The Other Side of Midnight (1977) ****
I was settling in for what I thought was an evening of high-class trash when the unexpected occurred. This wasn’t a mushy World War Two romance but a tale of revenge on a par with that wreaked by the legendary Count of Monte Cristo or by the more recent The Housemaid (2026). Except for throwing…
Behind the Scenes: Whispering Smith Hits London / Whispering Smith vs Scotland Yard (1952)
Contemporary audiences will be accustomed to studios playing fast and loose with a successful IP, all sorts of tricks to keep a series alive; although maybe the most famous occurred in TV soap Dallas when the death of a major character turned out to be only a dream. Still, British studio Hammer, in its pre-horror…
Whispering Smith Hits London / Whispering Smith vs Scotland Yard (1952) ***
“In a change to the advertised program” is probably the best place to start, since in writing nearly 2,000 reviews I’ve only, from memory, dipped into the pre-1960 era a couple of times. So let me explain. First of all when I was diving through my trove of Pressbooks, deciding what to select for the…
The Birds (1963) *****
Years ago I was asked to write a book on the six best Hitchcock films and from those choose the one I considered his very best. My choice was The Birds (1963). And it is for these reasons. Firstly, unusually in the master’s work, there is a proper meet-cute. In most of his films, the…
Behind the Scenes: Exploding the Hitchcock Box Office Myth
There’s a myth about Alfred Hitchcock that needs exploding. Every major biography – John Russell Taylor, Donald Spoto, Patrick McGilligan et al – repeats the same error. Namely, that as a result of the critical and commercial success in the U.S. of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935) and The…
Sumuru, Queen of Femina / The Girl from Rio / Mothers of America (1969) ***
Cult fans assemble. Sci fi crime thriller with for the time a fair sprinkling of nudity, and channelling psychedelic turns like Barbarella (1968) and Danger: Diabolik (1968) and one step up from the ultra-confident gals of Deadlier than the Male (1967) and Some Girls Do (1969). It would have helped if there was a decent…
Three Men To Kill! (1980) ****
Every now and then British streamer Talking Pictures TV comes up with an absolute cracker. I’d never heard of this film and don’t think it gained either a British or American release at the time and there doesn’t appear to have been anything in the way of VHS/DVD activity except a belated 2021 DVD. Alain…
Lady in Cement (1969) ****
Frank Sinatra in cruise control reprises his Tony Rome (1967) private eye in a hugely enjoyable and vastly under-rated murder mystery with man mountain Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame and femme fatale Raquel Welch of pin-up fame. One of the actor’s greatest characterizations, albeit with little in it for the Oscar mob, this is one…
Normal (2026) **** or ** (depending) – Seen at the Cinema
Say hello to the Algorithm Apocalypse. Or as we used to call it – a trainwreck of a movie. This would be a prime candidate for the Inaugural Thrash Memorial Award. Marketed as a “Sky Original” that’s somewhat misleading since it is closer to a Sky Cliché, although admittedly that doesn’t have quite the same…
10 Rillington Place (1971) ****
We tend to view Anthony Hopkins as the bold game-changer when he switched from respectable upmarket leading man to Hannibal the Erudite Cannibal in The Silence of the Lambs, paving the way for a plethora of other stars to throw off the shackles of their screen personas. But, in fact, it was another Englishman, Richard…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
The Magnificent 60s 