Film Reviews by WB

Interesting as Chaplin's first talking picture and one of the few movies made in Hollywood before the war that attacked Nazism. Some scenes in the film are very funny but it does tend to drag for a long time. The whole thing is a rather cheeseparing production with cheap sets and Chaplin's decision to add a six minute speech at the end of the film was a very bad idea

The original version of this film is an Italian horror film from the 1970's which you will either love or hate. This new version adds quite a bit but does not really contribute anything more. Tilda Swinton pops up bizarrely in a redundant sub plot as a German psychiatrist grieving over the loss of his wife during the war and it refers to the political events going on in German in the 1970's. IT is more than two and half hours long and really drags. Weird not wonderful

Uktimately its hard to consider this film solely on its merits as a film as it has attracted so much notoriety as a flop that put UNited Artists out of business. Ultimately westerns can be compared to American political parties. This is very much a Democrat western. Privileged graduate Jim Averill heads to the American west and gets a job as a lawman in Johnson County Wyoming. When he finds out that the local cattlegrowers association has a deathlist of thieves and anarchists to be shot he sides with the poor. It is miscast, incoherent, self indulgent and very overlong but the cinematography is superb. A fascinating, flawed masterpiece. Please be warned there are some very violent scenes and there is cruelty to animals. Ultimately make up your own minds

An odd one this. A British made western shot in Spain in the late 1960's. A group of European aristocrats are on a hunting expedition in the American west. They are led by their treacherous guides in to an Apache reservation. The plan being to rob them and leave them to the tender mercies of the Apaches. Sean Connery stars as Shalako an ex-army man who senses the danger they are in. Can he lead them to safety in time? Can these pampered aristocrats man and woman up? This is a very interesting premise for a western as few people realise that there were numerous hunting parties by such people in the old west but this movie never quite comes together. The film relies heavily on the supposedly explosive casting of Sean Connery and Brigit Bardot but the romanic chemistry soon falls flat. The aristocrats are for the most part a group of cardboard cutouts. The late Peter Van Eyk is an arrogant German baron, Brigit Bardot a pouting French countess, Alexander Knox is a boring American senator who pines for what might have been. The marvellous Valerie French has little to do. The late Stephen Boyd is a man of such blatant villainy that it is a wonder he doesnt twirl his moustache like a pantomime villain. Honor Blackman is good as a sexually repressed English lady who deserts her pathetic husband played by Jack Hawkins. Ultimately very little seems to happen. In fact the story just ends rather suddenly. The Indiands are portrayed as bloothirsty savages. The film has been influenced by the spaghetti westerns that were popular at the time. Honor Blackman is memorable as Lady Julia Daggett. After deserting her husband she will be captured by the Apaches. After being stripped of most of her clothes down to her camisole she will be murdered by the Indians by being made to swallow her jewels, a nasty piece of pseudo rape that is censored out of some versions. It all feels like an inferior version of Hombre. A bit disappointing really.

I suppose modern computer generated technology has made films like these look dated but this film does have charm despite the deficiencies of a modest budget, eg the same model is used in the sinking of the merchantman at the beginning and the German supply ship. It tells the story of the crew of a sunken British merchant vessel and the crew of a German submarine who find a lost world of dinosaurs and cavemen in the South Atlantic. Ultimately the special effects are a bit ropey but the film is fun. What I like most is the way that the film has the courage to end on a grim note with the hero and heroine lost with the sinking of the submarine which conveniently paved the way for a number of sequels.

Happily Threads will be seen as a frightening might have been. It tells the story of two ordinary famlies who live in Sheffield and will be united by an impending marriage of their children. However the world is sliding towards a nuclear confrontation over a crisis in the Middle East. There is also an interesting sub ployt about local government and civil defence. Ultimately the modest budget begins to tell in the second half and the film relies heavily on stock footage. It is however an untterly unforgettable chilling experience that once watched will never be forgotten.

In short this is a beautifully acted and very touching film about a young lad in the slums of Beirut who takes the bold step of suing his feckless parents. It is moving, realistic and the young leads are superb. Excellent

I love a good horror film and I suppose that if the film critics of the Guardian and the Daily Mail can agree that a film is a must see then it must be but this is nothing we haven't seen before. How many times can film makers get away with a demon storyline. A yawn