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All About Eve (1950)
All About Eve
All About Eve is often compared with Sunset Boulevard. A waspish look at Hollywood and a cynical view of social climbers.
Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) is the devoted fan of diva and veteran stage actress Margo Channing (Bette Davis.) It is all a cynical ploy. The stagestruck Eve wants to gain entry to Margo's inner circle and slowly devour all.
There is one giveaway when Eve pretends to be on stage and taking a bow. A mark that she is not wide eyed and innocent but to take out the ageing Margo. Once she has absorbed all that Margo has to offer.
The film has a narration by theater critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) who regards himself as even more cynical and manipulative than Eve. Only he might have met his match.
Sanders, who won the Oscar for best supporting actor. All About Eve won the Best Picture Oscar.
The movie is a dark bitter look at showbusiness, everyone is out to get a piece of the action. There is a subtext about ageism.
Davis has a more sympathetic role here as Margo, although I felt disappointed that she decided not to take out Eve. In the end the movie pulled its punches.
Looney Tunes Cartoons: Mallard Practice/Beaky Buzzard Gags: Mouse/Born to be Wile E. (2021)
Mallard Practice/Beaky Buzzard Gags: Mouse/Born to be Wile E.
Daffy Duck is the lawyer that Elmer Fudd did not need when he is just about to pay a $30 parking fine.
The inexperienced Daffy Duck guarantees that Elmer will not have to pay a fine with Daffy by his side.
A promise that Daffy actually delivers on. Just a shame that in defending Elmer Fudd, the defendant ends up in even more trouble.
The middle short involves Beaky Buzzard as he swoops in to catch a mouse. Only the mouse was running away from another predator.
Wile E Coyote has got on his motorbike to catch the Road Runner. He is no easy rider as the Road Runner is the wild one.
Once again Wile E Coyote steals the show. I liked his expression how he survived a fall only to end up crashing in another way.
Significant Other (2022)
Significant Other
Significant Other is a genre bending movie. Is there something malevolent in the woods to science fiction to horror to wilderness survival.
It starts off as a domestic drama. A couple are hiking in the woods in the wilds of Oregon. Ruth (Maika Monroe) and her boyfriend Harry (Jake Lacy) have been together for some time.
Harry wants to marry her. She is happy as they are, annoyed that Harry wants to propose. Why disturb what they already have, it seems Ruth had a traumatic past.
When a red meteor strikes. Ruth eventually notices something about Harry, something subtle but significant.
The movie is a slow burner, relaying on the action of both the leads. It does look it is going nowhere until the rug is pulled. Then it adheres more to the conventions of a survival movie.
Somehow the movie just felt half finished, the script needed more work. The direction was effective.
The Adventures of Robin Hood: The Mystery of Ireland's Eye (1957)
The Mystery of Ireland's Eye
It is Thor and his thunderbolts. When she hears that her uncle Sir Edward de Courcey is in danger over in Ireland.
Maid Marian persuades Robin Hood and Friar Tuck to accompany her to Ireland. Only to find the locals are scared of superstition and the old Norse gods.
They are even nearly taken out by Thor's thunderbolts, but it looks more like a boulder that was deliberately thrown at them from a mountain.
It is the local chieftain Rolf that is indulging with the old gods. It seems he might have taken Sir Edward and later Marian away.
Robin Hood needs to demonstrate to the locals that Rolf has been using trickery to fool them.
I was amused by the idea that Ireland was regarded as some backward land. Although there is an interesting contrast about a land where supposedly Christianity has still not infiltrated it.
Four Star Playhouse: Backstage (1952)
Backstage
Paul (Charles Boyer) a charming and well known actor/director goes for a walk after a poker game.
He encounters a desperate woman Amy (Marcia Henderson) contemplating suicide. He takes her to a hotel for the night. When Paul checks up on Amy, she has disappeared.
Fearing that Amy might have killed herself he desperately searches for her. Ignoring that his new play is about to open and it has lost its leading lady.
There is an acidic performance from Hillary Brooke who plays a woman who shines a torch for Paul.
The teleplay very much is a riff on the movie All About Eve which was released several years earlier.
Worzel Gummidge: Will the Real Aunty Sally...? (1981)
Will the Real Aunty Sally...?
Worzel Gummidge's head is turned left and right when he spots two Aunt Sallies walking down the opposite ends of the street.
