JENNIFER ON MY MIND

US, 1971, 90 minutes, Colour.
Michael Brandon, Tippi Walker, Lou Gilbert, Chuck McCann?, Peter Bonerz, Renee Taylor, Robert de Niro, Barry Bostwick.
Directed by Noel Black.

Jennifer On My Mind is very much a film of the early 70s, a focus on the emerging drug culture, a story of a rich girl rebelling against her family and leading astray an upright young man. The film is trendy – and seems dated in retrospect.

It was also unsuccessful on its first release and was sent back for recutting by the studio. One of the victims of the recut was Kim Hunter as Jennifer’s mother – her part was completely removed from the film.

Tippi Walker appeared in a number of films at this time, Michael Brandon was more successful over the decades and had a successful stage career, especially in Jerry Springer the Opera. In the supporting cast are Renee Taylor who, with her husband Joseph Bologna, was to appear and direct in several films including Made for Each Other. Robert de Niro has a small role – as a taxi driver, gypsy style.

The film was directed by Noel Black whose career was mainly in television but who in these years made a couple of controversial films including Pretty Poison and Cover Me Babe as well as Jennifer On My Mind.

1. Critical response to this film was exceedingly negative. It was sent back for re-editing. It was not shown in many countries except on television. Did your response to the film agree with this negative approach? Was the negative approach credible?

2. How well did the film picture and reflect the drug situation in America and internationally in the early seventies? Does the film seem dated now? Was it too particularly involved in the kind of people and issues of the time? Has it any more universal interest?

3. The original title was 'Heir'. In this a better title than the present one? The focus on Marcus? The present title and Marcus's involvement with Jennifer? Does this indicate the type of response the film-makers were hoping for?

4. The importance of the colour, settings in Venice, musical accompaniment, a rich and affluent background in Venice and in America? The atmosphere of the film? Could Jennifer and Marcus be considered in any way typical young people of the time, typical Americans?

5. Critics were particularly harsh on the quality of the dialogue. Does it merit this harsh judgment? One commentator said it should have been called 'Drug Story', parodying 'Love Story'. Is this so?

6. What genre did the film fit into? Was it a romance, a comedy, a black comedy, a parody of love stories? Were there elements of each? Which predominated? In the dialogue, in the finished product?

7. The value of the flashback technique? The initial mood of Jennifer's death, Marcus's response. the eccentric comedy of Selina’s visit, his tape-recording his response? The continual return to this theme, in the light of the flashbacks? Did they illuminate what was happening to Marcus at Jennifer's death?

8. How credible a character was Marcus? His qualities as a young man, the influence of his family, his grandfather as a gangster, the inherited wealth, a rich man, trying to hide Jennifer, burying her in the piano? The contrast with his meeting Jennifer and falling in love with her? Could you understand what kind of person he was?

9. How attractive a character was Jennifer? Her affluence, her mother getting divorces, a girl of whims, involved with drugs, with no purpose in life, so easily bored? Was she credible? Sympathetic? Which sequences illustrated her character best?

10. Comment on the varying closeness and distance between the two? Marcus close to Jennifer in his dreams, hopes and visits? Jennifer keeping her distance? Tantalizing him? The lapses of time when they didn't see each other? The visits and the eccentricity? The importance of the return to Venice? The fact that Marcus never was really close to her?

11. The build-up to the final visit when she was desperate? Her appeal to Marcus and his response? The fact that he had always given her drugs when she wanted them? His using drugs as a means to contact her? Her eccentricity on the balcony and wanting to dive into the pool (the way that this had been prepared for at his visit on her birthday when she was on the roof etc.?)? Was Marcus right in administering the drugs? How responsible was he for her death?

12. The serious side of the plot in trying to bury Jennifer? The humorous side and the black comedy with the corpse? In the piano? The visit of Selena, and the psychologist and their leaning on the piano and Marcus's telling the truth? The good Samaritan on the way helping with the tyre? The wharf and Marcus's inability to put her in the water? The final irony of the car crash and Jennifer's being incinerated?

13. The contribution of such characters as Selena? her psychologist friend, Marcus's friend who helped him bury Jennifer, the Good Samaritan, the gypsy taxi driver, the guitar drug-pushers?

14. How well or badly did the elements of comedy and romance blend?

15. The quality of the film as an ironic love story?

16. How significant was the film in its exploration of human nature and modern America?

JESSE JAMES

US, 1939, 106 minutes, Colour.
Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine, Donald Meek, Jane Darwell.
Directed by Henry King.

Jesse James and his brother Frank James have been portrayed in many a Hollywood film. With Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda in the central roles in 1939, there was also The True Story of Jesse James, directed by Nicholas Rey in 1956, with Robert Wagner. Bob Hope sent up a variation on the legend in his comedy, Beau James. Later variations on the theme appeared in such films as American Outlaws, with Colin Farrell as Jesse James and Brad Pitt as Jesse James in The Assassination of Jesse James’ by the Cowardly Robert Ford. In this film, John Carradine is Ford.

