12 Angry Men

 Year of Release: 1957

Director:  Sidney Lumet

Screenplay:   Reginald Rose

Starring:  Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall, Jack Warden

Running Time:  96 minutes

Genre:  Courtroom drama

In a New York City courthouse, a young Puerto Rican man is on trial for the murder of his father.  As the all-male jury retire to consider their verdict it appears to be an open and shut case.  However one of the jurors (Fonda) is not so sure, and believes that there may be room for reasonable doubt.

Originally produced as a television play, this is one of the classic courtroom dramas, even though the trial itself is never actually shown.  Aside from some brief scenes at the beginning and end of the film, the entire story takes place in the cramped, claustrophobic confines of the jury room and, aside from a brief dialogue exchange at the film's conclusion, none of the characters are named.  The film brings up themes of racism and classism which are sadly still relevant today, as the characters' preconceptions and prejudices are revealed.  It's about men who are complete strangers to each other, who are forced together and have to reach an agreement, and we get the group dynamics, some characters are more dominant and some more passive, and alliances are formed and break apart.  The film is set during a swelteringly hot day, and there is a real sense of claustrophobia, heightened by the fact that the camera movies from wide angle images at the beginning of the film to increasingly tight close-ups in on the individuals as the story progresses.  It features some powerful performances from a talented, if not particularly diverse, cast.  Henry Fonda is fantastic in the lead role, as the reasonable juror who just wants his fellow jurors to discuss the case and not just immediately vote to convict.  The film has been referenced and parodied countless times since its release, and was remade in 1997.

   12 Angry Men

Alone in Berlin

 Year of Release:  2016

Director:  Vincent Pérez

Screenplay:  Vincent Pérez, Achim von Borries and Bettine von Borries, based on the novel Every Man Dies Alone (also known as Alone in Berlin) by Hans Fallada

Starring:  Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson, Daniel Brühl, Mikael Persbrandt

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Period drama, war

Berlin, 1940:  Otto (Gleeson) and Anna Quangel (Thompson) are an ordinary, working class couple.  When they receive news of the death of their only son in battle, the Quangels disillusionment with the Nazi regime increases, and they decide to take a stand.  The couple write postcards criticising the regime and distribute them all over Berlin.  Tenacious Gestapo detective Escherich (Brühl) is assigned to investigate and put a stop to the postcards.

Based on the acclaimed novel by Hans Fallada, this is loosely based on the true life case of Otto and Elise Hampel who wrote and circulated postcards criticising the Nazis throughout Berlin from 1940 until 1943, and the film is dedicated to them.  Given the subject matter you would expect this to be a dour, grim film, and it certainly is.  It is powerful though, and it's call to rebellion and protest, no matter how small it may seem, is still relevant today.  The film captures a grey, paranoid world where everyone lives under suspicion.  It features some great performances, and the story is an interesting one.  It's a small scale drama, that occasionally feels like a television film, and lacks the punch that the book had, however it is a strong and relevant piece of work.

Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson in Alone in Berliné

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

 Year of Release:  1982

Director:  Tommy Lee Wallace

Screenplay:  Tommy Lee Wallace 

Starring:  Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy

Running Time:  98 minutes

Genre:  Horror, science-fiction

When a man is murdered in hospital, Dr. Daniel Challis (Atkins) teams up with the dead man's daughter, Ellie Grimbridge (Nelkin), to investigate.  The trail leads to a secretive small town in California called Santa Mira, which is owned by mysterious toy manufacturer Conal Cochran (O'Herlihy), who runs the Silver Shamrock company.   The company specialise in Halloween masks, particularly their hugely popular range of three designs: A pumpkin, a witch and a skull.  They advertise their masks with an endless series of annoying TV adverts featuring an irritating countdown jingle ("Three more days til Halloween... Halloween... Halloween... Three more days til Halloween... Silver Shamrock!").  Dan and Ellie soon realise that Cochran is combining advanced technology with ancient sorcery to play a sadistic and lethal Halloween trick on the children of the United States.

