PHILO VANCE’S GAMBLE

US, 1947, 61 minutes, Black-and-white.
Alan Curtis, Terry Austin, Frank Jenks, Tala Birell, Gavin Gordon, Cliff Clark, James Burke, Toni Todd.
Directed by Basil Wrangell.

Philo Vance had had a successful career on screen – especially, from the 1920s into the mid-1930s in the form of the suave William Powell. The suave Warren William had also had two outings as Philo Vance.

After the war, there were three Philo Vance films, all released in 1947. Besides this film there was Philo Vance Returns and Philo Vance and his Secret Mission (this one running for only 48 minutes).

While William Wright was the star of Philo Vance Returns, the other two films featured Alan Curtis. He was a successful choice for Philo Vance, not the suave manner of William Powell, but a solid down-to-earth approach to his character, the touch of the wisecrack, the touch of the flirtatious. (Alan Curtis was to die several years later in his early 40s.)

Frank Jenks is Ernie, Philo Vance’s associate, providing some comic touches, double takes, bad pronunciations, touches of vanity when boasting to his friends…

The plot is quite complicated and interesting. Character actor, Dan Seymour, is planning to doublecross his partner and steal an emerald he has procured, also doublecrossing a number of people who were partners in obtaining the emerald. He put out the word that Philo Vance is safeguarding the jewel. Then he is murdered.

Philo Vance is not safeguarding the emerald and goes to see the jewel entrepreneur who offers him a check for $1000 to do the job. The entrepreneur is shot, Vance is hit over the head – and becomes the target of the police investigation. However, the police agree to let Vance have his own investigation as well is theirs.

Second billing is given to Terry Austin as an actress who is hopeful of performing on a play in Los Angeles and then going to Broadway. She is associated with one of the partners in the jewel plan. There is also the agent who organised it. And there is a married couple who are in need of finance.

Vance has encounters which with each of the suspects, the audience becoming more and more suspicious, especially with the wife who was consulting the organiser and threatening him. In the meantime, the actress flirts with Vance and he responds, supporting her in her bid for theatrical fame and trying to assure the entrepreneur that the show could go on.

More murders. Vance is shrewd in investigation, even enlisting the help of the actress. He has a plan to flush the murderer out, getting the entrepreneur to phone all the other members of the group to assemble at midnight. Only the entrepreneur and the actress turn up. In the confrontation, the actress shoots the entrepreneur. Vance’s associate makes a phone call pretending it is the wife who wants the emerald getting the actress.

Suddenly, the actress is revealed as the mastermind of the plot, doing all the shootings, making sure that none of the other partners turn up for the revelation.

The initial criminal had concealed the emerald in a jar of face cream and there are some jokes along the way with James Burke as a policeman, some comic touches, allergic to the face cream. And, the continual presence of a little girl with her toy gun, promised a holster, getting herself messed up, Vance cleaning her face and discovering the emerald and hiding it in her toy gun.

Quite entertaining in its way.

SUBWAYS

US, 2015, 91 minutes, Colour.
Dane Harrington Joseph, Daniel Armando, Adrienne Lovette, Linda Manning.
Directed by Dane Harrington Joseph.

Subways is a brief American film written by Dane Harrington Joseph who takes the lead role. He plays Caleb, who works in a casting directors’ company, a subordinate, managing, making lists, hiring and firing, observing the singers and dancers as they audition.

The film moves through the stages parallel to Elizabeth Kubler Ross and her stages of grieving, from isolation, through to anger, bargaining, depression, resolution. These are all captioned throughout the film.

Caleb is African- American but has a half brother, the same father, but whose mother is white, and both have been brought up by the white mother – with a certain amount of dependence but also resentment, especially aimed at his brother ridiculing him for his lack of talent while he wants auditions.

The film sketches of various characters of the company, especially the chief who is also strong on hiring and firing. Caleb is also bashed by the friend of the young woman whom he fired. He spends a lot of the time with bandages on his face – but there are many interruptions with flashbacks.