The film is straightforward in its presentation of the west. It is a variation, of course, on the Robin Hood story or the good David and Goliath story, the oppressed outlaws against the railroad companies. The motivation for the moving into train robberies by the James brothers was the killing of their mother.

Eventually, Jesse James was killed, shot in the back by Robert Ford for the reward. Frank James survived – and was to appear in Fritz Lang’s film, The Return of Frank James in 1941.

There is a great deal of argument about the legendary status of the James brothers – whether they were oppressed by authorities and reacted accordingly, in a parallel with Ned Kelly in Australia, or whether they were cold-blooded robbers and killers.

Tyrone Power was at the peak of his popularity at this time, having appeared in a number of films for 20th Century-Fox? in the mid to late 1930s including Lloyds of London. He was to go on for a successful career for almost twenty more years before his untimely death. Henry Fonda was a strong star in the 1930s and continued in films until 1948 including a number for John Ford including The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine and Fort Apache. He was absent from the screen until 1955, concentrating on theatre work. He reappeared in Mr Roberts? and War and Peace and was to continue his career for another twenty-five years, finally winning an Oscar for On Golden Pond in 1981.

The film was directed by Henry King, a strong director for many years in Hollywood, especially at 20th Century-Fox? where he directed Tyrone Power in many films from Lloyds of London to King of the Khyber Rifles in 1955.

1. A classic Western? Reflecting the film-making style of the 30's, early colour photography? the western style, conventional westerns? The influence of this kind of film in later decades?

2. The American film tradition of the West, the presentation of the pioneers. their difficulties, the railroad, the legends about the west, of people? The atmosphere of oppression and evil?

3. The presentation of the railway in Western films: the groups, companies, railways crossing America, communication, migration to the West? The men involved with the railroads, the criminals, the land for the money, the cruelty and the disregard of peoples lives, farms? Outlaws, the action of the law on the side of the railways? This as part of the American heritage? An ugly side of America?

4. The status of the legend about the Jameses? Is it possible to get at the facts? The railroad situation. poverty and oppression, killings? The good aspects of the James revolting against the railroads? The bad aspects of their lives, becoming more and more immersed in the outlaw raids? How credible is this presentation of the legend? The effects of creating legends out of the Jameses, the heritage for American history, mythology? How adequately did this film present the pros and cons of the life of the Jameses?

5. The opening with the railroad situation, the pressuring of the side people, the brutalities, giving them so little money? The fights? The personalities of the agents and their ruthlessness? Tactics? The law supporting them? Death as being no object? The confrontation at the James ranch? Mrs James and her hostility, yet her reasonableness? Jesse and the fight? Bettering the agent and his vengeance? Mrs James's death and its repercussion?

6. Tyrone Power’s style as Jesse James? As a young man himself, working, bond with his brother, mother? Hopes for the future? A leader? His skill in dealing with the agents, that being transferred then to the revolt against the railroad people and the law? Into outlaw? The contrast with Henry Fonda’s style as Frank? Older yet supporting Jesse? The bonds between the two brothers? The decision for resistance? their followers? Thinking that
law was on their side? The decision to hold up the train, the picturing of the first robbery?

7. Why did the outlaws come to like it? When could they have stopped? How well was this illustrated in their robberies, confrontations with one another, decisions, the influence of Macaulay?

8. The portrayal of the attractive heroine? Her relationship with her uncle and his running of the paper and his attitudes? Her love for Jesse, helping him even when the boy was present? The possibilities for the future? Her persuading Jesse to go to gaol and trial? sharing his disillusionment with the dishonesty of the railroad people? Wanting to build a marriage, family? His not being present at the birth of their child and her disillusionment? Her return home yet her continued love for him? The hopes at the end? An idealised presentation of the couple?

9. The personality of Macaulay, as a marshal, as a just man, love for Zee, helping of Jesse, his disillusionment with the railroad people? His constant presence at the court for Zee?

10. The presentation of those associated with the railroad, the brutality, Jesse’s killing them - their fight? Law and order? The railroad official, the small man and his vengeance, his betrayal and not keeping his word? His being undone by the brothers? The farce of the preparation for the trial? Audience sharing the zest for escape?

11. The build-up of the robberies? The drama of the Northfield-Minnesota? raid? The preparation for the betrayal? Jesse and his disillusionment at this stage? So many years passing, the disappointment after he left the boy? The confrontation with Frank? The breaking up of the group yet Jesse’s being persuaded to keep them together? The portrayal of the raid, the shooting, the escape?

12. Jesse’s return to his wife, becoming a legend because of' his death and yet the hope for a private life and an honest future? The build-up to the visit? the double talk, the upstairs - the boy playing outlaws outside? The pathos of his death? The film ending with the unveiling of the monument?

