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Elvis Presley Challenge No. 18 – Flashman and the Colonel
Something like five years ago I sat with my elder daughter in the Oxford Union Bar at Oxford University. I drank decent beer and relaxed on comfortable and tasteful chairs. The place was only half...
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Elvis Presley Challenge No. 52 – Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn always attracted intellectuals. Elvis had his working class fans, the people he called ‘my crowd’. Both were instinctive performers whose popular appeal depended on glamour rather than...
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Film Noir – Chinatown
‘Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.’ The tragic ending was not what the scriptwriter intended. Robert Towne wanted the heroine to escape to Mexico. Chinatown is a metaphor, the moment in lives when...
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Film Noir The Asphalt Jungle
John Huston directed The Asphalt Jungle and Stanley Kubrick made The Killing. Despite his convincing performance as the evil Noah Cross, in Chinatown, John Huston likes people. His films, although...
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Film Noir – Kiss Me Deadly
Guest blog by Jim Lawler The titles go backwards but not quite. As always, they end with the name of the director. The idea is cool but it happens for a reason. Detective Mike Hammer and his...
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Fearflix 22
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte USA ‘The guignol is about as grand as it gets.’ So said Judith Christ when Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte was released in 1964. Christ came up with a funny line but it showed...
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Fearflix 49
THE LOST BOYS USA 1987 DIRECTOR JOEL SCHUMACHER Talent may not be essential but anyone who graduates from film school to big Hollywood budgets needs to have worked hard. Joel Schumacher has been too...
View ArticleTHE MOVIE CHALLENGES
DETROIT 2017, USA The movie Detroit is strong and accomplished. It resembles its director Katherine Bigelow. She is now 65 years old but has the figure of a young woman. It is easy to imagine her...
View ArticleTHE MOVIE CHALLENGES
BONUS FEATURE – JOHN GARFIELD 1913-1952 John Garfield was a tough guy with a weak heart. Both qualities were a consequence of his childhood. A heavy dose of scarlet fever left Garfield with the...
View ArticleBLAST FROM THE PAST – PAUSE FOR ARGENTINA
ELVIS AND MARILYN MONROE Marilyn always attracted intellectuals. Elvis had his working class fans, the people he called ‘my crowd’. Both were instinctive performers whose popular appeal depended...
View ArticleBITTEN: BREAKING BAD
1 LAUREL AND HARDY In the USA the expression ‘breaking bad’ is a southern slang alternative to ‘raising hell’. Both phrases communicate a sense of entitlement and compare to the ambition of...
View ArticleGANGSTERS AND HARD CASES
6 EDDIE MARS THE BIG SLEEP, 1946, HOWARD HAWKS Nobody tells the same tale twice. Think about it, smart guy Eddie Mars walks into this trap made by a two bit detective called Philip Marlowe. Every day...
View ArticleGANGSTERS AND HARD CASES
11 MICKEY COHEN Gangster Squad, USA,2013, Director Rubin Fleischer Living with Mickey wasn’t too hard. I’ve known worse. The truth is I’ve always been a flirt. I notice men and I like it when they...
View ArticleTHE MOVIE CHALLENGES
BONUS FEATURE – JOHN GARFIELD 1913-1952 John Garfield was a tough guy with a weak heart. Both qualities were a consequence of his childhood. A heavy dose of scarlet fever left Garfield with the...
View ArticleBLAST FROM THE PAST – PAUSE FOR ARGENTINA
ELVIS AND MARILYN MONROE Marilyn always attracted intellectuals. Elvis had his working class fans, the people he called ‘my crowd’. Both were instinctive performers whose popular appeal depended...
View Article