Caleb travels on the subway and uses the subway as a symbol of the microcosm of the world, the number of commuters, the people, their lives, and his reflection on the meaning of life.

1. The title? New York City? The subway system, the trains and stations, the passengers, commuters? The subway is a place for observing people, human nature, an opportunity for reflection? The voice-over reflections?

2. The New York story, the stages of life and grief, from isolation, through anger, through bargaining, to depression, to resolution?

3. The world of casting directors, the office, the audition hall, the arrangements and lists, the office workers, their desks, the girl organising the glasses and other functions – and her being fired? The range of audition people, singers and the unexpected fine performance? The dancers? The staff, the supervisor, the selection of those to come back?

4. Caleb, his story? His age, black, his experience, personal life, at the office, the different clashes, with the boss? Feeling of isolation? Moving to anger? The lists, telling off the girl and firing her, the arrival of his brother, the explanation that they shared a father? His friends, conversation, drinks, his moodiness with them? On the subway, his reflections?

5. His life, his relationships, ups and downs with his brother, spurning him, saying had no talent when his brother wanted auditions? The father, the visit of his mother, her reprimanding a Caleb, quoting his actual mother and her abandoning him? Her love for Elliot? The interactions with Elliot, Caleb hard on him?

6. The encounter with the girl in the street, the boyfriend, the background of the firing, the bashing, his bandage and his wearing it throughout the film?

7. Caleb, reflection, depression, flashbacks, his behaviour, remembering?

8. The background are friends, the gatherings, the diners, the chatter? The men, the women? Work and skills?

9. The audience getting to know a particular character? And his future?

THE RIOT CLUB

UK, 2014, 105 minutes, Colour.
Max Irons, Sam Claflin, Holliday Grainger, Sam Reid, Douglas Booth, Freddie Fox, Natalie Dormer, Harry Lloyd, Samuel West, Tom Hollander, Geraldine Somerville, Julian Wadham, James Faulkner, Brown Findlay, Matthew Beard, Ben Schnetzer.
Directed by Lone Scherfig.

This film opens with a sequence in the 18th century, a fop engaged with the wife of an older man, the confrontation, accusations, the young man’s death – and the transition to the 21st century and The Right Club commemorating his memory.

The action takes place over a brief period of time. Max Irons is Miles, a well-educated young man who goes to Oxford, is willing to give up the allotted room Alistair, Sam Claflin, whose parents are demanding and whose brother had been to Oxford. To later meet at tutorials where they clash as well as in initiation into The Right Club. Commentators note the Bullingdon Club in Oxford.

There are only 10 members of the club and they have to be invited. There are the crass initiation ceremonies and a welcoming into the brotherhood of the club. It is very male oriented, presumptuous, arrogant, elitist.

Miles has met a young student, Lauren (Holiday Grainger) and has begun a relationship with her which will collapse because of his not defending her against the members of the club.

The bulk of the film is a dinner at a restaurant. The club has a bad reputation for trashing restaurants and has been banned in many areas. The proprietor of the restaurant is eager to have them and urges his kitchen staff and his daughter who works with him to attend to the students. As the evening progresses, their behaviour deteriorates, drunken sport school boys trashing everything, full of bravado, eventually attacking the proprietor and viciously injuring him. The police investigate. The members of the club seek to have a scapegoat.

Interestingly, the film was directed by Danish Lone Scherfig, who made films at home like Italian for Beginners but latterly moved to Britain to make films like Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, An Education, One Day and Their Finest.

Many audiences will find the film, especially the dinner sequence, very difficult to sit through. The screenplay was written by Laura Wade based on her play, Posh. It is certainly a critique of the British upper-class as dramatised by The Riot Club and its attitudes and behaviour.

1. The title? The 18th century incident? Dramatised? Adultery, the young man, the wife, her vengeful husband? The young man’s death? The establishing of the club? His memory?

