Classic and James Bond films unite
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)
And so The Calls of Cornwall: Daphne du Maurier Blogathon has come to an end. I would like to thank all of the bloggers who contributed. I cannot WAIT to go through everyone's posts and read all about du Maurier and her works. I would also like to ask the bloggers who participated, or bloggers… Continue reading Finn…or will she come back?
It is rare that an adaptation of a novel gets things right. Often one feels that they shouldn't have bothered to buy the rights to the book at all if they were just going to change everything. Thankfully, that is not what ITV does in the 1997 adaptation of du Maurier's most famous novel, Rebecca. This is the third… Continue reading Je Reviens: Rebecca (1997)
I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't know who Michael Caine was. He just seems to have always been an actor who is very much liked in my household. My mother has always adored him. She introduced so many of his films to me, such as Zulu, which we both love because it's… Continue reading Introducing Harry Palmer: Michael Caine in “The Ipcress File” (1965)
The film starts with a visual representation of Edward "Teddy" Bare's (played by Dirk Bogarde) mind. A stark, dark, confusing labyrinth, with the face of a screaming woman. The things in the labyrinth: a stuffed ape, a clown, would be mundane in the sunlight, in the sane world, but in this place they are representations… Continue reading The Chamber: Dirk Bogarde in “Cast a Dark Shadow” (1955)
Watching a film where Bette Davis plays the female lead is really something. From Now Voyager to Jezebel, Bette never put a foot wrong. But seeing her play both female leads. Well that's really something. And she did it twice, almost twenty years apart, in A Stolen Life and Dead Ringer, in which she played identical twin sisters. And while both of these… Continue reading Walking through the looking glass: Bette Davis in ‘A Stolen Life’ and ‘Dead Ringer’
Laird Cregar has been on the periphery for me for a good while, but for some reason, I just never actively sought out his films. This was despite my admiration for his portrayal of the sleazy, cowardly, mint popping secondary villain in This Gun For Hire, which was his second film with my absolute favourite actor, Alan… Continue reading The Loveliness of Laird: Discovering the Films of Laird Cregar
Daphne du Maurier is considered one of the greatest writers in history. Her influence as an author is so widespread that people are aware of elements of her work without actually always being familiar with it. She was characterised as a romance novelist in her lifetime, a title she disliked intensely, and with good reason.… Continue reading Announcing The Calls of Cornwall: The Daphne du Maurier Blogathon
Pale Writer 