May 31st  
Brenda Starr         
(US 1987)                          
Investments Empire/Tribune Media. 93m.

Feisty 1940s reporter Brenda Starr breaks loose from her comic book creator in pursuit of a dangerous formula, with the occasional assistance of the dashing Basil St. John.
Well intentioned, but the tone of self-parody is misjudged in this comic book adventure, lost in distribution deals that cancelled any prospects of commercial success, and subsequently eclipsed by the later darker tones of Batman and others.

Written by: Noreen Stone, Jams D. Buchanan, Jenny Wolkind (Delia Ephron).
Producer: Myron A. Hyman. 
Director: Robert Ellis Miller.
Starring: Brooke Shields, Timothy Dalton, Diana Scarwid, Tony Peck, Jeffrey Tambor, Charles Durning, Eddie Albert, Henry Gibson.
Photography: Freddie Francis.
Music: Johnny Mandel

+ completed in 1987 but not released internationally until 1989, and not until 1992 in the US. Timothy Dalton was cast as James Bond after filming had begun (in 1986) but Brenda Starr never saw the light of day until after his last Bond film (Licence to Kill)
 

May 19th 
Blackboard Jungle** (12A)
(The Garden Cinema, Covent Garden)

(US 1955)
MGM. 101m. bw

A war veteran takes on his first major teaching job at a violent ethnic neighbourhood school.
Famous chiefly for its rock-and-roll soundtrack that had some thuggish audiences in the 50's tearing up seats during the opening credits, this vivid school melodrama still packs a punch, and in spite of a slightly prosaic ending, the themes and the issues still haven't changed, and also an interesting on-screen evolution of the career of Sidney Poitier.

Written and Directed by: Richard Brooks, from the novel by Evan Hunter.
Producer: Pandro S. Berman.
Starring: Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Vic Morrow, Margaret Hayes, Richard Kiley, John Hoyt, Paul Mazursky.
Photography: Russell Harlan.
Music: Bill Haley and the Comets, and others.

+ part of the Sidney Poitier season featuring at the lovely new art deco-styled Garden Cinema in Covent Garden

May 17th  
Grandma's Boy**  
(US 1922)
Pathe/Hal Roach. 61m. bw. silent

A meek, ineffectual young man learns to toughen up with some inspirational assistance from his descendants.
The Civil War flashback seems a curious afterthought, but is the highlight of a standard, engaging Lloyd vehicle, one of his first features, although slightly thin on gags.

Written by: Hal Roach, Sam Taylor, Jean Havez, H.M. Walker.
Producer: Hal Roach.
Director: Fred C. Newmeyer.
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Charles Stevenson, Anna Townsend, Dick Sutherland, Noah Young.
Photography: Walter Lundin.

Music: Neil Brand.

+ the Civil War segment was allegedly intended as a serious short film, with gags and the modern story expanding it to feature length

GRANDMA'S BOY (1922). Harold Lloyd wheels in dangerous tramp Dick Sutherland, along the same street set Hal Roach used for Laurel and Hardy

May 9th
How I Won the War   
(GB 1967)                  
United Artists/Petersham Pictures. 107m.

An enthusiastic but incompetent officer is captured by the Germans on the Rhine in 1945, and recollects his previous adventures with his unfortunate platoon.
Totally misdirected lampoon on World War II, where most of the satirical aspects of the story are lost in the surrealness.

Written by: Charles Wood, based on the novel by Patrick Ryan.
Producer/Director: Richard Lester.
Starring: Michael Crawford, John Lennon, Michael Hordern, Jack MacGowran, Lee Montague, Roy Kinnear, James Cossins, Jack Hedley, Karl Michael Vogler.
Photography: David Watkin.
Music: Ken Thorne.

May 4th   
Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies**    
(US 2017)   

Amanda Ladd-Jones interviews the various people in her father's life involved in the making of some notable films of the 1970's and 80's.
Long due documentary tribute to the man largely overlooked as the studio head who got Star Wars made, and plenty of other films besides; characteristically Ladd Jnr is the least ebullient about his career, but his famous colleagues have plenty to say about him instead, and though Alan Ladd Snr is a minor figure in his son's story, that same integrity and quiet authority comes through, like father, like son.

p: Rich Buhrman, Natasha Klibansky, Amanda Ladd-Jones
d: Amanda Ladd-Jones
s: Alan Ladd Jnr, Mel Brooks, Richard Donner, Mel Gibson, George Lucas, Ben Affleck, and others
m: Chris Hajian
ed: Chip Mauro