MIDDLE SCHOOL, THE WORSE YEARS OF MY LIFE

US, 2016, 92 minutes, Colour.
Griffin Gluck, Lauren Graham, Alexa Nisenson, Andy Daly, Rob Riggle,Thomas Barbusca, Retta, Adam Pally, Jacob Hopkins.
Directed by Steve Carr.

It might be more than a bit of a shock for those who read James Patterson’s popular thrillers to find his name associated with this film, on which he serves as one of the executive producers. But, it is a screen version of one of his many collaborations, written for younger audiences.

With this said, older audiences may find it something of a trying experience to sit through. On the other hand, quite number of bloggers have use the unexpected word “endearing� to describe it.

Our hero, Rafe (Griffin Gluck) is a 12-year-old who has been in all kinds of trouble at different schools and is now being sent to the last one possible by his loving but exasperated mother, Lauren Graham. They and the little sister, Georgia, are still grieving the death of Eric, younger than Rafe, who has had a terminal illness and has died (not stopping him reappearing in his brother’s fantasies, collaborating with him and egging him on).

There is an impossible headmaster, full of himself (even full if that were possible), played to the hilt by Andy Daly, who is a prissy enforcer of the rules, enshrined in a book which he liberally hands out. His vice principal shares his rule-bound perspective and is a formidable-looking lady.

Things go badly for Rafe, especially when his book of drawings (of the graphic novel type) is handed around at the assembly to everybody’s laughter. The principal burdens his book. What else is a spirited young lad to do in such a situation – write down a list of the rules, determined to break every one of them before the external exam sitting, an enormous project of elaborate pranks, which take up the most part of the film.

Other characters include the mother’s potential boyfriend, Rob Riggle, an absolutely full of himself twit – who also, of course, gets the prank treatment. There is a sympathetic teacher who encourages his students to think – but who gets fired by the school principal. There is also an enterprising little girl who campaigns to be on a committee (with Rafe defying conventions and standing up and applauding her campaign speech), who comes to the rescue at the end, along with a put upon janitor, to expose the headmaster and get prank issue revenge.

So, if you like this kind of thing… A young audience might enjoy 90 minutes of vicarious rebellion (which one reviewer referred to as learning to be creative!) But, probably, whoa be tied any of them should they try to put any of these pranks into practice!

MOANA

US, 2016, 107 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Alan Tudyk.
Directed by Ron Clement, Don Hall.

Over the last few decades, the Disney studios have been concentrating on princesses or the equivalent of princesses in their animation films, from The Little Mermaid at the end of the 1980s, to Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, to the great success of Frozen. Here is the next contender, Moana.

Moana is a Polynesian name and the film draws on aspects of Polynesian mythology, life in the Pacific Islands, the Polynesians as voyagers. She is a young girl (Auli’I Cravalho), part of village life, with her parents and a wise grandmother. But, she also goes on a quest.

With aspects of creation stories, and symbols for life, especially in the heart, Moana wants to contact the great hero, Maui, who will help to restore life and order. Although she is not supposed to, she gets the boat and leaves on her quest, her only company being a rooster who is there as the inevitable bird or animal companion but, unfortunately, is too stupid to be really funny, despite a whole lot of efforts.

Storms, boat overturning, but with help from the life-spirit of the ocean, she eventually is stranded on an island where she finds Maui. Maui is of traditional Polynesian build, big and solid, which gives plenty of space for the range of tattoos all over his body, giving the narrative of his exploits, his participation in creation – and, at many times, the various panels coming to enjoyable animated life.

He is voiced by Dwayne Johnson, himself with some Polynesian background, often sending himself up, bursting into a song, You’re Welcome, with some comic episodes, but, having been stranded on his island for 1000 years, he is eager to get away and not eager to help Moana.

By hook or by crook (and Maui’s quest is to find again his spirited hook), he and Moana share quite a number of adventures (and the rooster is still there!). They encounter some mini-creatures with big ships and poisoned darts who capture the heart that Moana has been wearing around her neck, but she shows that she has the warrior touch as well. Oh, and she also has some songs – and so does the spirit of her Grandmother.

