May 30th
The Picture of Dorian Gray**     
(US 1945)                            

MGM. 110m. bw/colour

In Victorian London a beautiful young man retains his youth whilst keeping a painting locked away that reveals his human decay and corruption.
Artificial, lavish Hollywood melodrama, quite daring in its approach (and set in that favourite Jekyll & Hyde-style version of foggy London Town) with cloying narration but splendid interjections of Wildean cynicism and vivid occasional Technicolor inserts for the portrait itself, which is a memorably striking creation. One of MGM's most stately of well disguised "horror" films.

Written and Directed: Albert Lewin, based on the novel by Oscar Wilde.
Producer: Pandro S. Berman.
Starring: Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford, Lowell Gilmore, Richard Fraser, Douglas Walton, Morton Lowry, Miles Mander, Robert Greig, Cedric Hardwicke (narrator).
Photography: Harry Stradling.
Music: Herbert Stothart.
Paintings: Ivan de Loraine Albright, Henrique Medina.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in
Quiet Please!***
(US 1945. 7m.; d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)

Preceded by:
Stairway to Light*
(US 1945. MGM. 10m. bw; Passing Parade short telling the story of Philippe Pinel who used humane methods to release supposed maniacs under long-term sentence.; w, narr: James Nesbitt; d: Sammy Lee; s: Wolfgang Zilzer, Gene Roth.)

May 23rd
Take the Money and Run**                   

(US 1969)

The life of a compulsive small-time crook.
Slightly primitive early Allen effort, a semi-zany spoof of Bonnie and Clyde (complete with hail of bullets ending later changed in post-production) incorporating elements of Chaplin pathos, Laurel & Hardy innocence and Marx Brothers lunacy, wrapped up in a March of Time-style documentary narration. A little too preoccupied with having a joke for every scene rather than allowing the story and the characters to develop, making the film sluggish for its 80 minutes, but full of enjoyable elements that became Allen trademarks.

Written by: Woody Allen, Mickey Rose.
Producers: Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe.
Director: Woody Allen.
Starring: Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Jacquelyn Hyde, Marcel Hillaire, Henry Leff, Ethel Sokolow, Jackson Beck (narrator).
Photography: Lester Shorr.
Music: Marvin Hamlisch.

May 15th
Arthur*                       
(US 1981)                      

Orion. 97m.

A drunken millionaire playboy is threatened with losing his inheritance when he falls in love with a waitress.
Overrated sentimental comedy best remembered for its updated P.G. Wodehouse with Gielgud's caustic butler, a sub-plot which is on for too little of the time, and the rest of the film plods on predictably.

Written and Directed by: Steve Gordon.
Producer: Robert Greenhut.
Starring: Dudley Moore, John Gielgud, Liza Minnelli, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry, Stephen Elliott, Ted Ross, Thomas Barbour.
Photography: Fred Schuler.
Music: Burt Bacharach.

May 12th
What Just Happened*         

(US 2008)                   

A high-profile Hollywood producer tries to cope with the pressures of changing a bad ending to a film, in addition to other potential disasters.
The ever vacuous subject of Hollywood making films about itself, done in rather more sober realistic fashion than most, with few sympathetic characters, but just about holds the attention despite the best sabotage efforts by Bruce Willis in a self-parodic cameo.

Written by: Art Linson, based on his book.

Producers: Barry Levison, Jane Rosenthal, Art Linson, Robert De Niro.
Director: Barry Levinson.
Starring: Robert De Niro, Robin Wright Penn, Catherine Keener, John Turturro, Stanley Tucci, Michael Wincott, Kristen Stewart, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn.
Photography: Stephane Fontaine.
Music: Marcelo Zarvos.

+ the disagreement with Bruce Willis over his beard is based on a real-life confrontation between Art Linson and Alec Baldwin during the making of The Edge

May 9th
This Happy Breed**                     

(GB 1944)

Two Cities/Cineguild. 114m.

The lives of a suburban working class London family between the wars.
Evocative and well abridged between the various events (miraculously finding locations in London that were not affected by the Luftwaffe), although some of the stars have a variety of unconvincing make-ups, snappily directed by an emerging new talent.

Written by: Anthony Havelock-Allen, David Lean, Ronald Neame, from the play by Noel Coward.
Producer: Noel Coward.
Director: David Lean.
Starring: Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, Kay Walsh, John Mills, Stanley Holloway, Amy Veness, Alison  Leggatt, Eileen Erskine, John Blythe, Guy Verney, Laurence Olivier (voice only).
Photography: Ronald Neame.
Music: Clifton Parker.

May 5th
Stage Door Canteen*        
(US 1943)                   

United Artists. 132m. bw

Servicemen on their way to fight in WWII find comfort and entertainment at the Stage Door Canteen in New York where actors and entertainers provide their talent for free for the war effort.
Hollywood does its bit in this overlong, elementary flagwaver with several guest appearances by stars of somewhat obscure fame nowadays, among the more well known faces, in a pleasant record of some of their acts. The dramatic plot threading the guest spots is not as tame as might be supposed, and provides some occasional surprises while the general tone remains jingoistic.

Written by: Delmer Davies.
Producers: Sol Lesser, Frank Borzage.
Director: Frank Borzage.
Starring (in no particular order): William Terry, Cheryl Walker, Lon McCallister, Margaret Early, Frederick Brady, Dorothea Kent, Michael Harrison, Judith Anderson, Tallulah Bankhead, Count Basie and his Orchestra, Ralph Bellamy, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Ray Bolder, Ina Claire, Katharine Cornell, Gracie Fields, Lynn Fontaine, Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Sam Jaffe, George Jessel, Tom Kennedy, Gypsy Rose Lee, Harpo Marx, Yehudi Menuhin, Ethel Merman, Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, George Raft, Ethel Waters, Johnny Weissmuller, May Whitty, Ed Wynn, and others.
Photography: Harry J. Wild.
Music: Freddie Rich, and others.
Art Direction: Hans Peters.