Dec 24th 
One Touch of Venus*   
(US 1948)   
Universal-International/Artists Alliance. 82m. bw          

A department store assistant unwittingly brings to life a statue of the Roman goddess of love, who proceeds to fall for him and spreads her influence elsewhere.
Celebrating Ava Gardner's centenary with this fluffy musical comedy with top talent. The comedy element is very laboured (and heavily adjusted from its original), but the actors make it worthwhile.

Written by: Harry Kurnitz, Frank Tashlin, based on the musical by S.J. Perelman, Ogden Nash.
Producers: William A. Seiter, Lester Cowan.
Director: William A. Seiter.
Starring: Robert Walker, Ava Gardner, Dick Hayman, Olga San Juan, Tom Conway, Eve Arden, Sara Allgood, James Flavin.
Photography: Franz Planer.
Music: Ann Ronell, Kurt Weill.

Dec 8th  
The Ruling Class*
(GB 1972)
Avco Embassy/Keep Films. 155m.

The sole heir to the Gurney estate is a paranoid schizophrenic who thinks he is Jesus Christ; his scheming family try to bring him back to normal health, but the result is worse.
Overstated satire with lots of red-headed performances, and a star unwisely let loose. Fashionable fantasia song and dance interludes and zestful handling punctuate the two and a half hours' duration, although the characters and the situations are never really engaging.

Written by: Peter Barnes, from his play.
Producers: Jules Buck, Jack Hawkins.
Director: Peter Medak.
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Arthur Lowe, Alastair Sim, Coral Browne, William Mervyn, James Villiers, Harry Andrews, Carolyn Seymour, Michael Bryant, Graham Crowden, Nigel Green, Kay Walsh, Patsy Byrne.
Photography: Ken Hodges.
Music: John Cameron.

Nov 13th
The Lost King** (12A)  
(Electric Palace, Harwich)                    

(GB 2022)
Warner Bros/Pathe/BBC Films/Creative Scotland/Ingenious/Baby Cow. 108m.

Separated mother Philippa Langley is haunted by the image of King Richard III to find his burial location, which the local authorities then take the credit for.
Subjective but smoothly done comedy drama with a pretty accurate depiction of modern day Britain; denounced by academics as being an unfair portrayal, but they can't really complain as the film is reasonably even handed, and they took plenty of credit at the time anyway.

Written by: Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope.
Producers: Steve Coogan, Christine Langan, Dan Winch.
Director: Stephen Frears.
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan, Harry Lloyd (as Richard), Mark Addy, Lee Ingleby, James Fleet.
Photography: Zac Nicholson.
Music: Alexandre Desplat.

Nov 8th  
Nuns on the Run**  
(GB 1990)
Twentieth Century Fox/HandMade Films. 89m.

Two crooks hide from their bosses under disguise in a London convent school.
Lively British farce which, like Some Like It Hot, has more fun with the two stars in drag (who also make for a passable latter day Laurel and Hardy), than the disposable gangster or superfluous romantic sub-plots.

Written and Directed by: Jonathan Lynn.
Producer: Michael White.
Starring: Eric Idle, Robbie Coltrane, Camille Coduri, Janet Suzman, Lila Kaye, Doris Hare, Robert Patterson.
Photography: Michael Garfath.
Music: Yello, Hidden Faces.

Preceded by:
Post Early for Christmas**
(GB 1943. Ministry of Information. 2m. bw; w, s: Richard Massingham.)

Sep 30th    
This is My Life*   
(US 1992)     
Twentieth Century Fox. 105m.

A single mother becomes a stand-up comedian.
Largely sentimental and self-indulgent comedy drama, not as funny or as hard-edged as it thinks it is, with supporting cameos that don't get much of a look-in, but with the occasional titter and some talented younger performances.

Written by: Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron, based on the novel by Meg Wolitzer.
Producer: Lynda Obst.
Director: Nora Ephron.
Starring: Julie Kavner, Samantha Mathis, Gaby Hoffman, Carrie Fisher, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Najimy, Estelle Harris, Louis Di Bianco.
Photography: Bobby Byrne.
Music: Carly Simon.

Sep 10th
See How They Run (12A)
(Everyman Muswell Hill)

(GB 2022)
Searchlight/DJ Films. 98m.

An attempted film adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is prevented by actual murder in the theatre!
Sloppy murder mystery pastiche with politically correct miscasting in a semi-fantasy version of 1950s Britain. The two comedic detectives don't really gel, and some good cameos are all too short.

Written by: Mark Chappell.
Producers: Damian Jones, Gina Carter.
Director: Tom George.
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith, Harris Dickinson (as Richard Attenborough), Charlie Cooper, Shirley Henderson (as Agatha Christie).
Photography: Jamie D. Ramsay.
Music: Daniel Pemberton.

Aug 5th   
Smashing Time*
(GB 1967)
Paramount/Partisan/Selmir. 96m.

Two Northern girls travel to London to experience the trendy highs and lows.
Swinging Sixties satire with only occasionally amusing sketches (including imitation Laurel and Hardy slapstick), but uneven in characterisation of its two leads and almost unwatchable nowadays, but a fair snapshot of the time.

