Dec 28th
Escape to Victory*
aka: Victory
National Film Theatre

During WWII a football match between German soldiers and Allied PoWs is used by the Nazis as propaganda, but the prisoners also use it as a chance to escape.
Old fashioned, escapist (literally) Roy of the Rovers-style yarn, an affectionate rip-off of PoW film cliches to begin with (The Great Escape, Albert R.N., etc.), with the underwhelming Sylvester Stallone instead of Steve McQueen at the centre of things, followed by a football match that becomes more fun than the film itself, featuring real-life footballers who acquit themselves quite well, both on and off the field.



100 Favourite Films: Escape to Victory

Dec 24th
Ben-Hur***sub-title: A Tale of the ChristUS 1925. MGM. 151m. bw(with Technicolor inserts). silent

In Judea at the time of Christ, the heir to a wealthy Jewish family is arrested for falsely attempting to murder the Roman governor and is sentenced to the galleys, but returns to take revenge - against the childhood friend who betrayed him - in the chariot arena.
Dollar-for-dollar probably MGM's most expensive movie ever made: a conventionally told religious epic patterned after Griffith (Jesus is never seen facially), but the results are most definitely up on the screen, with a costly barge battle (in which several extras drowned) shot in Italy, before hauling the production back to the States, with a chariot race that has seldom been bettered, and showed just how hard an act the 1959 remake had to follow.

Written by: Bess Meredyth, Carey Wilson, June Mathis, from the novel by Lew Wallace.
Producers: Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg.
Director: Fred Niblo (and others).
Starring: Ramon Navarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy, Claire McDowell, Kathleen Key, Nigel De Drulier, Betty Bronson (as Mary), Carmel Myers, Frank Currier, Nigel De Brulier, Winter Hall.
Photography: Rene Guissart, Percy Hilburn, Karl Struss, Clyde de Vinna.
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Horace Jackson, Harold Grieve.

Music: Carl Davis.

Preceded by:
Michael Jackson's Thriller*(US 1983. Optimum. 12m.; Curious but very successful pop video made as a horror short, utilising the talents of the makers of An American Werewolf in London among the familiar Jackson ingredients.; w: John Landis, Michael Jackson; d: John Landis; s: Michael Jackson, Ola Ray, Vincent Price (voice of); m: Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein; make-up effects: Rick Baker.)

Dec 23rd
The Wind That Shakes the Barley**
Ipswich Film Theatre

In Ireland in 1920, a young doctor decides to quit the opportunity of a medical practice in order to join his brother in the IRA, but subsequent political events also drive them apart.
Powerful, hard-hitting Loach political melodrama done in his usual compelling style, although often rather unintelligible, both as a narrative and in its use of ethnic regional accents, and the ingredients don't quite mix together as successfully as they did for the similarly plotted Land and Freedom.

Dec 18th
Escape to Athena
GB 1979. ITC/Pimlico. 117m. Panavision

Archaeologists join forces with resistance fighters to liberate a Greek island from the Germans in 1944 in order to also seek hidden treasure.
Scenically very attractive but centrally miscast and very corny WWII adventure, whose tongue-in-cheek humour seems at odds with the heavier atmosphere of Greek resistance fighters defying the Nazis, and the element of James Bondery towards the film's climax is totally unnecessary. The overall tone of the film therefore is somewhere between Secret Army and 'Allo 'Allo.

Written by: Edward Anhalt, Richard Lochte, George P. Cosmatos.
Producers: David Niven Jnr, Jack Wiener.
Director: George P. Cosmatos.
Starring: Roger Moore, Elliott Gould, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Stefanie Powers, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono, Anthony Valentine, Michael Sheard.
Photography: Gilbert Taylor (aerial photography by Ron Goodman).
Music: Lalo Schifrin.

+ William Holden has an uncredited gag appearance as a PoW - a reference to his Oscar-winning role in Stalag 17

Dec 16th
Meet Me in St. Louis***
US 1946. MGM. 113m.

A year in the life of a St. Louis family leading up to the city's hosting of the World's Fair in 1904.
Perfectly self-contained musical family drama with no great shakes, but charming in the evocation of its own time and place (covering the same period as The Magnificent Ambersons but with more sentiment), and beautifully colourful with some nice songs that have outlasted the film.

Written by: Irving Brecher, Fred F. Finklehoffe, from the novel by Sally Benson.
Producer: Arthur Freed.
Director: Vincente Minnelli.
Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Tom Drake, Lucille Bremer, Harry Davenport, Marjorie Main, Henry H. Daniels Jnr, Joan Carroll, June Lockhart.
Photography: George Folsey.
Musical Direction: Georgie Stoll.
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Lemuel Ayers, Jack Martin Smith.
Costume: Irene Sharaff.

Dec 10th
Superman II**

The "Richard Donner cut" newly released on DVD is something of a revelation, with a whole mine of previously discarded material shot simultaneously with Superman: The Movie, but removed at the time because of creative differences between director and producers, as well as Brando's exorbitant demands for more money - his scenes add nothing to his performance that wasn't seen in the first film, although they do have the benefit of direct interaction with Christopher Reeve.

The film itself works less as a conventional narrative than as what might have been (a screen test is used for one missing scene, and parts of Richard Lester's later material are also used to fill in the gaps). Despite the unevenness, and some gaping holes in the plot (what does happen to Valerie Perrine's character?), the whole thing holds up surprisingly well, and the general tone is more satisfying dramatically speaking than Richard Lester's version.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to what is an experimental diary of film reviews - the films concerned are those that I happen to see either in the cinema or on television (or possibly even other media such as podcasts or Internet movies!) during the year.

I already keep a written day-to-day diary, and therefore keeping a regular blogpage would also be a marathon effort that is probably beyond me at the moment. However, one other aspect of my life is films, and this is as useful a means as any of providing a film diary. All types of film are covered, whether old or new, arthouse or blockbuster.

I usually also award each film a merit rating, ranging from no stars to four stars ("****") maximum. This is certainly not intended to be a "definitive" opinion, but at least gives the reader an idea of how I personally rate the film.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

Joe Sales