Dec 13th  
The Kidnappers**  
(GB 1953)
Rank/Group Film. 93m. bw

In early 20th century Nova Scotia, a Scottish farmer comes to terms with the Dutch settlers after his two grandsons unwittingly abduct a baby from them. Quietly entertaining drama with the feel of a Western (but without the gunfighting), with slightly unconvincing child playing but a good all-round ensemble. 

w: Neil Paterson, from his novel
p: Sergei Nolbandov, Leslie Parkyn
d: Philip Leacock
s: Duncan MacRae, Jon Whiteley, Vincent Winter, Adrienne Corri, Jean Anderson, Theodore Bikel, Francis de Wolff
ph: Eric Cross
m: Bruce Montgomery

Preceded by:
Love at First Sight**
(GB 2010. Spellbound Films. 12m,; Romance in a retirement home, with a poignant twist.; w: Julian Unthank; d: Michael Davies; s: John Hurst, Phyllida Law; ph: Ian Salvage; m: Mark Russell.)

THE KIDNAPPERS (1953). Among the last programme of films to be shown at the old Empire (aka. Vaudeville) Cinema in Mersea Road, Colchester in 1959 (Cinema photo: L. Reid)

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 4th  
The Magnificent Ambersons***     
(US 1942)                                
RKO. 88m. bw

In the mid-to-late 19th century a Midwestern American family is unable to adapt to the new age of the automobile.
The second of the much vaunted films of Orson Welles, stylishly made again, where the characters resemble pieces in a melodramatic jigsaw puzzle;  abruptly brought to a halt in its later modern sections by the studio together with a happy ending not in the original. What remains is interesting and occasionally moving, although hardly exhilarating (as maybe the original version was too.)

Written, Produced and Directed by: Orson Welles, based on the novel by Booth Tarkington.
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt, Anne Baxter, Dolores Costello, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Richard Bennett, Donald Dillaway.
Photography: Stanley Cortez.
Music: Bernard Herrmann.
Editor: Robert Wise.

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. After the hoopla surrounding Citizen Kane, Orson Welles chose to make another American melodrama more akin to his Mercury Theatre style productions, together with cheeky boom microphone to keep his own face discreetly out the picture for his distinctive narration.

Preceded by:
The Elephant Will Never Forget**
(GB 1953. British Transport Films. 11m. bw; Heartfelt and only occasionally insensitive covering of the last trams to run through London towards Elephant and Castle.; w, d: John Krish; p: Edgar Anstey; narr: Brewster Mason; ph: Bob Paynter.)

Aug 16th  
Paint Your Wagon*   
(US 1969)                            
Paramont/Malpaso. 149m. Super Panavision 70

A drunken California gold prospector shares both his fortune and his Mormon wife with the young man who has inadvertently led him to the gold spring.
Unnecessarily expansive film adaptation of a more modest musical stage success, from the boom or bust era of the genre, mostly miscast with stars (although Marvin's rendition of "Wanderin' Star" became a surprise chart hit), and the two leads have endearing chemistry.

Written by: Paddy Chayefsky, Alan Jay Lerner, based on the stage musical by himself and Frederick Loewe.
Producer: Alan Jay Lerner.
Director: Joshua Logan.
Starring: Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg, Harve Presnell, Ray Walston, John Mitchum, Tom Ligon.
Photography: William A. Fraker.
Music/Songs: Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner, Andre Previn.
Production Design: John Truscott.

Preceded by:

Film
(US 1965. 20m. bw; A dying old man in the city hides himself away from people and animals and even his younger memories. Practically soundless 20 minute experimental film, much more indicative of its author than of Buster Keaton.; w: Samuel Beckett; d: Alan Schneider; s: Buster Keaton.)

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.)

Mar 9th  
Calling Paul Temple*      
(GB 1948)     
Butcher's Film Service. 92m. bw                

Retired detective and author Paul (and Mrs) Temple solve the mystery of a blackmailer murdering various glamorous women. 
Second in a series of Temple detective yarns, with certain pleasing elements of The Thin Man and others, and probably the best in the series for its cast.

w: A.R. Rawlinson, Kathleen Butler, from the radio play by Francis Durbridge
p: Ernest G. Roy
d: Maclean Rogers
s: John Bentley, Dinah Sheridan, Margaretta Scott, Abraham Sofaer, Alan Wheatley, Jack Raine, Hugh Pryse, Wally Patch, Celia Lipton
ph: Geoffrey Faithfull
md: Percival Mackey

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in
A Mouse in the House**
(US 1948. 8m; d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Freq Quimby.)