There is quite an adventure at what seems a high island, whose cliffs Moana can scale more quickly than Maui, but then a huge central core-hole where Maui finds his hook but they have to deal with this big crustacean, a bejewelled sea creature, who also sings with the voice of Jemaine Clement. It might be good to note here that the credits are very very long and one can listen to the music because Jemaine Clement’s Shiny creature has another minute at the very end of the film!
There is also the Lava Island, with a sinister dark giant creature that they have to confront, Moana standing firm, Maui helping on and off and then disappearing.

It’s not a spoiler to say that everything turns out well for the island, its new life, for Moana and her family in the village, and for restored hero, Maui.

1. A popular Disney story? A significant heroine? On a quest?

2. The animation style, the locations, the Pacific Ocean, the islands, the tropics? The dark islands, the lush islands? The underwater sequences? The animation of the characters, Polynesian, ethnic, tattooed, attractive women, large men? And the monsters and sea creatures?

3. The musical score, the range of songs, performance, themes, serious and comic?

4. Drawing on Polynesian mythology, verbal and visual, the nature of the myths, creation, the establishing of people, the earth, the sea, the islands? The power of creativity? The goddess and her becoming the island?

5. The legend of Maui, demigod, human parents, the symbol of the heart, creativity, taking the heart, stranded for 1000 years by himself on the island?

6. Moana, the young girl, on the island, have family, the village, the people, her age, activities, her experience, wanting to sail? Her parents, the grandmother and her advice, the island disaster, her going on a quest?

7. The role of the sea, the personification of the sea, the waves, rising up to help minor? With the heart? The search for Maui, her mission?

8. The comic effect of the rooster, stupid character, how funny? Involved in all the action?

9. The voyage, the boat, sailing, the experience, the rooster? The sea and the help? The vast storm, the boat overturning, on the shore?

10. Maui, Dwayne Johnson’s voice, his appearance, size, the tattooes, the tattooes coming alive? With Moana and the rooster? Singing the song You’re Welcome? Putting Moana in the cave, taking the boat, her finding his statue, toppling it, the whole, getting out?

11. The struggles on the boat, Moana are on and off, the role of the sea helping?

12. The little creatures, animosity, following them, the darts, the fighting, losing the heart, recapturing it? Moana and her retrieval? The boats surrounding Maui and Moana? Their escape through the small passage? The creatures and all smashing into one another, the boats crashing?

13. Maui, arriving at the island, to get his hook, forbidding Moana, her going up the cliff, his climbing, the opening of the hole, the vast depths, diving in, the discovery of the hook? The range of monsters, menacing Moana? The bejewelled creature, the song, Shiny? Moana as a decoy, Maui recovering his hook? The escape? And the creature appearing in a post-credits sequence, trying to get of its back?

14. The Lava Island, the menace, the personification of darkness? Maui, the hook, transformation into a variety of creatures, flying, comic part shark? The reconciliation with Moana? His using his hook to save her?

15. Moana on the boat, the grandmother, her appearance, song, advice?

16. Moana, the Laver and the parting of the ways, the confrontation with the monster? The transformation into the goddess? The restoration of the island, her lying down to sleep?

17. Moana, the restoration, the family, with everyone, her parents?

18. Maui, reappearing, and Moana and her exploits as part of his tattoo?

19. The family, the people, the Polynesian voyages, sailing together, the Heritage?

VANITY FAIR

US, 1932, 78 minutes, Black and white.
Myrna Loy, Conway Tearle, Barbara Kent, Walter Byron, Anthony Bushell, Billy Bevan, Montague Love, Herbert Bunston, Mary Forbes, Lionel Belmore.
Directed by Chester M. Franklin.

This is a brief version of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, soon to be filmed under the title Becky Sharp with Miriam Hopkins in the title role, the first full-length technicolour film. While there have been several versions for television, the biggest-budget version was the 2004 Mira Nair version with Reese Witherspoon.

This version was written by the comedian F. Hugh Herbert. And, it is updated to the 1930s, with the British setting. There is none of the Napoleonic War background, or any war, as in the novel.

In many ways, this is very much an abbreviated version, although it does highlight the central characters and the basic themes.

It was a star version for Myrna Loy, who is coldly calculating in the role but not without being able to exert some charm, especially for the men who are foolish enough to believe her. She arrives at the Sedley household for a Christmas celebration with her school friend, Amelia, played by Barbara Kent. She is welcome by the Sedleys but it is clear that she resents her poverty and lack of status, is envious of Amelia, and is prepared to marry any man so that she will get wealth and/or position. Amelia’s brother, Joseph, drunkenly agrees to marry her but then wants to back out.