2. The transition to contemporary Oxford, the vistas of the city, the streets, buildings, colleges? Exteriors and interiors? Student rooms? Tutors’ rooms? The restaurant, the dining room, the meal, the trashing of the room? The police, colleges? The London sequences? The musical score?

3. The connection of this story with the Bullingdon club? Secret clubs? Oxford, students, knowledge of the club, membership, limited to 10, elitist?

4. The focus on Miles, his background, good education, pleasant character, noticing Lauren, the attraction, their meeting, talk, outings, sexual encounter, relationship, the possibilities? His being the target for the Riot Club? The approaches? Hugo and the others? The president? His curiosity? Giving up his room for Alastair? In the tutorial, the clashes between them, the ideology? The role of the tutor?

5. The details sequences of the initiation? The putrid drink…? Miles involved, enjoying it, his choice? The ethos of the club? Morale, moral issues?

6. The contrast with Alastair, his parents, the reputation of his brother, his father’s expectations? Changing the room? Elitist? Wanting to prove himself? Wanting to be in the club, the initiation, the associates? The cars, the drinking, the bravado? The antagonism towards Miles? In the tutorials?

7. The focus on the personalities of the group, the president and his standing back somewhat, Hugo being older, dominating? The Greek student and his enthusiasm?

8. Themes of education, presumption, family, wealth, sports students, going to Oxford?

9. The preparation for the party, the proprietor, his eagerness to have the guests? His daughter helping him? The club, the reputation, trashing restaurants, their being banned? The other guests in the restaurant? The proprietor, the kitchen staff, the preparation of the meal? His tendency to kowtow to the richer students? The other guests and their complaints about the noise?

10. The development of the meal, eating and drinking, talk, spoilt schoolboy behaviour, drunken behaviour, the beginning to trash the place? The criticisms of the proprietor? Interactions with the daughter? Audience reaction to the growing misbehaviour?

11. Alastair and his phoning Lauren, her arriving, Miles and his surprise, the lewd talk, his not defending her, her breaking with him?

12. The owner, the appeals of the customers, his plea to the students, their spurning him, mocking him, Alastair and the fighting, bashing, the bat? The severe injuries to the proprietor? Miles, not participating, spattered with blood?

13. The arrival of the police, the interrogations? The scene of the club members, wanting a scapegoat? The different suggestions, Miles, the president, people backing down?

14. Miles, his parents being summoned, the president and the discussion, Miles been allowed to stay?

15. Alastair and his cousin, the previous discussions with the cousin about the club and its ethos? Alastair sent down, getting a job, encouraged by his cousin?

16. The film based on a play, the title, Posh? Audiences and their reaction to the students and their behaviour, their arrogant attitudes, elitist, class superiority? The film as a critique?

MENASHE

US, 2017, 89 minutes, Colour.
Menashe Lustig, Yoel Falkowitz, Ruben Niborski, Meyer Schwartz, Ariel Vaysman, Yoel Weisshaus.
Directed by Joshua Z.Weinstein.

There is often a hesitation in being invited into a closed community, especially a religious community that has strict cultural traditions. This is the case with films about Orthodox Jews. A number of these films, often critical, come from Israel. However, this is a film from New York City, an Orthodox enclave – and, significantly for cultural awareness, spoken in Yiddish.

This rather brief film opens with a street scene, men and women walking, the background of shops and buildings, but, in the foreground, many of the men with their hats and religious locks. From them a middle-aged man, a touch heavy, a touch balding, hat and locks, emerges and the camera follows him. He is Menashe.

Menashe is a widower with a young son. However, with memories of unhappy aspects of his marriage, he is very cautious about the tradition that he should marry again, that a man cannot manage a household. This is a woman’s task. In the meantime, his very demanding brother-in-law has taken charge of his son. The two men are seen frequently clashing.