13. So many monuments to the Jameses, even film monuments? Is the final speech adequate in explaining the Jameses in the 19th century context? The group in the revolution against injustice? The evil in the robberies and its getting a hold?

14. The later re-assessment of the James’s in the light of history? The importance of' such mythological outlaws in the heritage of' a nation?

THE JAYHAWKERS

US, 1959, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jeff Chandler, Fess Parker, Nicole Maurey, Henry Silva.
Directed by Melvyn Frank.

The Jayhawkers is an unusual project for the writing and directing team of Norman Panama and Melvyn Frank. Their career was mainly as writers and directors of light comedies. They achieved some immortality with the two Danny Kaye vehicles, Knock on Wood and The Court Jester. Here they try their hand at a western – with quite some success.

The film was one of Jeff Chandler’s last films before his untimely death. He portrays a very strong man with Napoleonic ideals and a lust for power in Kansas prior to the outbreak of the civil war. He clashes with the upright man played by Fess Parker – who had appeared in the mid-50s with great success as Davy Crockett and appeared in The Great Locomotive Robbery. Nicole Maurey had appeared with Bing Crosby in Little Boy Lost and is an unusual French presence in the American west. Henry Silva, generally sinister in his screen appearances, was at the beginning of a long career.

The film is of interest in its re-creation of the state of Kansas prior to the civil war, the issues between north and south, power struggles – and the heritage that was to be changed because of the war.

1. The quality of this western, use of conventions?

2. Contribution of colour, locations photography, sense of authenticity?

3. How the audience enter the action via Bleeker and his escape from prison his return home, his attitudes, illness? Immediate response to him and the change?

4. The background of the human drama for the more political drama? Bleeker and his encountering of Jeanne? Her European background, experience of revolutions, her husband's death, her bringing up her children, work, her need for help? Her saving Bleeker, How did this provide a humane background for the political issues?

5. The picture of pre-Civil War Kansas? The towns, the emerging state, the raids from the South, the need for protection, power hungry men, the excuses of law and order for raids? Clashes of North and South? The morality of the raids and the men involved in them?

6. Bleeker and his response to his arrest? The temptation of a deal with the Governor? His memory of his wife? Darcy as the villain? His motivations? His criticism of the methods of the Governor?

7. How central was the character of Darcy? Jeff Chandler’s presence and style? His role in Kansas and his power hunger? His goals and his methods? Admiration for Napoleon and modelling himself on him? His oratory, his control of people, the appearance of a gentleman, masking his ruthlessness? His rules and administration of them? His power of life and death? As illustrated in his dealing with his men? The situation in the States and pre-civil War period giving rise to this kind of fascist leader?

8. How well did the film show the interaction of Darcy and Bleeker? The changing motivation, the mutual admiration, the speeches about friendship? Their belief in one another? Bleeker being affected by Darcy’s administration, his successes? Why did he change his attitudes? The influence of Jeanne?

9. The visualizing of the raids? Darcy’s point of view, Bleeker’s point of view, the townspeople's point of view for protection? Darcy’s administration and rule? His control over people? The build-up to the raid in which Michelle was hurt? The reaction on Bleeker and his rescuing Michelle? The change of heart, the reasons for this?

10. How well was the trap set for Darcy? The suspense at the end of the film? The visit of Jeanne to the Governor? Lorden and his seeing of Joanne? The vigil with Darcy present in the house, his kindness to the children? The film's communication of the ambiguity of attitudes in Bleeker and Jeanne?

11. The melodramatics of the final confrontation? The effect on Darcy of the betrayal? Lorden and his vindication, especially in the light of his previous behaviour and his attitudes towards Bleeker and the plot to get him hanged? The final fight? Did Darcy know that would die? The physical fight and its repercussions? The shooting? Bleeker's attitude towards Darcy in death?

12. The importance of the death scene, the emphasis on dignity? The petition to the Governor and his acquiescence?

13. How well were the issues of human nature and behaviour illustrated in a western in a Nineteenth Century American setting?

JAGUAR LIVES

US, 1979, 90 minutes, Colour.
Joe Lewis, Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasence, Barbara Bach, Capucine, John Huston.
Directed by Ernest Pintoff.

A blend of Martial Arts material with international espionage and drug-running. There is far too much plot and not enough explanation. The film moves rapidly from spectacular country to country. There are also numerous guest stars doing small acts. The style is either overacting or underacting and the writing is on the cliche level. The film at times gives the impression of being quite preposterous.

However, it is the type of comic strip material that was popular in the late seventies - and indeed is matinee material of all- times. The previous production by the group responsible for Jaguar Lives, The Silent Flute was a much better attempt at blending the Martial Arts, the mystique of self-understanding in a cinema form.