There are the various men characters from Thackeray’s novel – all presented as rather worthless, with touches of the sleazy, Sir Pitt Crawley who can’t wait for his wife to die so that he can exploit Becky, the tutor for his children. Then there is his son, Rawdon, who carries on an affair with Becky, very soon after her arrival, and whom she marries despite the fact that he is cut off from wealth by his father. There is also George Osborne, Amelia’s fiance and then husband, who arranges a rendezvous with Becky, with a telegram that she keeps and is able to show to Amelia to disillusion her about her husband who has died in a riding accident some years before.

The only decent man is William Dobbin, played by British actor Anthony Bushell, devoted to Amelia, believing George Osborne to be good, despising Becky but having to believe the ill-fated message.

Becky and Rawdon use their wits come in to survive, eventually gambling at bridge. At one stage, Gordon is arrested for money matters, which are paid for by Dobbin, and then arrives home to find his wife flirting with another wealthy possible suitor.

Things go from bad to worse for Becky, on the continent, gambling and cheating, expelled from her boarding house – but later meeting Joseph Sedley again, colluding with him. When, by chance, Dobbin and Amelia arrive, there is something of a reunion but Becky shows a moment of goodwill to Amelia by revealing the truth about her husband.

The film ends with Becky looking with a long gaze into a mirror, shedding tears at her ruin – an ending which was to be very effective in Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaison, with Glenn Close also looking into a mirror and shedding a tear.

It is interesting to realise that Hollywood was making brief versions of classics, as they did in silent film times. Another film of this time was Unholy Love, a version of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, set in New York State.

THE SPHINX

US, 1933, 64 minutes, Black and white.
Lionel Atwill, Sheila Terry, Theodore Newton, Paul Hurst, Luis Alberni, Robert Ellis, Lucien Prival.
Directed by Paul Rosen.

Lionel Atwill was a British stage actor who moved to the United States, appearing in a number of films, including a star role in Captain Blood, but appearing in quite a number of small budget films, especially horror.

The Sphinx is a small supporting picture, something of a murder mystery, a police investigation, hard-talking journalist also investigating. The title is that given to a mysterious killer of a number of businessmen.

The audience knows from the beginning that the killer, Lionel Atwell, can speak, but when brought to court, he is deaf and mute, and convinces the court. He is stylish in manner, wealthy in his apartment, with his butler-associate. The police are suspicious but cannot prove anything, despite attempts, and one official noting that the killer reacted to a piano note – but the official is then murdered himself.

There is an earnest journalist, Theodore Newton, his girlfriend also works at the paper, Sheila Terry, who visits the killer, is attracted to him and continually visits.

When she plays the piano, the killer is alert – and a secret door opens with a twin brother, truly mute and deaf, is hidden away.

There is a bumptious police officer, Paul Hurst, rather ignorant and silly in his way who touches the piano and opens the mysterious door – since this is a short film, there is immediate shooting and the twin brother is killed. The killer remains debonair in manner as he is taken off under arrest.

An enjoyable hour of entertainment, old style.

UNHOLY LOVE

US, 1932, 75 minutes, Black and white.
H.B.Warner, Lila Lee, Beryl Mercer, Joyce Compton, Lysle Talbot, Ivan Lebedeff, Jason Robards Sr, Kathlyn Williams.
Directed by Albert Ray.

At first look, Unholy Love would seem much the same as many of the small budget films of this year, 1932, just prior to the implementation of the Motion Picture Code in 1934.

It is a story about a rash marriage in Rye, New York State, a young doctor infatuated with the daughter of one of his patients (Lysle Talbot and Joyce Compton). The doctor is mentored by his father-doctor, H. B. Warner (Jesus in De Mille’s King of Kings). The marriage does not work and it is revealed how self-centred the young woman is, easily bored, easily distracted, playing tennis with attractive young men, encountering a novelist and beginning a relationship with him, prepared to leave her husband.

In the meantime, the young woman (Lila Lee) who is in love with the young doctor is gracious in her manner, is kind to the wife, despite the acerbic comments from her mother.

But, if one looks at the credits, one sees that this is an adaptation of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. The main elements are there, the young provincial doctor and his love for his wife but unawareness of her responses, the self-centred Madame Bovary (who is in no way sympathetic for the audience).