 Feb 24th
The Vagabond King*
(US 1930)
Paramount. 104m. (originally Technicolor)

A rogue tavern poet leads Parisian peasants to combat the Duke of Burgundy for King Louis XI.
Stilted looking opera by today's standards, but some of the Technicolor flamboyance and the strength of the performances still remain.

Written by: Herman Mankiewicz, based on the operetta of the novel by Justin Huntly McCarthy.
Producer: Adolph Zukor.
Director: Ludwig Berger.
Starring: Dennis King, Jeanette MacDonald, Lillian Roth, O.P. Heggie, Warner Oland.
Photography: Henry W. Gerrard, Ray Rennahan.
Music/Lyrics: Rudolf Frimi, W. Franke Harling, John Leopold, Oscar Potoker.

+ the opening gala film at the Regal (later Odeon) in Colchester in 1930

Preceded by:
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves*
(Fra 1902. Pathe. 9m(tinted). silent; Another interesting early colour experiment, made not by Melies but clearly influenced by him.; p,d: Ferdinand Zecca.)

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!)

Sep 18th
Seventh Heaven**
(US 1927)
Fox. 113m. bw

In 1914 Paris, a girl forced to turn prostitute falls in love with a sewer worker who has rescued her from her vindictive sister, but the war intervenes.
Quite gritty but also poetic silent melodrama (at the onset of sound with added Movietone soundtrack), with occasional good comedy moments amid the generally whimsical tone.

Written by: Benjamin Glazer, Harry H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker, from the play by Austin Strong.
Producer: William Fox.
Director: Frank Borzage.
Starring: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, David Butler, Gladys Brockwell, Albert Gran, Emile Chautard, Brandon Hurst, George E. Stone.
Photography: Ernest Palmer, Joseph Valentine.
Production Design: Harry Oliver.

+ the first film to win Oscars for Best Direction, Actress and Adapted Script

Preceded by:
Intimate Interviews: Bela Lugosi*
(US 1931. 7m. bw; As given by an overawed Dorothy West.; d: Grace Elliott.)

SEVENTH HEAVEN - among the opening programme at the Whitehall Cinema in Witham (now a branch of Essex Libraries) in September 1928

Sep 2nd  
My Darling Clementine***  
(US 1946)                                             
Twentieth Century Fox. 104m. bw

Wyatt Earp avenges the murder of his brother by the Clanton gang by becoming marshal of Tombstone and confronting them at the O.K. Corrall.
Vintage Ford Western taking his own dramatic slant on history, beautifully scenically conveyed with a wide variety of strong performances.

Written by: Samuel G. Engel, Winston Miller, Sam Hellman, from the novel "Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal" by Stuart N. Lake.
Producer: Samuel G. Engel.
Director: John Ford.
Starring: Henry Fonda, Victor Mature (as Doc Holliday), Walter Brennan, Linda Darnell, Cathy Downs, Ward Bond, Tim Holt, Alan Mowbray, John Ireland, Jane Darwell.
Photography: Joseph MacDonald.
Music: Cyril Mockridge.

Preceded by:
London Can Take It***
(GB 1940. 9m. bw; Classic historical propaganda record of the city coping with the Blitz (on its 80th anniversary).; d: Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt; narr: Quentin Reynolds; ed: Stewart McAllister.)

Jun 2nd  
My Old Lady**     

(US/GB/Fra 2014)     
BBC Films/Cohen Media Group/Ingenuous. 107m. Panavision

An American inherits a house in Paris complete with old lady inside it, who turns out to be an ex-lover of his late father.
Slight and full of Bohemian Parisian charm, this sentimental comedy melodrama (with, strictly speaking, a miscast English old lady instead of French) would be a little meandering and boring, were it not for excellent performances.

Written and Directed by: Israel Horowitz, based on his play.
Producers: Rachel Horowitz, Gary Foster, Nitsa Benchetrit, David C. Barrot.
Starring: Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Dominique Pinon, Stephane Freiss.
Photography: Michel Amathieu.
Music: Mark Orton.

Preceded by:
Read All About It**
(GB 1945. ABCA. 28m. bw; Curious semi-information drama about the various editorial methods in telling the same newspaper story - quite contrasting to nowadays, but intrinsically no different.; w: Jack House; d: Roy Baker; s: John Laurie, Alfie Bass, Derek Blomfield, John Slater, Ralph Truman, and others.)

MY OLD LADY (2014). Kevin Kline meanders past the now poignant sight of the spire of Notre Dame Cathedral.

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.)

Apr 27th  
The Monster Club   
(GB 1980)                 
ITC/Chips/Sword and Sorcery. 97m.         

