brice-18

Having lately seen Kevin Spacey's marvellous 'King Richard III' at London's Old Vic (on Broadway in a month or two) I had to see again this splendid exploration of Shakespeare, Richard and the wariness by the American public of WS and the phobic approach to his work of some actors. Yet years ago Brando joined John Gielgud and James Mason to play a thrilling Mark Antony in Mankiewicz's 'Julius Caesar', and here an American cast show themselves fine Shakespearean actors. Spacey (young and handsome!) is most enjoyable as Richard's conniving spin=doctor, Buckingham, and in his inevitably fragmented portrayal Pacino shows what a dark, deadly and witty Crookback he would be - on film or stage.

John Guillermin had just started his career a a British director when he made this trifling B picture, from a neat screenplay by Alec Coppel who wrote scripts for many major films and was Oscar-nominated for the Alec Guinness hit 'The Captain's Paradise'. Their star, Herbert Lom, a refugees from Czechoslovakia (who played Napoleon twice in his long career and the psychiatrist in the sensational 'The Seventh Veil') was here a suave butler who, with his seductive wife Ingeborg Wells (later, I believe, a Hammer Horror star), tries a spot of blackmail on erring couple Hugh McDermott and Brenda Bruce. Canadian McDermott is somewhat OTT, and Bruce, a gifted comedienne, isn't quite glamorous enough, but the film (a bit risqué for 1951!) is rather good fun and doesn't outstay its welcome. Some of the action must have been on a liner (I last saw the film in the year of its release!) because children's TV favourite Humphrey Lestocq is cast as a purser.

I saw this twice today on DVD and loved it. Of course, it's pure fantasy and I wish it had really been shot in one of Suffolk's Stratfords, though the Isle of Man serves well enough. Burt Reynolds does grumpy very well and, as ever, isn't afraid to send himself up - and nor is the great Derek Jacobi as his bitchy rival. I thought Imelda Staunton's turn as his adoring, then disillusioned fan overdone, but Samantha Bond is a tour de force as his less enchanted director. The build-up to the storm scene is ingenious and when he gets out of his vehicle Reynolds shows that he can cut the mustard as Lear. Of course, the other members of the Stratford Theatre Company are improbably good actors, but I shan't complain. The final twist is an extra treat. What a shame only Her Majesty seems to have seen the film in the cinema

I bought this DVD expecting to see Marius Goring (who heads the cast in the IMDb listing) as Karenin. However as soon as I saw Karenin I knew that the actor wasn't Goring but the no less admirable Albert Lieven! Oddly his filmography doesn't credit him with this film and Goring's does: but the arbiter must be the film's final credits which duly give the role to Lieven! Otherwise this version, though it eliminates the Levin plot and Anna's delirium after childbirth, is worth seeing - mainly for the exquisite Claire Bloom's reckless commitment to the illicit love aroused in her by Sean Connery's likely Vronsky. The treatment, in a series of longish scenes, is somewhat theatrical, but the costumes are splendid and director Rudolph Cartier sweeps the film to its shocking conclusion.

What a pity that Robert Hanks' callow review of the first episode is the only external assessment of this gripping thriller. I must confess, though, that when I saw it on TV I couldn't follow it - the simultaneous plots in past and present puzzled me, or perhaps I was 'as tired as a newt'! Anyway,I was sufficiently intrigued to get the DVD,and I'm so glad I did. Juliet Stevenson, too often under cast these days, is at her brilliant best as the dedicated TV reporter, 'crap mother' Catherine Heathcote, investigating the disappearance of 13-year old Alison Carter some 50 years ago. Elizabeth Day is so good as her troubled, overlooked daughter Saha, while Liz Moscrop as Catherine's novelist mother shows how Catherine was comparably overlooked. Catherine befriends George Bennett (the great Philip Jackson), whose eager beaver younger self is played by Lee Ingleby; Tom Maudsley and Dave Hill are both Fine as his loyal if sceptical sergeant. Then there's Greg Wise,supremely arrogant as the man you'd love to hate - but is he a murderer? There are astonishing twists at the end, yet they all make sense: wow!