The performances are as expected, H. B. Warner bringing some dignity to his role, even to his kindness in taking his daughter-in-law to a social function, seeing her make mistakes, threatening her to protect his son.

And the Madame Bovary character despairs in a contemporary way, driving away in her car and crashing to her death from a bridge.

A curiosity item from the period – as well as an interpretation of Flaubert.

KEPT HUSBANDS

US, 1931, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Dorothy Mackaill, Joel Mc Crea, Ned Sparks, Mary Carr, Clara Kimball Young, Robert Mc Wade, Bryant Washburn, Florence Roberts.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

The tagline for the advertising for this film, 1931 style, “every inch a man – bought body and soul by his wife)!

For this reason, in the light of the title, the film is a curiosity item for discussions about relationships between men and women at the beginning of the 1930s, the role of the husband as a man and supporting his wife, the role of the rich woman in love with a man whom she controls, the solution that is expressed in the best way of keeping a husband is by love rather than by money and power.

The film is typical enough of its time, a short running time, the establishing of the central characters, a wealthy family in New Jersey, factory developments, possibilities of expansion, with a benign father, and absolutely snobbish mother, and a wilful daughter who sets her sights at the young man who was brought in as a manager in the company, giving herself four weeks to win him over, actually proposing herself rather than his proposing.

The young man is played by Joel Mc Crea at the beginning of his career, clearly a talent for presenting strong decent heroes on screen. Dorothy Mackaill is the spoilt young woman.

In the background is the young man’s mother, managing a boarding house, then the revelation that the young man is a sports star and has been an all-American, admired by everyone, though he does not want to capitalise on this, preferring to earn his living properly.

The young couple are in love, but the young man allows his wife to do all the planning, the honeymoon, the trips to different places,buying expensive clothing, cabling her father for extra funds…

When he does return, people of the company think that he is rather idle, as he is, studying bridge et cetera, and referred to as a kept employee.

One of the boarders at his mother’s house, played by Ned Sparks, is full of aphorisms and proverbs, which, because of their timing, bring some amusement and counterpoint to the screenplay.

Inevitably, there is a clash between the male image, provider, earning one’s keep appropriately and the spoilt life of the wife, even to her dallying with a former friend, though not cheating on her husband, but his becoming disgusted with her behaviour and her not telling the truth. She gets advice from his mother, from her father and demands from her father, eventually affecting a reconciliation with her husband.

It is interesting as a film to provide discussions for equality between men and women, the perceived roles of men and women in the past and how they changed during the 20th century.

WHY HIM?

US, 2016, 111 minutes, Colour.
James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Zoe Deutch, Megan Mullaly, Griffin Gluck, Zach Pearlman, Cedric the Entertainer, Keegan- Michael Key, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley.
Directed by John Hamburg.

Many audiences have seen Meet the Fokkers and its sequels, so are familiar with that question from an ultra-serious father about the young man his beloved daughter has chosen to marry: Why Him? This film is very much in the same vein, although Bryan Cranston, moving away from his successful television career in Breaking Bad, has chosen a variety of film roles including LBJ in All The Way, an undercover DEA Agent in The Infiltrator and now a touch of comedy in Why Him?

Yes, this is one of those raucous American comedies with touches of the crass and the crude. However, unlike so many of the others, this one has its heart in the right place so that underneath the crudity, or despite it, there is a lot that audiences can identify with.

It doesn’t exactly open that way with dad celebrating his 55th birthday and a Skype connection to his daughter, Stephanie (Zoe Deutch), away at college, wishing him well – only that her fiance arrives, oblivious of what is happening, slips off his trousers, leading to a very much in your face bottom sequence, to the shock of all. When the daughter invites her family out from Michigan to California to meet her fiance, dad is shocked - but is persuaded to go.

The prospective son-in-law is played in very good spirits by James Franco, rather ubiquitous on the screen in so many films in recent years. There is a very good line in the film which explains him – Stephanie says to her family that he, Laird, has no filter. Whatever he thinks and feels, he says, taking the extrovert philosophy: how do I know what I think until I’ve said it? And he has absorbed a four letter vocabulary and beyond which he blurts out, despite advice to the contrary, because in terms of his language, his feelings, his thoughts, he has no filter.

