June 27th
Bend of the River**
GB title: Where the River Bends
US 1952. Universal-International. 91m.

A Missouri wagon train settling in Oregon is led by two gunfighters with a shady past. One of them tries to reform, and the other doesn't.
Standard Western with some interesting morals about corrupted heroism (and maybe sub-McCarthyism), interspersed with abrupt moments of sudden action.

Written by: Borden Chase, from the novel "Bend of the Snake" by Bill Gulick.
Producer: Aaron Rosenberg.
Director: Anthony Mann.
Starring: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson, Jay C. Flippen, Lori Nelson, Chubby Johnson, Howard Petrie, Henry Morgan.
Photography: Irving Glassberg, William Fritzsche.
Music: Hans J. Salter.

June 25th
The Prince and the Showgirl*
GB 1957. Warner Bros/Marilyn Monroe Productions. 117m.

The temporary ruler of a far Eastern European state, on a visit to London for the coronation of King George V, spends a night with an American music hall artiste, who is smarter than he gives her credit for.
Opulent but superficial and mostly stagy adaptation of Terence Rattigan's The Sleeping Prince, notable mainly for its two mismatched stars. Olivier hams it up, and also gives himself the added burden of having to direct Marilyn Monroe, who outshines him (in her only non-American film). Some interesting moments, but on the whole it's patchy, although certainly of curiosity value.

Written by: Terence Rattigan, from his play.
Producer: Laurence Olivier.
Directors: Laurence Olivier, Anthony Bushell.
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike, Jeremy Spenser, Richard Wattis, Esmond Knight, Jean Kent, Daphne Anderson, Maxine Audley.
Photography: Jack Cardiff.
Music: Richard Addinsell.

Preceded by:
My Friend Marjorie**
(GB 2006. 5m.; A retired music hall artiste thinks nostalgically back to her showbiz past, and also worries about the present.; w,d: Louise Wilde; voice of Marjorie Curtis; for Model Robot/UK Film Council/Film London.)

June 21st

Enchanted* (PG)
Tricycle Cinema, Kilburn

A Disney animated princess is banished by the wicked Queen of Andalasia into the "real" world of New York.

Agreeable, only partly animated (a shame to think that this kind of hand-drawn animation is so out of fashion nowadays) postmodern Disney musical comedy with inevitable sentiment, less cynical than Shrek, and learning the valuable lesson that real life can be brightened up by fantasy, and vice versa.

d: Kevin Lima

s: Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Rachel Covey, Idina Menzel, Julie Andrews (narrator)

June 19thEverything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask*
US 1972. United Artists/Rollins-Joffe. 87m.

Series of economical sketches loosely themed around sexual-related activity, ranging from transvestism to inside the human machine of the sperm bank.
It begins and ends brightly, with Allen indulging himself in several different visual styles - including a kinky version of the popular US TV show What's My Line? and a slightly flabby Frankenstein pastiche (with a giant boob for a monster) - but generally the tone is a little hit-and-miss, and all of the jokes are cut short before the audience really has time to enjoy them.

Written and Directed by: Woody Allen, based on the book by Dr. David Reuben.
Producer: Charles H. Joffe.
Starring: Woody Allen, Lynn Redgrave, Anthony Quayle, Geoffrey Holder; Gene Wilder, Titos Vandis, Elaine Giftos; Lou Jacobi; Louise Lasser; Jack Barry; John Carradine, Heather Macrae; Tony Randall, Burt Reynolds, Oscar Beregi, Jay Robinson.
Photography: David M. Walsh.
Music: Mundell Lowe, Cole Porter.
Production Design: Dale Hennesy.

Preceded by:
Superman in
The Underground World*
(US 1953. 8m.; Clark Kent and Lois Lane discover a cavernous city of Eagle warriors.; w: Jay Morton; d: Seymour Kneitel; voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck.)

June 11th
Shadow of a Doubt***
US 1942. Universal. 108m. bw

A murderer of wealthy widows takes refuge in his family's home town, where his idolising eldest niece begins to unravel the truth.
Hitchcock's favourite "American" film. Although the opening scenes marking the villain's trail seem perfunctory, as is the unnecessary addition of romantic scenes with a detective, this is otherwise a brilliant piece of homespun idealised Americana with the murder element simmering underneath like an unwelcome (and inexplicable) skeleton in the closet. Not a corruption of the American Dream, but more a loving evocation of the old American way of life, where nobody wants the spell to break.

Written by: Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, Alma Reville, from a story by Gordon McDonell.
Producer: Jack Skirball.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Macdonald Carey, Wallace Ford, Edna May Wanacott, Charles Bates.
Photography: Joseph Valentine.
Music: Dmitri Tiomkin.