Dec 30th  
The Road Back**
(US 1937)                       

Surviving German soldiers return from the Front after the Armistice, and find there are still battles to be fought to cope with the peace.
Slanted sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front (under heavy German influence from the Nazi administration at the time) where the Communists are depicted as useless agitators and the previous Weimar Republic are seen as pointless bureaucrats. Moments of thoughtfulness from the original author's intentions occasionally come through, although one comes away from this well made but secretly sinister film with a curious feeling of infiltration throughout the whole project, particularly the abrupt bizarre final ending that contradicts the pacifist tone of most of the rest of the film. Its director's career dramatically stagnated from here on.

Written by: Charles Kenyon, R.C. Sherriff, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque.
Producers: Edmund Grainger, Charles R. Rogers.
Director: James Whale (and others).
Starring: John King, Richard Cromwell, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine, John Emery, Barbara Read, Louise Fazenda, Noah Beery Jnr, Etienne Girardot, Frank Reicher, Spring Byington, Lionel Atwill, Robert Warwick.
Photography: John J. Mescall, George Robinson.
Music: Dmitri Tiomkin.
Editing: Ted J. Kent.

Dec 29th
The Wild Bunch**
(US 1969)

A gang of ageing robbers on the Mexican border are gradually pursued by one of their former gang who is forced to hunt them down, if the authorities don't destroy them first.
The first Western of its kind to probably make no distinction between black hats and white hats, as most of the heroes are semi-villains (as in subsequent influences like The Godfather) and the actual side of the law is rather sleazy or just disillusioned and world-weary. As such, probably an accurate indication of the actual turn of the century Wild West itself, made at a similar time of disillusion and uncertainty for America in the late 1960's. The incessant action and cynicism often comes at the expense of the characterisation, where the real star is the director.

Written by: Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah.
Producer: Phil Feldman.
Director: Sam Peckinpah.
Starring: William Holden, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, Edmond O'Brien, Jaime Sanchez, Srother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Bo Hopkins.
Photography: Lucien Ballard.
Music: Jerry Fielding.

Dec 26th
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner**
(US 1967)

A liberal-minded San Francisco couple find their values tested when then their daughter brings home an intelligent black doctor for their potential son-in-law.
Slick but superficial feelgood race relations drama which looks like a play but isn't: most of the messages were perhaps more potent then (it was released when interracial marriage was still largely illegal in the US), but the stars raise it to something greater than it is, particularly as a dying last legacy from Spencer Tracy.

Written by: William Rose.
Producer/Director: Stanley Kramer.
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, Cecil Kellaway, Beah Richards, Roy Glenn, Virginia Christine.
Photography: Sam Leavitt.
Music: Frank De Vol.

Dec 5th
Monkey Business**
(US 1952)

An absent-minded chemist stumbles on the formula for rejuvenation which is actually the meddling of his experimental chimpanzee.
A Hawks comedy of slightly routine nature, childish in some of its play-acting by stars pretending to be kids (36 years before Big captured it so perceptively), with Cary Grant also obscured for most of the film behind a suitably unsuitable pair of glasses. Marilyn makes her mark however in an early comedy role, and her scenes with Grant are a notable but brief teaming of two famous stars.

Written by: Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, I.A.L.Diamond.
Producer: Sol C. Siegel.
Director: Howard Hawks.
Starring: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Marlowe, Henri Letondal,Larry Keating, Robert Cornthwaite.
Photography: MIlton Krasner.
Music: Leigh Harline.

+ MISS LAUREL (Marilyn Monroe): "Mr. Oxley's been complaining about my punctuation, so I'm careful to get here before nine."

MONKEY BUSINESS. A rejuvenated Cary Grant takes to the top diving booard. "Are they all looking at me?", he asks Marilyn Monroe...