In fact, although he is in his 30s, he is really still a child. He was something of a child genius, especially in terms of technology, a whiz at maths, creative with computers, an expert in computer games. So, he is really a man-child. But, he is absolutely honest and direct, and is generous to a fault (and there are many of those because not only does he not have a filter, he has no sense of appropriate timing). He means absolutely well but does not achieve absolutely well.

So, it is a shock when dad and mum (Megan Mullaly perhaps not immediately recognisable outside the context of Will and Grace) and their 15-year-old son have quite an experience in California, the son immediately identifying with Laird (in too many ways).

Laird is absolutely determined to marry but wants his prospective father-in-law’s blessing. No matter how unlikely that seems at the beginning, we are sure that it will be granted at the end.

Another complication which gives the film a bit more substance is that like the other Christmas raucous comedy, Office Christmas Party, the background is decline in business in companies, possibilities for retrenching, even more possibilities for takeover – especially since the business in this case is the manufacture of paper in a growing paperless age period

Yes, there is some raucous comedy, especially a very long toilet sequence, a paperless toilet where the technology is not functioning and Laird’s surprising majordomo (Keegan- Michael Key) has to try to fix it to dad’s embarrassment. What might seem a long interlude actually becomes a significant plot point by the end of the film!

So, a lot of comedy – even with the majordomo setting on Laird in all kinds of circumstances, very much like Cato and Inspector Clouseau which dad points out, though the two have never heard of the Pink Panther!

And, for a climax, Laird helicopters Stephanie back to Michigan to propose and to celebrate Christmas and, because the parents have had a great devotion to Kiss, what about Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, with all their Kiss make up, garish and threatening as it is, emerging from a helicopter and singing We Three Kings!

And, all goes well for the future, relationships, peace, and manufacturing prosperity.

1. A raucous comedy? With point?

2. The US, about family, parents, relationships? Business, success and failure? The future?

3. The variety of the cast? Comic talent?

4. Michigan, the manufacturing of paper business, the Christmas season, the snow? The family, the house, outside the house, the scene for a final proposal? The musical score?

5. Contrast with California, the countryside and scenery, the lavish home, the grounds, the zoo, interiors, lavish, the variety of rooms? Computer games?

6. The situation: Stephanie and Laird, the phone call, the birthday party, Laird and his stripping, buttocks, in full view, the family and reaction?

7. Ned, in himself, the party, reaction to the call? At work? Stern? Barb, his wife? The son, age 15? Lou, the range of workers, their loyalty? The financial situation? Ned keeping quiet? The invitation, Lou persuading him to go?

8. California, the car, the maitre d’, the range of staff, the young interns, the impact?

9. James Franco as Laird, a man-child, his appearance, the tattoos, his relationship with Stephanie, his reaction to the family, Stephanie saying that he had no filter on his language, thoughts? Blunt, obnoxious but endearing, trying to be nice, blurting things at the wrong time? Showing the family over the house, expecting them to stay, the bedroom, the bowling room?

10. The truth about Stephanie, at college, her relationship with Laird, not revealing it to her family? The truth about the Foundation, her going to work on it, not telling her parents?

11. The son, 15, knowledge of games, admiring Laird, influenced by him, the language, bonding, enjoying stay, blunt, his parents?

12. The maitre d’, Gustav, European background, his comprehensive career, retired to work with Laird, his advice, his leaping out to test Laird and his martial arts? And the two not knowing about Cato and the Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau?

13. Justine, Kaley Cuoco and, her voice? Her always intervening, intruding, dialogue with Ned? Even travelling to Michigan?

14. The toilet sequence, no paper, Ned and his being stranded, his wife’s reaction, the maitre d’, Justine’s advice? Fixing the situation? The later making this part of the plot and the son and his intuition, manufacturing toilets?

15. The bowling alley, Need and the temptation, enjoying it?

16. The bedroom, vast, Ned and Barb, their discussions?

17. The zoo, the animals, Laird and his attention, going for walks, with Ned and the discussions, with Barb?

18. The party, the guests, the reactions? Barb and the drugs, her amorous reactions? Ned trying to calm her?

19. Technical difficulties, fixing them? The role of Kevin? His curiosity? Ned, the contact with Lou, wanting to find out more and more about Laird and his accounts? The computer, the files? The irony of Ned’s accusations and Laird not having money – and the revelation about his personal wealth? And his buying Ned’s company?