Here's another mini-masterpiece from the animated versions of the Bard's plays. Not many of the historical tragedies have been included, but this, perhaps the most accessible of the Roman works, in the cartoon format which I generally prefer, proves thoroughly suitable for such treatment. We enjoy remarkably fine acting, thrilling images, stirring music with the usual deft abbreviation by Leon Garfield which leaves the basic plot and argument intact. Caesar himself (voiced by Joss Ackland) is particularly impressive, and Peter Woodthorpe is a relishably wry and witty Casca. David Robb and Jim Carter speak well for Brutus and Marc Antony, and Royal Shakespeare Company veteran Hugh Quarshie is a spirited, malign yet vulnerable Cassius. Visually, the storm before he Ides of March and Caesar's ghostly appearance before Phillipi are especially exciting. What a great little series this has been!

At their best, the Animated Shakespeare plays bring the essence of the dramas to a wider audience than might read them or see them in the theatre. Leon Garfield's screenplay, married to thrilling animation, voiced by fine actors, achieves such power that I'm amazed that this 'Othello', with its allusions to 'the beast with two backs' and Cassio's 'lying in or on Desdemona' got a 'U' certificate. Colin McFarlane is a great bull of a Moor, destroyed by a Hibernian matador - Gerald McSorley's brilliantly devious Iago. Sian Thomas is a poignant Desdemona and all the essential characters - Cassio, Emilia, Bianca, Brabantio, Roderigo are present and correct. After Welles' version this is the best screen adaptation I can recall. (I'm working my way through the 12 plays in the collection: the 'Macbeth' is as good as this.)

I first (and last!) saw this film in 1951, when I was 19. The theme (from James Bridie's play 'A Sleeping Clergyman') was heredity. Richard Todd, fresh from his triumph in 'The Hasty Heart' (with Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal) played father and son, supported by delectable leading ladies Glynis Johns and Joan Greenwood and the stalwart Andre Morell, as well as Patrick Macnee, Michael Hordern and George Cole, who, amazingly, is still with us - the veteran of veterans! Come to think of it, so is Richard Todd. 'Every moment was of interest'. I'd love to see it again. Todd had another success with 'The Dambusters' but rapidly fell from favour thereafter, having seemed particularly ridiculous in a South African 'Western' ('The Hellions') which opposed his squat short-trousered policeman to OTT James Booth and Lionel Jeffries. Glynis Johns moved across the pond to Hollywood, and Michael Hordern became the great 'Sir Michael'[.

No, I'm not referring to Gene Wilder (extravagantly OTT) and Gilda Radner (in her tentative big screen debut) but to Richard Widmark, whose dour villain Ransom is a long, long way from his laughing killer Tommy Uddo way back in 1947, and director Poitier who played the noble victim of rat-like racist Widmark in Joseph L Mankiewicz's 'No Way Out' in 1950. Widmark was, it is said, troubled by the ferocity of his role but Poitier took it in good part and they acted together again in the daft but entertaining 'The Long Ships' in 1963, and, more rewardingly, in 'The Bedford Incident' in 1965. So, was Poitier doing veteran Widmark a favour by casting him in this so-so comedy, or was Widmark playing a (frankly unworthy) role for old time's sake? Anyway, seeing the film again 26 years on, in the wake of Widmark's death last month, I found myself laughing more than I'd expected (as well as lamenting the early demise of the gorgeous Kathleen Quinlan!).

I didn't know this film existed till I was intrigued to find it available on DVD. Mine is the Spanish version, with even Orson dubbed into Spanish. Under-edited it is far too long (almost 3 hours!) and, thrilling though the bull run in Pamplona undoubtedly is, Sancho P's quest for the 'box' (TV) is wearisomely protracted - likewise his dance on his return to his home town. However,Tamiroff plays him to perfection as does Reiguera as an 'El Greco' Quixote, and the essence of Cervantes' picaresque saga is there. The print is variable, but the Spanish exteriors, especially in the countryside, are ravishing. Bravo, Orson!