Can there be two of them. Worzel gets John and Sue to chase them and given them some flowers.
It leaves Worzel confused. Of course the Crowman has an answer. There were loads of Aunt Sallies made for the fairground.
One of them is the vain selfish Aunt Sally. Only sweet to Worzel when he asks her out for tea with plenty of fresh cream cakes. She eats them all.
The other Aunt Sally (Connie Booth) is much nicer to Worzel. Just the kind of girl Worzel wants. She even lets Worzel kiss her.
I'm surprised that Worzel did not notice the American twang of the other Aunt Sally. The best bit was Worzel offered a kiss, the excitement in his face.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Aftershock (2024)
Aftershock
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory follows up from Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous animated series some six years later.
This time it goes the noir conspiracy route. Something bad happened to the Nublar Six.
Now they are in a world where dinosaurs and humans have top co-exist and this is uneasy. Humans are not good at sharing and let talk radio know how they feel.
Darius (Paul-Mikél Williams) has withdrawn from the others. Living in a cabin, he cannot get over the death of Brooklyn. Even phoning her answerphone message just to hear her voice.
That is until Ben tries to coax him out. He is paranoid looking into the Dark Jurassic website. Something strange is happening.
The episode opens with a dinosaur on the loose, the park rangers finding themselves out of their league. Until Darius shows up, he also used to be a ranger.
This is a darker series, about these grown up kids suffering from some kind of PTSD. I did find the first episode hard going as it sets up its premise.
Black Saddle: Client: Tagger (1959)
Client: Tagger
Roy Tagger is not exactly a client of Clay Culhane. He asks Clay advice about the double jeopardy rule.
Tagger was cheated by his business partner and then spent time in jail for killing him. Now Tagger will kill that man and he cannot go to jail. He will take what is owed to him.
Clay figures that the man Tagger is after is Virgil Britt. He has some beef with Culhane over a court case about water rights. A case Culhane won.
When Virgil Britt is killed Clay ends up in jail while protesting his innocence. Then there is a second death and Clay Culhane is blamed for that.
It is left to Clay to clear his name.
Maybe Clay Culhane should had gone straight down to see Marshal Gib Scott after Tagger revealed his plans.
Tagger did not have much of a plan. He kills Britt and swans to his property thinking he could just help himself.
Not sure how Marshal Scott could hold Clay responsible for the second death. He was in the cell at the time and the body would had been still warm.
Quantum Leap: Ben Song for the Defense (2023)
Ben Song for the Defense
Ben leaps into the body of rushed off her feet public defender Elena Ramirez and has to turn into Perry Mason.
18 year old Camilo Diaz is on trial for the murder of a gang member that was trying to recruit his younger brother Leo. Camilo protests his innocence but was seen fleeing the crime scene. The evidence against him is strong.
In the original timeline of 1985, Elena entered a plea deal with ambitious ADA Bill Barnes. It ripped the Diaz family apart.
Now Ben decides to go to trial but he knows nothing about being a lawyer. Jenn helps out as she has a law degree and was on trial for hacking.
Only public defenders are overworked, underpaid and rely on plea bargaining.
With the help of Magic Williams and the team. They figure out that Barnes hid some evidence. It is costly for Elena. She was having an affair with another ADA.
It does take a leap that someone can suddenly become a trial lawyer. Also no one noticed especially Elena's girlfriend that suddenly she was a rubbish lawyer.
It does make barbed comments about the justice system. The public defence system is al; about making deals than actual justice.
Superman & Lois: Closer (2023)
Closer
The third season premier of Superman & Lois eventually focusses on Bruno Mannheim (Chad L Coleman) the intergang crime boss.
He is the big bad behind Atom-Man who challenges Superman.
Until then you have Clark Kent and Lois Lane as a family unit. The boys Jordan and Jonathan celebrate their 16th birthdays.
Jordan seemed to have got a better hang of his powers such as flying. Only his dad ain't that keen on Jordan on helping him out on rescue missions.
Whereas Jonathan has just passed his driving test.
As for Lois she thinks that she is pregnant. News that takes a surprise Clark Kent by surprise.
So there are some plot threads being formed. Superman & Lois has always been about the family unit balancing the action part of the story. A solid but not amazing opener.
Doctor Who: 73 Yards (2024)
73 Yards
While Ncuti Gatwa was still finishing Sex Education, the Netflix series. The filming of Doctor Who commenced without its lead.