20. Laird asking Ned for permission to propose, old-fashioned? Ned refusing – and the audience knowing that all would change?

21. Stephanie, refusing, wanting more time? Her parents going home?

22. The world of Michigan, cold, the helicopter, Laird and his meagre clothes, asking Ned about the proposal, nervous, Stephanie and the blindfold, discovery she was home? The proposal?

23. The helicopter, Kiss arriving, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, the make up? Their songs? And their singing the Christmas Carol?

24. The idea, the toilets, the staff happy, Lou and his wife? Laird and his collaboration – and everybody prosperous?

LOSING CHASE

US, 1996, 98 minutes, Colour.
Helen Mirren, Kyra Sedgwick, Beau Bridges, Michael Yarmush, Lucas Denton.
Directed by Kevin Bacon.

Losing Chase was made for television, very much a woman’s film in the best sense, written by Anne Meredith, with two very striking performances, by Helen Mirren, winning a Golden Globe for this performance, and Kyra Sedgwick who executive produced. The film was directed by actor, Kevin Bacon, married to Kyra Sedgwick.

The setting is Martha’s Vineyard, capitalising on the summer beauty of the town, the coast, the beaches and the sea.

Helen Mirren portrays Chase, married to Beau Bridges, but having suffered a mental collapse, losing control and dancing on a lighthouse in the midst of the storm. She has been institutionalised but allowed to return home where she languishes, tired, sitting on the porch. Her husband is devoted to her, her younger son very affectionate for his mother, her older son, very critical.

The husband decides to hire a companion for Chase during the summer. She is Elizabeth, a college graduate, played by Kyra Sedgwick who has had a bad experience in the past with her mother’s mental breakdown and death and her sister is in an institution, Elizabeth visiting her during the summer.

At first, things are very difficult, Chase being very acerbic in her comments, playing mental games. There is a change after Elizabeth has visited her sister and finds Chase in the rain in the vegetable garden, imagines her as her mother and has quite an emotional outburst, Chase consoling her and a bond created between the two women.

As the summer continues and the husband returns to work, the two women bond, the two sons relate much better and there is a lot of summer activity, on the water, drives, on the beach.

The emotional twist at the end is that Chase comes to realise that she loves Elizabeth, that she has not fully loved her husband. This has quite an impact on Elizabeth who feels she must leave. In the confrontation between Chase and her husband, she is able to tell him that Elizabeth has brought her to life in a way that he could never have done, which leads to a separation, Elizabeth out of their lives except in memories, and a more peaceful coexistence in future.

1. A drama about breakdown, mental conditions, companionship, healing?

2. The Martha’s Vineyard setting, the island and its beauty, homes, the town, streets, the water and peaches, the cliffs? The beaches and walks? The drives? The feel of the place? The musical score?

3. The title, the focus on Chase, her mental situation, institutions, deterioration, at home? Her relationship with her husband, with her sons? With Elizabeth? Her recovery – but her husband losing her?

4. Helen Mirren as Chase, awards? Her screen presence? Her voice-over, the words to describe her breakdown and collapse? Her observations about the institution? Her return home? Her relationship with her husband, accepting him, love? Her children, Jason and his devotion, Richard and his hostility? Her husband getting her the gift of a companion?

5. Chase, her attitudes, being tired, lying down, on the porch, the reaction to Elizabeth, testing her, playing mental games, verbal? Calling her a slave? Golden retriever? Her behaviour on the porch, in her room, at the meals?

6. Richard, his character, love for Chase, supporting her, the sons, with Elizabeth, Chase’s insinuations? An honourable man? Going back to work? His son phoning him, his return, his attitudes towards Chase and the relationship with Elizabeth? Accusations? Chase and her frank comments to her husband, her appreciation of Elizabeth, bringing her back to health, bring her back to life? In a way that her husband never could? Leaving him?

7. Elizabeth, her studies, the summer, responding to the job? Her background, her mother and her mental instability, death? Her sister in the institution, the visits, the comparisons between the two, the hostile attitude of her sister? The return from the visit, seeing Chase in the rain, at the vegetable garden, her outburst, talking to her as if she were her mother, the breaking point, the two women bonding?