It's good news for Welles completists that this, the better of the two films he made for Herbert Wilcox in 1952 (to help finance his on-off-on but finally magnificent film of 'Othello') is now available on DVD, though dismally free of extras. As a thriller it is a puzzle almost devoid of suspense, though there are some clever twists at the end. There are polished performances by Margaret Lockwood, John McCallum, Michael Wilding as the classy sleuth Trent, Miles Malleson in one of his best roles and Welles. Welles appears for no more than 20 minutes, in flashback, but, with his formidable false nose, is an intimidating presence as the late Sigsbee Manderson. In a fraught dialogue with McCallum he talks about 'Othello' and the production he's recently seen: "Didn't like the leading actor!" The leading actor was Welles himself, performing at the St James' theatre - a performance I was privileged have seen a year or two earlier, when Ken Tynan, long before PC was thought of, headed his review 'Citizen Coon'!

This choice theatrical memoir is a particular pleasure in the newly released Noel Coward DVD album - in the same genre as 'Hay Fever' and 'Present Laughter' but, perhaps, a little closer to the real theatre of the middle 20th century. Peter Chelsom is nigh perfect as the daunted author of a new play starring stormy, seductive, spankable Susannah York as a grade-A bitch of a leading actress and directed by a magnificently witty, sardonic Ian Richardson: but all are eclipsed by that sly scene-stealer David Yelland as Richardson's deliciously camp and perceptive catamite Tony. The other roles - Pam Ferris as York's slave and David Swift as the producer are near to caricature,but by the end I was taking it seriously enough to be quite moved. Bravo, Master!

Rightly released on DVD in a double-bill format, for which it was clearly intended for the bigger screen, and very plainly directed by Andrew Stone, this is nevertheless a gripping thriller which keeps one guessing until the very end. Joseph Cotten had some form as a murderer in previous films and is sufficiently shifty to suggest that he might be one now. In my youth I fancied Jean Peters, a beauty with a brain, and was grieved when she succumbed to Howard Hughes. Here she is excellent as the presumed femme fatale. Gary Merrill is wasted, but Catherine McLeod is fun as his astute wife. The sets are obviously from studio stock, but this hardly matters: this is an Agatha Christie style nail-biter and it hits the spot!

Having just put on a show to celebrate the centenary of Christopher Fry's birth, I was delighted to obtain the DVD of his 5-hour TV series shown on Yorkshire TV in 1975. In comparison with the verbal exuberance of his verse plays in the 1940s and '50s the adaptation (from Mrs Gaskell's life of Charlotte) is restrained to the point of under-statement. More enlightenment about how, despite the constraints of their strict upbringing, the sisters wrote their turbulent novels would have been welcome - today the ubiquitous Andrew Davies would perhaps somehow have turned their lives into a bonk-fest; but the series, modestly produced yet lovely to look at, with well-chosen exterior locations, gives a deal of quiet pleasure and satisfaction. The sisters suffer somewhat from having similar '70s hair-styles, but Vickery Turner as a gutsy Charlotte, Rosemary McHale as troubled Emily and Ann Penfold as the more placid Ann are more than adequate, Michael Kitchen as poor Branwell and Alfred Burke as the benign tyrant, their father are excellent and it's good to have Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Mrs Gaskell and a very young-looking Benjamin Whitrow as Charlotte's husband, Mr Nicholls.

I bought the DVD with fond memories of the film 19 years ago and was gratified to like it still more at a second viewing. Daniel Day-Lewis is superb as the randy neurosurgeon Tomas - still at it though reduced to window-cleaning - Lena Olin is stunning as his sexy mistress and Juliette Binoche, so young, so heart-rending, astonishes as Tereza. The eclipsing of the Prague spring, with cunningly interwoven newsreel shots, is devastating, as I well remember at the time. I went to Czechoslovakia with the Tower Theatre Company's 'Comedy of Errors' before the Iron Curtain rose and can vouch for the authenticity of the Prague sequences - even though they weren't filmed there! Derek de Lindt is poignant as the Professor who fatally falls for Ms Olin, Pavel Landovsky is huge fun as a bibulous farmer, but the dog Karenin and the pig(s) Mephisto almost steal the film. Masterly sequences include the ribbing of Communist bigwigs in a nightclub, Tomas' intimidation by an insidious official when he has been reduced to general practice and Tereza's reluctant seduction by 'the engineer'. The fatal ending is perhaps arbritary, but after 3 hours the film had to finish somehow!

