Sorry We Missed You

 Sorry We Missed You 2019

• Director: Ken Loach
• Seen by this director: I Daniel Blake, The Angel’s Share, Looking for Eric, Sweet Sixteen, Bread and Roses, My Name Is Joe, Carla’s Song, Land and Freedom, Raining Stones, Riff-Raff, Kes
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie Proctor, Ross Brewster
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sadly, none of these great actors.
• Why? Ken Loach
• Seen: 24 October 2021      

       Ricky (Hitchen) is tired of all his low-paying manual labour jobs and signs on a franchise to deliver packages.  It all sounds good but what he hasn’t reckoned with is the constant stress, the costs, the traffic, the parking, the wrong addresses, the nasty manager, the long hours, the disruption to his wife Abby’s (Honeywood) work as a caregiver to the elderly. She had to sell her car to finance Ricky’s van and now she has to take the bus back and forth across town. Neither of them has enough time for their two kids.

       No one can show the grimness and pressures of working-class lives like Ken Loach. The film is excellent but it’s so stressful that I feel an anxiety attack coming on.

       And I’m just watching a film. This is reality for workers today, everywhere. Isn’t it time for a revolution? 

5 *

 

The Endless

 The Endless 2017

• Director: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
• Seen by these directors: Spring
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Callie Hernandez, Tate Ellington, Shane Brady, Lew Temple, Kira Powell, David Lawson Jr, Emily Montague, Peter Cilella, Vinny Curran, Ric Sarabia
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Callie Hernandez – Under the Silver Lake, La La Land
• Tate Ellington – Remember Me, The Invention of Lying
• Shane Brady - Doctor Sleep, Spring
• Lew Temple - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Lone Ranger, 21 Grams, A Slipping Down Life
• James Jordan - Veronica Mars, Seraphim Falls
• Emily Montague – Fright Night
•  Why? It sounded interesting
• Seen: 23 October 2021      

       Two brothers, Aaron (Moorhead) and Justin (Benson) escaped a UFO death cult as boys. Ten years later, during which time they have failed to adjust to society, Aaron talks Justin into going back. Just for a visit.

       Many of the sect members remember them. None of them seems to have aged and they’re convinced that something, a higher power, up there, out there, is watching them. Helping them? 

       Everyone seems so happy and fulfilled but Justin is sceptical and uneasy and filled with bad memories of the place. And finally foreboding.

       What a peculiar story, what a compelling and dramatic film. 

4 *

 

The Chumscrubber

 Chumscrubber 2005

• Director: Arie Posin
• Based on the book: no.
• Cast: Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Justin Chatwin, Glenn Close, Rory Culkin, Thomas Curtis, William Fichtner, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Godall, John Heard, Lauren Holly, Jason Issacs, Allison Janney, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lou Taylor Pucci, Rita Wilson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jamie Bell – Rocketman, Skin, Fantastic Four, Snowpiercer, Filth, Jane Eyre, The Eagle, Defiance, Hallam Foe, Jumper, King Kong, Dear Wendy, Undertow, Billy Elliot
• Camilla Belle – Practical Magic
• Justin Chatwin – Doctor Who, Orphan Black, War of the Worlds
• Glenn Close – The Girl with All the Gifts, Nine Lives, Sarah Plain and Tall, Mars Attacks, Mary Reilly, Hook, Hamlet, Reversal of Fortune, The World According to Garp
• Rory Culkin – The Night Listener, Igby Goes Down
• Thomas Curtis - North Country
• William Fichtner – The Space Between, Elysium, The Lone Ranger, The Dark Night, Nine Lives, Crash, The Perfect Storm, Contact, Heat, Strange Days
• Ralph Fiennes – Hail Caesar, Spectre, The Invisible Woman, Skyfall, Harry Potter, Coriolanus, The Reader, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Maid in Manhattan, The End of an Affair, Sunshine, The English Patient, Strange Days, Schindler’s List, Wuthering Heights
• Caroline Goodall – A Street Cat Called Bob, Mental, Schindler’s List, Hook
• John Heard – The Great Debaters, The Sopranos, O, Pollock, The Pelican Brief, Waterland, Awakenings
• Jason Isaacs – Hotel Mumbai, Harry Potter, Case Histories
• Allison Janney – I Tonya, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Girl on the Train, The Help, Life During Wartime, Juno, The Hours, Nurse Betty, American Beauty, 10 Things I Hate about You, The Ice Storm
• Carrie-Anne Moss – Humans, Fireflies in the Garden, Snow Cake, Matrix x 3, Chocolat
• Lou Taylor Pucci – Spring, Thumbsucker
• Rita Wilson – Runaway Bride, Sleepless in Seattle
• Why? Jamie Bell.
• Seen: 22 October 2021      

       Drugs and booze in Suburbia USA. Parents, kids, everybody.

