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Reviews
The Seventh Victim (1943)
A triumph of style over content.
This is a textbook example of a film that uses almost all the classic noir elements without any of the outstanding writing and acting necessary to carry them off.
Firstly the narrative or lack of it. In noir no one minds a few plot holes, they are almost a prerequisite of New Wave cinema; to disrupt the linear narrative and make the viewer think. Here there is nothing but a series of huge gaps and sadly with nothing to think about. This is explained perhaps in the 'Trivia' section where it is revealed that the original plot was changed and new writers brought in. Sometimes that can work but unfortunately not here. I almost feel I am watching several films simultaneously because The Seventh Victim seems to be cobbled together with so many ideas taken from earlier and more successful noirs and Expressionist films, including the obvious Cat People.
Secondly, symbolism and quotations, these are all over the place. There is an obvious attempt at a traditional morality play Good vs Evil and a whole host of religious, in particular catholic symbolism, from the leaded lights of the school to the Madonna references and typical 20's love affair with all things nun, as in the 'cell' room, the haircut, the obsessions of the title character. All this however is just confusing when paired with the character and position of 'Mary' who is courted by two men, one of whom professes to be courting her for another man and this latter is already married to her sister. In fact the denouement seems to be written purely as a way of getting them together. Then there is the John Donne add on, to try and give the piece a literary and metaphysical turn but that is just at the start and nothing follows through rather than the feeble echo at the end of the film.
Thirdly character development and motivation. The main characters have nothing to work with and are under-developed. The secondary characters have even less and are but plot hooks. Glaringly, there is no explanation of why any of the cult joined in the first place. There was a great opportunity here to show how such a cult may arise and for what reason but then we know so little about all but two of the members and precious little about those.
The whole film is a mess, seemingly slapped together just to fill a horror/propaganda film slot and that's fine, except it had potential and great style, just nothing else.
An Inspector Calls (1954)
Priestley's Dive Into The Complexities of the English Class System - Middle Class Nouveau Riche vs The Classless
An inspector calls was written in 1945, in the last months of the Second World War when emotions were as raw as they could be. It was set in the period before the First World War, though to me it smacks of the era post WW1. For, it was during the First World War that fortunes such as that of the Birling family were made. The son-in-law to be, is mentioned by the prospective father-in-law as being of a higher class but he exhibits the same cavalier behaviour as the older generation Birlings, with perhaps a little more finer feeling, but not much more and certainly not as much as the younger Birlings.
In literature and maybe in life, the Nouveau Riche were despised by all, even their own children, the latter having had an education and the social advantages their parents had worked to get them. Their respectability, holding on to their fortune and/or using the latter to hang on to their respectability, was the driving force of this relatively new and growing class. They had the disadvantage of being in permanent social limbo, courted by the upper class for their money but despised by them for their lack of breeding and most hypocritically, for the origin of that wealth. Unlike the Upper Class, who were 'Old Money', the Birlings had made their money in 'Trade'. The 'Newly Rich' were also believed to despise their own roots and as such went out of their way to make those still down at those roots and whom they believed were beneath them, to feel just that. The Upper Class were often portrayed as priding themselves on treating 'a Duchess and a servant girl in exactly the same manner'. How much of both these ideas were fictions is questionable but we certainly see examples of such in many films of the same period - 'Mr Polly' and 'The Card' spring to mind.
Enter into this mix the one area of English life that had no designated class, the farmer, basically because as a profession it encompassed so many different types of landowner. As a girl from a farm, Eva Smith represents a free-spirit, one not hide-bound by either money or status. Her worst crime is not showing respect to the new order, her other major fault and reason for her downfall is her devastating honesty concerning, human motivations and relationships. As such this makes the piece not only much more interesting than a treatise of the old mythical Left vs Right divide but also much more relevant for today, when surfaces are all. Think social media's imaginary profiles and imaginary friendships. In an Inspector Calls, we have real tangible raw emotion, with devastating consequences for at least one of the characters - no filters or photo-shopping.
One of the most chilling features of this film and that is in a piece riven with 'raw' emotions, is that with too many humans, it's not the deed that worries them. However heinous that deed may be, it's society knowing about it that makes them feel shame or remorse. Nothing changes, it is the same today, only after death do many of the deeds of the once feted come to light.
A brilliant and enigmatic piece in which the characters are trapped in film just as well as they physically would have been on the stage. This thanks in the main to the masterly portrayal by Alastair Sim, in the title role but also to a great cast and sympathetic sets, lighting and musical score.
Priestley may have meant this to be a simple capitalist vs socialist piece but good art reflects the viewer too and as such has no time nor place just an interchange of ideas.
Cribb: Something Old, Something New (1980)
Burden of Proof
A classic marriage perhaps in the Victorian era, where a 64 year old man in comfortable circumstance is about to marry a woman of 27, who is not so situated. The bride along with and her mother and sister have been forced to take on piece-work and the charity of a crazy uncle in order to avoid the Workhouse. However, that is only on the surface, the actual circumstances of their situation is far more intriguing.