Written by: George Melly.
Producers: Ray Millichip, Carlo Ponti.
Director: Desmond Davis.
Starring: Lynn Redgrave, Rita Tushingham, Michael York, Ian Carmichael, Anna Quayle, Jeremy Lloyd, Peter Jones, Arthur Mullard, David Lodge.
Photography: Manny Wynn.
Music: John Addison, Skip Bifferty.

+ among those in cameos include Paul Danquah and Murray Melvin, Rita Tushingham's two co-stars in A Taste of Honey

Preceded by:
Ain't She Sweet?**
(US 1932. Paramount. 7m. bw; Enjoyable animated musical short with the additional filming of Lillian Roth performing the title number.; d: Dave Fleischer.)

Jun 4th   
Everything Everywhere All at Once* (15)
(King Street Cinema, Ipswich)

(US 2021)
A24/Gozie AGBO/Leyline Entertainment/IAC. 139m. ws

A Chinese laundromat owner in Los Angeles struggles to pay her taxes, and is also propelled into various parallel universes, all of which are being threatened by her volatile teenage daughter.
Long but sustained kinetic action fantasy which quickly gets carried away with itself, akin to The Matrix but not taking itself quite so seriously.

Written and Directed by: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert.
Producers: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Mike Larocca, Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang, Michelle Yeoh.
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephenie Hsu, James Hong, Jenny Slate, Tallie Medel, Harry Shum Jnr.
Photography: Larkin Seiple.
Music: Son Lux.
Visual Effects: Zak Stoltz.

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.

Apr 28th   
Carry on Regardless*  
(GB 1961)
Anglo Amalgamated. 90m. bw

The Helping Hands agency and it clients deal with a variety of odd jobs.
A series of sketches rather than a cohesive plot, some of which are funny, with some of the Carry On regulars starting to establish the characteristics with which they would become renowned.

Written by: Norman Hudis.
Producer: Peter Rogers.
Director: Gerald Thomas.
Starring: Sidney James, Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Stanley Unwin, Joan Sims, Liz Fraser, Charles Hawtrey, Terence Longdon, Bill Owen, Esma Cannon, Fenella Fielding, Hattie Jacques, Joan Hickson, Jerry Desmonde, Nicholas Parsons, Terence Alexander, and others.
Photography: Alan Hume.
Music: Bruce Montgomery.

Apr 1st
Planes, Trains and Automobiles**   
(US 1987)
Paramount. 92m.

An uptight New York advertising executive tries to get back to his family in Chicago for Thanksgiving, but his journey is fraught with delay and a fellow passenger whom he can't shake off.
Lively comedy which most frustrated travellers will identify with; as usual the director overdoes things (including the sentiment), but the two main actors make an excellent odd couple, in a deserved star-making role for John Candy.

Written, Produced and Directed by: John Hughes.
Starring: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, William Windom, Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon, Martin Ferrero.
Photography: Don Peterman.
Music: Ira Newborn.
Editing: Paul Hirsch.

Mar 18th   
The Phantom of the Open*  (12A)  
(Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley)

(GB 2021)     
EOne/Ingenious/BBC Films/BFI/Cornerstone/Baby Cow. 102m.

In 1976 Barrow-in-Furness crane operator Maurice Flitcroft pretends to be a professional golfer at the British Open.
Another British story of parochial underdogs (similar in spirit to The Duke), with lots of clichés thrown in - many of them historically true - and meticulously observed by its leading man.

Written by: Simon Farnaby, from the book by himself and Scott Murray.
Producers: Tom Miller, Nichola Martin, Kate Glover.
Director: Craig Roberts.
Starring: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans, Jake Davies.
Photography: Kit Fraser.
Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge.

Mar 1st
A Run for Your Money**        
(GB 1949)
Rank/Ealing. 85m. bw

Two Welsh miners win a trip to the England-Wales rugby international but get sidetracked by the London lifestyle.
For St. David's Day, this exemplary Ealing comedy with its share of amusing observations and stereotypes, and some amusing cameos including Guinness as a put-upon gardening correspondent.

Written by: Clifford Evans, Richard Hughes, Leslie Norman, Charles Frend, Diana Morgan.
Producers: Michael Balcon, Leslie Norman.
Director: Charles Frend.
Starring: Donald Houston, Meredith Edwards, Hugh Griffith, Alec Guinness, Moira Lister, Clive Morton, Leslie Perrins. Joyce Grenfell, Julie Milton, Peter Edwards.
Photography: Douglas Slocombe.
Music: Ernest Irving.

Feb 25th   
The Duke** (12A)
(Century Clacton)

(GB 2020)
Warner Bros/Pathe/Ingenious/Screen Yorkshire/Neon Films. 96m.

In 1961 a crusading Newcastle pensioner ransom's Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington to allow pensioners free TV, but is actually covering for his son who has committed the theft.
A true story is given enjoyably nostalgic treatment (although feeling more 1950s in mood than 1960s), glossing over most aspects of the robbery from the National Gallery, but refreshingly light and well paced within the familiar Ealing-style mantra, and with spot-on performances.

