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Though Erich Kästner’s 1929 novel has never been out of print, this first of many adaptations of Emil and the Detectives is chiefly remembered these days as a vehicle for Billy (here billed as Billie) Wilder. He’s the only writer listed on screen, though the IMDb includes Kästner himself as well as Emerich Pressburger as … Read more
Weird and matter of fact, gory and yet sweet, The Flesh People has a unique vibe, mixing satire and gonzo comedy, a touch of Mel Brooks – Young Frankenstein era – with hallucinogenic fancy, and a strange, odd-couple pairing at its centre that’s inspired in terms of casting and playing. It’s the bizarro adventure of two … Read more
The hero is not and cannot be the hero, this is the circle Donald Sutherland cannot quite square in Eye of the Needle, the film that got director Richard Marquand noticed by George Lucas, who gave him the Return of the Jedi gig after watching it. Being British and non-union undoubtedly helped Marquand a fair … Read more
For anyone who remembers watching John’s Not Mad, the breakthrough TV documentary about John Davidson, a young British man with severe Tourette’s syndrome, I Swear is more of the same – a supportive and tender film about a man walking about with a neurological glitch that makes him tic uncontrollably, swear inappropriately and say all … Read more
It’s a lousy title, in English anyway. So Long, Stooge – Tchao Pantin in the original French. Might be better as See You, Loser? Anyhow, it’s a rather unusual sort of film – part one a love story of sorts, part two a revenge thriller – tied together by Coluche, a French comedy actor way off … Read more
If youth is a party weekend, what happens when the fun stops? The answer is Monday – Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s glum follow-up to Suntan, another detailing of the goings-on in a “fun” place where not much fun was happening. I warn you, this is a slog, but it’s an instructive one, reminding one and all that … Read more
I remember watching The Ruling Class on TV as a kid and being amused by the sight of Peter O’Toole hanging off a full-size cross in a baronial living room, playing an aristo convinced he is the second coming of Jesus Christ. I also remember being bored by the rest of the film. Fast forward … Read more
Second of the trilogy, We Still Steal the Old Way arrived two years after 2014’s We Still Kill the Old Way and three years before We Still Die the Old Way. Aged gangsters is the idea. Geezer gangsters, this being a London-set caper. If you watched the first movie, you might have been amused to … Read more
The story goes that Targets got made because Roger Corman met Peter Bogdanovich at a screening in 1968. Bogdanovich had never directed before but Corman liked the cut of his jib and so offered him a gig. Boris Karloff owed him two days of acting work, Corman told his director presumptive, and if they could … Read more
Enid Blyton has been so unfashionable for so long that it must be time for a revival. The Magic Faraway Tree could be the start of it. An old-fashioned imaginative kids adventure, it’s full of the sort of wholesome derring-do that turned Blyton into the most translated children’s author ever. The presence of Andrew Garfield, … Read more
The various remakes of Love Affair studied this 1939 original closely and learned the right lessons. The acting must be of a high order but more than that the leads must have chemistry. The story itself is relatively unimportant. It’s a case of two people meeting, falling in love before they know it and then … Read more
Shelved for tax purposes then hauled back to improbable life – like its cartoon star Wile E Coyote – Coyote vs Acme made it through when Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt fell by the accountancy wayside. But is it more than a “from the grave” resurrection sticking it to the bean counters? I laughed about … Read more
