June 22nd
The Avengers*
US 1998. Warner Bros/Jerry Weintraub. 89m.

John Steed and Dr. Emma Peel team up to foil a sinister plot to control Britain's weather by the retired metreologist Sir August de Wynter.
Slightly bloodless and plotless succession of set pieces and self-satisfied one-liners, based on a cult 1960s TV series in style but not much substance. Cut down from something rather longer by an under-confident studio, what remains is nonetheless lavishly designed and smartly played, and hardly deserving of the critical mauling it received. Audiences likewise stayed away.

Written by: Don McPherson.
Producer: Jerry Weintraub.
Director: Jeremiah Chechnik.
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, Jim Broadbent, Fiona Shaw, Eddie Izzard, Eileen Atkins, Patrick Macnee (as Colonel "Invisible" Jones), Keeley Hawes.
Photography: Roger Pratt.
Music: Joel McNeely.
Production Design: Stuart Craig.

+ the role of Alice (Eileen Atkins) was originally intended for Diana Rigg, who turned it down

Preceded by:
Daffy Duck in
Robin Hood Daffy**(US 1957. Warner Bros. 7m.; d: Chuck Jones; voices: Mel Blanc.)

June 20th
The Jacket**
US/Canada/GB 2005. Warner Independent/Mandalay/2929 Entertainment/VIP Medienfons 1/2/3/MP Pictures/Rising Star/Section Eight. 103m. Panavision

In 1991 a Gulf War veteran is shot in the head, taken to a psychiatric hospital, and put into a straight-jacket which gives him the ability to flash forwards 15 years into the future - after his death.
Nightmarish combination of Jacob's Ladder, The Vanishing and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which predictably doesn't make a lot of sense at first, leaving much under-explained before it moves on from one unsettling scene to the next, but quite smoothly done in a fairly downbeat atmosphere, to play down the preposterousness of it all, with some sensitive and occasionally eye-catching performances. Not for claustrophobics, however.

Written by: Massy Tedjedin, from a story by Tom Bleecker, Marc Rocco.
Producers: Peter Guber, George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh.
Director: John Maybury.
Starring: Adrien Brody, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Keira Knightley, Daniel Craig, Kelly Lynch, Brad Renfro, Laura Morano.
Photography: Peter Deming.
Music: Brian Eno.

June 18th
Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy*
US 1955. Universal International. 79m. bw

Two American explorers are pursued for a medallion that will unlock the tomb of Klaris.
Highly contrived continuation on a familiar theme, with a disappointingly run-of-the-mill horror plot, but some occasionally fresh jokes to raise a chuckle or two.

Written by: John Grant.
Producer: Howard Christie.
Director: Charles Lamont.
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Richard Deacon, Michael Ansara, Dan Seymour, Kurt Katch, Eddie Parker (under the bandages).
Photography: George Robinson.
Music: Joseph Gershenson.
Art Direction: Alexander Golitzen, Bill Newberry.

June 5th
Double Indemnity***
US 1945. Paramount. 107m. bw

An insurance salesman falls for a frustrated housewife who persuades him into murdering her bullish husband.
There are parts of this highly influential and pivotal film noir that seem rather hackneyed nowadays, with its coldly evil femme fatale, and a story told mostly in flashback by its central character – who for no good reason confesses all when he is still trying to get away with the crime. For its time however, in terms of acting, writing, direction, and the depiction of a rarely seen (and now almost non-existent) humdrum Los Angeles, this has few equals.

Written by: Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, from the novel by James M. Cain.
Producer: Joseph Sistrom.
Director: Billy Wilder.
Starring: Fred MacMurray (Walter Neff), Barbara Stanwyck (Phyllis Dietrichson), Edward G. Robinson (Barton Keyes), Tom Powers (Mr. Dietrichson), Porter Hall (Mr. Jackson), Jean Heather (Lola Dietrichson), Byron Barr (Nino Zachette), Richard Gaines (Mr. Norton).
Photography: John F. Seitz.
Music: Miklos Rozsa.
Art Direction: Hans Dreier, Hal Pereira.

+ KEYES: "They've committed a murder, and it's not like taking a trolley ride together where they can get off at different stops. They're stuck with each other and they've got to ride all the way to the end of the line and it's a one-way trip and the last stop is the cemetery."

---

PHYLLIS: "Mr. Neff, why don't you drop by tomorrow evening about eight-thirty. He'll be in then.

NEFF: Who?

PHYLLIS: My husband. You were anxious to talk to him weren't you?

NEFF: Yeah, I was, but I'm sort of getting over the idea, if you know what I mean.

PHYLLIS: There's a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour.

NEFF: How fast was I going, officer?

PHYLLIS: I'd say around ninety.

NEFF: Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.

PHYLLIS: Suppose I let you off with a warning this time."

June 3rd
Flags of Our Fathers** (15)
Electric Palace, Harwich

A descendant of one of the heroes who planted the flag on the top of Iwo Jima, tries to find out the truth behind the story.
Semi-coherent semi-remake of Saving Private Ryan, focusing this time on one of America's bloodiest conflicts during World War II in deliberately poor colour with unintelligible battle scenes which cross-cut back and forth in time between 1945 and the present day. Eastwood's thoughtful touches help to bring out many of the ironies of war however (the famous photo of the soldiers putting up the flag was "staged" in reality), although some of the anti-war sentiment expressed throughout the film gets a bit mawkish at times.

d: Clint Eastwood
s: Jesse Bradford, Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Barry Pepper, John Benjamin Hickey, Jamie Bell, John Slattery, Paul Walker, Robert Patrick, Neal McDonough, Melanie Lynskey.