I saw this film in 1951(!) when I wrote a short review. Not knowing Burton's future I recorded that he gave 'a very sincere performance' (though I can't now recall his role), while Helen Cherry (then Trevor Howard's wife) *SPOILER ALERT!* was 'good as the villainess'. Star Phyllis Calvert was 'quite good' as the amnesic heroine, but 'sometimes it was too obvious that she was acting'. Edward Underdown (so good in 'They Were Not Divided') played her embittered husband, and one of my favourite character actors, James Hayter (better known as Mr Pickwick) was 'good as an army doctor'. I gave the film 3 stars out of 5. This isn't much of a comment, but it's one for the archive - and who could match it?

The strengths of this otherwise ploddingly straightforward production are that it gives us the whole play, which is for two-thirds of its length quite absorbing, and that it is so well spoken - from the principals to John Elliott as Octavius' messenger. I wish it had been clearer that we'd moved from one scene to the next, and the unmouthed soliloquies work less well than in, say, Olivier's 'Hamlet'. But Richard Pasco is a throughly decent Brutus (noble and nearly always wrong!), at his very best in the 'quarrel scene', David Collings (though overshadowed, as are all others I've seen since 1953, by Gielgud in the Mankiewicz film) a fine, mercurial Cassius (alas he played only a tiny part in the recent revival of the play at London's Barbican), Keith Michell is a thrilling, crafty Marc Antony and Charles Gray is splendidly self-important as 'JC' himself. Sam Dastor's laconic account of Caesar's refusal of the crown is masterly, though thereafter he fades. As for the women, a gaunt Virginia McKenna is a poignantly vulnerable Portia and Elizabeth Spriggs a warm Calpurnia. The final battle is, as usual, distinctly underwhelming!

When charismatic Nick Talbot (second billed Robert Beatty) disappears after flying into a storm after his partner Richard Van Ness (gravel-voiced Zachary Scott) has ordered the plane to be grounded, it seems not unlikely that (a) he's up to no good and (b) that we'll see him again before the movie's over. Made on a shoestring at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith but supposedly mainly set in Guernsey, this is quite a clever thriller with lively dialogue, though Richard's liability to black out when flying is too irrelevant. For nostalgic film buffs it's good to see naughty lady Kay Kendall a year before her breakthrough performance in 'Genevieve', Diane Cilento (at one time Mrs Sean Connery) as Nick's fiancée and camp Harold Lang as a blackmailer, but Naomi Chance is a boring heroine. I'd lost track of the malarkey before the end, but the finale has action and excitement.

In 1949 the great Fench actress Edwige Feuillere made her English-speaking debut in this silly comedy. It was a commercial and critical flop, and she returned to France feeling, perhaps, a little bruised. Thereafter we could read of her brilliance in the Sunday paper reviews of drama critic Harold Hobson, who idolised her. Seeing the film again (58 years on!) I am struck by her style and good humour and her easy command of English. She's not particularly sexy, but golly, she has class. Trouper Stewart Granger toils gamely to sustain the humour, but Mlle Feuillere walks away with the film: what a pity it wasn't worth walking away with!

Made on the tightest of budgets, this blackish comedy about weirdo Patrick's frantic efforts to get rid of his sister's fiancé is remarkably funny. David Hewlett, who wrote and directed, is hilarious as resentment builds to homicidal mania, showing an unsuspected flair for slapstick and pratfalls: its a (literally!) knock-out performance. Paul McGillon (also from 'Stargate Atlantis') is a genial Ryan, the undeserving target of Patrick's frenzy, while Kate Hewlett (David's actual sister) is delightfully less demure than at first she seems. There's a bonus when Ryan's aunt turns up - but I'd better say no more!There could be a problem with a 'psycho' antihero, but Hewlett preserves a desperate charm. The dialogue is droll, the plot cleverly conceived, and when the odd joke misfires it is mainly through lack of resources. 'Much in a little', indeed!

