Jan 31st  
The January Man*  
(US 1989)  
MGM-UA/Star Partners II. 97m. 

A former police detective is grudgingly reinstated to solve the mystery of a New York serial strangler.
Droll murder mystery with a heavyweight cast; it goes for The Thin Man-style light touch combined with hard-edged investigative drama, but any interest in the latter is left high and dry.

Written by: John Patrick Shanley.
Producers: Norman Jewison, Ezra Swerdlow.
Director: Pat O'Connor.
Starring: Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel, Rod Steiger, Danny Aiello, Alan Rickman, Faye Grant, Bill Cobbs, Colin Mochrie.
Photography: Jerzy Zielinski.
Music: Marvin Hamlisch.

 

THE JANUARY MAN. Rod Steiger's later career seemed to involve films that could barely contain him, whilst Harvey Keitel and Danny Aiello adopt the more subtle approach. The dangling corpse they (and Kevin Kline) are looking at, is believe it or not, played by Whose Line is it Anyway?'s Colin Mochrie.

Jan 24th
The Last Days of Pompeii*  
(Ita 1913)
88m. bw. silent



A blind servant girl is jealous of her master's lover but rescues them both from the eruption of Vesuvius.
A mixture of the primitive and the occasionally lavishly staged in this early cinema adaptation of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel, filmed in some scenic Italian locations.

w: Arriga Frusta
d: Eleuterio Rodolfi
s: Fernanda Negri Pauget, Udaldo Stefani, Eugenia Tettani Fior, Antonio Grisanti, Vitale di Stefano
ph: Giuseppe Vitrotti

+ one of two Italian film versions of the novel made that year

Preceded by:
Bugs Bunny in
What's Opera, Doc?**
(US 1957. 7m.; One of the best, certainly the most stylized Merrie Melodies, and also one of the best reprentations of Wagner's music on screen.; w: Michael Maltese; d: Chuck Jones; voices of Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan.)

Jan 18th  
Torture Garden*  
(GB 1967)         
Columbia/Amicus. 100m.

The devil, posing as a fairground attraction, tells the grisly futures of four inquisitive customers.
A more polished Amicus compendium since their previous effort Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, though much in the same mould with variable styles of story from the Gothic to the ridiculous, and performances that are strong or just plain wooden. 

Written by: Robert Bloch.
Producers: Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky.
Director: Freddie Francis.
Starring: Burgess Meredith, Jack Palance, Peter Cushing, Michael Bryant, Maurice Denham, Beverly Adams, John Phillips, Barbara Ewing, John Standing, Ursula Howells, Michael Ripper, Clytie Jessop.
Photography: Norman Warwick.
Music: James Bernard, Don Banks.

Preceded by:
Electrocuting an Elephant*
(US 1903. 1m. bw. silent; The harrowing sight of an execution of a circus elephant (who had killed a spectator), allegedly both organised and filmed by Thomas Edison, who for whatever perverse historical reason, chose to record the event on film as well.)

Jan 10th 

Empire of Light** (15) 
(Century Clacton)                            

(GB 2022)  
Searchlight Pictures/TSG/Neal Street. 113m. ws

In 1980 the emotionally volatile duty manager of a seaside cinema has a brief love affair with a young black student working there; when he decides to break off the affair, it triggers her back into a mental breakdown.
Back-to-back Sam Mendes films, his semi-nostalgic lookback to the 1980s, meticulously evoked (making thorough use of little-changed Margate) and strongly performed as usual, but the drama is somehow superficial and not going completely into depth about either main character.

Written and Directed by: Sam Mendes.
Producers: Pippa Harris, Sam Mendes.
Starring: Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Tom Brook, Tanya Moodie.
Photography: Roger Deakins.
Music: Trent Reznar, Atticus Ross.
Production Design: Mark Tildesley.