While the film shows many scenes of Menashe at work, his busy and critical boss, an accident with goods and a truck, there are also many scenes of Menashe at home with his son. It is an awkward relationship, with memories of the mother. The boy is not entirely at ease with his father.

The central episode of the film is a dinner in memory of his dead wife. The brother-in-law expects that he and his family will prepare the dinner. Menashe is determined that he will, even though he is not particularly good at cooking and has to borrow recipes from his neighbour (one of the very few women who appears in the film, along with the mother of many children shopping in a supermarket).

Religious men talk amongst themselves, quote the Talmud, Menashe joining in the scripture readings and prayers. However, they come to the dinner and, even though the cooking is not particularly good, the rabbi is complementary. And, Menashe’s young son sings his mother’s favourite song, giving some feeling to the dinner.

So, Menashe will assert himself, wants his son to stay with him and the son has to make his decision.

While so many of the interactions are common to human nature and universal, there is a continued challenge to an audience wanting to understand what seems to be a strange culture, sometimes oppressive traditions, always in the name of religion, and the listening to Yiddish making the characters and their crises even more distant.

1. A visit to an Orthodox community? An enclave in New York City? The city streets, shops, apartments, synagogue? The authentic feel?

2. The film in Yiddish? The nature of the language, its use in the community?

3. The title, the focus on Menashe, seeing him amongst the Orthodox men walking in the street, following him, his age, appearance, hat and religious locks?

4. Menashe, widower, relationship with his son, memories of his wife, his being expected to marry again, his not wanting to do this, the unhappy arranged marriage? The censorious attitude of his relatives, especially his brother-in-law? His son in their care? His work, the shop, his boss, sometimes clumsy, working late hours, the truck, loading it, everything falling out, the money debt…? His having to work night shifts?

5. The religious background, the role of the rabbis, the meetings, the men, their prayer? Expectations on Menashe? His being religious himself? Bible and texts? Discussions with the rabbi, the Talmud, injunctions?

6. His life at home, wanting his son? Confrontation with his brother-in-law? The son coming home, the discussions, the arguments, the tension between them? Memories of the mother?

7. The plan for the dinner, Menashe wanting to do it himself, getting the recipes, the friendly advice from the neighbour? His cooking? The reaction of the brother-in-law? The other relatives? The men?

8. The holding of the dinner, the boy in the preparation, the selection of the song? Everybody arriving, the meal, not well cooked, the rabbi making good points about the meal, the other men? The memories of the wife? The boy and his singing, everybody’s favourable reaction?

9. Marrying again, matchmaking, tradition and expectations?

10. The presence and absence of women? The women at the store? The neighbour?

11. Menashe wanting to keep his son, his son being willing to stay at home?

12. The effect of meeting these characters, in their religious and cultural context?

MICROBE & GASOLINE

France, 2015, 105 minutes, Colour.
Ange Dargent, Theophile Baquet, Audrey Tautou, Diane Besnier.
Directed by Michel Gondry.

It is not often that there is an engaging film about the friendship between two 14-year-old boys. The screenplay was written by Michel Gondry, a writer of distinctive talent, who has made lots of short films and videos and has made films in his native France as well as in the United States. His films include Human Nature and the film which drew him to world attention, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as well as The Science of Sleep and Be Kind Rewind. He made Mood Indigo in France as well as this film.

Ange Dargent is Daniel, the smallest in his class, nicknamed Microbe. His mother is played by Audrey Tautou. His 14, very good at drawing, interested in the meaning of life with his mother taking him to philosophical conferences. He is also preoccupied about sex and his slow puberty development. Theophile Baquet is Theo, a bit older, a bit taller, who comes new to the school but becomes a good friend to Daniel. They discuss a lot of issues, especially about sex and sexuality. However, Theo is good with his hands and together they work on a motor, repairing it enabling them to build their own car and, to avoid police inspection and regulations, build a house on top of the engine and go travelling through France. His nickname is Gasoline.

