May 29th
House of the Long Shadows
(GB 1982)               

A young writer accepts a dare to write his latest novel in a haunted house, where there are unexpected visitors...
Poorly made horror spoof with wooden young leads, almost redeemed by its guest veterans all on screen together for the first time.

Written by: Michael Armstrong, based on the novel "Seven Keys to Baldpate" by Earl Derr Diggens.
Producers: Mennahem Golan, Yoram Globus.
Director: Pete Walker.
Starring: Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Desi Arnaz Jnr, John Carradine, Sheila Keith, Julie Peasgood, Richard Todd, Louise English.
Photography: Norman Langley.
Music: Richard Harvey.

HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS (1982). In the decade of slasher movies, the makers seemed to have forgotten how to make a proper haunted house film. John Carradine, Sheila Keith, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price reflect on an older era.

May 26th  
Brannigan*  
(GB 1975)         

A Chicago cop follows the trail of a gangster to London.
Entertaining 70s cop thriller with some fashionable traits for the time, more enjoyable as a star vehicle for John Wayne (including even a Western-style pub brawl) in tourist London locations.

Written by: Christopher Trumbo, Michael Butler, William P. McGivern, William Norton.
Producers: Jules Levy, Arthur Gardner.
Director: Douglas Hickox.
Starring: John Wayne, Richard Attenorough, Judy Geeson, John Vernon, Mel Ferrer, Daniel Pilon, Relph Meeker, John Stride, Del Henney, Anthony Booth, Don Henderson, Brian Glover, Tony Robinson.
Photography: Gerry Fisher.
Music: Dominic Frontiere.

May 20th  
Cash on Demand**  
(GB 1961)                           

A priggish bank manager is humbled when he is ransomed into helping commit a robbery.
Low key Hammer crime thriller variation on A Christmas Carol, quite gripping if keeping within its theatrical origins quite successfully.

Written by: David T. Chantler, Lewis Greifer, based on the TV play "The Gold Inside" by Jacques Gillies.
Producer: Anthony Nelson-Keys.
Director: Quentin Lawrence.
Starring: Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, Richard Vernon, Barry Lowe, Norman Bird.
Photography: Arthur Grant.
Music: Wilfred Josephs.

May 18th  
(Ipswich Film Theatre)  
Trautmann** (15)
GB title: The Keeper                  

(Ger/Northern Ireland 2018)

The triumphs and tragedies of German PoW Bert Trautmann, an Iron Cross winner who also overcame British animosity to become Manchester City's star goalkeeper in the 1956 FA Cup Final.
On Cup Final day itself, an appropriate choice: this movingly played biopic, carefully well scripted and reconstructed, without too many obvious elements of fictionalization.

Written by: Robert Marciniak, Marcus H. Rosenmuller,Nicholas J. Schofield.
Producers: Chris Curling, Robert Marciniak, Steve Milne.
Director: Marcus H. Rosenmuller.
Starring: David Kross, Freya Mavor, John Henshaw, Dervla Kirwan, Harry Melling, Gary Lewis, Julian Sands.
Photography: Daniel Gottschalk.
Music: Gerd Baumann.

May 17th  
Movie 43       
(US 2013)         

Semi-compendium of deliberately tasteless spoof sketches, with some stars unexpectedly thrown into the mixture. The bigger sin is the general lack of decent writing.

Written by: Rocky Russo, Jeremy Sosenko, Will Graham, Jack Kukoda, Matthew, Portenoy, Will Carlough, and others.
Producers: Charles B. Wessler, John Penotti, Peter Farrelly, Ryan Kavanagh.
Directors: Steven Brill; Peter Farrelly; Will Graham; Steve Carr; Griffin Dunne; James Duffy; Jonathan Van Tulleken; Elizabeth Banks; Patrick Forsberg; Brett Ratner; Rusty Cundieff; James Gunn.
Starring: Adam Cagley, Devin Eash, Fisher Stevens; Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman; Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts; Anna Faris, Chris Pratt; Kieran  Culkin, Emma Stone; Kristen Bell, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman; Richard Gere, Kate Bosworth; Chloe Grace Moretz, Patrick Warburton; Gerard Butler, Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott; Halle Berry, Stephen Merchant; Terrence Howard; Elizabeth Banks, Josh Duhamel.
Photography: Steve Gainer, Tim Suhrstedt, Matthew F. Leonetti, and others.
Music Supervision: Happy Walters, Bob Bowen.