       Dean (Bell) finds his best friend hanging from the ceiling. Dean is threatened at school by two thugs (Chatwin and Taylor Pucci) who want the friend’s stash or else. There are several side stories that all tie together.

       I wonder why we should care about these rich white American kids with fancy cars and fancy horrible parents. Because it emerges that they are all profoundly unhappy and Dean slowly falls apart. The acting, as expected of this gang, is strong, especially Bell (as always).

       You could say that the film depicts Marx’s theory of alienation in a capitalist society.

 4 * of 5

 

Rock'n'Roll High School

 Rock’n’Roll High School 1979

• Director: Allan Arkush
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: PJ Soles, Vincent Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young, Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Dick Miller, Don Steele, Alix Elias
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• PJ Soles – Private Benjamin
• Dey Young – Frankie & Johnny, Pretty Woman
• Dick Miller – Terminator
• Why? The Ramones
• Seen: Once before. Now 21 October 2021.      

       Why are we watching this? I really don’t like American high school films. (Except sometimes). But the Ramones are in it, and I seem to remember enjoying it the first time.

       Nerds, jocks, bookworms, rockers, rebels, teacher’s pets, idiots and geniuses – rock’n’roll is the answer to all their needs. They’re pursued by the evil new principal Miss Togar (Woronov) who sees rock’n’roll as the ultimate evil. Potential? A tad clichéd? With the right actors it might have worked. Maybe as a stage musical.

       But honestly, how could I possibly have liked this the first time?  It’s simply dreadful. The Ramones deserve a much better film than this. They get 1* but the film gets 0*.      

 

1 * of 5

 

Shenandoah

 Shenandoah 1965

• Director: Andrew V McLaglan
• Seen by this director: Freckles, TV series
• Based on the book: no.
• Cast: James Stewart, Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne, Rosemary Forsyth, Phillip Alford, Katherine Ross, Charles Robinson, Jim McCullan, Tim McIntire, Eugene Jackson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• James Stewart – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Greatest Show on Earth, Bell Book and Candle, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Harvey, Rear Window, Rope, maybe others
• Doug McClure – TV series
• Glenn Corbett – TV Series
• Patrick Wayne – TV series
• Rosemary Forsythe – TV series
• Phillip Alford – To Kill a Mockingbird
• Katherine Ross – Donnie Darko, Voyage of the Damned, The Stepford Wives, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Graduate
• Why? An old favourite.
• Seen: Twice before. Now: 17 October 2021      

       Widower Charlie Anderson (Stewart), whose farm is in the midst of the Civil War battlefields, is determined to keep his family of mostly grown sons, a daughter-in-law and baby, daughter and son-in-law, out of the war. He just wants to be left in peace to farm his land with his family.

       Obviously, it’s not possible. Civilians never can.

       There’s a bit a slapstick, a bit of saccharine romance, two unreasonably beautiful and well made-up young women, a lot of gruff, James-Stewarty homespun, cigar-smoking, ornery and understanding wisdom and more than enough tragedy in this ‘war is hell’ saga.       The first time I saw it when it came out, I cried so hard on the way home that my parents were worried about me. This film and Doctor Zhivago a few years later were instrumental in making me the life-long pacifist that I am. The second time was a few years ago and it was still strong. It holds up well for this third viewing.         

 4½ * of 5

 

The Water Diviner

 The Water Diviner 2014

• Director: Russel Crowe
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Yilmaz Erdogen, Cem Yilmaz, Dylan Jett, Ryan Corr, Jacqueline Mackenzie
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Russell Crowe – Winter’s Tale, Man of Steel, Les Misérables, Robin Hood, A Good Year, A Beautiful Mind, Proof of Life, Gladiator
• Olga Kurylenko – Oblivion, Quantum of Solace, Paris je t’aime
• Why? Russel Crowe
• Seen: 16 October 2021      

       Joshua Cooper (Crowe) is an Australian farmer, a water diviner. It’s been four years since his three sons were killed on the same day at Gallipoli. When his wife commits suicide, he takes his grief and his divining skills to Turkey to find them.

       Ten thousand ANZAC soldiers were killed in the battle of Gallipoli, and seventy thousand Turkish soldiers. The graves that possibly once existed have been lost or destroyed.

       With quiet determination and help from hotel manager Ayshe (Kurylenko) and Turkish officer Major Hasan (Erdogan), he starts looking.  

       There are no winners in war. And often wars don’t end. Survivors are left to find enough pieces to pick up and carry on. On both sides.