The main problem with this film is, despite the title, it has nothing at all to do with the other films in the Halloween franchise.  Michael Myers, the unstoppable murderer of the previous films, does not appear at all here.  In fact it doesn't even seem to be set in the Halloween universe, evidenced by the fact that the original film is shown on television art a couple of points.  As originally conceived by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, who wrote the original film, the Michael Myers plotline would be abandoned and the franchise would continue as almost an anthology series with each subsequent film being a standalone horror film focussing on a different aspect of the Halloween series, however this idea was abandoned after the negative reception to Halloween III and Michael Myers returned for subsequent instalments.  

The thing is this film is not really that bad.  While the central premise is ludicrous, it is an enjoyable science-fiction conspiracy thriller, with supernatural horror elements.  The film was originally written by acclaimed British writer Nigel Kneale, creator of the groundbreaking Quatermass TV serials, but the studio was unhappy with the lack of horror and wanted Kneale to amp up the gore and violence, and so Kneale stepped away and had his name removed from the credits.  The film moves along at a slick pace, and the performances are strong.  The special effects are gruesome and effective.  The story really is pretty ridiculous, but it does have it's share of surprises, and a surprisingly bleak ending.  

Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin in Halloween III: Season of the Witch
 

Bean

 Year of Release:  1997

Director:  Mel Smith

Screenplay:  Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll, based on the television series Mr. Bean created by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson

Starring:  Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Sandra Oh, Burt Reynolds

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

Mr. Bean (Atkinson) is a well-meaning but clumsy and accident prone security guard at the National Gallery in London.  Unable to fire him, the gallery's board of directors select Bean as their representative to oversee the transfer and unveiling of the painting of Whistler's Mother by James McNeill Whistler to the Grierson Gallery in Los Angeles.  The Grierson's curator, David Langley (MacNicol) his impressed by Bean's false profile and offers to accommodate him at his family home, much to the displeasure of his wife, Alison (Reed), and his two children.  However, Bean's inadvertent ability to create absolute chaos threatens to ruin everything for David.

Mr. Bean started out as a British television sitcom which ran for 15 episodes between 1990 and 1995.  The series was hugely popular bit in Britain and around the world, due in no small part to the fact that the series was almost entirely free of dialogue.  The comedy was entirely physical, and the almost non-existent dialogue really had nothing to do with the episode's plot.  In the film there is dialogue and also a plot.  Mr. Bean would speak in strange, strangulated voice and, true to the series, he does have very little dialogue, and the humour is also mostly slapstick, physical comedy.  It's not a bad film, but it's not a good one either.  It's a fine enough film to pass the time, and it is funny, but it's not really something that will stick in the memory.  Rowan Atkinson is a very talented physical comedian, the problem is that the character of Mr. Bean is great for a half hour TV show, but spread out over an hour and a half it's just too much.  Peter MacNicol provides a good counterpoint to Mr. Bean's clowning as the harried, put upon curator.  

  Rowan Atkinson in Bean

Wake in Fright

 Year of Release:  1971

Director:  Ted Kotcheff

Screenplay:  Evan Jones, based on the novel Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook

Starring:  Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay

Running Time:  109 minutes

Genre:  Drama, thriller, psychological horror

John Grant (Bond) is a young schoolteacher who has been forced to accept a post at a tiny school in Tiboonda, a remote town in the arid Australian outback, in order to pay back a student loan from the Government.  On his way for a break in Sydney, John is forced to have a stop over in the rough mining town of Bundanyabba (known by the locals as "The Yabba").  When he discovers a local gambling craze, John sees a way to win enough money to pay back the loan and escape the outback.  However it goes badly wrong, and John finds himself trapped in The Yabba, with nothing left but drinking, gambling, fighting and hunting.

