Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

We’re in Vermont in 1906 where three young women have recently been murdered, all of whom having some sort of physical disability or affliction.  We’re a long time before the term ‘serial killer’ was coined but fair dues to the local Constable who realises that young Helen, who is mute, is in serious danger.   She is a live-in companion to an elderly and bedridden lady, Mrs Warren, who lives in a large creepy mansion. That night there’s a thunderstorm raging outside so the stage is well set for a scary thriller. The Constable warns Helen’s employer Professor Warren (the stepson of old Mrs Warren) that she should be especially vigilant. The Professor duly passes on the warning, but he makes little effort to ensure that she is not left on her own. Hmmm, does this mean that the Professor, who is a bit of a cold fish, is the killer? He’s certainly a suspect, as his his younger stepbrother Steven, although maybe Steven is too busy making advances to the secretary Blanche to be doin...

In 1944 director Otto Preminger and actor Dana Andrews combined to great effect with the film 'Laura', so I guess it's no surprise that the following year they got together again for another crime film. In 'Laura', Andrews played a police detective who falls in love with a woman whom he's never met and whom he presumes has been murdered, only to discover that she is alive, whereas in this film he plays a drifter, Eric, who falls in love with a woman who's very much alive, only for her to be murdered. The woman in question is a diner waitress, Stella, played by Linda Darnell who possessed the kind of sultry beauty that was big in the 1940s. Eric is so taken with her that he wants to marry her but for that he's going to need some big money.  No problem because even though he's only been in town a few days he's a bit of a charmer, and he already has his eye on June, who is rich.  She has led a sheltered life (she plays the church organ, reads books ...

In this delightful 1984 comedy Woody Allen plays the title character, a small-time theatrical agent, who is extremely loyal and dedicated to his clients, no matter how hopeless they are. Sadly that loyalty is rarely reciprocated on the rare occasions when one of his clients hits the big time, and the  plot concerns one such client, Lou Canova, a singer who once was big and who is now attempting a comeback. The other main character is Lou's mistress, Tina Vitale, played by Mia Farrow.  Lou wants her to be present at a big concert he has coming up, with Danny pretending to be her boyfriend. As a result of T ina having an ex-boyfriend who still loves her, and who happens to be a gangster, c omplications ensue in which the gangster wants Danny killed. It's a light and entertaining story in which Farrow shines, partly down to the simple fact that she is playing very much against type as the brassy, fast-talking Tina. Allen extracts the humour you would expect from his roster of unp...

The setting for this 1955 psychological thriller, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, is a Parisian boarding school for boys, run by a headmaster who is both married to one of the teachers and having an indiscreet affair with another (it is France after all). He’s a nasty piece of work who physically and emotionally abuses his wife, Christina, whom he only seems to have married  for her money (apparently she owns the school, which stuck me as weird, but never mind). Because he is so unpleasant it seems that his mistress, Nicole, has taken Christina under her wing, even to the extent of concocting a plan to murder the guy.  Christina is rather weak-willed but Nicole (who has a very strong personality) manages to persuade her to be an accomplice to the crime. There is considerable suspense in the first half of the film arising from whether the plan will succeed, which essence it is to drug the husband so as to be able to drown him in a bathtub, before transferring the body to the...

I wasn’t expecting that much from this obscure 1942 film by the Boulting brothers (Roy directed it, John produced it) especially since it seemed like it had a supernatural element to it, which I have an aversion to. It starts with an amusing scene, in Chicago of all places, which serves to establish that the British lighthouse keeper at Thunder Rock in Lake Michigan is an odd cove (he hasn’t been cashing his pay cheques). So we’re off to the lighthouse by way of a seaplane piloted by Streeter (played by James Mason) who is an old friend of Charleston, the lighthouse keeper (played by Michael Redgrave). The two friends have an argument because Streeter disapproves of his friend trying to become a recluse when Streeter has himself enlisted in the Chinese air force to help them in their war with Japan (the year being 1939). Anyway the visitors leave so that we can spend the rest of the film at the lighthouse with just Charleston for company. Except that it’s not quite accurate to say that...

This highly regarded film from 1948 has the unusual setting of a foreign embassy in London,  and  is directed by Carol Reed from a short story written and adapted by Graham Greene. Ralph Richardson plays Baines, the butler there who is unhappily married to the head housekeeper, and who has for a few months been conducting an affair with Julie, a foreign typist at the embassy. Things come to a head one weekend when Julie, realising that Mrs Baines will never agree to a divorce, tells Baines that she is returning home.  Around the same time Mrs Baines learns of the affair, leading to a violent argument with her husband.   When a few minutes later she falls to her death from a window ledge, unseen by anyone, landing at the foot of the embassy's huge staircase, B aines reasonably assumes she must have slipped and fallen down the staircase.  The police are brought in and when their investigation reveals that Baines’ explanation is inconsistent with her injuries, and ...