Classic and James Bond films unite
When you talk about actors who had such enduring careers that they were able to transition from the studio ruled cinema of the 20th century to the varied fare of the 21st century, you would be utterly remiss to exclude the legendary Christopher Plummer. He received worldwide fame for his role as the cantankerous Captain… Continue reading Announcing The Charismatic Christopher Plummer Blogathon
My late father was French-Mauritian, a distinction that he always made very clear to people. And I think that is perhaps why he was such a devotee of Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian detective. My father took great delight in the parts where British characters insulted Poirot by calling him a French so and so, and… Continue reading You’re the Top!: Diana Rigg in “Evil Under the Sun” (1982)
The Boys Next Door follows in the footsteps of Rebel Without A Cause in its exploration of a disillusioned youth that are raging against the system, but it cranks the violence and cynicism up to a level that endeavours to show the crumbling facade of the American Dream. It has fallen into relative obscurity since… Continue reading Disillusioned Youth: “The Boys Next Door” (1985)
As human beings, we often fail to think about, or realise, how important the big picture is. We talk about "seeing" the big picture or how we need to look at the "big picture", but we very rarely do. A lot of the time, we make decisions, often crucial, life changing ones, based on assumption,… Continue reading Anatomy of Murder: Blood Simple (1984)
In 1968, Mia Farrow showed that she could play a character that required both exhaustive physical and psychological realisation. In Rosemary's Baby, she played a young woman who has the unimaginable happen to her, and she was rightly nominated for a BAFTA and Academy Award for her efforts. A year before that, in 1967, Audrey Hepburn would… Continue reading A Sightless Evil: Mia Farrow in “See No Evil” (1971)
There are spoilers ahead, so put away the wax cylinders if you don't want to hear all of the secrets. Ghosts can be of the mind and they can be of the world. Crimson Peak shows this in incredible detail through its setting and character. This is a ghost story that is all about how ghosts are not… Continue reading My Heart is A Haunted House: Crimson Peak (2015)
Although this film is over forty years old, some may still be concerned about spoilers in the walls, so please remove the plaster at your own risk. Giallo is a genre of film that has come to fascinate me fairly recently. I was largely unaware of it until I watched Twitch of the Death Nerve [insert alternate… Continue reading Tell Tale Voice: “Your Vice Is A Locked Room and Only I Have The Key” (1972)
Licence To Kill (1989) has suffered from a bad reputation for years. Many have wrongly asserted that it bombed at the box office and that the film was critically panned. While the film did not perform as strongly in the US as past entries, the film still earned $156 million dollars at the box office,… Continue reading The Art of Vengeance: A Love Letter to “Licence To Kill” (1989)
Undercurrent (1947) is definitely not a film that many mention in connection with any of its three stars, which really is a shame, because it's a film that deserves more attention. I've read some reviews that have called it a Gaslight knock off, and while Undercurrent shares some elements with that film, it is decidedly different in others. For me, Undercurrent can… Continue reading Rolling in the Deep: Katherine Hepburn in “Undercurrent” (1946)
Mystery Street (1950) is one of the best film noirs I have watched. Yes, a bold claim I know when you consider such faultless outings as Double Indemnity, The Blue Dahlia and The Big Sleep. But Mystery Street is another animal entirely. It is a noir that combines human drama with the police procedural and forensic investigation, which would have been quite… Continue reading Bone Collector: Ricardo Montalban in “Mystery Street” (1950)
Pale Writer 