Time and time again I read reviews on imdb where it is patently obvious that the reviewer has either not seen the whole (or any) of the film/TV episode or has viewed it sometime previous to writing the review and has forgotten or confused various plot points. When there is only one review for a particular piece then this becomes the.'Storyline' and that is a shame.
The plot of this episode of 'Cribb' is interesting in that Scotland Yard is not called in to investigate a crime but begins with the happenstance of Constable Thackeray standing in as a replacement Bestman for his aged father. This and the fact that Sergeant Cribb decides to accompany him lead on to the detection of a crime.
This episode blends the macabre sense of Victorian humour when dealing with death with an examination of how difficult it was at that time to establish an 'iron-clad' case in certain circumstances. Finally, Cribb gets to make a P. I. type decision, where he acts as judge and jury and takes it upon himself to make the punishment fit the crime.
Where Sinners Meet (1934)
Brilliant 20's surrealist play makes an elegant 30's precode
The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. In the period between the wars, the codes of behaviour imposed by Victorian society were finally broken and from the top down a new found sense of liberty prevailed. That was of course until Depression and World War 2 ushered in another set of even stricter codes. For the period of this piece however, the party was still in full swing and what we are being asked to consider metaphorically here, is what happens the morning after when you wake up with a hangover/head cold.
The fact that the original piece was written as a play enhances the claustrophobic atmosphere of the film which takes place within the confines of a locked house. The characters are imprisoned for a period of reflection before they finally take the plunge into their 'new life'.
The choice of cast is perfect and no one but Clive Brook could pull off the line: 'Oh in that case I shot the mushrooms'.
If you dislike surrealism or crisp, 'wordy' satire, then this is not for you but you'll be missing a great commentary on society, which is just as relevant today as it was then, perhaps more so in an age of surfaces, where advances in technology have created an even greater gulf between fabricated entity and genuine self.
Mark of the Phoenix (1958)
From the novel by Desmond Cory, who created the first 'licensed to kill' character aka "the thinking man's James Bond"
The film has an interesting and complex plot dotted with humour, as perhaps expected from the combination of its writer's experiences, as a post WWII commando in the Royal Marines, an Oxford University graduate in English literature, a technical translator and an associate professor. Desmond Cory's prolific writing career produced 45 spy thrillers as well as several screenplays, radio scripts, children's books and academic papers.
In Mark of the Phoenix we have real locations, which give the plot more authenticity than the usual budget thriller. I'm not sure why IMDb has the film's location as Walton-on-Thames? Check out ReelStreets for the actual settings. Locating the action in Bruxelles is also a coup de maître, in that the Belgian education system encourages fluency in English to avoid the obvious language conflicts. Furthermore, Bruxelles is both a multicultural city and a travel hub for the rest of Europe and Asia. In the fifties however, planes and helicopters were perhaps considered more stylish than the noir-esque night train from Bruxelles to Berlin.
The Mark of the Phoenix plot works because everything has been pre-planned and by one character for a single outcome and just as a hint, it is not the delivery of a cigarette case. It's all in the title.
A Firehouse Christmas (2016)
Trite
The writing, plot and dialogue in this film are really poor. I've seen some of the actors In other films, so I know that Jaeda Lily Miller, for example, can act but here she was given nothing to work with. All the characters are two dimensional and they and the plot seem to hang on the premise that if the actors can cry reasonably believably then the audience will engage with the writing and ignore the very obvious shortcomings. One of the only authentic and interesting features in the film is the toy shop. It looked like a real location and if it wasn't, then the set dresser should get an award. My feeling is though that in line with the general cheapness of the film, it was the budget that dictated that they used a real shop.
Ironically the product placement at the end of the film probably backfired on the jewellers, someone should have read the script before deciding to associate their engagement rings with this Christmas Turkey.
Holiday in Handcuffs (2006)
'Mind-forg'd manacles'
True art is communication, the artist whether a writer, filmmaker, painter, sculptor...., holds up a piece of glass, a mirror and invites the viewer to look and reflect upon what they see.
On the surface we have a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who finally snaps and commits a crazy, criminal act. Viewing this in 2022, kidnapping isn't a great plot premise, even for black comedy but in my opinion, the lead actress has the skill to pull off the necessary combination of fragility, desperation and craziness to make it work.
Underneath the surface narrative, all the characters are in handcuffs, including David and the maid Maria. Grandma is stuck in her Broadway past and everyone else has similarly entrapped themselves into acting a part. The central pivot for this is Christmas, when the family is forced to come together central stage.
If you view this work as a metaphor for society in general and family in particular then you can see why the surface has to be total fantasy, sometimes very obviously as in, where did all those lights come from around the skating rink? The important communication is underneath and that I'm guessing, resonates all too well. This film shows the antithesis of the gingerbread house, yo ho ho, snow-angels, tree-lighting, McMansion, Jingle Bells type of Christmas movie and that is underscored by the fact that when this whole family sits round to hear the fake boyfriend read 'A Night Before Christmas' everything begins to unravel. Is the ending all too pat? Well, it's communication through art/painting, so maybe not.
This is not a kids movie, it's for those who have been there, seen it and now have the movie.