This was the first episode shot. RTD went the whole 9 yards to do something novel. It starts out with Welsh folk horror.
The Tardis lands on the cliffs of the Welsh coast and the Doctor accidentally breaks a fairy circle.
It leads to Ruby having a vision of watching an old woman, she seems to be saying something. Only when someone approaches her, they run away in horror. Not from the old woman but Ruby.
As the years go by. Ruby realises her purpose. To stop rising politician Roger ap Gwillam. The man who might bring the world to the brink of Nuclear war.
RTD subverts genres. The folk horror turns to nihilist politics. A critique of maverick politicians hell bent on the cult of personality. Only to turn back round.
It was eerie, clever and subversive. Like the ITV television series Sapphire and Steel, it lacked a proper explanation at the end.
Mission: Impossible: The Carriers (1966)
The Carriers
A tape sets out the mission and destroys itself. Once again Daniel Briggs, the leading man has a lighter tole.
Not to worry Mr Sulu will pick up the slack. George Takei guest stars as scientist Roger Lee who is picked by Briggs.
The MI Team have infiltrated an enemy spy ring. The east european block that has set up a fake American town. To train sleeper agents.
Rollin Hand, Cinnamon Carter and Roger Lee are there pretending to be Americans. They learn that sleeper agents will unleash a biological weapon on American soil.
Only Rollin Hand becomes infected and a carrier. Lee needs to find and antidote.
There is a nice race against the time element to the story. The fake American town is quirky enough, although done on other shows.
The Beverly Hillbillies: The Great Feud (1962)
The Great Feud
This is a kind of musical episode that spoofs Gunfight at the O. K. Corral.
The Ballad of Jed Clampett summarises the latest state of play. With Jed, Jethro, Elly May and Granny go gunning for the Drysdales.
All because Sonny Drysdale has ran out on Elly May after courting her. Granny is very upset, as she leads the charge.
Only to find Milburn Drysdale is working in the bank and Sonny has fled to Boston. So Jed goes to the bank with a shotgun only t get arrested.
As Jed claims to have $25 million in the bank. Two psychiatrists are sent to assess him.
Well Granny is a hoot in this as she strides to the Drysdale estate in oversized boots. It seems no one asked Elly May if she wants to get married.
Manhunt: Intent to Steal (1970)
Intent to Steal
Manhunt the silent movie. There is a lengthy recap to bring the viewer up to date. After that it is all action and no talk apart from isolated tannoy announcements.
This is an experimental episode. Jimmy and Vincent team up with the French resistance members such as Anton and Allard. Even Adelaide is there to help.
It is all to lead an attack the secret aircraft development unit of the factory where Jimmy was working.
To obtain a sample of the top secret aircraft metal, the ones the Nazis have been developing in secret. It has caused a high number of deaths in the testing stage.
Jimmy and Vincent have to bring it back for London so it can be examined.
Although there is no talk, it certainly has a number of loud explosions, some fighting. A few grisly deaths, one man gets his legs run over by a tank.
It almost feels like a grown up Mission Impossible episode.
Not all of it works. At times it feels like a gimmick, when you expect the characters to talk to each other.
Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Unlucky Gambler (1955)
The Case of the Unlucky Gambler
Andrew Fenwick (Richard O'Sullivan) is a young boy whose father has gone missing. He asks for Sherlock Holmes for his help and has a few shillings to pay him.
Sherlock Holmes is willing to oblige. From his observations of young Andrew. He concludes that Andrew's father comes in with some money and lavishes him with clothes. At other times there is a lack of money. Some of the clothes are delipidated.
The father is a gambler. Both Holmes and Doctor Watson search for him in the gambling underworld of London such as boxing clubs. Only to learn that he may have killed himself.
Holmes believes that the des[erate father might carry out a robbery and is determined to stop him.
A young Richard O'Sullivan and a sentimental ending. The poor innkeeper who is taken away.
Star Trek: Discovery: Lagrange Point (2024)
Lagrange Point
By this point it is clear that the final season of Star Trek: Discovery is rubbish. The writers have given up and not even Jonathan Frakes can save this from the director's chair.
The Breen suddenly appear and snatch the final puzzle piece of the Progenitor technology. Captain Burnham hatches a daring plan to take two crews inside the Breen spaceship and get it back.