The boys are very good in their roles, completely convincing. The director takes us into the world of the adolescents, hesitant, curious, with major adolescence before them.

There are a humorous sequences as well as serious undertones – and a rueful ending.

1. An engaging film about young teenagers? Boys? Friends? Comparisons and contrasts? Their journey together?

2. The work of the director, the blend of realism and surrealism, serious undertones, comedy?

3. The Paris/ Versailles settings, the homes, the shops, the streets, school? The contrast with the open road, the range of scenery, the house-car, the dentist’s house, the woods, the lake, the town, the barbershop, the bridge? The musical score?

4. Establishing the character of Daniel? His nickname, being small? Aged 14, approaching puberty, sexual curiosity, his nude drawings, masturbation, talk about sex? The contrast with his brother, rivalry, friendship, animosity, kicking the soccer ball, the brother and his band, punks? Daniel and his drawings? The exhibition? Join the planning for the competition? At school, classes, the girls, conversations?

5. The arrival of Theo, a bit older, taller? His father with the antique shop? The severity of his father’s attitudes, his mother, her bad health, spurning her son? The older brother, drugs and drinking, joining the army? Coming into class, extroverted, the touch of the show off? Talking with Daniel, easy companion, the growing friendship, the meal with
Daniel’s family, his defence of Daniel? His encouraging the drawing? The exhibition, his being the only one turning up, dancing with the proprietor? His father and the junk, the
yard, buying the engine, taking it home, fixing it?

6. Daniel and Theo and the engine, the decision to build the car, like a house, driving, the refusal of registration? The plan to go off, the holiday, not telling their parents? The drive, the destination in the mountains, evading the police by turning the house car into a house, the police taking the selfie in front of it? Up hills and pushing? The town, Daniel and his hair, looking for the barbershops, the touch of the Mohawk, running from the Koreans, escaping in the car? Parked, the solicitous man, inviting the boys in, the meal, the room, the dental check, their escaping? Daniel and his longings for Laura, the drawing, manipulating the destination of the journey? The woods, seeing her in the water?

7. Daniel, serious, the meaning of life, his serious mother, her love for her sons, his accompanying her to the philosophical conference, books on science? The discussions with Theo, questions, curiosity, discussing issues of sexuality, Theo and his experience, caution? Their falling out?

8. The Koreans, Daniel with their soccer ball, the pursuit, Theo and the car, the confrontation on the bridge, the bargaining?

9. The parents, their concern, the mother’s death, the return home, the funeral? Theo’s father and sending him to live with his brother? The goodbye to Daniel?

10. The new year, lining up, the attraction to Laura, the friend and his taunting of Daniel, Daniel with the headlock that he was taught by Theo, running away?

11. Memories of a significant friendship and the sadness of it being broken?

DANGEROUS LADY


US, 1941, 63 minutes, Black and white.
Neil Hamilton, June Storey, Douglas Fowler, Evelyn Brent, Greta Granstedt, John Holland.
Directed by B. B. Ray.

This is a small B-budget, supporting feature, murder mystery. It is akin to the Thin Man series with William Powell and Myrna Loy, husband-and-wife, solving mysteries.

This time June Storey is a lawyer and Neil Hamilton is her private detective husband. The action takes place over several hours one night – quite a busy night’s work.

The private detective has been listening to a released prisoner who arrives at his apartment door in the early hours, shot and dying. The police have a tipoff and Brent, the private detective’s rival and nemesis from the past in the police force, takes the detective to headquarters and his wife, initially unwilling to become involved in solving crimes, goes along as the lawyer for the deceased.

There are quite some complications and some flashbacks. These involve a prisoner who has witnessed the murder of a judge and has confided this to his fellow prisoner. The witness then is found hanged in his cell. A young woman, in litigation before the judge, has been tried for his murder. Her rival, a former partner who has taken her to court, has a very suave manner and is very convincing. Also involved is the judge’s secretary.