1. An entertaining Martial Arts spy story? Drug-running story? International glamour and espionage?

2. The colour, the variety of world locations and their beauty, the exotic aspects? Audience interest in the international scene?

3. How effective was the structure: the encounter of Jonathan and Brent and the betrayal? His being in Colorado and his training? His being commissioned? The various strands of the mystery? The international locations? The characters and. their backgrounds? The establishing of the issues? The mystery of Estaban and his final challenging?

4. The impact of the opening and its spectacle, danger, Brent's betrayal?

5. The contrast with Jonathan at home in Colorado, his training, his being able to return to Colorado at the end?

6. The girl and her arrival, her commissioning him, her return at the end? Her participation in the activities?

7. Comment on the various strands and their presentation both visual and dramatic:
- the Middle East, the blind man, his role in-the organization, his grandson, his information, the dramatics of the release of the prisoner?
- Latin America, the insane general, his wealth, torturing, the spectacular escape?
- Spain and the wealthy millionaire, his ships, his injury, the kidnapping? His dead son? His being pressurised for the smuggling?
- Rome and the woman in charge of the factory, her heavies and their confrontation with Jonathan?
- Hong Kong, the emphasis on the city, the spy disguised as a nun?
- Japan and the wealthy ex-agent, his drug-running, suave manner, his arranging the fight to the death in the gardens and letting Jonathan go despite the fact his headstone was there?

8. The drug issues and international drug-running, the final parting and the celebration by the exploiters?

9. Jonathan's intrusion and the spectacular fight to the death in the medieval castle? Martial Arts material?

10. The comic strip style of the film and its success? The complexity of the plot? Heroics? Confrontation of good and evil?

JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME

US, 1965, 96 minutes, Colour.
Shirley Mac Laine, Peter Ustinov, Richard Crenna, Jim Backus, Scott Brady, Fred Clark, Wilfred Hyde White, Harry Morgan, Richard Deacon, Leon Askin.
Directed by J. Lee Thompson.

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home is an extravagant comedy of the mid-60s – with the touch of the permissive society emerging in the United States at the time. However, it is a comedy which is tongue-in-cheek. This can be seen immediately from the exaggerated comic names of most of the characters including Peter Ustinov as King Fawz and Harry Morgan as Secretary of State Deems Sarajevo. Fred Clark is Hymus Overidge, the head of the CIA.

The film is about the Notre Dame football team travelling to the Middle East and getting caught up in the politics – as well as the harem. Shirley Mac Laine portrays the magazine reporter from Strife magazine. Richard Crenna is John Goldfarb. (Crenna is probably better remembered for his character roles in the 70s and 80s in such films as First Blood and the other Rambo films as well as many television movies.)

The film achieved a certain notoriety at the time of its release because Notre Dame University took out a court injunction to delay the release of the film. The claim was that 20th Century Fox had “knowingly and illegally misappropriated, diluted and commercially exploited for their private profit the names, symbols, football team, prestige, high reputation and goodwill” of the university. The studio finally won against Notre Dame. They objected to the amoral behaviour of the students from Notre Dame.

The film was written by William Peter Blatty, an author with a Catholic background, best known as the author of The Exorcist. The film was directed by Britain’s J. Lee Thompson who had made interesting films in Britain during the 1950s including such films as Tiger Bay. He moved to the United States, made more spectacular films like The Guns of Navarone and stayed in the United States making a lot of action adventures, especially in the 70s and 80s with Charles Bronson.

1. The overall impact of this film, success or failure? The critics were most hostile. The authorities at Notre Dame sued. Why?

2. The value of colour, Panavision, American scenes, atmosphere of the Middle East, modern music and the title song?

3. How successful was the material on paper, the spoof of American politics, Arab oil millionaires and their use of their wealth, the sixties and the atmosphere of espionage and cold war American diplomacy, sport? How good were the ideas for the spoof?

4. Was there a corresponding success in the film? Comment on the style, the exaggerations, the characterizations, the communication of the jokes?

5. The presentation of Fawzi as a place, the opening, the American ambassador and his gifts, the British Administrator and his hold over the chieftain, the chief and his playing with trains, the modern harem, football ambitions? Was the satire on the Arab sheikhs clever? What major points of satire were made? Peter Ustinov's portrayal of the chieftain?

6. The character of 'Wrong-way' Goldfarb? Richard Crenna and his style? The satirical overtones in the character, especially as applied to a pilot flying over Russia? The overtones of jokes about sport? The credibility of his crash, his being rescued In Fawzi? The command to train the football team and the various sequences showing his exasperation? The point of his choosing a woman from the harem?

7. Shirley MacLaine's skill in portraying a reporter? The skittish overtones of the characterization? Her going into the harem? Her becoming ugly to scare off the sheikh? Her giving the name to Goldfarb, her dependence on him, the hostility, growing involvement? Was she a credible character? The zest with which Shirley MacLaine? played her?

