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  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    THE OFFENCE (1972)

    Sean Connery's third collaboration with Sidney Lumet, this was a captivating thriller about a British police detective haunted by the horrors he has witnessed in the line of duty, resulting in violent outbursts which land him in trouble. Connery's performance was top notch in this film. I also really enjoyed Ian Bannen as the man brought in on suspicion of raping a young girl. The interrogation scenes between Connery and Bannen are weighty and really gripping. Lumet also done some interesting work in shifting the chronology of events so that we see the climactic events of the movie playing in slow motion right in the opening sequence of the film. The production of this film was part of Connery's deal with United Artists when he was lured back to play Bond in Diamonds are Forever. As great as Connery is as Bond, one gets the impression that this is the sort of role he was craving at the time, giving the opportunity to tackle roles with more depth and gravitas, and as a bonus he could ditch the toupee as well. Definitely a film I would recommend, especially if you're into the grungy early 1970s crime aesthetic.

    I AM NOT A WITCH (2017)

    This was a really interesting Zambian film, about a young girl accused of witchcraft by her community. Early on there is a scene in the local police station in which the villagers present their case to the police that feels like a distant cousin of the witch trial scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But even though the policewoman appears sceptical of the accusations, the young girl neither confirms or denies the accusations and she is sent to a sort of witch colony, where a ribbon is attached to the witches and they tethered to prevent them from flying away (as one of the officials explains to some curious tourists). The film is beautifully shot. Some of the most captivating images are of a big truck that takes the witches out to work in the fields, festooned with poles to which the women are tethered by their ribbons. The film does a great job of mixing satirical humour with the serious theme of fear and superstition and the tragic effects that can occur as a result. Certainly a film that will linger in my memory for a long time.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited July 2022

    Webster dictionary; Definition of effervescent:

    1: having the property of forming bubbles

    2: marked by or expressing an appealingly lively quality


    I've learned a new word! 😀

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    You're welcome 😉

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    "So I was about to review Top Hat, when I found he'd got there before me...'

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    😂😂😂

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited May 2022

    The Train (1964)

    In 1944 some the Gemans in Paris stole much of the fine art and put it on a train to steal it just before the allies entered the city. Some railway emplyees who were working for the resistance did a heroic effort to save the art. This is roughly the factual background for this movie, te rest is made up. Burt Lancaster plays the leader of the group who are trying to save the art, even though the character doesn't really care about art, Paul Scofield plays the German officer who tries to steal the art and Jeanne Moreau plays a woman who runs a hotel.

    The weak historical connection doesn't really matter. I think the movie is tense and exiting, it's well acted and well made. I like art, WWII, sabotage and trains so what's not to like in this movie? This whole movie revolves around trains and all the trains are real! Even when one train comes off the tracks and another train crashes into the first train it's all real trains really crashing into each other! The movie is clearly different from Gun of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. It's shot in black and white and the mood of the movie is serious and down to earth. I think it works and The Train is really good.

    QG24.The.Train.1964.720p.BluRay.Cima4U - Bing video

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    edited May 2022

    Safe House

    Late-night TV auctioneer - now 10 years old - starring Denzil Washington and Ryan Reynolds. It's in the Jason Bourne tradition with shaky cam though watching it on TV, that's less problematic.

    Good mindless fun bolstered by good lead performances. Denzil plays a lapsed spook who is being hunted down in Cape Town by swarthy bad guys in black leather jackets - you know he's a smart guy because when he turns a corner and you and I might choose to peg it, he instead walks at a steady pace, never picking up speed - er, which inadvertently leads to the villains spotting him from a distance of course and catching up with him again, to advance the plot. Denzil turns himself into the US consulate - but again, doesn't hurry or anything, from what we later learn they could just shoot him from outside and make off.

