Starring: Lee Marvin
A gangster takes an elaborate revenge on his cheating partner.
Complete cobblers. confusing plot, badly acted and odd direction with flashbacks, slow motion and music that completely overpowered the action and grated on your nerves. 2/10
Starring: Arthur Askey
An escort agency is formed to assist soldiers on leave.
A few nice songs, a couple of smiles but basically this is formula Askey and just falls a little flat in the 21st century. 3/10
Starring: Anthony Quayle
A trooper, a governess and others escape downriver from one of General Gordon's outposts.
A mix between Robinson Crusoe and a David Attenborough documentary with wildlife galore. The lack of location filming meant that the whole thing lacked action and drama. But fascinating to see a young Sylvia Syms, Dereck Folds and Jenny Agutter in her first ever film role. 6/10
Starring: Marjorie Main
First movie that I've seen from this series. Great fun. Both Ma & Pa are extremely funny and the supporting cast all add to the enjoyment. Bread with cement, runaway pony and trap, slingshot made from Ma's knickers, it's all there. Would happily watch more from this series. 7/10
Staring: Gregory Peck
A tough cavalry officer in a lonely fort wins a battle against Indians.
A bit like a poor mans magnificent seven. Soldiers try to stop the penetration of a pass from a fort. The whole thing lacks a little pace and Peck seems somewhat subdued throughout. But there are some good scenes, the action is fun and the whole thing was quite enjoyable. 6/10
Starring: Audie Murphy
The war career of America's most decorated infantryman.
Audie Murphy has always been a favourite actor of min, I had no idea of his military history prior to this autobiographical movie. Fascinating stuff and a real inspiration, very well made. Respect!!! 7/10
Starring: Paul Newman
An inhibited lawyer snuffs out his wife's individuality during a long and apparently happy marriage.
If it's fast-paced action and rib tickling humour that you want, then this is not a movie for you. If you want gentle observations about family and relationships and the sacrifices that people endure to make a marriage work. Then this is the movie. Brilliantly acted by all concerned but particularly Joanne Woodward, this was typical Merchant/ivory and an absolute joy. 8/10
Starring: Glenn Ford
A drunken out-of-work engineer is used as fall guy by two thieves planning an elaborate coup.
Competent little thriller, almost Hitchcock like in the way it was filmed and played. Ford always turns in a solid shift and femme fatale Janis Carter was excellent. The plot never really amounted to much and the pace was a little slack at times, but it wasn't at all bad. 7/10
Starring: Peter Finch
In 19th-century Australia, two farming brothers join the notorious outlaw Captain Starlight.
A kind of family epic western but with Australian accents. At times it's humorous, there's adventure, romance and tragedy. If anything, it tries to cram too much into a short time. Interesting to see a very young looking David McCallum. A movie that grew on me as it went on. A kind of poor man's Butch Cassidy... 5/10
Starring: Richard Dix
Crooked finances mar the completion of an undersea tunnel to America.
1930's disaster/construction movie that focuses more on the love story angle. The scenes in the tunnel themselves are actually very well done & for their time, quite effective. I clearly remember the UK channel tunnel being built & all the discussions around it, this brought back those memories. 4/10
Starring: David Huddleston
An old woodcutter is given immortality by the elves and turned into Santa Claus; In modern times, he goes to New York to rescue a discontented elf from the clutches of a demon toy maker.
The first half of this movie was extremely good. Nicely acted with Huddleston superb as Santa, amusing toys and a general feel-good factor perfect for Christmas. It loses it somewhat when the action moves to New York. Dudley Moore stays nicely in character and the kids are cute. It just doesn't work when John Lithgow's character claims he will be taking over Christmas. All very well in New York, the rest of the World just seems to have been forgotten in this argument. Good fun though. 6/10
Starring: Mary Astor
Children try to find their widowed mother a new husband.
A delightful Judy Garland movie where a family hit the road in a caravan to try and find the mother a new husband. Well cast, light-hearted and constantly watchable. Judy Garland sings pitch-perfectly and the whole thing bowls along to a most satisfactory conclusion. 7/10
Starring: Pat O'Brien
Two gangsters out to get each other are led together by a small girl and a dog.
Johnny one-eye is a dog! The plot crawls along at a very pedestrian place. The print that I saw of this movie was so grainy that it looked about 20 years older than it is. But the girl and the dog were cute and I just considered myself lucky to be able to see this one at all. 3/10
Starring: Barry Jones
A Professor engaged on atomic research threatens to blow up London unless his work is brought to an end.
Spiky little thriller that keeps up a good pace and although obviously slightly dated, holds up quite well still today. Some interesting observations on human behaviour, but there's no way on earth that an evacuation of London would be so orderly today. Although disaster was averted, it didn't have the ultimate happy ending that I was expecting. Well worth a view. 8/10
