Friday, August 18, 2017
First lines: Baroness Emma Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel
A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate.
North West Frontier (1959)
In British India, a young prince must be taken to safety across rebel-held territory, and an old train is the only way to do it.
Imperialist gung-ho entertains as a Western-style train adventure with some good settings.
Halliwell**: "Thoroughly enjoyable Boys Own Paper adventure with excellent set-pieces and a sot-the-villain mystery."
Maltin***: "Fast-paced actioner..."
Thursday, August 17, 2017
36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004)
In the underbelly of the Parisian criminal world, the police are frustrated by a gang committing a series of violent robberies, while two cops are seeking promotion, and the imminent departure of the Chief of Police sets the scene for them to compete for the vacant throne.
Excellent tough and very bleak policier exposes police corruption as just as terrifying as the criminal world.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
First Lines: Joseph Conrad - Nostromo
In the time of Spanish rule, and for many years afterwards, the town of Sulaco - the luxuriant beauty of the orange gardens bears witness to its antiquity - had never been commercially anything more important than a coasting port with a fairly large local trade in ox-hides and indigo.
SoulBoy (2010)
A coming-of-age drama set in the 1970s Northern Soul underground music scene.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
The Devil's Violinist (2013)
The life story of Italian violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini, who rose to fame as a virtuoso in the early 19th Century.
Trashy bio-pic has some good period details, but a lot of miserable performances; true, David Garrett knows how to play the violin, but obviously never learnt how to act.
Monday, August 14, 2017
First Lines: G.K. Chesterton - The Napoleon of Notting Hill
The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up.
The Challenger (2013)
Richard Feynman
Excellent TV drama manages to hold one's attention while revealing the bureaucratic obstacles that marred the investigation William Hurt is perfectly as Richard Feynman.
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