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Orchids and Ermine (1927)

Gwen Lee Almost Steals the Show!!

Even by 1927 Colleen Moore was tiring and trying to avoid flapper roles - after immersing herself and getting critical praise for her starring role in "So Big" she felt she had earned her dramatic stripes but First National was in the middle of a flapper frenzy and she was the star who typified that. And she was right to feel aggrieved - even though many of her films are missing, this is pretty light weight and obviously made at the height of her popularity when just her name on a poster would have sold tickets.

She is Pinks Watson, a switchboard operator for Gotham Cement whose dreams of orchids and ermine and rich he-flappers takes her to the Deluxe Hotel where her lack of artifice gets her a job as the receptionist!! Once on the job she becomes the innocent pupil of gold digging Ermitrude of the notions counter and Gwen Lee almost steals the movie. She prances and poses and already on Pink's first day has a millionaire for them both to take for a ride - unfortunately he takes them as he is only a chauffeur!!

In a plotline so old it has whiskers, millionaire Richard Tabor (Jack Mulhall) is fed up with the fortune hunters so he changes places with his valet (Sam Hardy) who thinks he has all the right moves and wise cracks. The climax of the movie has Hardy marrying Ermitrude but because he is still using the Richard Tabor name his picture is splashed over the front page which makes it very hard for the real Tabor to prove his identity. Apart from Mickey Rooney, even at seven, frighteningly professional as a flirtatious cigar smoking midget, there is Hedda Hopper as a modiste and Alma Bennett as a vamp. Gwen Lee almost steals the show!!

Fräulein Else (1929)

Fraulein Elsie

A film you could so easily lose yourself in, direction was by Paul Czinner and his meticulous attention to the beautiful landscape of St. Moritz and the urban street scenes and home life makes you feel as though you are really there. Adding to that is the exquisite ethereal Elisabeth Bergner as Elsie - even though by 1929 she was 30, she really looked and acted like a child of 14. With a plot line similar to "Effie Briest" Bergner's Elsie is having a blissful time just being alive and excited about holidaying in St. Moritz with her cousin Paul and his family. While her parents are lavish with their spending, her father has been speculating heavily on the stock exchange and with Elsie sending letters in rapture of new experiences she happens to mention meeting a business associate of her father's. Her father is ruined and is facing time in prison, he has had a collapse so her mother writes to her begging her to do everything she can to get the funds needed from this associate so her father won't have to face prison.

It's obvious to the viewer that the associate wants a relationship with the child. There are two amazing sequences - the first, a tracking shot as Von Dorsday walks through the casino, Elsie just keeping her distance initially hesitant then eager, lastly realising she doesn't have the confidence to ask. The next one

• when she talks to Von Dorsday all you have to do

is watch her hands. The end scenes are very confrontational. At first having fun with Elsie, Paul then meets a woman of his own age to whom he becomes attracted though at the end he realises how badly he has let Elsie down.

Albert Bassermann plays the father superbly. Sixty by the time "Fraulein Elsie" was made, he later fled to America when he couldn't tolerate the way his wife (who was Jewish) was treated and then was nominated for a Best Supporting Academy Award for his role in "Foreign Correspondent" at age 70.

Forbidden Fruit (1921)

"Clothes by Poiret, Perfume by Coty, Jewels by Tiffany"!!

Agnes Ayres had started in films in 1915 and five years later she was still grinding out quickies and shorts when she came to the attention of Jesse L. Lasky. Under his guidance she became a star at Paramount in her first film "Forbidden Fruit", a top flight Cecil B. DeMille production which had critics raving about her stellar performance. Variety noted "Agnes Ayres is given chief honors and wears them well". The film boasted an all star cast (mostly DeMille regulars) and it was to Agnes' credit that she was noticed and praised.

With a beautifully tinted print Agnes stood out with her beauty and performance - she plays Mary Maddox, tied to a shiftless lazy husband, who is reduced to taking in sewing to make ends meet. When one of her wealthy clients asks her to help them out at a weekend party in order to captivate a particular young man whom she and her husband are hoping to interest in an oil deal, Mary realises her dream of being Cinderella will be a reality.

"Clothes by Poiret, Perfume by Coty, Jewels by Tiffany" - she becomes belle of the ball and Mr. Rogers (played by a very pop eyed Forrest Stanley) is smitten. Back at home, husband Steve is feeling very left out and broke and goes into partnership with the Mallory's crooked butler, Petro, who assures him there are jewels and riches for the taking, especially from the "wealthy woman" staying the weekend. During the break-in Steve recognises his wife and vows revenge on not only her but the man who stole her heart.

I thought Clarence Burton as Mary's husband Steve was pretty good, he really conveyed a man who was shiftless and down on his luck but initially with some sympathy and wanting to try to do better especially the scene where he throws a shoe at the little singing bird - but events show he is never going to change. Kathlyn Williams, usually playing self sacrificing wives (as in "Whispering Chorus") here plays a brittle society woman who is not above manipulating the life of her poor employee to clinch her husband's business deal. Also De Mille regular Julia Faye shines as a sassy maid.

Escape from Broadmoor (1948)

John Le Mesurier Does All Right in His First Movie

Director John Gilling packed quite a bit into his life - heading for Hollywood in his teens he tried prize fighting, acting, stage managing etc before returning to Britain in 1933 where he found work at Gainsborough Studios. After the war he teamed up with producer Harry Reynolds and began to make films that were extended shorts (35-45 minutes) and the first "Escape From Broadmoor" was not only notable for John Le Mesurier's debut, it had extensive location shooting. This was to be the first in a series of "psychic mysteries" that the writer/director Gilling hoped would interest viewers.