8. Elizabeth and her reactions to Chase, preparing the meals, taking the boys out, boating, at the club, the attention of the barman, the women and their gossip? Her role in putting up with Chase? With Richard? With the boys?

9. The import of her visit to her sister, the audience understanding her better? Her return and the confrontation with Chase?

10. Things improving, the vegetable garden, Richard’s absence, Chase and the drive, the gift of the car, with the boys, on the beach? Things improving with the boys?

11. Elizabeth swimming, Chase drowsy, thinking that Elizabeth had drowned, becoming frantic, the reaction of her sons, Richard denouncing her as mad? Finding Elizabeth, the passionate kiss, her reaction?

12. The son, observing his mother, the storm, Chase closing the window, falling on the bed, the boy seeing this and phoning his father?

13. The effect on Elizabeth, her own affections, sexuality? The decision to leave? Chase coming to the wharf, the gift of the car? The impact of Chase on Elizabeth’s life?

14. Chase, sleeping, finding that Elizabeth had gone, the boys giving her the car keys, driving, the wharf, confronting Richard, the farewell to Elizabeth, the gift of the car?

15. The aftermath, the separation, Richard bringing the boys, Chase’s life – and her comments about her experience, her memories, thinking of Elizabeth…?

WICKED AS THEY COME

UK, 1956, 94 minutes, Black and white.
Arlene Dahl, Philip Carey, Herbert Marshall, Michael Goodliffe, Ralph Truman, Sidney James, David Kossoff, Faith Brook, Patrick Allen.
Direct by Ken Hughes.

Wicked as they Come has a touch of the potboiler title.

This is a film, written and directed by Ken Hughes (many smaller films but a peak in the late 60s with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Cromwell). This is a British production, filmed in the UK, the type of small film made in England at the time, often with American actors, as is the case here with Arlene Dahl and Philip Carey.

However, the opening is in the US, a close with factory, a competition, Cathy (Arlene Dahl) not only entering but being seductive with the father and son in charge of the Style Competition. It is odd to see Sid James and David Koss off as American characters.

While Cathy has started poor and later revelation that she was sexually attacked when a teenager, she has another self-confidence to manipulate men, winning the competition, going to England, modifying her name, enjoying the fashions, wealthy hotels and the beginning of encounters with men, seductive manner and charm, exploiting them, dumping them. The man who escapes something of her wiles is an advertising man played by Philip Carey who comes into her life at various stages, understands her, loves her, but is used by her.

The list of men that she ruins includes Michael Goodlett as a photographer, Herbert Marshall as an executive who has an affair with her but cannot leave his wife, his father-in-law who is a rich businessman who marries her.

Arlene Dahl was considered one of the beauties of Hollywood and this is very much a reality in this film, her effect on the male audience probably as seductive as it was on the men in her life.

Arlene Dahl then did another film in the UK, Fortune is a Woman/She Played with Fire.

1. Drama about an American gold-digger in England? 1950s style?

2. The opening with the American setting (for a British film to be successful in the US)? The factory, Holmes, cards, television? Restaurants? The printers? The preparation for the British sequences?

3. Britain, London, Caps OAC, the swanky hotel, the photography suite, business school, secretarial work, travel, Paris? The courts in prison? The musical score?

4. The title, Arlene Dahl in the central role? Her origins, the later revelation of the thugs attacking her? Her resistance to men? Her plans, goals, cold, lack of scruple? And yet her glamour – and the impact for the male audience, accepting her as did the male characters?

5. The US, the factory, style, the competition, the television show? Cathy at home, her stepfather and is attitudes? His friends coming on to her? The son of the publisher, asking for dates? Are going to the printing press, talking with the publisher, charming him, going out to dinner, the father and son organising her win? Her turning the tables on them? Using them?

6. Change of name, going to England, the encounter with Tim, his liking her, seen through her, observing her and her wiles? With the tycoon – and his wife and family at the airport?

7. At the hotel, the encounter with Buckham, the mixed up keys, going to dinner with him, his infatuation, the photo shoot? The proposal, away for a week, her buying everything on his account, vanishing? His anger, owing to the bank, the fight, arrest, six months prison? His later vengeance, prowling, frightening Cathy? Tim coming to see him, putting out the facts, his six months versus her execution? His going to the police – offscreen?