The film 'Rainman' and Mark Haddon's book 'The Curious Incident of the Dog - ' helped one empathise with people with Asperger's Syndrome, but this high profile TV film made Lisa, the 32-year old daughter of middle-aged parents (played by Timothy Spall, at his glummest, and Brenda Blethyn, at her most irksome) a manipulative monster. Her parents are driven to joint suicide attempts twice by her impossible demands, and at the second attempt her father successfully removes himself from the scene, leaving her mother to continue to collude with her insatiable child. As usual, psychiatry and social services are made to seem flummoxed (though it's refreshing when a Birmingham Social Worker finally confronts Lisa with reality). Rebekah Staton may well be brilliant as Lisa - I can't tell because I found her so detestable! How on earth could this film help anyone associated with this distressing disorder?

Did Peter Jackson intend Jack Black to look so like the young Orson Welles in playing the maverick director Carl Denham? Anyway, the resemblance works. Otherwise the film is an OTT homage to the original 1933 version: I loved the Art Deco NY during the Depression, but the Skull Island section is far too long and there are far, far too many monsters. As others have noted, while some characters are easily expendable, others, repeatedly, miraculously survive. Andy Serkis, whose none too endearing Lumpy gets his head sucked off by a giant leech, is wonderful within Kong's formidable exterior, and the ape is immensely appealing BUT even with CGI the dimensions aren't quite right: would a 25 foot gorilla be able to hold Naomi Watts in it's hand? Ms Watts gives a luminous performance, though I felt a mite uneasy at her being so enraptured with her captor. Also the Central Park sequence on the ice is captivating but did she have to be so under dressed? Adrien Brody, of course, is admirable as the lovelorn playwright who gets her in the end.

For fans of the great Duryea the availability of this 'Bonanza' episode on DVD is a treat. As the suave but deeply suspect Deputy Marshall Gerald Eskith he dominates the show (not, admittedly, that difficult with the stilted performances around him). His con man name-dropping turn at the Ponderosa, culminating in a dazzling display of swordsmanship, is the highlight. How he arrives at Virginia City in a dazzling blue suit I'm not sure, but he goes on to try to seduce his quarry's wife with old world courtesy and honeyed words, as camp and urbane as Vincent Price. His tricky gunmanship seems likely to win the day, but of course his comeuppance is round the corner!

This, with 'Cymbeline' the most difficult Shakespeare play,is rendered with remarkable power and lucidity for the Beeb's TV Shakespeare series. The settings for Timon in his affluence and then his ruin work extremely well, and though the Elizabethan costumes are anachronistic they suit Timon and his flatterers to perfection. Jonathan Pryce adds Timon to his exceptional Hamlet, Macbeth and Petruchio (on stage) and matches Scofield in his transition from innocent goodwill to virulent misanthropy. Norman Rodway is a splendidly cynical Apamantus and a heap of Johns also excel: Welsh as the admirable steward Flavius, Shrapnel as the fiery Alcibiades, Fortune and Bird as the poet and painter, Justin as the craven senator, while James Cossins' Lucullus epitomises the hypocrisy of Timon's sycophants. It's a pity about Diana Dors' dreadful tart Timandra, but all the other parts are spoken with rare clarity and intelligence. Director Miller must be credited with so clear and moving exposition which even survives the upside-down filming of Pryce's head at the close.

This delightful production, crammed with good things like a Christmas pudding, was originally presented at Christmas time - and what a treat! The sets evoke Shakespeare's Stratford, and the comedy is the nearest we'll get to how life was lived in the reign of Good Queen Bess. Richard Griffiths is perfect as Falstaff, rueful and gullible compared with his prime in 'Henry IV' but still thoroughly endearing. Prunella Scales and Judy Davis (then only 27) enchant as the merry wives and Ben Kingsley, though OTT, is very funny as the jealous Ford. Michael Bryant is a choice Dr Caius, Tenniel Evans a likeably Welsh Sir Hugh, and among a splendid supporting cast I must mention Alan Bennett as Justice Shallow - not least because I played the part myself in Paris once upon a time. Of course the word-play is challenging, and Falstaff's treatment is rather cruel, but the Bard ensures that at the end the fat knight is not totally discomfited, and the show ends with a glow!