8. The satire in the presentation of the State Department, Secretary of State, C.I.A.? Their language, behaviour, bungling? The skits on diplomacy and politics?

9. The use of Notre Dame with its football reputation? How well were they used? Grounds for the university's suing the film company? The skit on American football players, encountering the Middle East?

10. How humorous were the banquet scenes, the final football match? Purpose?

11. The purpose and achievement of the film?

JEZEBEL.

US, 1938, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Fay Bainter, Richard Cromwell, Henry O’ Neill, Spring Byington.
Directed by William Wyler.

Bette Davis had let Hollywood know that she would like to appear in Gone With The Wind as Scarlett O’ Hara. However, she was not cast. Instead, Jezebel is her chance to be a southern belle, wilful like Scarlett O’ Hara. The Jezebel of the title refers to the biblical character from the Books of Kings, the wife of King Ahab who helped her husband gain property that he coveted, urged him on to battle, urged him to worship false gods, confronted the prophet Elijah, used make-up to attract the conquering King Jehu, was cast down from her window by the king and the dogs ate her in the streets. The symbolism of Jezebel for Julie is quite clear.

The film is set in New Orleans in the 1850s, hints of slavery and abolition and hints of the coming war. However, the climax of the film is an outbreak of Yellow Fever.

Bette Davis was emerging as a great American actress during the 1930s and won an Oscar for her performance in Dangerous in 1935. She had impressed audiences with her role in Of Human Bondage opposite Leslie Howard in 1934. After troubles with Warner Bros and suing them about her contract, she was given Jezebel and made a great success of it, winning her second Oscar. Henry Fonda is very strong in the central male lead role. Regulars at Warner Bros appear in supporting roles and Fay Bainter as Aunt Belle was to win an Oscar for best supporting actress.

The film was directed by William Wyler. Wyler was to win three Oscars for direction and best film with Mrs Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben Hur. Of all directors, he is the director who has directed most actors to Oscar-winning performances. The film was also nominated for an Oscar for best music by Max Steiner and best black and white cinematography.

It still stands well as a piece of Americana, life in the south before the civil war.

1. The meaning of the title? The Biblical overtones of the name and the application to Miss Julie? Was she a Jezebel?

2. Comment on the effectiveness of the film's portrayal of New Orleans, its styles and its customs.

3. Comment on the film's picture of the economic situation of New Orleans and the south. How realistic a picture did the film give? What details were emphasised in this in the life and the work, of the City?

4. How well did the film communicate Southern suspicions of the North? Why was the South suspicious of the North?

5. What kind of person was Miss Julie in herself? her place in society? Her contempt of ordinary people? Her relationship to the men of the city? The impact of the duel?

6. The Ball sequence and the fact that she was late? Her being spoilt, her flouting of conventions? How important was the Ball sequence?

7. Comment on the incidental picture of society and the minor characters of the film - Aunt Bell, the remarks that were made?

8. Preston and his work at the Bank? What kind of man was he in himself? As a Northerner? His relationship to Julie? The nature of their love?

9. The impact of the clash between North and South and its repercussions for the South?

10. Julie and the red dress, for herself, for society, for the film? Julie's relationship to Buck?

11. Had Julie changed by the end of the film? Her rejection by Buck? Her relationship to Preston? The collapse of her world? The humiliation and the change of her tone? Her jealousy? her realisation of her lost opportunities?

12. Was the finale of the film realistic - her going off heroically? Trying to atone? What future did each of the characters have at the end of the film?

13. Has the film dated? what insight into America of the 19th century? Did Bette Davis deserve an Oscar for this performance?

JOHNNY CONCHO

US, 1956, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Frank Sinatra, Keenan Wynn, William Conrad, Phyllis Kirk, Wallace Ford.
Directed by Don Mc Guire.

Johnny Concho is an unusual choice for Frank Sinatra for a film in the mid-1950s. He had won an Oscar for From Here to Eternity, had just appeared in The Man With The Golden Arm and was to appear in bigger-budget films like The Pride and the Passion with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren.

This is a very short, small-budget western – and a variation on the theme of a town being terrorised by a gunman his younger brother being able to do what he likes to dominate the town. Sinatra is a slight physical presence though he can dominate on-screen. The film has a strong character actor supporting cast led by Keenan Wynn.

The film was directed by prolific screenwriter Don Mc Guire who wrote a number of strong films in the 1940s including Pride of the Marines. He directed only a few films, the most prominent of which was made the year after Johnny Concho, directing Jerry Lewis in The Delicate Delinquent.

1. A good quality Western? Small budget? Frank Sinatra as star and producer?

2. The Western conventions used, how well? The portrayal of the town, Johnny Concho and his role, on his brother, the handicap the gun fighters, the gamblers? The chant structure and the suspense and excitement? The devotion of Mary? The intervention of Barn? The transformation of the coward of the West into a hero? A hero for the people?