There are scenes of interrogation at headquarters, visit to the prison cell, visits to the apartment of the secretary, visits to the apartment of the business rival, the detective, commandeering a taxi, his wife following, even further complications with the wife having all the solution to what went on (the young woman falling down the stairs, her rival taking her gun and shooting the judge, brutalising the secretary) and the police coming in after the wife has trapped the crooked prison doctor under a table and her husband has a rather lengthy fistfight with the murderer. The film ends with him getting a note indicating a further case…

A fairly easy watch, complicated plot, some incidental comedy with pratfalls by an apartment janitor. June Storey, who was the leading lady to Gene Autry in 10 films, is the lawyer and Neil Hamilton, a man with a career over 50 years from silent times to 1980 is the detective. John Holland, a suave presence and a strong voice, is the villain.

CHINESE ZODIAC

Hong Kong, China, 2012, 109 minutes, Colour.
Jackie Chan, Oliver Platt, Qi Shu, Bing Bai.
Directed by Jackie Chan.

Jackie Chan made many, many action films from the 1970s onwards. He became a cinema icon. Not only were his films made in Hong Kong but he also starred in quite a number of American films, something he continued to do over the decades.

This is a comparatively later Jackie Chan film. It is full of action adventure, full of stunts (always with outtakes during the final credits).

It is a very complicated story, including Oliver Platt as a wealthy businessman. There are quite a number of people wanting to have possession of a variety of antiques, especially a range of heads of symbolic animals. Jackie Chan is a scout, on the lookout for the antiques, becoming involved, an agent.

However, there are various complications with the law, with some shady organisations, with some more respectable organisations. And an extensive journey, quite spectacular, through China.

That, of course, is not the point. The point is that this is a Jackie Chan film, with his agreeable screen presence, cheerfulness, cheekiness, going into action, arranging all kinds of stunt work – and a range of those with whom he can fight.

Obviously, not a film to be discussed but to be enjoyed.

SAMPLE PEOPLE

Australia, 2000, 97 minutes, Colour.
Kylie Minogue, Ben Mendelssohn, Simon Lyndon, David Field, Paula Arundel, Joel Edgerton, Nathalie Riley, Nathan Page, Justin Ross, Matthew Wilkinson, Gandhi Mac Intyre, Dorian Nkono.
Directed by Clinton Smith.

Sample People is a rather garish to look at the lives of young people in an Australian city, especially in the nightlife, in drug dealings, in clubbing… The characters themselves are rather garish as well. The film was made in Adelaide – standing in for any Australian city, especially Sydney.

The film introduces a wide range of characters and interlinks their stories. By the end of the film, given the strength of performances of many of the actors, there is more interest in their fate than might originally been thought. The film was geared to a younger audience of the time, the end of the 90s. And it will probably be interesting to the same audiences as they look at their lives in some kind of retrospect.

There is a particular drug focus with David Field at a club engineering all kinds of deals, in love with Kylie Minogue who is really in love with the main dealer, played by Simon Lyndon. There is brutality in the relationship, brutality in the treatment of the dealer, harshness in people’s fates.

In another story, Joel Edgerton is an earnest young man, in love with a young woman who is prone to epileptic fits, Paula Arundel. They rescue a bizarre character, Johnny, something of a transvestite, questioningly heterosexual, seemingly homosexual and bashed accordingly. He is played, of all people, by Ben Mendelssohn. On the one hand, he is supported, follows the couple wherever they go but also intrudes, experiments sexually with the young woman, is finally rejected.

Yet another story concerns a takeaway shop, the proprietor, Gandhi Mac Intyre, and his son who wants to perform at clubs, Dorian Nkono, and the young man who works at the diner, somewhat reserved but eager to break out, buying new clothes, defying his boss, encountering a young woman concerned with fashion, going to a club with her.