The police have reopened the Pendacost case, a criminal has escaped from Broadmoor Insane Asylum and the police hope he will revisit the house he tried to rob ten years before. He is holed up in a deserted house with a petty crim, Jenkins, who is bringing him supplies, not realising the identity of the escapee but more than keen when the older man talks of a big time robbery plan. The police have already staked out the house but the owner is having premonitions that someone is trying to send him a message. Slinky slatted shadows and a wandering cat conjures up the supernatural.

Interesting to see kindly John Le Mesurier of "Dad's Army" fame as an unpredictable psychopath - for his first movie he does alright.

One Jump Ahead (1955)

Tight Noir Marred By Wishy Washy Ending

This movie started so strongly - a young woman is killed by an unknown assailant as she retrieves some jewels she has hidden in a church, a young boy on roller skates sees the murder and a few days later a boy's body is found but in a grisly shock the police realise that the wrong boy has been murdered. It seems, days before they had swapped caps and the cap the killer found left behind at the church was not that of the boy who had actually seen the act. Police realise they are dealing with a homicidal maniac!!

Paul Carpenter was a Canadian who moved to Britain to sing with the Ted Heath Band. He soon moved on to movies where he had an edginess that a lot of British actors at the time could quite muster. In this one he plays Banner, a newspaper man, who while on the spot of the first murder, finds the child's cap in the bushes and starts to investigate down another track!! Carpenter had a very breezy style that critics liked and had some witty repartee with his sleuthing girlfriend and his femme fatale ex. This was were the film came a bit unstuck for me - Banner was so down to earth and all business but once he became entangled with his ex he became putty in her hands. Jill Adams was good in a poor man's Diana Dors way but the ending with her proving to be the brains behind a black mailing ring stretched credibility especially when she was found to have killed the child and then blithely gone on to try to murder the right one AND that Banner had to think long and hard about turning her in. Very tight, gritty movie marred by a cliched ending!!

The First Born (1928)

A Harsh Marriage Laid Bare!!

I don't know whether it was because Miles Mander not only directed and starred but wrote the screenplay that he gave his leading character, Sir Hugh, sympathy when he was a bully, a cad and also a violent husband. As the film progressed Madeleine Carroll's character, also Madeleine, started to look a bit of a dill because she couldn't stop loving him.

When the film begins Madeleine is once again imploring her husband to forgive her jealous outburst - but she has every reason to feel like that because of Hugh's reaction is to leave for an extended stay in South Africa, Hugh calls it his "soul country", and right into the arms of a native girl and her son who seems to be Hugh's. Maddy's reasoning for Hugh's continued bad behaviour is that she has not been able to give him an heir - so she concocts a plan with her pregnant manicurist to help her bring up the child as Maddie's own - things go smoothly and Hugh hastens back but as the years go on Maddie has her own child, Stephan, who becomes all in all to Hugh and he barely acknowledges the other child.

Everything about Hugh would make any sensible woman pause - he never shows any gentleness towards Maddy. When he wants to see the child, his wish is law - even if it means waving a torch around and upsetting both baby and nursemaid and when he increasingly comes to doubt that Stephan is his, Maddy's refusal to clarify things leads to a brutal scene where he almost kills her.

I was so hoping that when she was coaxed onto the platform to give a speech for her husband's election campaign that she would denounce him

• but no, her appeal and tears get him elected!!

The movie was enthusiastically reviewed as stylistically inventive as Britain headed toward a more mature and sophisticated approach, as silents ended, and away from the overly stagey and melodramatic films of Britain's earlier attempts.

Paper Orchid (1949)

Didn't Quite Know Whether It Was a Romantic Comedy or a Murder Yarn!!

Because the murder doesn't take place until more than half way through it's almost as though this film doesn't quite know what it wants to be - is it a racy newspaper adventure that Hollywood did so well in the 30s and 40s with beauteous Hy Hazell as Stella in the role that either Bette Davis or Glenda Farrell would have made their own? She gets a job on a paper with false references - suave Hugh Williams is her boss but changes are imminent with the death of the paper's owner. His widow takes charge and one by one the reporters find themselves wending their way to the rival paper.

Suddenly an artist, a "lame dog" being championed by a dizzy news photographer is found murdered in Stella's flat and things turn dramatic. The film had been bouncing along and I think at 90 minutes it was too long to sustain the light weight plot and the murder investigation seemed like an after thought. Sid James is fabulous, he has a couple of those famous chuckles but it's interesting that he seemed to be thought of as a heavy in the early part of his career. Not really a "heavy" here but his character has a lot of light and shade as Freddy Evans, a news hound who falls for Stella deeply, too deeply for this light weight yarn.

The Plane Makers (1963)

Soaring Series!!

Bought this along with "The Power Game" but have only just got around to watching this. Series may seem a bit patchy because only one episode of the first series survives. While "The Power Game" is all big business with Wilder's Machivellian machinations in taking control of Bligh Constructions this series, initially, has a bosses vs workers theme.

Reginald Marsh is superb as Sudgeon, the managing supervisor who is suddenly thrust onto the board, as his old union chum says "we need someone like you on the board to fight for us but the workers will hate you"!! So while Wilder (Patrick Wymark) episodes are to do with wheeling and dealing in the board room and he is portrayed as ruthless, Marsh shows a man who is fair and human, although as in "Don't Stick Your Head Out" gets a glimpse into how Wilder operates. Once the series settles in it becomes a slice of life into the many departments of the Scott Furlong Air Company. In "Any More for the Skylark?" Wilder tries to put a stop to the practice of issuing free passages on test flights and a young clerk (Rodney Bewes) finds courage he never knew he had. "A Matter of Self Respect" finds Sudgeon giving a helping hand to a friend who has just been released from prison for manslaughter - this is particularly emotive as the man struggles to cope with his first visit to his young daughter!!