You could not take this stuff seriously when the senior crew discusses what to do when the Progenitor tech is stolen. This includes Tilly and Adira.
When Rayner is left in command once more as the First Officer. He inexplicably makes Tilly the acting first officer. Apart from the fact she is inexperienced and junior in rank. Who has been the acting first officer in the previous episodes when Burnham went off?
Adira is suddenly a top hacker. There is no one in engineering that can hack computers?
At the Breen ship, Moll is ordering the Breen about when you think they would just kill her. They are noted for not liking outsiders.
Frakes delivers on the action scenes. Let's face it the script gave him little options.
Resident Alien: 141 Seconds (2024)
141 Seconds
The quirkiness keeps on coming but I believe that this is all in the expense of a plot.
Mayor Ben Hawthorne is off for a holiday to Yellowstone National Park. Harry Vanderspeigle decides to tag along. He is certain that Ben has a good unconscious reason to go there.
Only the retreat is not as expected. Because of unexpected snow, the hotel lacks some of its usual facilities and short staffed. That does not stop Harry trying to tap into Ben's subconscious.
There is also something inside Kate's mind. Subconscious memories of a traumatic event. The abduction of a baby by the greys.
At least other characters have their own little story arcs. Both Max and Harry were both well served by the material in this episode.
The Lloyd Bridges Show: War Song (1962)
War Song
Adam Shepherd is in Normandy and looking for a new angle of a story about the D Day landings.
A local priest tells Adam about an American soldier who dropped off baby infant and left. No one knew how the soldier came across the baby.
Adam imagines what must have taken place. Gough is a no nonsense soldier. The leader of his platoon.
He comes across a baby in a deserted farm. The baby is crying. Gough is prepared to leave the baby to die. He cares more about his mission. S crying baby will give their position away.
When one of his men finds the baby. They want to rescue the infant. Gough disagrees. The men in his platoon do not care, they take the baby with them. As the story unfolds, Gough's men are killed and injured.
The story is essentially a modern dilemma. Gough is hard headed and practical. His men care about right and wrong, basic decency.
Adam wants to know what happened to the baby after all these years.
The Gold Robbers: The Man with Two Faces (1969)
The Man with Two Faces
DCS Cradock goes for a well deserved break with newspaper mogul Richard Bolt. There are still a few loose ends to tie up.
Crime boss Nechros is still on the loose, Cradock plans to tighten the noose around Nechros.
Until then he helps out Bolt in his estate. Only a loose end falls on his lap.
Jenny Bolt, the journalist daughter of Richard Bolt has fallen in love with a disfigured man. He was involved in a car accident and has been traveling the world.
There is something unconvincing about him. Richard Bolt asks Cradock to check him out.
The whole episode was unconvincing. The bad guy might has well walked up to Cradock and handed himself in.
It was clumsily plotted. Jenny suddenly falling in love with a disfigured man who she hardly knows. Wanting to run away with him.
Not only that this Jeremy Foreman had a crafty extortion plan which involved Richard Bolt. It was all to do with the planes one of his company owns.
So the man with two faces, is it Foreman or Bolt!
The Fall Guy (2024)
The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy was a fun cheesy 1980s television show starring Lee Majors. A stuntman making ends meet as a bounty hunter.
So the trailers made no link to the television show at all. Ryan Gosling was expecting another gigantic hit after the success of Barbie. It soon became clear why this movie failed to set the box office alight. A weak screenplay.
Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the stuntman who got badly injured while doubling for big screen star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson.) He always claims to do his own stunts.
Colt got out of the movie industry. Some time later he gets a call from producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) to go out to Australia as Ryder has gone missing.
It would allow Colt to reunite with Jody (Emily Blunt), a camera operator he had the hots for. She is directing the movie in Australia and if Ryde cannot be found, the studio will pull the plug.
Maybe Universal Studio should had pulled the plugged for this until they had a better story. It takes a while to get going. It is a hackneyed plot.
It is left for the stunts to do the heavy lifting. They are good but not amazing. The plot is the drag.
At least there is a reference to the television show at the end. Maybe this should had been about stuntman turned bounty hunter. Instead you have to take the title of the film literally.
There were a few nice touches. When Colt saves a person with force, there was the Six Million Dollar Man sound effects used. During a boat chase, there is the Miami Vice theme.