The other story concerns two middle-class Australians who dream of being gangsters, imitating the style, the language, wanting to do robberies, assert themselves. The more obnoxious is played by Justin Rosniak.

Eventually, the stories come together, the two young thugs wanting to rob the owner of the takeaway, his employee having already taken the money wearing a mask, with a gun. The drug dealer comes upon them as do the couple and Johnny. There are shootings, especially with the dealer stepping in to save someone else’s life. The employee, with his gun, confronts the robbers, one more afraid and urging his friend to back down, the obnoxious one being shot, surprised in death.

Not exactly a wide-ranging sample of people, but a look at a group of young people in the city at the end of the 1990s.

POWER DIVE

US, 1941, 69 minutes, Black-and-white.
Richard Arlen, Jean Parker, Helen Mack, Roger Pryor, Don Castle, Cliff Edwards, Thomas Ross, Louis Jean Heydt.
Directed by James Hogan.

During the 1930s there were many aviation films especially with the interest of Howard Hughes. Cinematographers and editors became more adept at filming aerial combat and demonstration flights.

This brief film is in that vein. It is a story of inventors, one being killed in a crash and his wife grieving. Another, blind, working with plastics and experimenting. There are also two brothers, one a crash pilot, the other an inventor, the rivalry – especially with the daughter of the blind inventor, Jean Parker. Richard Arlen is the pilot. He and Jean Parker appeared that year in another aviation film, Flying Blind.

So, while there are the dramatics, there are also the aerial sequences, the risks that pilots took, going high in the air, trying to manage the craft in the gears, the peeling away of plastic, loss of consciousness, the crash dives.

There is what now seems rather lame comedy from one of the workers at the airport, Cliff Edwards.

This was the atmosphere of 1941, the film released in the months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The film is mainly of interest to those who like to know about the development of planes and aviation in the early 20th century.

THE MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE

US, 2018, 142 minutes, Colour.
Dylan O' Brien, Thomas Brodie- Sangster, Kaya Scoadelario, Walton Goggins, Katherine McNamara?, Aidan Gillen, Natalie Emanuel, Patricia Clarkson, Giancarlo Esposito, Barry Pepper, Ki Hong Lee.
Directed by Wes Ball.

Since this is the third episode in this young adult story, it is clearly geared for fans of the books on which the films are based as well as the films themselves. For those who might come to this film cold, it presupposes so much of the previous films that they might well be lost.

The fans will remember the previous films in all their detail, the first story about teenagers losing their memories and trapped in a maze. They will also recall the escape, the second film and the laboratories where experiments on a virus and the spreading of plague are done. For the less-involved audience and reviewers, it is sometimes a bit of a hard slog to remember the previous films in detail and not mix them up with similar stories, especially the Divergent series which it resembles in many ways, except that this time the central character is a hero rather than, as in Divergent and The Hunger Games, where the central character is female.

This time, the film opens with desert scenes, a ship that the rebels are refurbishing as a refuge, young captives in a train, rebels in pursuit, some rather spectacular stunt work with the rescue.

Then, we are introduced to get into a great number of the characters. At the centre, is Thomas. He has been played by Dylan O’ Brien but this time he seems a rather sullen, short-fused seeker of vengeance as well as a saviour figure. (The IMDb notes that Dylan O’ Brien is characterised by a goofy personality – he must be a good actor because there is absolutely nothing of goofiness in his performance here as well is in American Assassin).

The villains are also back. Aidan Gillen is Janson, the often seemingly-smiling security head of the laboratories where investigations are going on to find a serum against the play. Patricia Clarkson is also back again as the doctor who does have some sympathy for the rebels. With her is Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) who for motives important for herself has been the agent of the capture of the main rebels. One of them are still being experimented on, Minho (Ki Hong Lee).

Thomas is also prone to taking heroic risks as well as some dopey risks. He decides to go into the city to rescue his friend from the laboratories, naturally enough his best friends all agree to go with him. So does an older associate, Giancarlo Esposito.