Unfortunately mid way through series 3 Sudgeon is forced to resign - I noticed that throughout the start of the season Marsh's role was diminished and Alan Dobie who played the icy David Corbett gained prominence. Corbett was as coldly calculating as Wilder but he just didn't have the older man's passion and emotion to say nothing of charisma - I found him impossible to warm to. So without a character who audiences could relate to - the ying to Wilder's yang, the edginess went out of it and I can understand why the show ended when it did!!

A Family at War (1970)

Monumental Series

Can remember viewing this back in the day - I've just spent the last few months being thoroughly gripped by the realness of this family - it should be compulsory viewing for anyone interested in war history. This series makes other family sagas pale in comparison, sometimes the people at home suffer just as much psychological trauma as those who go off to fight and often if a person has deep character flaws, going through the war does not necessarily make everything rosy. They emerge at the end unscathed by what they experience.

Towering above all is Colin Douglas as the father Edwin Ashton, a man who, as he describes himself, has spent most of his life working under a man whom he can't respect - that's his brother-in-law Sefton. Edwin, originally a miner, married out of his class - Jean, and as the series progresses he finds himself questioning whether marrying for love was the right decision. Their children - idealistic Phillip who is involved in a couple of episodes depicting the Spanish Civil War. By the time he comes home, he realises the hell of war but can't believe his effort was in vain. Margaret (Lesley Nunnerley) is brusque, opinionated and determined and marries John Porter (Ian Thompson) mainly because she feels it is her last chance - Porter's character goes through a complete change within the series - from a shy, mother dominated clerk to a complex man struggling to come to terms with his wife's affair.

David is the black sheep but again so real - he is a man with whom failures are always someone else's fault and who sees the war as something where he will make his mark but once back in civvy street all his weaknesses return. When his job turns sour he runs, leaving gallant Sheila with the kids and a mortgage to pay. Last episode finds him bragging around the table - those people just don't change.

Standing beside the standout Colin Douglas would have to be Margery Mason (who seemed to make a career out of sour faced personalities) - she is Mrs. Porter, a mother-in-law that even hell would quake before. Apart from Colin Douglas who was older and had another standout role as a stubborn factory owner in a few episodes of "Telford's Change", only John Nettles as Frieda's husband, the forward thinking doctor, found "The Family at War" a springboard to bigger things ("Bergerac", "Midsomer Murders") - that's the show's real mystery. Everyone had a role they were born to play but somehow it didn't propel anyone to stardom. Maybe the trouble was they were too good. Colin Campbell had had his moment in "The Leather Boys" - he was outstanding as the selfish David. Coral Atkins broke your heart as the long suffering Sheila. Barbara Flynn as the mercurial Frieda and Trevor Bowen as the very decent Tony who looks upon Edwin as more of a father figure than his own, Sefton.

Die Puppe (1919)

Dear Little Ossi!!

Was so excited to see this as it featured darling Ossi Oswalda, so very popular during silent times but could not make a go of it in talkies. She happened to catch the eye of budding director Ernst Lubitsch who used her as a leading lady in a few of his early directorial efforts. Based on the story of "Coppelia" it is, supposedly, one of the first of Lubitsch's films to show his magic touch and Ossi is delightful.

Just an enchanting story - the old Baron has decreed that all maidens shall present themselves in the village square so his nephew Lancelot can marry and the line shall not die out. Lancelot is a milquetoast and cries when he hears the news and runs away to a monastery!! If you've only seen Herman Thimig as an older character actor, he is absolutely super in this as the effete prince who thinks that marrying a doll is going to answer all his prayers!! And darling Ossi Oswalda is bewitching as (who else) Ossi, the cheeky, spirited daughter of a doll maker. Lancelot has bought the doll modeled on the doll maker's daughter but when the boisterous apprentice (young Gerhardt Ritterband's career was stopped when the Nazis rose to power because of his Jewish heritage - he is fabulous in this, a real show stopper) breaks the doll, the real Ossi takes her place!! There are hi jinks at the wedding ball and in the wedding night when Lancelot, still believing Ossi is a doll, uses her as a coat and hat stand!! She is not amused!!

A tremendous fun movie!!

Reckless Youth (1922)

A Young Constance Bennett Adds Sparkle!!

Once billed as "The Screen's Brightest Star" Elaine Hammerstein was a protege of Lewis Selznick who acquired her for his Select Pictures after Clara Kimball Young deserted him to form her own production company. He thought Elaine, with her impeccable theatrical pedigree was a name he could exploit. Selznick Pictures were lavish productions and Elaine proved a popular personality - her flippant attitude to her career came across in her screen portrayals in movies like "Reckless Youth".

"Youth chained to a house of decay, like a racing motor boat tied to a crumbling old wharf" - hard words indeed as applied to beautiful Alice who feels her spirit is being stifled by the austere family - even the butler spies on her comings and goings!! Just a beautifully restored film although there are missing scenes at the start - you don't meet her parents, even though her mother, played by the lovely Myrtle Stedman, has prominent billing.