       It’s a complex, dramatic, powerful and well-made film. 

4 ½ *

 

Freaks

 Freaks 2018

• Director: Zack Lipovsky and Adam B Stein
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Lexy Kolker, Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Grace Park, Amanda Crew
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Emile Hirsch – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Taking Woodstock, Milk, Into the Wild, Third Rock from the Sun
• Bruce Dern – The Hateful Eight, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Silent Running, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, The Wild Angels, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, TV series
• Grace Park – Battlestar Galactica
• Why? The title.
• Seen: 15 October 2021.      

       Seven-year-old Chloe (Kolker) and her dad (Hirsch) live in strict paranoid isolation and must practice being normal because they’re not. She rebels and sneaks outside to the Snow Cone Man (Dern) who has secrets to reveal to her.

       Is it all real? A dream? Hallucination?

       What an odd mishmash of a film. But the cast is good and it’s interesting. Hal liked it more than I did.

      3* of 5

 

Wadjda

 Wadjda (Den gröna cykeln) 2012

• Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Ahd
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sadly, none of them and sadly, it seems that young Waad Mohammed hasn’t made any more films. A pity! She’s very good!
• Why? It sounded good
• Seen: 14 October 2021.      

       Ten-year-old Wadjda is not interested in Qur’an school. She’s interested in getting the green bicycle in the local shop. This is Saudi Arabia and life is strictly limited for girls and women. Covered heads, covered faces, their lives decided by men, no bicycles.

       Wadjda will get that bicycle. No matter what.

       Girl power Arabian style. Hurrah for girls who break stupid rules, especially stupid religious rules.

       The film is heart-breaking and infuriating but also uplifting. Waad Mohammed is tremendous as Wadjda. Don’t miss it. 

4½ * of 5

 

Timbuktu

 Timbuktu 2014

• Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Ibrahim Ahmed, Abel Jafri, Toulou Kiki, Layla Walet Mohamed, Kettley Noël
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Abel Jafri – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
• Why? It sounded good
• Seen: 10 October 2021.      

       The desert town of Timbuktu has been taken over by extreme Jihadists who forbid one thing after another.

       We see glimpses of the lives of the victims and of the Jihadists. The drama is slow and low-key, but dramatic, nevertheless. Visually beautiful, the film is a grim work of art.

       Unfortunately, it falls apart on the weak story and it’s clichéd ‘good religion is good and bad religion is bad.’ I say as Lucretius did over two thousand years ago: ‘Tantum religio potuit suadere malrum.’ Only religion can lead to such evil.

       The film got all kinds of prizes, but I don’t like it. 

2 ½ * of 5

 

The Awakening

 The Awakening 2011

• Director: Nick Murphy
• Seen by this director: Primeval (2 episodes)
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Isaac Hemstead Wright, Shaun Dooley, Joseph Mawle
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Rebecca Hall – BFG, Transcendence, Frost/Nixon, Starter for 10
• Dominic West – Tomb Raider, Testament of Youth, Johnny English Reborn, From Time to Time, The Wire, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Chicago, 28 Days, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III
• Imelda Staunton – Pride, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Another Year, Cranford, Taking Woodstock, Freedom Writers, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Re-Told, Vera Drake, Bright Young Things, Shakespeare in Love, Twelfth Night, Sense and Sensibility, Much Ado about Nothing
• Shaun Dooley – Doctor Who, Broadchurch, Misfits, The Woman in Black, South Riding, Hustle, Shackleton
• Joseph Mawle – Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Bird Song, Made in Dagenham, Merlin
• Why? I don’t really know.
• Seen: 9 October 2021.      

       A hundred years ago Florence Cathcart (Hall) is a no-nonsense, scientific non-believer of ghosts who works to discloses fraud, misconception and superstition.

       Robert Mallory (West) appears on her doorstep to ask her to explain the ghost in the boarding school where he teaches, a ghost who is believed to have caused the death of a pupil three weeks previously.

       She takes the job and is aided by Maud (Staunton), the school’s devoted housekeeper and a staunch supporter of Florence’s book.

       Ghosts or no ghosts, it’s suspenseful. It’s a seriously and intelligently made film, a sad film about damaged people.