May 14th  
Conspiracy of Hearts**         
(GB 1960)

In occupied Italy in 1943, a convent endangers itself by assisting Jewish refugee children to escape the Nazis.
Easily sentimental but still surprisingly sharp ecclesiastical war drama, on British stiff upper-lip lines, but nicely filmed in scenic locations. Any potential harrowing moments are usually superseded by sentiment.

Written by: Robert Presnell Jnr, Adrian Scott.
Producer: Betty E. Box.
Director: Ralph Thomas.
Starring: Lilli Palmer, Yvonne Mitchell, Sylvia Syms, Ronald Lewis, Albert Lieven, Peter Arne, Nora Swinburne, Megs Jenkins, Michael Goodliffe, George Coulouris, David Kossoff.
Photography: Ernest Steward.
Music: Angelo Lavagnino.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in 
Baby Puss*
(US 1946. 7m.; Tom is belittled for being treated like a baby. Cheerfully silly cartoon musical spoof, generally more in the style of the plotless Silly Symphonies or Looney Tunes than Tom and Jerry.; d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)

May 10th  
Alfie***      
(GB 1965)                                                           

Sexual misadventures of a common London lothario.
Cleverly made 60s comedy (although sometimes amateurishly photographed) which really plays better as drama and seems horribly dated by today's standards. It captures and satirizes perfectly the generation of bragging masculinity (significantly Alfie has no family background of his own), with innovative touches including Brechtian opening and closing credits, and Caine's constant and often insufferable monologues to camera. This defining role was his calling card to Hollywood.

Written by: Bill Naughton, from his play.
Producer/Director: Lewis Gilbert.
Starring: Michael Caine, Julia Foster, Millicent Martin, Shelley Winters, Jane Asher, Eleanor Bron, Shirley Anne Field, Vivien Merchant, Alfie Bass, Graham Stark, Denholm Elliott.
Photography: Otto Heller.
Music: Sonny Rollins (title song sung by Cher).

May 5th
Solo* (12) 
(US 2018)                       

A Corellian daredevil pilot escapes but is separated from his girl, whom he later discovers has reluctantly sided with the galactic criminal organisation Crimson Dawn.                       
Relentlessly fast-paced and wisecracking instalment in the Disney saga,  a Star Wars heist movie missing the gravitas of the original saga, with a cheekily grinning star instead of the self-deprecating charm of Harrison Ford. Occasional moments of characterisation and charm slip in along the rollercoaster ride.

Written by: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan.
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, Simon Emanuel.
Director: Ron Howard.
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover (as Lando Calrissian), Joonas Suotama (as Chewbacca), Paul Bettany, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Ray Park.
Photography: Bradford Young.
Music: John Williams, John Powell.
Editing: Pietro Scalia.
Production Design: Neil Lamont.

+ Ron Howard was a mid-production replacement for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, whose semi-improvisational style didn't suit either the studio or star Alden Ehrenreich. As a result, it has become (to date) the most expensive Star Wars film ever made (over $275 million), and significantly, only grossed a fraction more than that at the box office.

May 1st 
(Curzon Colchester) 
Red Joan**(15)         

(GB 2018)                             

A Cambridge physics student falls in love with a Communist, and her subsequent relationships lead to her arrest 72 years later for espionage.
Subjective but absorbing drama, heavily flashback reliant, and more about a woman coping in a man's world than espionage (based on Melita Norwood), and although the plot becomes repetitive after a while, performances are gripping enough to hold the attention.

Written by: Lindsay Shapero.
Producer: David Parfitt.
Director: Trevor Nunn.
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Ben Miles, Tereza Srbova.
Photography: Zac Nicholson.
Music: George Fenton.