Alice makes the break and confides to her friend John that she wants to go to the city and find out what it's like to be young and who cares about paying the piper, to which her friend replies "there'll be a bill all right"!! In order so she will not be forced home they marry but Alice sees it as an emancipation and just gallantry on John's part. She soon gets entangled with Harrison Thornby (Huntley Gordon), a playboy who is called dangerous by his sister. She sails close to the edge - Harrison tells her to call him when she has grown up a bit. Too late, John has already left her for his lodge. He is in a drunken haze and can't quite remember he has a house guest - "Tootles" a tough little flapper and it's Constance Bennett in her first adult role!! She is terrific and gives the movie a big boost - not playing a slinky sophisticate but a girl who "after a two by four hallway off Broadway find's John's cottage a paradise"!! Elaine Hammerstein is a darling as Alice, a spoiled girl who doesn't know what life is all about but Constance's "Tootles" is the character you remember. The ending is a let down!!

Emil und die Detektive (1931)

The Man in the Bowler Hat!!

"Emil and the Detectives" was the only one of Erich Kastner's pre 1945 works to escape Nazi censorship and what made it so popular in it's day was the setting in contemporary Berlin and the 1931 adaptation followed on by setting it during the Weimar Republic. The film found international acclaim and with a team of writers as Billy Wilder, Erich Kastner and Emeric Pressburger - how could it fail? Mordaunt Hall (of the New York Times) praised it fulsomely and also must have been at the German premiere because he predicted stardom for a few of the young boys who appeared in person, commenting that America didn't have the monopoly on talented juvenile players.

Emil is being sent to Berlin by his mother, a hairdresser, to give his grandmother his mother's monthly salary of 140 marks - it is a big responsibility but Emil also gives care and attention to packing his marbles and slingshot. On board the train all the passengers are kind - except the man in the bowler hat!! Fritz Rasp is superb, he plays to the hilt the evilness and creepiness of the sinister gentleman. With all the reality and resourcefulness of children, Rasp is a standout and memorable!! First he tells Emil some very weird stories about life in Berlin - and succeeds in putting everyone in the carriage offside with his eeriness. He then takes the little boy on a hallucinating journey, flying over Berlin with an umbrella after he offers Emil a drugged chocolate.

Emil awakes in the train to find his money gone and while cousin Pony is waiting at the station, he is getting to know the local street kids who are enthused about helping him find his money. With Pony along on her push bike they track the "bowler" to a posh hotel - and by bribing a page boy they find that the enemy is in room 9!!

So many delightful and resourceful children playing and living to their own rules - Gus and his horn, Hirsch who speaks like an Indian (as in cowboys and indians) shows how much influence the American movies had world wide and little Mittenzwei who is the only boy with a home phone so he has to stay at home and mediate, much to his disgust!!

Also nice, the way the children are believed - all roads lead to the local police station and when Emil pleads that the notes will have pin pricks because he had pinned them to his pocket "Mr. Bowler Hat" is jumped on!! It seems he is not quite the small time thief as first thought but an escaped bank robber whose capture leads to a big reward. The end shows much rejoicing - all the boys wishing to marry Pony who sensibly tells them that she can be friends with all. Inge Landgut who is well known for playing Elsie in "M" makes an adorable Pony. Very sadly Rolf Wenkhaus who played Emil and others of the main juvenile cast died during the second world war. Hans Richter who played Hirsch, the Indian speaker found a phenomenal success, if type cast, as a freckled faced kid and had a long and fruitful career.

Very Recommended

Regine (1935)

A Blue Diamond!!

Luise Ulrich bought to life a gallery of uncomplaining, subservient women, exactly the type of film heroine embraced by Germany in the mid 1930s - although sparkling Olga Tschehowa threatened to eclipse Luise before she had even entered the movie. The very dependable Anton Walbrook plays Frank Reynolds, an industrial magnate, who is returning to Germany for the first time in 10 years. On the boat home he captures the heart of sizzling Floris but after ten years of work he finds her too capricious, she is a "charming adventure" - he is looking for a "blue diamond".

Staying in Bavaria, Frank is taken with the guileless Regine and after a whirlwind romance they marry but she also has family secrets - a father and brother who are layabouts and see her marriage as a chance to bleed her dry of money!! Blissfully happy at first, Frank engages an old family friend to polish off her gaucheness and she enchants everyone with her freshness and honesty. Suddenly Floris reappears and under a guise of "friendship" offers to take Regine under her wing when Frank is called away on business but in reality she is a trouble maker and wants to entangle the young girl in a romantic predicament in which she almost succeeds with tragic results.

The critics of the day praised the movie but felt Ullrich was the principal reason for the movie's success. True to the feeling in Germany in the 1930s, one reviewer carped that once Regine entered high society she forgot her wholesome values (she didn't). There was some breath taking location scenes along the Rhine and through the Bavarian alps. Director Erich Waschneck had already directed an earlier version of "Regine" in 1927 (from a popular German novella) with 1920s star Lee Parry in the title role.

Very Recommended.

Sailor's Luck (1933)

Victor Jory Gives This One Pep!!!

Sally Eilers and James Dunn were given the roles of a life time as the pair of street wise New Yorkers who face trials and tribulations when they marry. Sally was originally a Sennett girl whom Sennett called "the most beautiful girl in movies" - she did get around socially but movie stardom evaded her. With "Bad Sister" both she and Jimmy could show their true talent but even though both they and the film were praised to the skies, Fox saw them as a B team - Sally may have scored a hit on her own with "State Fair" but together their films were double bill fare. Sally was also having marriage problems which along with her forth right opinions and salty language may have been why Fox never really got behind her. "Sailor's Luck" was her first movie after her divorce woes and once again she was co-starred with Dunn.

