May 29th  
The Last Man on Earth*                       
(Ita 1963)                                 
Associated Producers Inc./Produzioni la Regina. 86m. Totalscope

A lone immune survivor of a global deadly plague roams the streets of Rome fighting off vampire-like zombies, including those of his late wife and former colleagues.
Gloomy parable with an apposite theme, the first of various versions of Richard Matheson's story "I Am Legend" (also later made as The Omega Man with Charlton Heston), made originally at a time when this sort of apocalyptic drama was in vogue after the Cuban missile crisis.

Written by: William F. Leicester, Logan Swanson (Richard Matheson, from his novel).
Producer: Robert L. Lippert.
Directors: Sidney Salkov, Ubaddo B. Ragona.
Starring: Vincent Price, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Emma Danieli, Franca Bettoia, Umberto Rau.
Photography: Franco Delli Colli.
Music: Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter.

May 24th  
The Lost Weekend***  
(US 1945)     
Paramount. 99m. bw

An alcoholic writer fives up almost everything one lonely weekend in his New York apartment to feed his addiction.                       
Horribly dated now (especially in its overuse of music) with an unconvincing optimistic ending, but for its time this is a vivid study of alcoholism (still a relevant problem at the time after Prohibition), with some nightmarish sequences, and a greater than usual visual approach taken by this director.

Written by: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, from the novel by Charles R. Jackson.
Producer: Charles Brackett.
Director: Billy Wilder.
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Philip Terry, Howard da Silva, Frank Faylen, Mary Young.
Photography: John F. Seitz.
Music: Miklos Rozsa.

+ Wilder's motivation for making the film was as a testimony to his troubled relationship working with the alcoholic Raymond Chandler during the making of Double Indemnity

May 20th  
This Island Earth**   

(US 1955)     
Universal-International. 86m.

An atomic scientists is abducted along with other colleagues around the world to help benevolent aliens from a distant planet in their fight for survival.
A refreshingly unusual aliens from outer space premise is let down slightly by the execution and a rushed conclusion, but some of the designs and the general tone have made it a cult item.

Written by: Franklin Coen, Edward G. O'Callaghan, from the novel by Raymond F. Jones.
Producer: William Alland.
Director: Joseph Newman (and Jack Arnold).
Starring: Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason, Faith Domergue, Lance Fuller, Russell Johnson, Robert Nichols, Douglas Spencer.
Photography: Clifford Stine.
Music Supervision: Joseph Gershenson.
Art Direction: Alexander Golitzen, Richard H. Riedel.

                 

May 16th  
Another Country*      
(GB 1984)                               
Twentieth Century Fox/Virgin/Goldcrest. 90m.

An exiled public schoolboy in Russia reflects on how he became that way after being punished for falling in love with another boy.
Barely disguised account of Guy Burgess and friends at Eton in the 1930s; the scenario ultimately doesn't convince, and the period English setting is looked at through jaded nostalgic eyes, but the interplay between the new young talents is rewarding.

Written by: Julian Mitchell, from his play.
Producer: Alan Marshall.
Director: Marek Kanievska.
Starring: RupertEverett, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes, Michael Jenn, Robert Addie, Tristan Oliver, Anna Massey, Guy Henry.
Photography: Peter Biziou.
Music: Michael Storey.
Editing: Gerry Hambling.

Preceded by:
Salvage with a Smile*
(GB 1940. 6m. bw; w,d: Adrian Brunel; s: Aubrey Mallalieu, Ronald Shiner, Kathleen Harrison.)

May 8th 
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp**  
(GB 1943)                     
Rank/GFD. 163m.

During World War II a retired officer reflects on life and loves of his past youth, including his platonic kinship with a benevolent German officer.
A sprawling and quite bold Technicolor war romance (particularly for its time) cleverly spanning 40 years, and only vaguely anything to do with the satirical Colonel Blimp cartoons, from which Churchill and others got totally the wrong impression. For modern audiences, it is a moving wallow in one man's personal nostalgia, even if the imagery of hunting animals nowadays is politically incorrect.

Written, Produced and Directed by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger.
Starring: Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr, James McKechnie, Ursula Jeans, Roland Culver, John Laurie, Arthur Wontner, Albert Lieven, Eric Maturin, A.E. Matthews.
Photography: Georges Perinal, Jack Cardiff, Geoffrey Unsworth, Harold Haysom. 
Music: Allan Gray.
Production Design: Alfred Junge.
Make-up: George Blackler, Dorrie Hamilton, Stuart Freeborn.

May 6th   
Trouble in Store*   
(GB 1953)             
Rank. 85m. bw

A disaster-prone stockroom assistant goes in and out of employment at a London department store beset by shoplifters and racketeers out to raid the tills.
The first of this star's manic farces, pushing the humour of embarrassment to the threshold and beyond, combined with sentimental interludes and patterned a little after Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. It was successful enough for Rank to churn out more Wisdom pratfalls (see below), and even led him in later years to international stardom and a knighthood (stumbling over for the Queen for comic effect), so this film has much to answer - and be thankful - for.

Written by: John Paddy Carstairs, Maurice Cowan, Ted Willis, Jill Craigie.
Producer: Maurice Cowan.
Director: John Paddy Carstairs.
Starring: Norman Wisdom, Jerry Desmonde, Margaret Rutherford, Lana Morris, Moira Lister, Derek Bond, Megs Jenkins, Joan Sims, Michael Brennan.
Photography: Ernest Steward.
Music: Mischa Spoliansky.

+ subsequent films on the same theme: One Good Turn (1954), Man of the Moment (1955), Up in the World (1956), Just My Luck (1957), The Square Peg (1958), Follow a Star (1959), The Bulldog Breed (1960), On the Beat (1962), A Stitch in Time (1963), The Early Bird (1965), Press for Time (1966)

Norman Wisdom with two fellow comedians on the bill that were big influences on his subsequent career.