8. Tim, his advice, going to secretarial school, succeeding? The application for the job? The encounter with Stephen Collins? His phoning for the documents, her bringing them, the set up with the bed, his infatuation with her? The affair? Going to Paris, the encounter with his wife? Her attempt to buy Cathy of? The encounter with her father, companionship, marriage? Her achieving everything? Yet unhappy? The prowler, the gun, shooting her husband?

9. Tim, his character, advertising, friendship, understanding Cathy, the relationship, Stephen Collins finding them, firing him? Is seeing her in Paris? Her relationship with the businessman? His coming to her support after the case?

10. The men in her life, there infatuation with her, affairs, marriage?

11. The arrest, the investigation? The testimony? The court? Guilty? Tim and his persuading Buckham to go to the police, are being charged with manslaughter, or accepting this is just?

12. A life, from poverty to riches, what she wanted, what she achieved, what she felt? The possibility of a future with Tim – or not?

BRIGHT LIGHTS, WITH CARRIE FISHER AND DEBBIE REYNOLDS

US, 2016, 95 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens.

This film was released by HBO at the beginning of 2016. Film fans around the world experienced the sadness at the end of 2016 with the death of Carrie Fisher after a heart attack on a flight from London, the grief of her mother Debbie Reynolds and her collapsing the next day and dying.

Debbie Reynolds story is in many essentials a very Hollywood story. This film highlights the extent of her career with many glimpses of film clips as well as nightclub performances and other concerts. The film also highlights the personal background, her marriage, very young, to crooner Eddie Fisher, the disillusionment when Eddie Fisher went to “console� Elizabeth Taylor and then married her. There were two children, Carrie and Todd.

Carrie Fisher had a very difficult life, the absence of her father, and gambling and reckless stepfather, being in the light of her mother and her career yet being encouraged to sing and to perform, bonding with her brother. As Princess Leia when she was 20 and throughout her 20s, she became one of the most popular icons of cinema culture. Yet, she suffered from depression, drug addiction and drinking, but experienced some rehabilitation as well as a successful career as a writer, novelist, screen doctor.

At the end of their lives, mother and daughter became very close, living next door to each other, knowing each other’s thoughts and feelings, mutually supportive – not without some daily exasperation.

The film was interesting in showing the origins of Mary Frances Reynolds from Texas, her mother’s disapproval of a show business career, her early auditions and screen roles, contract at MGM, singing Abba Dabba Honeymoon in Two Weeks with Love, followed by Singing in the Rain, a film with Frank Sinatra, The Tender Trap, her Oscar nomination for The Unsinkable Molly Brown. She did make a lot of other films over the decades but these are not touched on. Rather, the film goes onto her cabaret career, her exuberance in performing, getting energy from the audience, establishing an instant rapport with them – and, as she grew older, so also her grey-haired audiences., Carrie joined her on stage in singing.

Full of verve, it is interesting to hear Debbie Reynolds’o reflections on the alienation for many years from her daughter, their reconciliation, their happy dependence on each other – which makes a lot of sense that Debbie Reynolds would die the day after her daughter.

Carrie Fisher has always had a sardonic tone. There is quite a lot of home video of Carrie and Todd as children, of performance in teenage. There is acknowledgement of the Star Wars phenomenon – even in later decades Carrie Fisher going to conventions and signing autographs. She had filmed her sequences for Star Wars VIII, with sequences of her fitness regime to prepare for this film, and there was a computer generated image of her as young at the end of Rogue One.

For film buffs, there are sequences from the film version of her novel Postcards from the Edge (1991, directed by Mike Nichols), a fictionalised version of her life and breakdown and the impact of her mother – with Meryl Streep the equivalent of Carrie Fisher and Shirley Mac Claine as the equivalent of Debbie Reynolds.

In later years, Carrie Fisher had a show with which she travelled and was filmed for television, reviewing her life, its ups and downs, family, her marriage to Paul Simon, her health and mental health crises: Wishful Drinking.

There is a lot of pathos in the sequence in this film where, three months before he died in 2010, Carrie goes to visit Eddie Fisher, just a shell of the man ill in bed, going back on his life, his absence as father, his drug addiction, the collapse of his career – but an opportunity for him to express his love for his daughter and her love for him.

This is one of the more interesting Hollywood documentaries, with great affection for the subjects, celebrating the ups and downs of their lives without targeting them. Actor Fisher Stevens is one of the sympathetic directors.