Dunn plays extrovert sailor Jimmy who meets swim instructress Sally (who can't swim!!) - which makes for shennanighans at the local pool. Not a movie up there with Raoul Walsh's best, seems to rely on comic turns from the supporting cast, as well as the charm of Jimmy and Sally. Victor Jory helps a lot - he does his best to give the film a bit of grittiness, he is Baron Portolo, the sleazy hotel manager where Sally is staying. Jimmy promises to return but once he is aboard all leave is cancelled!! So the Baron moves in on her!!

There is the usual misunderstanding - Jimmy returns and feels Sally's room is like Grand Central station - what with the Baron and frazzled Mr. Brown, whose little boy Elmer Sally is minding. Sally gets fed up with Jimmy's moods, impulsively enters a dance marathon organised by the Baron and soon there is a free for all on the dance floor!!

Victor Jory had a bumper movie year in 1933 with 9 releases. This is very light weight fun!!

Nedbrudte nerver (1923)

Everything's Murder!!

A 1923 comedy mystery movie from Denmark. The titles were very satirical, I found myself laughing out loud - some of the jokes I didn't quite get until they were almost gone but it was because they were witty and the titles played around with some of the scenes.

Erik Brandt is an ace reporter with shot nerves because he has just apprehended a murderer - he's a wreck!! but back at his flat with the prospect of 2 weeks leave he looks out and thinks he sees another!! Worse is to come - now a jittery mess he visits the seaside and his friend introduces him to Joan - the prettiest girl on the beach and he recognises her as being the assailant. Williams, his policeman friend is working on another murder so Erik thinks he will help by bringing in Joan!! Of course by this time they have fallen in love with each other so Erik tries to protect her even to the extent of going to the police station and confessing himself!! All to no avail - Joan has committed a crime she feels she will never live down - but it's not murder!!

Gorm Schmidt was very good as the intrepid Erik and although his career only lasted until the end of the silents he was famous for his portrayal of David Copperfield. Olga Belajeff was the beauteous Joan and she was lovely. Again, another casualty of sound, she appeared in Italian, Danish and German movies.

Shoes (1916)

Sold!! - For a Pair of Shoes!!!

When Mary MacLaren was spotted by director Lois Weber standing with a group of extras, she never realised what a life changing event it would be. As Mary recalled, she often walked to the Universal Studios to save bus fare and one day Weber came across her looking pretty bedraggled, looked down at her feet and exclaimed "Shoes"!! - Mary didn't know what she meant!! Lois' husband Phillips Smalley recognized her from small roles in "Where Are My Children" etc, he started to tell her about a story they had found in "Colliers" magazine and gave it to her to read. By being cast in "Shoes" Mary was elevated from extra to leading lady and Weber had nothing but praise for her, saying "she was the luckiest find I ever made". She also told the "Motion Picture World" that "when the movie was run, everyone in the room fell in love with her. She was only 16 but is the most sensitive and intelligent girl I've ever directed".

Mary MacLaren was an amazing find, she was a natural actress in the Mae Marsh tradition. She was a standout as Eva, the breadwinner of a poverty stricken family in which the father sat about and read magazines all day. She is desperate for a pair of shoes to replace the ones which have been worn threadbare in her daily struggle. Every night she cuts out cardboard soles, careful that she doesn't strain the already worn out leather. Then comes a week of rain - not only are Eva's shoes wrecked but she soon becomes seriously ill because of standing around in wet shoes all day. She is praying for the day when her mother can give her money for shoes but week after week she is disappointed. She becomes desperate.... Meanwhile her friend from the notions counter is enjoying a very different life because she is free with her favours. Her man of the moment - a sleazy cabaret singer has his eye on Eva and invites her to "The Blue Goose"....

Directed with Weber's style and attention to detail, the viewer experiences the poverty and desolateness first hand, the end scene is particularly chilling. The scene where Eva just about to go out on that fateful night, and views herself through a cracked mirror.

Weber's predictions of Mary's stardom came true but she performed best under Weber's guidance - without her Mary was reviewed harshly by critics. Lacks personality, acts mechanically, lack of beauty and never smiles were some of the comments. Who would smile having to read those reviews!! Unfortunately her older sister wanted a career and also took over the management of Mary's with disastrous results. Still Mary could always point with pride to her career highlight of "Shoes".

Very Recommended.

Suspended Alibi (1957)

Secrets and Alibis!!

Even though Patrick Holt's anti-hero was wooden and didn't really make you care about his plight this movie got a lot of praise in it's day - Honor Blackman as his harassed but cool wife elevated proceedings and Alfred Shaughnessy in his directorial debut made it brisk and efficient. Quite densely plotted about the sexual activities among the middle class it has Holt as Paul Pearson, newspaper editor and "family man" - in fact the opening scene explores the duality as a pair of shadowy legs creep down the stairs, furtive with gun in hand but it is only Pearson playing cowboys and indians with his son. A secret phone call between him and Diana (Naomi Chance) reveals his double life - but someone else knows, it is his nosy neighbour from across the street who often listens into the party line and can't wait for him to get his comeuppance!! He has quite a bit to hide as well - it seems that his dalliance with Diana has been going on for years and friend Bill often has to supply him with alibis!! On this occasion he asks whether Lyn (Blackman) knows about his gambling debts - she doesn't!! More secrets!! The alibi usually involves a card evening but things go wrong when Lyn rings and while on the phone Bill notices through a mirror that his partner is cheating at cards. A schuffle breaks out and Bill is stabbed - with the knife Paul has left behind after confiscating it from his son!!