Written by: Richard Bean, Clive Coleman.
Producer: Nicky Bentham.
Director: Roger Michell.
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Matthew Goode, Anna Maxwell Martin, Aimee Kelly, James Wilby, Paul Reed.
Photography: Mike Eley.
Music: George Fenton.

+ the portrait also briefly appears in Dr. No, which is briefly alluded to in this film

Jan 11th
The Naked Truth*  
(GB 1957)                         
Rank. 92m. bw

Victims of a serial blackmailer contrive to team up against him.
Enjoyable British comedy not quite as effective or as convincing as Laughter in Paradise or Kind Hearts and Coronets which both featured some of these same talents, but the cast does what it can.

Written by: Michael Pertwee.
Producer/Director: Mario Zampi.
Starring: Dennis Price, Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton, Georgina Cookson, Joan Sims, Miles Malleson, Kenneth Griffith, Bill Edwards, David Lodge.
Photography: Stan Pavey.
Music: Stanley Black.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in
Solid Serenade**
(US 1946. 7m.; w, d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)

SOLID SERENADE. An enjoyably batty entry in the Tom and Jerry canon (the Hanna-Barbera shorts were rarely that logical in terms of plot anyway) where Jerry fights back against a serenading Tom out of irritation - even under the nose of Spike the dog. Great animation and musical and vocal interludes, including what sounds suspiciously like the voice of Charles Boyer (when Tom is romantically sweet-talking Spike by mistake!)

Jan 6th
Don't Look Up* (15)
(Curzon Colchester)

US 2021. Netflix/Hyper Object. 138m.

Two scientists discover a meteor is heading straight towards Earth, but the impending catastrophe is lost in the modern media circus.
Typically overblown American satire (intended as an allegory about climate ignorance), with its potent points about the Trump era and misinformation, although overlength and a closing element of pathos slightly undoes it.

Written by: Adam McKay, David Sirota.
Producers: Adam McKay, Kevin Messick.
Director: Adam McKay.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Leonard DiCaprio, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Himesh Patel, Ariana Grande, Timothee Chalamet, Melanie Lynskey.
Photography: Linus Sandgren.
Music: Nicholas Britell.

DON'T LOOK UP. Ironic casting to have the beautiful anti-Trump campaigner Meryl Streep play the most Trump-like of US Presidents (with added elements of Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton). Overloaded with stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence (behind Streep and Jonah Hill), which threatened to blunt the message of the film, in a similar satirical vein to Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!

Nov 29th  
The Card**        
(GB 1952)  

In the 19th century industrial Potteries, a plucky young man makes his way up the social ladder.
Enjoyable and quite easy going Ealing-style social comedy, unevenly adapted but with the the same zestful approach to the films of David Lean, and similar also in tone to the later Hobson's Choice.  

Written by: Eric Ambler, from the novel by Arnold Bennett.
Producer: John Bryan.
Director: Ronald Neame.
Starring: Alec Guinness, Glynis Johns, Valerie Hobson, Petula Clark, Edward Chapman, Harold Goodwin, Wilfrid Hyde-White.
Photography: Oswald Morris.
Music: William Alwyn.

+ the Guinness character as a young boy is played by his 11-year old son Matthew

Preceded by:

Tom and Jerry in
The Mouse Comes to Dinner*
(US 1945. 7m.; d: William Hannah, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)                               

Oct 20th  
Foul Play*   
(US 1978)              
Paramount. 116m.

An attractive librarian is embroiled in an assassination plot in San Francisco.
Engaging Hitchcock pastiche of thriller and comedy elements, although flimsy in both respects, in spite of a frantic finale.

Written and Directed by: Colin Higgins.
Producers: Edward K. Milkis, Thomas L. Miller.
Starring: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Dudley Moore, Burgess Meredith, Brian Dennehy, Rachel Roberts, Marc Lawrence, Eugene Roach, Billy Barty.
Photography: David M. Walsh.
Music: Charles Fox.

Preceded by:
Dust* 
(GB 2012. 8m.; w,d: Ben Ockrent, Jake Russell; s: Alan Rickman, Jodie Whittaker, Lola Albert.)                 

Sep 24th
Bill and Ted Face the Music* (PG)
(Curzon Colchester)

(US 2020)
Warner Bros/Endeavor Content/Hammerstone. 91m.ws

The goofy former teenagers Bill and Ted try to save space and time from collapsing by creating music with the help of their chip-off-the-old-block daughters.
Venturing to return to the cinema again with the dysfunctional heroes of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, too "far out" to need to go into into any critical detail, and the humour still raises some chuckles.

Written by: Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon.
Producers: Scott Kroopf, Alex Lebovici, David Haring, Steve Ponce, Ed Solomon, Alex Winter.
Director: Dean Parisot.
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Kristen Schaal, Smara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Pearce, Hal Landon, William Sadler.
Photography: Shelly Johnson.
Music: Mark Isham.