Jack the Giant Killer (1962) ***
Just to be clear, this is not, as I had automatically assumed, about Jack and the Beanstalk. Also, it’s worth pointing that the stop-motion animation is not, as I had equally automatically assumed, the work of Ray Harryhausen. It hadn’t occurred to me that anyone else could follow in Harryhausen’s footsteps, especially when this number…
Behind the Scenes: The Day The World Changed – The Odeon Triple Opens in Glasgow
It was a seismic event for cinemagoers. Although the twinning of cinemas in the U.K. and Europe had already begun – lagging way behind the cineplexes of America – the opening of a triple cinema in Glasgow on 2 October 1970 (where I lived) was groundbreaking in more ways than one. It completely altered the…
Behind the Scenes: All-Time Top 40
Waterloo (1970) holds on to the top spot but the Alistair MacLean revival gathers pace. The Satan Bug (1965) makes the biggest surge, shooting up to second spot, with Ice Station Zebra (1968) in fourth spot past The Guns of Navarone (1961) which drops slightly to sixth. I’ve extended this from a Top 30 to…
All-Time Top 100
After three years atop the All-Time List, Ann-Margret in The Swinger (1966) has been dethroned. And replaced by Ann-Marget in Stagecoach (1966), the remake of the John Ford western. The Swinger, I should add, hasn’t dropped by much, just down two places. Suzy Kendall as the spy Fraulein Doktor (1969) has shot up from sixth…
The Presidio (1988) ***
Blame the young whelp. Hollywood had form when it came to piggybacking a rising star on the back of an older established star. Go back to Montgomery Clift and John Wayne in Red River (1948) and you can see why it’s such a potent route to success. Young bucks like James Caan in another John…
Creatures The World Forgot (1971) ***
Remove the minimal salacious elements (“Violence and Sex in Prehistoric Times” was the come-on for French audiences). Ignore the fact that there are few creatures to speak of (a bear, some warthogs and gazelles aren’t exactly going to terrify the audience). Set aside that denoted star Julie Ege (Every Home Should Have One, 1971) doesn’t…
Backrooms (2026) ***** – Seen at the Cinema
Cinema is my oasis of calm. I go once a week on the same day (Monday), on my own, usually sit two rows from the front so I’m not interrupted by heads or popcorn or whispering, and sit in darkness for three or four hours, occasionally longer. It’s usually a seamless procession from car park…
Disclosure Day (2026) *** – Seen at the Cinema
Thanks goodness other directors stepped up to the summer box office plate otherwise Hollywood would be left wringing its hands at this workmanlike, sanctimonious, effort. Like the recent Star Wars number, you get the impression the Steven Spielberg IP has long gone off the boil with the exception of sojourns into the prehistoric. He has…
Behind the Scenes: “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (1970)
Although Billy Wilder had written a script based on The Life of Sherlock Holmes (in fact he had three versions of the project running in his head, initially conceiving of the movie – twice – as a musical) by the time it came round to seeking funding in the early 1960s he was not originally…
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) **
The word is that you can’t blame director (and producer and co-writer) Billy Wilder for this disaster because it was taken out of his hands by studio United Artists and drastically re-cut. But when you learn that Wilder’s version ran three hours and counting and even in the shortened version looks a preposterously bad bet,…
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The Magnificent 60s 