The police visit and the truth about the affair comes out - Paul is now banking on Diana giving him a truthful alibi - the only problem is Paul had threatened her with harm if she reveals their meetings. A thoroughly nice chap - NOT!! So initially she lies to the police but when she realises the gravity of the charges she is keen to put things right - but someone wants her to maintain the deception!!

Even if you are never in sympathy with Holt's character, "To-Day's Cinema" called it "an hour of very honest enjoyment". Alfred Shaugnessy may have only directed four films but they were all good ones. He later turned to writing and was a main stay of "Upstairs, Downstairs".

Children of Pleasure (1930)

Wynne Gibson is Adorable!!

Lawrence Grey had quickly been promoted from unit production manager to leading man at Paramount and he went through the 1920s as a solid support to some of the screen's most popular actresses. When MGM saw the good notices he garnered for his work with Marion Davies, Bernice Claire and the Duncan Sisters, they rewarded him with the lead in "Children of Pleasure" a modest programmer that took advantage of the musical mad times and Grey's pleasing but modest vocal talents. Based on a play "The Song Writer" by Crane Wilbur, an early matinee idol who had since turned his hands to other behind the scenes talents, it was about Danny, a young singer song writer and his two very different women. Pat (Helen Johnson) is an heiress who determines that marriage with Danny is not going to end her affair with actor Rod Peck (Kenneth Thomson boo hiss). Emma Gray (Wynne Gibson) was Danny's former vaudeville partner and is now a co-worker in a Tin Pan Alley publishing house and is also true blue in her devotion. I know within a couple of years Gibson's movie personality would not be described as adorable but she definitely was in this movie!!!

Danny is on cloud nine and dreams of a quiet wedding but Pat has big wedding plans - just before they walk down the aisle Danny overhears Pat flippantly proposing that she still keep up her relations with Rod. To his credit Rod is horrified but Danny goes to pieces and on a bender. It is Emma who finds him and tries to sober him up but while still under the influence he asks Emma to marry him. Realising he is still on the rebound she devises an ingenious plan!!

If anyone stood out in this pretty so-so movie it was Wynne Gibson - could this be the actress who the next year gave Sylvia Sidney such a hard time in "Ladies of the Big House"? Here she was sparkling and snappy and she really put over her song - there was a voice there!! Helen Johnson was pretty enough as Pat - she later changed her name to Judith Woods and wowed them on Broadway in "Dinner at Eight". Benny Rubin and May Boley provided the comic relief and with Kenneth Thomson playing the cad with a heart there was not much for poor Lawrence Grey to do - the movie proved he was better at supporting dazzling leading ladies than having to carry a whole movie.

The songs seemed to pick up in catchiness as the movie went on - I know "Leave it That Way" seemed promoted as the song hit but "The Whole Darned Thing's For You" was the movie toe-tapper in my opinion. It was sung at the bridal party and a popular band The Biltmore Trio joined in. Big musical number was the ambitious "Dust" which in any other movie of the time would have been the finale but here was presented 15 minutes in. A combination of "Dancing the Devil Away" and "I Want to Be Bad" - meaning lots of odd costumes, billowing smoke and an original Technicolor sequence although now only remaining in black and white. It had dancers on tiers with a few of the better ones out front, none better than Ann Dvorak who was giving it all she had. Unfortunately for most of her dance, the photography was bad and you couldn't see her feet!! If the sets looked similar to the "Singin' in the Rain" sequence from "Hollywood Revue of 1929" it's because the see through drapes were first used in that earlier movie.

Very Recommended.

Devil's Bait (1959)

Breadhunt!!!

A village baker is having a problem with rats in his bake house but his abrasive phone manner means he is put to the back of the queue when he rings the local authorities for help. He is finally given the number of a rat catcher but the man is an alcoholic and uses out dated methods - like potassium cyanide.

Pretty unusual start for a tension packed film but the stars - Geoffrey Keen and Jane Hylton make it work as a very unlikely husband and wife, he dour and uncommunicative, she attractive and trying to get the marriage over a rough patch!! I think there was a bit too much time given to the rat catcher and his behavioral quirks but I realise it was establishing just why he used such antiquated and dangerous methods!!

It's not "which is the poison bread" but one lonely loaf that has been baked in a broken pan which the workman used to mix the poison - he goes down to the pub intending to return later to clean up, becomes involved in an accident and never returns!! Gordon Jackson then makes his appearance as a harassed cop - initially Frisby muddies the waters when he realises his bakery could be shut down - then there is a bread hunt as the loaf's journey is tracked down!!!

Very recommended.

Unseen Forces (1920)

The Girl Who Could See Around Corners!!

Sylvia Breamer was a beautiful Australian girl who got her start in J.C. Williamson's theatrical troop. Unlike other stock companies Williamson had a strong American connection and that's were Sylvia decided to go - to New York and not the West End. From the start she was appearing in stage productions and caught the attention of Thomas H. Ince. Everyone predicted a glowing future for her and "Unseen Forces" is a chance to see Sylvia in a leading role and surrounded by talented players.