So, there is a lot of action in the city, infiltrating the city, being the zombie-like plague victims, infiltrating the laboratories. There are a lot of confrontations, Thomas with Teresa, with Janson, leading to a lot of stunt work fights at the end.

Thomas has always had a thing for Teresa but is angry with her, wanting to go into the city to find her – and she finding that he is not only a saviour but his blood might have the cure for the world. It doesn’t quite work out for the happy-ever-after ending audiences might have hoped for. Thomas Brodie-Sangster? as Newt, Thomas’s devoted friend, is also in danger because he has contracted the plague.

As might be expected in this kind of post-apocalyptic story, there is a final remnant, finding peace away from the turmoil of the city and the plague.

With this series completed, what will turn up next…?

1. The popularity of the novels? Young adult stories? The film series? The central characters, their fates? A post-apocalyptic world?

2. The title, the focus on the plague, the virus and its spread, the effect on people, becoming zombielike? The search for a cure? Thomas and the possibilities?

3. The title, the focus on the initial story, the young people, loss of memory, in the maze, the monsters, engineering their escape? The sequel and the laboratories, their imprisonment, their escape through the desert, a new colony?

4. The initial landscapes, the desert, the water, the ship? The train moving throughout the countryside? The contrast with the city, the views from a distance, the skyscrapers? The interiors of the city, the drab streets, homes, tunnels, the laboratories, the interiors of the facility? Creating an atmosphere? The musical score?

5. Thomas as the focus of the story, his friendship with Newt? The betrayal by Teresa? Brenda and the other members of the group? Jorge, older and more experience, and Brenda and their help? Meeting Gally again? The hostility, the reconciliation?

6. The young people in the train, imprisoned, being taken to the city? The raid, the vehicles, the helicopter? The young man engineering the helicopter and the lifting of the carriage? Freeing the young people? Minho still in the city and undergoing treatment?

7. Vince, the leader, working with Thomas? The action? The hopes for the future, the boat?

8. Thomas, assertive, short-fused, not listening to people, dangerous risks? Getting the vehicle to go to the city? Wanting to rescue Minho? The others joining him, the voyage? Brenda and her cure? Newt and his being infected? Jorge and his advice, his knowledge of the city and its dangers?

9. Infiltrating the city, post-apocalyptic, the buildings, the ruins, drab? The population, infected, the zombie behaviour and attacks?

10. Meeting Nearly again, his role with the guards, the reconciliation with Thomas after the aggression, his role in helping, Thomas as group and the disguise as the guards, infiltration? Gally contributing to the rescue? And the future?

11. In the city, in the laboratories? Teresa and her past, working with the doctors, the attentions from Janson, her experiments? The sinister aspects of the experiments? The staff, the speculations? Minho, his character, his nightmares and their vividness, the touches of horror? His awakening, his wanting to get out?

12. The forces gathering in the city, the plans, Thomas and his leadership, Newt wanting to accompany him? Brenda and the rescue of the young people? The bus, the rendezvous? Gally and his men, their contribution?

13. Thomas going into the facility, the encounter with Teresa, the initial hostility, his love for her? Confronting her, confronting Janson, confronting the doctor?

14. The action sequences, the rescue of Minho, the dangers, the weapons, the fights, Janson and his opposition? Newt and his illness, being taken over, the attempts to rescue him? Jorge and Brenda, the communications with Thomas, the bus? The pilot, the lifting of the bus? The grip loosening, the bus falling?

15. Thomas and his fight with Janson, the intensity and detail? Janson’s death? Janson killing the doctor?

16. Teresa, her role, the experiment with Thomas’s blood, his being able to provide a cure? The attempted escape, on the building, the collapses – and Teresa allowing herself to fall?

17. The rescue, the escape? The return to the boat? The new community, by the sea, peacefulness? And a future?