A horror writer is invited to an underground disco club of horrors where he is related tales of other monsters and their victims who meet grisly ends.
Cut price and none-too-subtle horror comic compendium occasionally with atmospheric moments, and interminable modern musical interludes that were presumably intended to widen the audience.

Written by: Edward Abraham, Valerie Abraham, based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes.
Producer: Milton Subotsky.
Director: Roy Ward Baker.
Starring: Vincent Price, John Carradine; Barbara Kellerman, James Laurenson, Simon Ward; Anthony Steel, Britt Ekland, Richard Johnson, Donald Pleasence; Stuart Whitman, Patrick Magee, Lesley Dunlop.
Photography: Peter Jessop.
Music: Douglas Gamley, John Georgiadis, Alan Hawkshaw.

+ Price’s closing speech proposing humans as members of the Monster Club:

“In the past 60 years ‘humes’ have exterminated over 150 million of their own kind. No effort has been spared to reach this astronomical figure, and the methods they have used must demand our unstinted admiration. You know, ‘humes’ began with some very serious disadvantages, but these they overcame with wonderful ingenuity. Not having a fang, or a claw, or even a whistle worth talking about, they invented guns and tanks and bombs and aeroplanes and extermination camps and poisoned gas and daggers and swords and bayonets and booby traps and atomic bombs and flying missiles, submarines! Warships! Aircraft carriers – and,  motor cars. They have even perfected a process, whereby, they can spread a lethal disease on any part of this planet! Not to say anything about nuclear power. Oh, during their short history, you know, ‘humes’ have subjected other ‘humes’ to death by: burning, hanging, decapitation, strangulation, electrocution, shooting, drowning, crushing, racking, disembowelling - and other methods far, far too revolting for the delicate stomachs of this august assembly.”

Preceded by:
A Contradiction*
(GB 2013.4m.; A separated husband remembers an incident with his wife in stored memories from different perspectives.; w: Edward Robinson, Phil Hurst, Steven Dorrington; d: Steven Dorrington; s: Tim Freeman, Nicola Goodchild, Phil Young; for Alma Films/Sci-London 48 Hour Challenge.)

Feb 28th
Number 27*
(GB TVM 1987)
BBC. 74m.         

Property developers struggle to evict a 90-year old resident of an old East London house up for demolition.
Endearingly played TV drama with Palin's usual quirks, uncertain in tone whether as 80s satire or sentimental comedy.

Written by: Michael Palin.
Producer: Innes Lloyd.
Director: Tristram Powell.
Starring: Joyce Carey, Nigel Planer, Alun Armstrong, Robin Bailey, Philip McCough, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Brooke.
Photography: Philip Bonham Carter.
Music: John Du Prez.

Preceded by:
Protocol Two*
(GB 2019. 5m.; A man is mugged by his doppelganger.; w: George Skinner; p: Brandon Hill; d: Tommy Bond; s: Rob Sadler.)

Feb 14th  
A Fish Called Wanda**    
(US/GB 1988)                   
MGM. 109m.

Anglo-American jewel thieves double-cross each other, including the femme fatale who falls in love with their defending barrister.
Critically lauded but rather sadistic and excessive heist caper farce with some funny moments, mainly aimed at the American market which it achieved to a high degree of success.

Written by: John Cleese, Charles Crichton.
Producer: Michael Shamberg.
Director: Charles Crichton.
Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Tom Georgeson, Maria Aitken, Patricia Hayes, Geoffrey Palmer, Stephen Fry.
Photography: Alan Hume.
Music: John Du Prez.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in
Part Time Pal*
(US 1947. 6m.; d:William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)

Dec 31st  
Amazon Women on the Moon
(US 1986 - released 1987)                                                 
Universal. 85m.

Painfully unfunny series of satirical spoof sketches around TV in the video age(an unofficial sequel to Kentucky Fried Movie): some occasional good moments of movie pastiche - at other times one wonders what the cast and makers were thinking of.

Written by: Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland.
Producer: Robert K. Weiss.
Directors: Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis, Robert K. Weiss.
Starring: Arsenio Hall; Lou Jacobi; Michelle Pfeiffer, Griffin Dunne, Peter Horton; Steve Forrest, Sybil Danning, Joey Travolta, Forrest J. Ackerman; David Alan Grier, B.B. King; Rosanna Arquette, Steve Guttenberg; Henry Silva; Archie Hahn, Belinda Balaski, Robert Picardo; William Marshall; Ed Eegley Jnr; Matt Adler, Kelly Preston, Ralph Bellamy; Marc McClure, Russ Meyer; Carrie Fisher, Paul Bartel, and others.
Photography: Daniel Pearl.
Music: Ira Newborn.

