Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 13th, 2003
Synopsis
Alec Guinness plays a man who appears to be a nobody, and that is just what he wants you tothink. He has worked to establish his reputation as the most unassuming, yet reliable, employeethe Bank of England has. His goal: to rob the bank of a vast amount of gold bullion. His plancomes together when he joins forces with Stanley Holloway, Sidney James and Alfie Bass. Theheist itself is, naturally, only the beginning of the zaniness.
Audio
As with the o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 13th, 2003
Synopsis
Alec Guinness quietly invents a fabric that is indestructible and never gets dirty. You’d thinkpeople would be happy. Not if they have anything to do with the fabric industry, they’re not. Bigindustry and big labour all get it in the neck in this hilarious film. The cast is top-notch(Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Ernest Thesiger, Michael Gough) and clearly having a great time.Not to be missed.
Audio
As with the other films in this series, the sound is t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Dennis Price (icy in his perfectly correct heartlessness) is the son of a disowned member ofthe D’Ascoyne family. Determined to rectify this slight, and incidentally become Duke, Price setsout to cooly murder the eight D’Ascoynes who stand in his way. All eight, including LadyAgatha, are played by Alec Guinness. Price is utterly amoral, but he is such a charming narratorthat we root for him, and chuckle warmly over each demise. The script is supremely smart. Thisisn’t knock...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Centuries after his ancestor wipes out a devil-worshipping cult, Waldemar Daninsky feelsthat cult’s revenge. A woman he tries to help curses him with lycanthropy. He tears around thecountryside ripping people to shreds. Will the woman he loves be able to help him? A welcomerelease for Eurohorror fans (and uncut for the first time on these shores), Curse of the Devil’sslow pace and wooden performances mean it will have limited appeal to viewers outside theserious fans. If yo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Alec Guinness is a ferryboat captain who runs back and forth every other day betweenGibraltar and Morocco. He has a wife in each port: the domestic Celia Johnson and the fieryYvonne DeCarlo. This state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely, of course. A fun battle-of-the-sexes story, very much of its time (1953). While not quite up to the Ealing films, The Captain’sParadise does have some extremely funny moments courtesy Guinness and co-star CharlesGoldner.
A...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 5th, 2003
Synopsis
A corrosive satire of stardom in general, and the theatre world in particular, All About Evestars Bette Davis as an insecure theatre diva, and Anne Baxter as Eve, the young woman whobefriends Davis but is a the conniving, fawning sociopath who will stop at nothing for her ownstab at stardom. George Sanders (stealing every scene he’s in as a sublimely cynical critic) is onelof the only people who can see through Eve. Baxter overdoes the fawning, so it becomes difficultto bel...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
The setting is turn-of-the-century Wales, and a way of life is coming to an end as economiccrises hit. The film chronicles the saga of the Morgan family, headed by stern but lovingpatriarch Donald Crisp, and we get all this through the eyes of young Roddy McDowall. Analternative title might be “Cavalcade of Misery” and the answer to the film’s question might be“not very,” given the endless tragedies that afflict our loving family. The film hasn’t weatheredthe passing years ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 31st, 2002
Synopsis
Gregory Peck is a freelance writer recently arrived in New York. Hired to write a series onanti-Semitism, he hits on the idea of passing himself off as Jewish. The angle works only toowell, and he experiences prejudice first-hand, in ways that threaten to completely derail his life.The performances are universally excellent, and the actors are really put to the test when theyhave to mouth the painfully moralizing speeches at the end of the film. Until the disappointingconcl...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 30th, 2002
Synopsis
Jennifer (Camille Keaton) leaves New York for a summer in the country. Four low-lifes rapeher, beat her, and leave her for dead. She strikes back most violently. This is the nec plus ultraof rape-revenge films, the yardstick against which all others are measured. The gang rape isharrowingly brutal, and goes on for almost half an hour. The film is cheap and raw, and has itsflaws, but is also searingly powerful in the unflinching realism of its violence. For this, and forits ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 6th, 2002
Synopsis
Robert De Niro is Rupert Pupkin, supreme loser. He has delusions of greatness, andconstantly fantasizes he has a wonderful friendship with talk show host Jerry Langford (JerryLewis, superb). Pupkin is determined to get his moment in the limelight, and he will stop atnothing, not even kidnapping, to make sure he gets what’s coming to him. Along for the ride issimilarly obsessed (and grotesque) fan Sandra Bernhard. Look out. Incredibly smart, incrediblyfunny, incredibly uncom...