Born under a stormy sign Miriam Holt (Breamer) grows up with the nickname "the girl who could see around corners" - she has second sight and is a puzzle to the small farming community. When Clyde Brunton (a very youthful Conrad Nagel) renews his childhood friendship with her they imagine a sunny future but a misunderstanding (he returns unexpectedly to the house and sees her in the arms of a devoted cousin) sees him, a couple of years after, in a disastrous marriage (to a stately Rosemary Theby). Miriam goes to New York to see if she can develop her psychic gifts and an old friend Captain Stanley, who has always believed in her powers, throws a party for her and she comes face to face with Clyde. Thrown into New York society she not only has to deal with skeptics and Clyde's devotion but also "idler and trifler" Arnold Crane. The closer he gets the more powerful her psyche becomes

• she knows that years before he had wronged a girl whose face is

familiar to Miriam. The climax involves a test that the town's leading citizens force her to have that results in some ugly secrets being bought to the surface.

This was one of the films found in a New Zealand vault - so apart from some disintegration it can be viewed just the same as it was seen by cinema audiences at the time. Sylvia Breamer was so pretty and really carried the movie - she was good!! Also the film benefited by Sidney Franklin's sensitive direction.

Very Recommended.

Children of Divorce (1927)

Travis Banton's Luminous Gowns Are the Star!!!

It didn't seem to matter if the story was flimsy - Gary Cooper was already a heart-throb around the Paramount studio and being teamed with Clara Bow, his female equivalent, was viewed with anticipation. But it didn't go to plan - Cooper who had been mainly in out door epics, was like a fish out of water in this sophisticated drama. After a few days Cooper was sacked and replaced by Douglas Gilmore a more experienced actor but Clara had campaigned behind the scenes on Cooper's behalf and he was reinstated.

The movie started out as a daring, topical drama but not even Clara could save it. Most cinema goers found Esther Ralston mechanical and Gary Cooper unconvincing. I thought it was a case of Paramount trying to widen Clara's appeal but it didn't really work - apart from her initial scenes there was just too much pathos and until the end her character was unsympathetic.

Jean and Kitty meet in a French convent, both products of the divorce rage with parents eager to get back into the single swing and not wanting a child cramping their style (Joyce Coad makes a very appealing Kitty).

Years later they are both young debs - Kitty (Clara Bow) is the life of any party, yet as a child she lacked confidence. Maybe explained by her mercenary mother (Hedda Hopper, who else?) that because of their financial position she must marry money!! That's too bad for Prince Vico (Einar Hansen) an impoverished aristocrat who really loves Kitty who in turn returns his love. Jean (Ralston) on the other hand is supposed to be the richest girl in America - she catches the eye of Ted Larabee (Cooper), the wild boy of the group who remembers a childhood promise of marriage they both made to each other. Jean will not agree to the marriage - Ted is now one of the idle rich where once he had ambition to be an engineer and she wants him to find his self respect again. Kitty is determined that the only bridges he will be connected with are the ones he burns!! She takes him out for a night of revelry and he wakes up married - to Kitty who has tricked him into it!! Two years later, Jean has vowed never to marry even though receiving a proposal from Vico who truthfully confesses he can't give her his love!!

You can see it's a pretty doleful movie, no one is really happy and when Kitty finally tries to make amends by asking for a divorce when she realises that Vico still carries a torch for her, she finds no joy there either as his family will not allow him to marry a divorced woman. Clara has some emotive moments but Gary Cooper was the only actor to receive any glory - for his first leading role he is a stand out, you can't take your eyes from him!! And the restoration just illuminates Travis Banton's (although uncredited) luminous gowns, they are breath taking.

A bit of back stage gossip - none of the big wigs liked the movie but they couldn't shelve such an expensive A grade movie so they got in Josef Von Sternberg as a "movie doctor" to fix up many of the scenes. Since all the stars had already started their next movie filming was done at night and the non stop schedule was brutal!!

Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957)

"Everyone in the World Will Win the Lottery - but not us"!!

To describe this as a "man discontented with his marriage, seeks solace with younger girl" is too simplistic. Anthony Quayle plays "Jimbo", a drab, rather ordinary clerk whose private life is in chaos due to his slovenly but sweet souled wife Amy. He desperately needs order and finds it with Georgie, the office secretary, the initial scenes contrasting the complete mess of his own home to the stark simplicity in which Georgie lives. Young Sylvia Sims was really making her way in the film world and she is fine as Georgie. Both she and Jimbo are living in a fantasy of love although Jim tellingly says at the start that her attraction for him was due to his just being there and that he isn't such a great catch!! But by the film's showdown she has steeled herself to fighting for Jim - as Amy says, he will not be doing any fighting himself as he is defeated!!

Yvonne Mitchell is a revelation as Amy - so chaotic, the type of person who can work all day and the house still looks like a bomb has hit it!! From the opening scene with the blaring radio, you are part of Amy's world and you really understand Jim's need to escape but Amy has the sweetest nature. She cooks both Jim and son Brian's (a very good Anthony Ray) meals and serves them on little trays with all the condiments (all the while keeping up happy chatter about her day) but the bacon is burnt, the chips are peculiar ("I've found the best recipe for chips") - it seems whatever she tries will always be second rate. The only person who loves her unequivocally is Brian and it's his bewilderment at the situation that hastens the climax. Jim tells Amy that he wants a divorce but she pleads with him to bring Georgie back to the flat so that they can talk sensibly.

Amy has a plan - she pawns her engagement ring and with the money goes to the hairdresser and buys a small bottle of whiskey, enough for the three of them but everything goes wrong. She gets caught in the rain and her hair is ruined, her best dress has a broken zipper and a well meaning neighbour plies her with drink. By the time Brian comes home from work, not used to spirits she is almost paralytic and when Jim and Georgie arrive, Jim is sucked into a vortex. Amy, while dependent on him, is just drunk enough to fight for her man and tell Georgie some home truths - "you may know a hundred things about him but I know a thousand"!!

