of the wilful and bored wealthy woman, her taunting Oliver about his drinking, her fears and her death? Oliver and his drinking? His death?

9. Jane and her wisecracking and loyal support?

10. The sketch of the police and their investigations?

11. American society, wealth?

12. The importance of the radio in pre-TV days? The radio and its influence, the effect of audiences listening to Grandison's murder stories? His being a radio celebrity?

13. The portrait of Victor as character? As centre of a thriller?

UNHOLY GARDEN

US, 1931, 75 minutes, Black and White.
Ronald Colman, Fay Wray.
Directed by George Fitzmaurice.

Unholy Garden seems an unlikely title for a thriller set in the desert. This is a very brief early talkie. It was one of many star vehicles for Ronald Colman, making, his transition from silent star to star of the talkies, a change which he was able to effect because of his fine voice. He was on the verge of a significant career with excellent films in the '30s and '40s, culminating with his Oscar for A Double Life in 1947.

He has as his leading lady Fay Wray who was about to become entangled with King Kong. The film is slight - Colman is a thief in the desert. In quick succession there is murder, action, robberies - and, of course, romance. The film relies very much on the personality of Colman for its entertainment value. It is quite forgettable - but is an interesting example of a star building his reputation and his career.

THE UNFAITHFUL

US, 1947, 109 minutes, Black and white.
Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, Lew Ayres, Eve Arden, Steve Geray, Jerome Cowan, John Hoyt.
Directed by Vincent Sherman.

The Unfaithful is a Warner Bros. romantic melodrama of the mid-40s. While the credits speak of original screenplay, the film is based on the Bette Davis vehicle The Letter. In The Letter, Bette Davis pretends to be innocent and turns out to be callous and a murderess. She is blackmailed because of a letter she has written. In this version, audiences might be initially suspicious of Ann Sheridan's heroine, she tells similar stories to those of Bette Davis - but ultimately is an innocent victim. An artist's bust of her is the equivalent of the letter.

However, the film is an enjoyable melodrama turning into a court drama. Audiences share the anxiety of Ann Sheridan as the truth about her relationship with the dead man is gradually revealed and she must communicate this to her lawyer and, especially, to her husband. The lawyer is Lew Ayres. The husband Zachary Scott. Eve Arden has a good, if usual, role as a gossiping relation. Direction is by Vincent Sherman. Score by Max Steiner.

1. Enjoyable '40s melodrama? Romance, marriage, fidelity?

2. The similarities with The Letter? Plot, the letter and the bust? Audiences believing Chris and her accounts? The court sequences? The happy ending?

3. Warner Bros. production values: black and white photography, small town America? Max Steiner score?

4. Ann Sheridan as Chris: strong presence, pleasant, looking forward to Bob coming home, Paula's party, helping Roger? Friendship with Larry? The attack on her return home and the effect of the man's death?

5. Audiences believing Chris: the attack, her being the innocent victim? The information about the bust and the shifting stories? Audience sympathies as Chris changed her story?

6. Her concealing the affair: her going to the gallery, posing for the bust, her loneliness, the nature of the affair, Bob's being away? The artist and his return, her killing him? Concealing the truth? Larry's finding out? Her going to the office and telling him the truth? Going to Barrow to get the bust back? The interrogations by the police? Bob finding out the truth? The court sequences, the cross-examination? Her acquittal, decision to leave? Larry and his reconciling the couple?

7. Larry as divorce lawyer, pleasant, coping with Paula and her husband? Friendship with Chris? The police, the -interrogations? Going to Barrow and discovering the bust? Concealing the truth from Bob and then having to tell him? handling the court sequences? The speeches of reconciliation?

8. Bob, his courtship of Chris, the two weeks' marriage, going overseas? Pleasant? Return home? The brave face with Chris going to the restaurant? meeting Paula and her friends? Supporting Chris? Discovering the truth? His going to Paula after the court case? Sitting through the trial? His decision at the end?

9. Barrow and his art dealings, his wanting to make money out of the bust?

10. The artist's wife, her going to the police, her story? At the trial?

11. Paula and her own divorce, her friends, their gossip? Her support of Bob?

12. The Prosecutor and cross-examination of Chris?

13. Audience response to melodramatic situations, characters? And a moralising ending?