May 18th
Ninotchka***
US 1939. MGM. 110m. bw

In between-the-wars Paris, Bolshevik agents trying to sell Russian jewels are corrupted by the city's romance.
"Garbo Laughs!" ran the publicity for this MGM-style Parisian romantic comedy of manners, but it's also a pretty near-perfect vehicle for a typically colourful Lubitsch ensemble.

Written by: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Walter Reisch, from a story by Melchior Lengyel.
Producer/Direcor: Ernst Lubitsch.
Starring: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Sig Rumann, Felix Bressart, Alexander Granach, Bela Lugosi, Gregory Gayle, Rolfe Sedan, Edwin Maxwell.
Photography: William Daniels.
Music: Werner R. Heymann.

+ introduction: "This picture takes place in Paris in those wonderful days when a siren was a brunette and not an alarm - and if a Frenchman turned out the light it was not on account of an air raid!"

May 10th
Night Train to Murder
GB TVM 1983. Thames Television. 70m.

In 1940's Britain, Morecambe & Wise try to help Eric's niece claim a dodgy inheritance.
Fourth and final failed attempt for Eric & Ernie to break into feature films, a contract filler for their ITV deal instead of their hoped-for cinema comeback, combining their television show format with Cat and the Canary-style spoof, and falling in between both stools.

Written by: Eric Morecambe, Ernie Wise, Joe McGrath.
Producer/Director: Joe McGrath.
Starring: Eric Morecambe, Ernie Wise, Lysette Anthony, Fulton Mackay, Pamela Salem, Kenneth Haigh, Richard Vernon, Edward Judd.
Photography: David Motture.
Musical Direction: Kenny Clayton.

May 10th
Star Trek* (12A)
Vue Romford

Hotshot cadet James Kirk follows in his father's footsteps into the Star Federation, and helps his (future) friend Mr. Spock to defeat a vengeful Romulan.
Adequate, slightly miscast re-continuation of the Star Trek saga, focusing more on action than the philosophical side of the original TV series, with some modern fashions thrown in (jerky close-ups, violent fist fights, characters shouting over each other, etc.), and the added bonus of the original Spock looking down on the uncanny new one. Quite fun, but illogical - like most episodes of the TV series, especially those that involved time travel.

d: J.J. Abram
s: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Leonard Nimoy, Simon Pegg, Winona Ryder, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, John Cho

May 8th
A Cottage on Dartmoor** (U)
Electric Palace, Harwich

GB 1927. British International. 75m. bw. silent(sound version with soundtrack missing)

An escaped convict seeks out the girl who came between him and the man he tried to murder.
Primal silent melodrama, an early and surprisingly zesftul outing for this director who settled into more conservative drama in the decades to come. This essentially simple story is quite gritty, realistic and expressionistic (in the manner of early Hitchcock), with some interesting observations about the transition from silents to sound films - one key scene takes place inside a cinema.

Written by: Anthony Asquith, Herbert Price.
Producer: Bruce Woolfe.
Director: Anthony Asquith.
Starring: Uno Henning, Horah Baring, Hans Schlettow, Anthony Asquith.
Photography: Stanley Rodwell.

Musical Accompaniment: Stephen Horne.

May 4th
Salome
Odeon Leicester Square

US 1923. Nazimova Productions. 71m. bw. silent

King Herod's stepdaughter Salome, obsessed with John the Baptist, demands to have his head on a platter when he refuses her affections.
An infamous and rarely seen piece of salacious cinema, Nazimova's most famous film, in which she had slightly too much creative control; very opulent to look at (based on the Aubrey Beardsley illustrations for Oscar Wilde's play), successfully bringing out some of Wilde's themes of inverted love (Nazimova was lesbian), but also very static and uncinematic. Its sheer po-faced campness ensured that it was not a financial success.

d: Charles Bryant
s: Alla Nazimova, Mitchell Lewis, Nigel De Brulier, Rose Dione, Earl Schenck

Music Accompaniment: Donald Mackenzie (on organ).


John Coulthart on Salome