Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

This was a hugely successful film in its day (1953) but I hadn't got around to watching it until now, probably because I suspected (correctly as it turned out) that it wouldn't be my cup of tea, despite the presence of two of my faves, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. It's set in a US army base in Hawaii in 1941, before America enters World War II. Lancaster is an extremely capable First Sergeant and Kerr is the dissatisfied wife of his commanding officer.  Inevitably they start a passionate affair, the highlight of which is the iconic scene of them kissing on a beach at night.  Until now I hadn't really thought of Kerr as especially sexy but here she proves that acting wise there wasn't any role she couldn't play convincingly. I was very happy whenever the two of them were on screen but unfortunately their story is one of only three unfolding.   There's also a dull romance between Montgomery Clift's Private Prewitt and Donna Reed's 'hostess'...

This is a 1961 British mystery comedy film, based on the 1957 novel '4.50 from Paddington' by Agatha Christie.   It stars Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, but as a very different character to that in the novels.   Here she is an energetic, assertive and somewhat eccentric character which plays to Rutherford's strengths as a comic actor.  It is also means that she can take a more active role in the solving of the crime, by becoming a maid in the household which seems to contain the murderer, something which Christie's creation would never have done. Christie purists are likely to be offended by this take on the character, as well as the lack of any real detection carried out by her.  When she eventually claims to have solved the crime it's not clear how she can have done this given the paucity of clues to go on, a criticism also directed at the novel, which may not be Christie's finest.   In the end whether Jane has correctly identified the...

This is the second in a series of four films starring Margaret Rutherford as Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple, and t he studio was clearly very happy to repeat à winning formula since the structure of this picture is identical to the first. In both Jane is witness to a murder, is not believed by the police, inserts herself among the suspects, and then traps the killer by using herself as bait. Again the suspects are primarily members of a family who stand to inherit money, and the film ends with the head of the family proposing marriage to Jane. In this case the patriarch is played by Robert Morley, and the scenes between him and Rutherford are a delight naturally. Also very funny is the dance scene towards the end in which Jane and Mr Stringer energetically do the Twist.  And Jane's outfit is something to behold! My main gripe is that as with the first film there's very little detection as such.  Although Jane claims to have worked out who the killer is it's very hard to...

This is the third film starring Margaret Rutherford as Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple and for me it’s the most satisfying. Thankfully there are some small changes to the formula of the first two films, signalled by the opening scenes.  Instead of Jane witnessing or stumbling upon a murder, here she’s a member of a jury.  The other jury members, and long suffering Inspector Craddock, are convinced the defendant is guilty of murdering Mrs McGinty but Jane of course begs to differ, forcing a retrial and an opportunity for her to investigate. Compared with the two previous outings Jane actually does some serious detective work, and the mystery to be solved is more intriguing.   So ha ts off to the screenwriters who took the extremely complicated plot of an Hercule Poirot novel ‘Mrs McGinty’s Dead’ and totally rewrote it other than retaining the motive for the murder.   As before, the rewrite includes a means for Jane to embed herself within a group of suspects, in th...

Having failed to get to the end of the Bret Easton Ellis novel I’m very glad that this excellent adaptation got made, despite Ellis thinking his satire was unfilmable. I'm also glad that Christian Bale eventually was cast in the main role of Patrick Bateman; it's really hard to imagine anyone else playing the part. Bateman is a classic case of an unreliable narrator.  He's a New York investment banker who seems also to be a serial killer although as the violence escalates and becomes more surreal it's unclear how much on the screen is real or is just in Patrick's head.  The film is open to various interpretations, mine being that the killings start off as being real before Bateman suffers a major meltdown.  Ultimately maybe it doesn't matter too much.  Whatever the truth Bateman is a severely disturbed individual.  Appropriately for someone for whom appearances are all that matters, there's nothing inside.  When at the end he breaks down and confesses his c...

This 1949 film, set in nineteenth century New York and directed by William Wyler, is an adaptation of a play which itself was an adaptation of a Henry James novel, 'Washington Square'.   I've never read anything by James but my impression is that his writing is complex and rather cold, in which case this film is true to the spirit of the novel, even if the plot has been much condensed and made more direct.  So  I'm not surprised that it was a commercial failure because it's a bleak and cruel film in many ways, but one of undeniable quality which the critics loved and which led to several major Oscar nominations. The heiress in question is Catherine (played by Olivia de Haviland, despite being a few years too old for the part), who despite the best education that money can buy is socially gauche and lacking in self-confidence.  The latter is hardly surprising given that her father Dr Stoper (Ralph Richardson) makes it clear that she falls a long way short of the ...