Inside No. 9: The Trolley Problem (2024)
The Trolley Problem
Well it got very technical but my daughter's interest was piqued very early on. She did psychology. So there is a term for people passing by and not stopping to help someone.
All of a sudden, these random psychological terms were leading somewhere.
Blake (Steve Pemberton) has brought a random stranger home. Drew (Reece Shearsmith) was standing on a bridge looking to jump. Others passed by, but only Blake stopped to talk.
Luckily Blake is a therapist. He studied online at McCambridge University and has recently moved to the remote countryside.
Not a good place to be when a distraught Drew, reveals that he might have killed someone. Just who has this random stranger done?
I expected the usual twists and turns. Just why Blake suddenly moved. What had Drew been planning and why.
There is some clever writing. Although I kept racking my brain to figure which bits were lifted from other psychological thrillers and horror movies.
Rebus: Episode #1.1 (2024)
Episode 1
This is the rebooted Detective Sergeant John Rebus (Richard Rankin) but the early years. An ex soldier turned a maverick and violent cop on the streets of Edinburgh.
The show was commissioned by a Scandinavian streaming channel Viaplay who briefly launched a service in Britain. Then quickly pulled out.
The BBC stepped in and purchased the series by becoming an associate producer. They did not originally commissioned the show or were involved in its development and I think this is evident in the first episode.
It opens with Rebus being involved in a car accident, he was deliberately rammed off the road by a gangster called Cafferty. Rebus tries to strangle him in the ambulance.
The action moves a year later. It mostly involves Rebus's brother Michael getting involved in crime after experiencing money troubles.
There was not much original here. It has all the maverick cop cliches. At least Rankin made an impression as Rebus and I liked the tale involving his brother. The story is going to struggle over six episodes.
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries: You Can't Be Too Careful (1998)
You Can't Be Too Careful
You Can't Be Too Careful is a cross between the movies Single White Female and Psycho.
Della Galway (Serena Evans) has moved into a new job and a new flat. As she cannot afford the rent, she gets Rosamund who works at the same office to flatshare.
Only problem is. Della is conscientious at work. She is security conscious at home, making sure all the doors and windows are locked.
Unfortunately Rosamund is very lax about security. She is lazy at work, spending time gossiping and complaining about her boyfriend.
Maybe if the story delved more into Della's life, it could had been better. This is a stripped down version of what could had been an interesting story.
If only Della got a character reference about her new flatmate.
Dangerous Knowledge: Surrender Value (1976)
Surrender Value
The penultimate episode delivers a plot. It is noticeable a lot of the excitement from the first episode went away a long time ago. Such as the opening chase scene.
Kirby has been shot and is injured. He manages to get his wound dressed by his ex wife. Staying up on his feet with the help of some booze.
Kirby needs Laura's assistance. He must meet her stepfather Fane and come to some sort of arrangement. Kirby needs Fane to believe him that Dr Vincent is a Russian asset.
It seems Kirby has been working freelance for the security services to make some extra money. He is still working the angles for a big payday.
With the plot explained, at least the viewer has a fair idea of the story before the finale. Only Kirby's informants are not doing well.
Crime Story: Deadly Obsession (1992)
Deadly Obsession
After the broadcast of Deadly Obsession in 1992. Kathleen Calhaem wrote to the Broadcasting Standards Council claiming her portrayal was unfair. Her complaint was rejected. She was in prison at the time for procuring murder.
This crime story very much sticks to the facts. Kathleen Calhaem (Janet Henfrey) was a well to do and tough as nails businesswoman. She lived with another woman and could not even be described as unconventionally beautiful.
Somehow Calhaem became obsessed with local solicitor Kenneth Pigot. He was having a long term affair with a married woman Shirley Rendell. Her husband was a good friend of Pigot.
Calhaem hatched a plan to get rid off Shirley. The patsy was Julan Zajac who also went by the name of Julian Jones, a private investigator who drank too much and gambled a lot.
He was paid £10,000 by the unhinged Calhaem to kill Shirley Rendell in 1983.
I did wonder why this story was chosen. Although factual based, was it about an ugly lesbian who became infatuated by a man. The psychology regarding both Calhaem and Zajac was missing. What we get here is threadbare, almost comical.
Henfrey is very good as the manipulative Kathleen Calhaem. She would be forever known as the teacher in The Singing Detective.
Kathleen Calhaem will not be complaining about my review. She was later released from prison and died in 2006.