Terms of endearment 1983

Starring: Shirley Maclaine

An eccentric widow fends off suitors while interfering with her daughter's marriage: but all is forgiven when the daughter dies

Brilliant performances by Maclaine & Debra Winger. At over 2 hours, this movie seemed too short due to the period of time it covered. So underplayed in many ways, made the film seem more realistic. Tragic at the end and it's always the children that suffer. Danny De Vito had about a dozen lines and was still billed above Jeff Daniels who played the under-appreciated husband - Explain that! 7/10

A lesson in love 1954

Starring: Gunnar Bjornstrand

A Gynaecologist and his wife grow bored and turn to other partners, but are reconciled.

I remember recently seeing a list of favourite jokes from different countries around the World. It proved that humour doesn't really travel or translate. This wasn't a terrible film & the subtitles helped to retain my concentration. But it was a bit sreamy & shouty and I don't think I even smiled once. 4/10

The Black shield of Falworth

Starring: Tony Curtis

The film in which Tony Curtis says "Yonda lies the castle of my fodda" (or something like it) is an amiable romp which alternates between comic strip dialogue and a surprisingly convincing sense of medieval custom. The training scenes are as sharp as the romantic asides are pallid.

Great stuff. Tony Curtis was perfectly cast as the athletic, strong-willed knight. The script is fun, the locations & costumes are spot on and all the fight scenes have a huge fun factor about them. Boys-own stuff. 8/10

Sunset Boulevard

Starring: Gloria Swanson

A luckless Hollywood scriptwriter goes to live with a wealthy older woman, a slightly dotty and extremely possessive relic of the silent screen

An interesting but slightly over-long movie. Swanson is superb but the best scenes for me were between William Holden & Betty, a lovely chemistry. Cecil B De Mille was spot on with his cameo. My main problem is that a lot of the film has Holden narrating. I hate that & have never really seen it work. When it was just played as a straight film, it wasn't at all bad. 5/10