 4 * of 5

 

 

The Circle

 The Circle 2017

• Director: James Pansoldt
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Bill Paxton, Ellar Coltrane, Karen Gillan, Glenne Headly
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Emma Watson – The Perks of Being a Wallflower, My Week with Marilyn, Harry Potter
• Tom Hanks – Cloud Atlas, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Catch Me If You Can, The Road to Perdition, Cast Away, The Green Mile, You’ve Got Mail, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own, Joe and the Volcano, Punchline
• John Boyega – Star Wars the Force Awakens/The Last Jedi, Attack the Block
• Bill Paxton – Edge of Tomorrow, A Simple Plan, Titanic, Twister, Aliens, Streets of Fire
• Karen Gillan – Doctor Who
• Glenne Headly – The Namesake, Dick Tracy
• Why? Emma Watson
• Seen: 8 October 2021.      

       Mae (Watson) gets a job with the Circle, a powerful IT company, very high tech. Eamon (Hanks) is the adored owner of the Circle. He enthusiastically, almost evangelistically, promotes his technical developments as the saviours of democracy in the battle against tyrants and dictators. Mae’s friend Annie (Gillan) is hysterically supportive of the Circle, as are all the other 20-somethings who work there. Mae is too, at first. But it doesn’t take her long to realise that the Circle aims to take over her life, everyone’s lives 24-7. Everything.

       The road to hell and all that. It could be clichéd but in fact it just avoids it and is quite thought-provoking. I always like Emma Watson and Tom Hanks is a convincing good guy/villain. The others are good too.

 4 * of 5

 

 

 

Stand by Me

 Stand by Me 1986

• Director: Rob Reiner
• Seen by this director: The Magic of Belle Isle, The Bucket List, Rumour Has It, A Few Good Men, Misery, When Harry Met Sally, Spinal Tap
• Based on the novella by Stephen King
• Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Richard Dreyfuss, John Cusack
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Wil Wheaton – The Big Bang Theory
• River Phoenix – My Own Private Idaho, Running on Empty, Mosquito Coast
• Corey Feldman – Pauly Shore Is Dead
• Jerry O’Connell – Veronica Mars
• Kiefer Sutherland – Melancholia, A Few Good Men
• Richard Dreyfuss - What about Bob?, Postcards from the Edge, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Good-bye Girl, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, American Graffiti, TV series from the 60s
• John Cusack - The Butler, 2012, 1408, Identity, Serendipity, High Fidelity, Being John Malkovich, Cradle Will Rock, The Thin Red Line, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Grosse Point Blank, The Grifters 

Why? Recommended by many.

Seen: 7 October 2021.

             Four twelve-year-old boys, who aren’t as tough as they pretend to be, set out on a sort of road trip, mostly walking along a railroad track, to find the body of their missing classmate. Their rivals are a gang of older teenaged hoodlums who are as tough as they pretend to be, sort of. There is enough danger and tension to make the film exciting at times.

       Best were the glimpses of a young John Cusack and the excellent acting of the even younger River Phoenix.

       Films about boys before coming of age tend to be annoying but this is one of the better ones. Not as good as its hype though.       

3 ½ * of 5

 

348 dagar

 348 dagar 2019

• Director: Jesper Granslandt
• Based on the book by Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson
• Cast: Gustaf Skarsgård, Matias Varela, Faysal Ahmed, Stephen Jennings, Josefin Neldén, Sivuyile Ngesi, Philip Zandén
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gustaf Skarsgård – Cleo
• Josefin Neldén – Gräns
• Sivuyile Ngesi – Invictus
• Philip Zandén – Snoken, Ronja Rövardotter and I’ve seen him on stage as Henry Higgins in Pygmalion
• Why? I followed the true story in the news.
• Seen: 3 October 2021.      

       Two Swedish journalists, Martin Schibbye (Skarsgård) and Johan Persson (Varela) are investigating Lundin Petroleum in Somalia. It is revealed that the conservative foreign secretary Carl Bildt (Zandén) was on the board of the company when it was first exposed that Lundin committed crimes against civilians in their exploitation of oil. Johan and Martin are given tips by the rebels of sources in Ethiopia, and they cross the border illegally. Their guides show them the destruction and murder of villages by the military.

       They are attacked. Some of the rebels are killed. Both Martin and Johan are shot and captured. Their 438 days of imprisonment as terrorists begin.

       The conservative Swedish government does more to cover its own tracks than to help them.

       Even though we know the outcome, having followed the news while it happened – after 438 days they are released – we had no way of knowing these details. Schibbye and Perssons book is the basis of the film which is well-made and well-acted. And even though we know the ending, it is exciting.

       Schibbye and Persson continue to work for the freedom of the press and to expose criminal practices by governments and companies. 

 Till svenskarna som läser detta – ni har säkert också följt händelserna på nyheterna. Se filmen. Den är bra.

4* of 5.

Dumbo

 Dumbo 1941

• Directors: Samuel Armstrong, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: voices only
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• none
• Why? I like elephants
• Seen: 2 October 2021.      