This film almost feels like a post-apocalyptic science fiction film.  It is almost a sensory experience in that the blistering heat, dust, and smell of sweat and beer practically radiates off the screen.  Almost every frame has the feel of violence just waiting to be unleashed.  John finds himself in an almost inescapable cycle because there is really nothing to do in the town is drink, and almost the stock greeting is offering to buy you a drink and the worst thing you can do is refuse an offer of a drink.  He is also trapped in the macho culture of the town.  John looks down on the people of The Yabba when he arrives.  He is a middle-class, educated city guy and believes that he is better than the rough, boozing, fighting working-class people of the town, but finds that he has more in common with them than he thought.  His dark angel is Clarence "Doc" Tydon (played by Donald Pleasence), an alcoholic medical professional who has wound up in The Yabba and stays in a run down shack,  and provides John with a glimpse of his possible future.  

The film is notable for it's brutal kangaroo hunting sequence, which features footage of kangaroos actually being shot, and is extremely hard to watch.  It is a necessary and powerful film though and provides a striking look at toxic masculinity.  The master print of the film had gone missing and so for several decades the only versions available were poor quality, cut prints.  However original film and sound elements have been recovered, and the film has been now restored, and is now regarded as a classic of Australian cinema and praised by Martin Scorsese and Nick Cave.

Donald Pleasence and Gary Bond in Wake in Fright
       

A Night to Remember

 Year of Release:  1958

Director:  Roy Ward Baker

Screenplay:  Eric Ambler, based on the book A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

Starring:  Kenneth More, Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Honor Blackman, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum, Tucker McGuire, Frank Lawton

Running Time:  123 minutes

Genre:  Drama

In 1912 the luxurious passenger liner RMS Titanic, the largest vessel afloat and widely believed to be unsinkable, sets sail on it's maiden voyage from Britain to America.  During the voyage, however it strikes an iceberg, in one of the most famous maritime disasters in history.

While this lacks the spectacle and production values of James Cameron's Titanic (1997), this is widely regarded by historians and survivors as the most accurate version of the famous disaster.  It's filmed in a documentary style with a large ensemble cast.  It moves from the opulent splendour of First Class, to the cramped, crowded Steerage, who are more or less abandoned to their fate.  We also see the reactions of the nearby ships, the only ship to render any assistance is too far away to do anything but collect survivors, and one ship that is very near is oblivious to their distress calls.  The cast do occasionally come across as comically upper class and the upper lips are as stiff as cardboard, but there are some good performances from a number of notable British actors including Honor Blackman, David McCallum and a very early, uncredited appearance from Sean Connery.  The film is most effective in it's quiet moments and cumulation of telling details.    While the special effects look crude by modern standards, the sequences of the ship sinking are still effective.

A Night to Remember

"The Unsettled Dust" by Robert Aickman

Year of Publication:  1990

Length:  362 pages

Genre:  Horror, fantasy, short stories

During his lifetime English author Robert Aickman was probably best known as a conservationist, helping to set up the Inland Waterways Association to preserve canals in Britain, but after his death in 1981 at the age of 66, his reputation has grown as an author of unique skill.  The Unsettled Dust, which was published posthumously, contains eight of his forty eight horror stories (or "strange stories" as Aickman preferred to term them).  

In "The Unsettled Dust" a visitor to an old dust-shrouded English country house, finds something there even more sinister than the two creepy sisters who live there; in "The Houses of the Russians" a man recounts how he found a magical talisman on a forbidden island in Finland; in "No Stronger than a Flower" an unhappy woman undergoes bizarre changes after a visit to a sinister beautician; in "The Cicerones" a tourist comes to regret his visit to a remote Belgian church; in "The Next Glade" a woman is haunted by a strange man she meets at a party; in "Ravissante" a young artist has a disturbing experience when he visits the elderly widow of a famous painter; in "Bind Your Hair" a woman meets some strange new friends when she visits her boyfriend's family in their remote country village; and in "The Stains" a bereaved man falls in love with a strange young woman, and loses far more than his heart.

Robert Aickman wrote beautiful prose.  His stories are well crafted, with psychologically complex characters in a carefully described, mundane world, that become increasingly strange and disturbing, until the characters are trapped with no way out.  Even at the end of the stories, it's unclear whether it is really the end.  Often the darker elements in the stories are hinted at and are more ambiguous than explicit, and very little is actually explained.  The stories have a genuinely disquieting feel to them, and some of them are really genuinely scary.  Recommended for fans of intelligent supernatural horror.