3. Contribution of photography, locations and sets, music? The importance of Frank Sinatra in the fifties and his style?

4. Audience interest in the plot: the portrayal of the town, the various characters, the farmers and their need for protection, their handing themselves over to the Conchos. The coward and his gambling? His presumption and arrogance, hostility towards him? The introduction of the older brother's death, the gamblers and their taking over of the town? The building up to a confrontation? How realistic the situation in the town, audience identification with the locals and their need for protection, fear of the gun fighters? How much did the audience share the hostility towards Johnny Concho? How much did they share sympathy for him during his stay? Admiration for him as he protected the town? The suitability of the plot for Western conventions?

5. The film as a character study of Johnny Concho and the weakling coward type? Frank Sinatra's contribution to this character? The scenes of his gambling, his pushing people around, his reliance on his brother? The impact of his brother's death and his whole person? People's hostility? The challenge to the gun fight and his knowledge that he could not win? People's support, lack of support? Mary? The humiliation of his having to leave the town? The support in his flight? The significance of the confrontation with Barney? The transformation and its credibility? What qualities did he have that he could drawn on, strength? His becoming a Western hero in the conventional sense and yet in a human context? A hero of the American West and part of its heritage?

6. The characters in the town, families, Mary's father, Mary herself as devoted to Johnny Concho, the encounter with him during the flight from the town, with Barney? Her being vindicated? The portrayal of Barney and his gunfighter role in the church? The dramatic and thematic significance of the encounter with Barney and his advice and the religious setting? The contrast with the gunfighters, the gamblers? Their shooting, their taking over the town, exploiters?

7. The themes of the pioneering of the West, the building up of the towns, the being exposed to the exploiters? The role of the gunfighters and the gamblers? The farmers?

8. The build-up to the final show-down? The 'High Noon' tradition and audience interest in and identification with such an occasion? How well was it handled in all details, audience expectations of the Western, of this character study of Johnny Concho?

9. How valuable in this kind of film in portraying human nature? On the qualities of human nature that can be drawn? Of how human beings ought to treat one another for good? The transformation of a weak human being into a here?

JOHN PAUL JONES

US, 1959, 126 minutes, Colour.
Robert Stack, Bette Davis, Marisa Pavan, Charles Coburn, Macdonald Carey, Jean-Pierre? Aumont, David Farrar, Peter Cushing, Bruce Cabot, Basil Sidney.
Directed by John Farrow.

John Paul Jones is a very ambitious film, especially for John Farrow who wanted to make bigger films after his success in winning an Oscar for co-writing Around the World in Eighty Days in 1956. However, Farrow was much more adept at smaller-budget films, especially thrillers. From 1940 to the mid-50s he made a series of short, smaller-budget films on which his reputation rests. He made a number of war films including Wake Island, Commandos Strike at Dawn, China, The Hitler Gang. After the war, at Paramount, he made a number of films like Two Years Before the Mast, Calcutta, Blaze of Noon. In the 1950s he moved to more spectacular action adventures including Hondo and The Sea Chase with John Wayne.

Farrow had spent some time in the navy and was injured. He also became a convert to Catholicism, marrying actress Maureen O’Sullivan? in 1936. Amongst their children was Mia Farrow.

The film has been criticised for not being factually accurate. It is rather a drama based on some legends, propagated during the 19th century, making a hero out of Jones who fell foul of the American Congress after the War of Revolution and found himself sent to Russia to work with the Empress Catherine the Great. He fell out with some of the Russian admirals, especially Potemkin, and finally lived his final years in Paris. Robert Stack is rather stiff and stolid as John Paul Jones. Bette Davis as a guest role as Catherine the Great. The film belongs to the period of the late 50s – with a rather overblown style which does not sit well on succeeding generations of audiences.

1. An enjoyable film? Why? For whom was it made? How strong would it be for Americans? Why?

2. How successful a historical spectacle was this film? The use of colour, locations, costumes, historical sense, battles? Was this important for this film? How much did it rely on this?

3. Critics said the film showed many cliches. Do you agree? What kind of cliches were they talking about? Many said the film was too slow-moving, too much morale-boosting. Was it too slow, too patriotic with propaganda? the success of Robert Stack as the hero?

4. How well did the film show John Paul Jones in his time? The Scottish background and its impact on him, his going to sea and his experience in the Bahamas, the mutiny and the two-year court case, his experience in Virginia and his quiet life, his knowing of the War of Independence and the apathy of America, his participating in the war against Britain? his friendship with those involved in the American War of Independence, the background of France as allied to America? England as enemy and to be raided, the role of Russia at the end of the Eighteenth Century? The meaning of John Paul Jones's life and career in these times?