       Baby Dumbo has very big ears and everyone ridicules him for it. Some even abuse him, and his mother is locked up as a mad elephant for trying to protect him. He’s befriended by a cheeky mouse.

       There’s quite a lot of cruelty in this film (pedagogically done for children of all ages) but it’s also sweet and amusing. The animation is a real treat, especially the jazzy crows.

       No wonder it’s a classic. 

4 * of 5

 

Gremlins

 Gremlins 1984

• Director: Joe Dante
• Seen by this director: episodes of TV series
• Based on the novel: no.
• Cast: Zack Galligan, Phoebe Cates, and others
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Highly recommended by FB friends in my film groups.
• Seen (sort of): 2 October 2021.      

       A father buys Mogwai, a little creature from a mysterious shop in Chinatown. The creature comes with three serious rules, which we know immediately will be broken and havoc will be wrought.

       Oh no. It’s Christmas. And there’s a dog. This does not bode well.

       Nope, it does not go well at all. It’s boring and mindless.

       Everybody in the world loves this film. Except me and Hal

       DNF.

 

0* of 5.

Blinded by the Light

 Blinded by the Light 2019

• Director: Gurinder Chadha
• Seen by this director: Paris je t’aime, Bend It Like Beckham,
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Viveik Kalra, Dean-Charles Chapman, Kit Reeve, David Hayman, Kulvinder Ghir, Nikita Mehta, Rob Brydon, Meera Ganatra, Lorraine Ashbourne, Frankie Fox, Nell Williams, Aaron Phagura, Hayley Atwell
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Dean-Charles Chapman – 1917, Breathe, Before I Go to Sleep
• David Hayman – Fisherman’s Friends, London Spy, Macbeth, The Hollow Crown, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Flood, My Name Is Joe, The Boxer, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Rob Roy, Sid and Nancy
• Kulvinder Ghir – Bend It Like Beckham, Curry Nam Nam
• Nikita Mehta – Curry Nam Nam
• Rob Brydon – Cinderella, Extras, Little Britain, Tristram Shandy, Shaun of the Dead, Black Books, 24 Hour Party People, Cold Lazarus
• Lorraine Ashbourne - A Street Cat Named Bob, Breathe, Unforgotten, Adult Life Skills, London Spy, Fever Pitch
• Aaron Phagura – Doctor Who, Unforgotten
• Hayley Atwell – Cinderella, Testament of Youth, Pillars of the Earth, Doctor Who
• Why? Well, it’s Bruce, isn’t it?
• Seen: 1 October 2021.      

       1987. Luton. Sixteen-year-old Javed (Kalra) writes songs about nuclear war and Thatcher. He has very strict Pakistani parents. He longs to leave Luton.     

       At school he meets radical classmate Eliza (Reeve), supportive English teach Ms Clay (Atwell). And Bruce Springsteen via classmate Roops (Phagura).

       He’s already acquainted with racism, unemployment and the family’s economic struggles. Bruce’s lyrics knock him off his feet.

       Yep. Straight to the heart. I know the feeling.

       It turns into a quasi-musical which doesn’t quite work but it’s clever and gripping and sweet. And the music is forever – since 1987 or so – in my heart. So I’m not completely objective.

       Oh yes, Kalra as Javed is very appealing. 

4 * of 5

 

Rope

 Rope 1948

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Seen by this director: Torn Curtain, Marnie, The Birds, Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble with Harry, Rear Window, Notorious, Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, The 39 steps, possibly others
• Based on the play by Patrick Hamilton
• Cast: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Edith Evanson, Douglas Dick, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwick, Constance Collier
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• James Stewart – Shenandoah, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Greatest Show on Earth, Bell Book and Candle, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Harvey, Rear Window, maybe others
• John Dall – Spartacus
• Farley Granger – TV series
• Edith Evanson – TV series
• Cedric Hardwick – Five Weeks in a Balloon, Around the World in Eighty Days, Gaby, Richard III
• Why? It’s in the James Steward Box.
• Seen: 30 September 2021.      

       A man is strangled with a rope by two men in suits in a fancy NY flat. His murderers Brandon (Dall) and Phillip (Granger) consider him the perfect victim for the perfect murder, an immaculate murder just for the danger and thrill of it.

       With the body in a trunk the dinner party with the victim’s parents and fiancée (Chandler) can begin. Also invited is Rupert (Stewart) the two murderer’s mentor at college. Rupert is unusually observant and astute.

       It’s a clever cat-and-mouse salon drama with snappy dialog and increasing tension. Stewart is excellent, as always. An odd little gem. Hitchcock’s first colour film. 

4 * of 5