At the movie's end there are no winners - Anthony Quayle is so good, walking a thin line between quietness and rage. As he says "we are not going to win the lottery - everyone in the world will win but not us"!! Well meaning neighbour Hilda was played by Carole Lesley a tragic actress who had undeniable charms but when she was dropped by film studio Alliance couldn't accept the fact that she wasn't considered star material. She took her own life at 38.

Very Recommended.

They Drive by Night (1938)

Ernest Thesiger - Scene Stealer Extraordinare!!

My golly, what a fabulous movie - I always loved Emlyn Williams in whatever movie he made and even though he excelled as smarmy spivs I've never seen him in the same characterization twice. Here he is in a rare lovable larrikin role as "Shorty" Matthews, just released from prison but already fleeing for his life from a murder charge. His old girl friend Alice has been strangled and even though his whole demeanor cries out "I'm a good guy" none of his friends believe him (maybe they've seen too many of his movies)!! He plunges into the night world of long distance lorry driving, hoping to lose himself but a face from his past emerges with Molly, a dance hall friend of Alice's, who is trying to hitch hike back to London but is mistaken for a "lorry girl" - women who ride with the lorry drivers in exchange for favours!!

There's some fabulous cinematography - when Shorty comes across her, she is fighting off a man in the middle of the road, lights blazing on their rain drenched silhouettes. Later on, Shorty evades capture and there is a labyrinth of cross cutting, jumps, darts, again against a rain soaked background. He eventually returns to London and with Molly's help find a boarded up abandoned house - but they have been followed!!

Enter Ernest Thesiger - scene stealer extraordinare!! He plays Hoover and there's something very odd about him. He keeps a scrapbook about the dance hall murder which he hides behind his books on "Sex and Philosophy", not to mention his "Paris After Dark" magazines. He is a frequenter of dance halls and is pretty disgusted that "Shorty" has captured all the attention for the murder, he feels the murderer was far more intellectual and organized than just a petty criminal. Once Thesiger enters he is absolutely rivetting.

Teddington Studios had an interesting history - built in the 1910s, only one film had been released before Warners bought it in 1931 to turn out quota quickies finishing with "The Dark Tower" in 1943.

Very Recommended!!

Channel Crossing (1933)

Matheson Lang Towers Over All

It may be an "All Star Extravaganza" but Matheson Lang is the whole show - he plays larger than life financier Jacob Van Eeden and a real attempt was made to present him as a multi layered personality. A hard man who has his immediate future mapped out - he has some stocks and is escaping to Paris to do a deal before he is found out - but he is found out, overheard mapping out his plans to his adoring secretary Marion. The eavesdropper is Peter (Anthony Bushell, suitably wooden) Marion's fiance and a reporter. His first mistake is bursting into the apartment claiming "I'll tell, I'll tell"!! Van Eeden then sends some pointless messages to the telegrapher, guaranteed to keep him busy at his radio for the rest of the trip. There is another side to Van Eeden, one that makes him beloved, even by the lowliest man in the street - always willing to extend a helping hand "you come and see me and I'll give you a hand" he tells a man with a hard luck story and he knows everyone by name!! Edmund Gwenn as a husband taking his family over for a weekend in Paris, echoes everyone in his worshipful approach to Van Eeden. Van Eeden also has plans for Marion and they don't include Peter. He and Peter have an altercation on the fog bound deck and Jacob wrestles the reporter overboard but from then on he has an epiphany where the good in his character slowly wrestles out the bad. He forces the tired sailors to keep on searching and when the boy is found gives up his own life saving medicine to save his life.

Constance Cummings is great (as usual) giving a nuanced and professional portrayal. Two others Nigel Bruce and Dorothy Dickson who, in the 1920s, was Britain's answer to Marilyn Miller, play a bickering husband and wife who at the voyage end find they are better off together than apart.

Womanhandled (1925)

"All Men Are Womanhandled"!!!

Just the funnest movie - just ambles along, full of cute little incidents

• boy meets girl, love at first sight but..... Molly has an idealized version

of the West - she has read all the books and to her the West is were men are men, not the pampered, petted, womenhandled men of the East. Richard Dix as Bill spins a few yarns and before he realises it, he is on his way to his uncle's Texas farm to prove himself worthy in her eyes - before this trip the only rough things Bill had encountered were roads!! Getting to the ranch is a shock, the west has changed from the romance, instead of horses cars are used in round ups and most of the "cowboys" yearn to return to their real homes in "New Joisey"!! As his uncle says if it all gets too much he can always play a round of golf at the local golf course!!

Before he can return in his new found western "he man" guise Molly pays a surprise visit and in a plot line straight out of Douglas Fairbanks' "Wild and Woolly" Bill enlists the help of the whole ranch to put on a show to keep Molly's dreams of the west alive!! As her mother says at the end whether from the east or west all men are "womenhandled". So many quiet chuckles, Bill's dealings with Molly's pesky brother and when they all sit down to eat and Bill puts on some rough western table manners for Molly's benefit. I agree, there must have been a reel missing, they could have had a lot of fun with the arrival of that gang of chorus cuties who showed up at the ranch 5 minutes before the end!! Both Olive Tell and Margaret Morris were also featured in the credits but apart from a few seconds at the start, none were seen. Morris played an old flame of Bill's

• that could have created a few situations!!

Was there ever a more beautiful actress than Esther Ralston, any movie where she is featured is so welcome. This movie happens to be a lot of fun!!