5. How successful was Robert Stack's performance as Jones? Did he portray him as a rounded character? Or was he somewhat 'wooden' in his performance? Was the ideology behind Jones's life and actions clear in the performance? Trace the history of Jones's life and the influences on his opinions. Did this explain why he was such a naval and patriotic hero?

6. What was the achievement of John Paul Jones? The beginnings of the American Navy? The quality of the individual heroism required, his belief in team spirit, especially when challenged by men like Washington and Franklin? His honesty and against manoeuvring and graft? His humiliations and his daring? The heroism and foolhardiness of his raids? His independence in feeling? the ingredients of a hero? How important was Benjamin Franklin in the film? His importance for American Independence? His role in France, his support of Jones?

7. How important were the sequences in the French court? The American alliance with France - the American flag received in France? The support of the King? Jones's love for France?

8. How interesting wore the minor characters? in themselves, in their influence on Jones? Sir William in the Bahamas and his advice to Jones, Patrick Henry and his support and his introduction to the war effort, Dorothea and her love, her father's influence? McBains? and his loyalty and the two black boys, the other people who supported Jones?

9. How well staged were the battle sequences? The personality of Captain Pierson and the fight of English and American ships? How was this a climax for the film?

11. Did the Russian sequences fit in well with the rest of the film? What impact did they have on Jones's career? The meeting with Catherine the Great (and Bette Davis's performance)?

12. How important was the heroism of this kind of man? its impact on a nation? The need for a nation to continually remind itself of its heroes?

JOHNNY GUITAR

US,1954, 110 minutes, Colour.
Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes Mc Cambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Paul Fix.
Directed by Nicholas Rey.

Johnny Guitar has become something of a cult classic. Directed by Nicholas Rey, who had made a number of solid films in the early 50s including the western, The Lusty Men, and who was to go on to direct Run For Cover and Rebel Without a Cause before moving on to bigger-budget films like The King of Kings, the film was seen as something of a feminist western. This is due to the fact that the two central characters are played by Joan Crawford and Mercedes Mc Cambridge. Joan Crawford is a woman with a shady past, who sets up a saloon waiting for the railroad to come through and to make her money and success. However, Emma Small, played by Mc Cambridge, is a bad woman in the town who is jealous of Joan Crawford’s character because of a handsome ne’er-do-well, the Dancin’ Kid (Scott Brady). Emma Small and the Dancin’ Kid are involved in a bank robbery – and Emma Small confronts Vienna, Joan Crawford’s character, and there is a showdown. The enigmatic title character, Johnny Guitar, is played by Sterling Hayden, who had been involved with Vienna in the past and was a famous gunman. There is a final whip-cracking confrontation between the two women.

Joan Crawford had been a success in the MGM studios in the 1930s, often in musicals. During the 1940s she had great success at Warner Bros in tough roles, winning an Oscar in 1945 for Mildred Pierce. Mercedes Mc Cambridge was a character actress who won Best Supporting Oscar in 1949 for All the King’s Men. Later she was to provide the voice of the demon in The Exorcist.

The film was written, allegedly, by Philip Yordan who wrote many screenplays. However, at the time he was living in Paris and was the front for several of the blacklisted writers. The writer of this film was Ben Maddow and Yordan fronted for him for about four years with such films as The Naked Jungle and No Down Payment. His own films include The Man From Laramie, The Last Frontier, The Harder They Fall at this particular time.

1. Was the title the right title? Did it give the accurate focus of the film? The tone for the film? The use of the song?

2. What impact did this film have as a Western? Why? Comment on its use of conventions, the hotels, the hold-ups, the silent hero, the posse, railways, lynchings, shootings, the escape? Were they more than conventional?

3. How important were the psychological tones of the film? The main protagonists being women? Vienna and the complexity of her appearance, as a gun-fighter, and as the belle of the ball? Enna as the lady gun-fighter and villainess? The significance of a shoot-out between women? Women acting in the traditional man's image? The identity of man and woman in each of the characters? The psychological struggles and the sub-conscious, especially in Emma and her reaction to Vienna, the kid? The love and hate relationship between Johnny and Vienna? How credible was all this? Was it meant to be realistic? Did it say that the West was the set for such psychological conflicts?

4 How effective was the plot, the hotel and the gambling, the railway, the owners and the bankers verses the squatters the role of the hero as gun-fighter and saviour, the background of robberies and chases, the realities of lynching especially for the heroine, the drama of the shootings and the final shoot-out? How good a Western plot was it?

5. How well did the film focus on Vienna as central for the film? Her appearance as a gun-fighter and in dresses? Her changing at the end for the shoot-out? Her ambitions and the way she forcefully spoke? The background of her emotional tangles, the love-hate with Johnny In the past, her relation to the dancing kid? Her hatred? The fact that she did good to others like her helpers? Tom? Such sequences as her playing the piano and protecting the boy? The hanging and her being rescued? Her response to the gambling place being burnt down, her being on fire? Her initiatives in the chase, yet her domestication, preparing breakfast? Her role in the shoot-out as not immediately shooting Emma? What future did she have? The appearance of Joan Crawford in this role? Insight into Vienna as a woman and as a heroine? In the American west?