Preceded by:
The Assassin
(GB TVM 2015. 2m.; d, ph: Neil Rowe; s: Peregrine Maturin-Baird, Jordan Calver.)

Dec 27th 
Atoll K
aka: Utopia; Robinson Crusoeland

(Fra/Ita 1951)
Sirius/Franco-London/Fortezzo. 82m. bw

Laurel and Hardy inherit an island which turns out to be loaded with uranium, and they soon find themselves overrun with fellow islanders.
Tired last film entry for this beloved duo (although as Stan and Ollie demonstrates, they still had a few active years ahead of them), something of a reversion back to their old style, but in a rag-bag of a European co-production, with an emaciated looking Stan. The end of the line cinematically for the Boys, but still funnier than most of their contemporaries of the time.

Written by: John D. Klorer, Frederick Kohner, Piero Tellini, Rene Wheeler (and others).
Producer: Raymond Eger.
Director: Leo Joamon (and John Berry).
Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Suzy Delair, Max Elloy, Adriano Rimoldi, Luigi Tosi.
Photography: Armand Thirard.
Photography: Paul Misraki.

Preceded by:
Love Me, Love Me, Love Me**
(GB 1962. 8m.; w: Stan Hayward; d, anim: Richard Williams; voice of Kenneth Williams.)

Dec 18th  
The Old Man and the Gun**

(US 2018)                                           
Fox Searchlight/Endgame Entertainment/Conde Nast Entertainment/Sailor Bear/Identity Films. 93m. ws

Adventures of a gentleman thief and multiple bank robber, based on lifelong criminal Forrest Silva Tucker, tailored into a splendidly assured vehicle for the octogenarian Robert Redford with a few nods to his most famous early role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. While the film is leisurely and overlooks some of its edgier side, it nonetheless comes across as a gloriously matured vintage (in an authentic period 1980s style), and a more benevolent variation on Bonnie and Clyde.

Written and Directed by: David Lowery.
Producers: James D. Stern, David Ostroff, Jeremy Steckler, Anthony Mastromauro, Bill Holderman, Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Robert Redford.
Starring: Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Tika Sumpter, Elizabeth Moss, Keith Carradine.
Photography: Joe Anderson.
Music: David Hart.

Preceded by:
Happiness*
(GB 2017. 4m.; The rat race (literally) in animation form, not very subtle but gets its point across with good moments of style.; d: Steve Cutts.)

Nov 18th  
Man with a Movie Camera***    
(USSR 1929)
VUFKU. 68m. bw. silent

Experimental documentary beginning in a cinema and charting a cameraman's journey a day in the city.
Something of an ordeal for those who didn't have the freedom to choose whether to see this film, but also brilliantly surreal and thematic, as well as historical hindsight for its evocation of Moscow (and elsewhere). As a cinematic language, it tries and almost succeeds in creating a storytelling form in pure motion, but would need more artistry for that.

Directed by: Dziga Vertov.
Photography: Mikhail Kaufman (who also appears as the cameraman).
Editing: Elizaveta Svilova.

Preceded by:
Our Lady of Lourdes**
(GB/Poland 2013. Independent Films/Light + Mathematics. 17m.; A young girl and a drunken widower unwittingly rescue each other. Oddly moving drama with only partly relevant special effects scenes, and a deliberately vague sense of location.; w,d: Peter Szewecyk; s: Naomi Scott, Lech Byblik, Nick Moran.)

Nov 6th 
The Optimists of Nine Elms*
aka. The Optimists
(GB 1973)
Cheetah/Sagittarius. 110m.

Two neglected London children befriend an elderly London street entertainer.
Rather dreary and heavy going whimsical drama with touching moments, shot in grimy, soon-to-be demolished London locations, with Sellers enjoying dressing down, but lacking the wit and the sentiment of Chaplin.

Written by: Tudor Gates, Anthony Simmons, from his novel.
Producers: Adrian Gaye, Victor Lyndon.
Director: Anthony Simmons.
Starring: Peter Sellers, Donna Mullane, John Chaffey, Marjorie Yates, David Daker, Patricia Brake, Keith Chegwin.
Photography: Larry Pizer.
Music: George Martin (songs by Lionel Bart).

+ The Optimists of Nine Elms London locations

Preceded by:
The Little Island*
(GB 1958. 33m.; Experimental early award-winning animation from a prodigious talent, about three idealistic individuals on an island - an allegory for the Earth.; d: Richard Williams; m: Tristram Cary.)