6. How impressive was Emma and the impact she made? Appearing in black, her hatred, her role as a banker, her challenges to Vienna, the psychological struggles and the hatred, her leading the chase, her having the whip for the lynching, the pursuit, her shooting at Vienna, the impact of her death? Her reaction to the dancing-kid and her feeling like a woman and not wanting to be? The man-woman conflict in her? The social background of the banker and the squatter? Her hold over the men and their final reaction against her? How convincing a mixed-up villainess in the American West?

7. Johnny Guitar himself - what impact did he make, how impressive a hero? The past, the song, that he was gun-happy, his Independence, his rescuing of Vienna, following her, the love and hate, the final shootings? The future for them?

8. What did McIvers? stand for? The rich landowner threatened? His being pushed by Emma? His backing down?

9. What was represented by Bart? The typical villain cantankerous, evil, the initial fight with Johnny, killing his companion, the inevitability of his being shot? The comment on the ugly Western villain?

10. The character of the lynched boy? His place in the gang? The unwillingness to help him, his bargaining and betraying of Vienna? the horror of the lynching?

11. The character of Tom and his loyalty to Vienna, his death, everybody looking at him?

12. The importance of the saloon itself in the films Vienna's ambitions, the place of confrontations, the games being played? The emptying, the destruction by fire?

13. Comment on the way the confrontations took place, especially Vienna on the stairs, with the gun, at the piano?

14. Comment on the role of the hold-up of the stages the sequence of the bank robbery the importance of money?

15. The film's comment on hanging and lynching?

16. How exciting were the final chases, the tunnel, the waterfall etc?

17. The conventional shoot-out and the way that this happened with the women? The role of the men?

18. Many consider this a classic western. Why?

JOHNNY DARK

US, 1954, 85 minutes, Colour.
Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Don Taylor, Paul Kelly, Sidney Blackmer, Scatman Crothers.
Directed by George Sherman.

Johnny Dark is a star vehicle for Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie who were emerging as top stars at Universal Studios in the early part of the 1950s. They had also appeared together in The Prince Who Was a Thief. This was the year that Tony Curtis also appeared in Houdini and The Black Shield of Falworth with his then wife Janet Leigh.

The film is familiar racing car material. Curtis is Johnny Dark, an enthusiast and an engineer who designs a new type of racing car. However, the sponsors won’t let him drive it so he enters it in another race and goes with his girlfriend. The film is mainly an opportunity for some fast car driving in American locations. The film was remade during the 1960s by Jack Arnold as The Lively Set.

1. An entertaining film? An early Tony Curtis vehicle? A Universal B feature of the fifties, style?

2. The sports genre and the conventional presentation of characters, glamorizing of cars and the race? Conventional presentation, different?

3. Photography, colour, locations, photography of the race? Bright musical background? Special effects, especially for the speed of the cars? Why do audiences so much enjoy the presentation of cars, speed?

4. How credible was the plot? The character of Johnny and his skill in car engineering? The world of racing cars? Big business? Romance? Johnny Dark's success? Big business backing him? Luck and chance? Satisfactory enough for this kind of light film?

5. How well drawn was the character of Johnny? Tony Curtis' style, hero? Skill in driving? Ambitions and plans for his cars? Lucky chances and his response? His preoccupation with the car over Liz, Duke? His anger at Duke when it was his own fault, for the failure in the race? Ambitions? Being humanized? His enterprise during the race? The happy ending? A conventional story - that most audiences like to identify with? Why?

6. The contrast with Duke? His skill in driving, risks? His wanting Liz? His rivalry, antagonism? Yet basic good-natured giving in at the end? Credible?

7. The character of Liz? As part of the Fielding family, attitude towards her grandfather, her work, involvement in the car design, infatuation with Duke, love for Johnny and yet her anger with him? The happy episodes? Her devotion and her exasperation? A typical heroine that most audiences can identify with?

8. The minor characters and the strength of their characterization: Scott and his memories of the past, his enterprise in the Fielding works, his quick thinking to save Fielding, promoting Johnny, betting against Fielding, coming to Johnny's aid? The American 'good guy'? The contrast with Fielding and the critique of big business? His vanity, wealth, anger and dominance over people, his being saved by Scott? His not backing Johnny and his deceit? The humour of his gradual involvement and his face being saved? The humour of Abby as the devoted, tough minded American secretary? The humour?

9. The presentation of the cars, the atmosphere of the fifties and the world of sports cars, the races and their dangers, the commentators and the fans, most of the footage being given to the final race and getting audiences involved?

10. A satisfactory entertainment, reflecting our world, the ordinary preoccupations of ordinary characters, ambitions, love?