    Reynolds is the guy charged with overseeing Washington in his cell - this is the usual Bourne stuff where someone seems to have infiltrated the CIA and who can you trust? The way whistleblowers get treated and so on. Almost a bit Midnight Run at times, but without the jokes. It reveals its secrets slowly but when you get to the end it really isn't plausible as for such a cool dude as he's presented, Washington's veteran spook makes too many unforced errors, all intended to advance the plot or keep motion in play. The resolution is a bit pa toot, as if the State is corrupt only up to a point but ultimately there are nice guys in charge really, like the child only has to get in touch with the right teacher and the bullying will stop.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    edited May 2022

    100% agreement regarding the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack Gymkata. It's a favourite soundtrack of mine, and the film ranks very highly for me as well. By the way, the original fiddle tune that is used in 'Promontory' and 'The Kiss' on the Mohicans soundtrack is actually a composition by Scottish folk musician Dougie Maclean, called 'The Gael'. Here is the original version from his album 'The Search':

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JuC1hYCdvs

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Closest I got to Dougie was his wife telling me my band wouldn't be getting a support slot. 🙁

  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    When I wrote that post earlier the thought occurred to me that your paths might have crossed, but I'd have hoped for a happier crossing.

  • TonyDPTonyDP Inside the MonolithPosts: 4,279MI6 Agent

    The Batman

    Robert Pattinson plays yet another nocturnal creature in Matt Reeves' reimagining of the classic comic book character. The Batman takes places about two years into Batman's war on crime, showing us the character in his more formative years as he confronts The Riddler, a serial killer with a fondness for ciphers who is systematically exposing the corruption in Gotham City's political and law enforcement institutions via a series of gruesome murders.

    Reeves' take on the material is more realistic and grounded. Batman is still relatively new to the whole crimefighting thing and isn't sure he's making a difference even though he knows he has to keep trying. The villains are all real world crooks, underworld thugs and corrupt public officials. The Batmobile is little more than a muscle car painted black, Batman's costume has a home made look to it with his gadgets literally hanging off of it.

    The cast is quite good. Pattinson has quite the gravitas and presence as Batman, though his Bruce Wayne is a bit of an afterthought, coming across as a distrustful weirdo. Zoe Kravitz' Selina Kyle is a very empathic person who's Catwoman persona is still in its formative stages. Jeffrey Wright is easily my favorite Jim Gordon, bringing a good balance of seriousness and humor to the role. Batman and Gordon often worked closely tosgether in the comics and I'm happy to see that aspect of their relationship finally make it to the screen. As to the villains, Paul Dano is suitably creepy as the Riddler despite his deliberately non-imposing physical frame. Colin Farrell is unrecognizable under his layers of prosthetics as Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot, aka the Penguin. In the comics the Penguin has changed from his original comical umbrella wielding self to a dangerous crime lord and Farrell plays that version of the character well. The rest of the cast - Andy Serkis as Alfred, John Turturro as Falcone, etc. - don't have as much to do but are all effective in their roles.

    Batman has often been referred to as the world's greatest detective and he does a lot of sleuthing here, an aspect of the character that largely got short shrift in previous iterations. Whether he's examining a crime scene or deciphering the Riddler's puzzles he uses his brains as much as his fists. When the fisticuffs fly the action is well choreographed and more realistic with an emphasis on brutal physicality instead of overly elaborate and improbable stuntwork.

    While the story is quite serious there are also a lot of humorous bits sprinkled throughout, such as Batman and Gordon discovering a literal thumb drive or Oz waddling around like a Penguin when he's left tied up. It helps balance the movie's tone and not make it feel incessantly bleak.

    Overall I really had a good time watching The Batman (I've watched it three times now so that says something in and of itself). Its tone is reminiscent of classic more grounded comics storylines like Hush or The Long Halloween and it just feels very true to the newer Batman stories. By the end Batman has a better grasp of his purpose and what he needs to be to help the people of Gotham, which I found to be a very satisfying and hopeful ending. A sequel has already been greenlit by WB and I look forward to seeing where Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson take the character next.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    THE MUMMY’S HAND (1940)

    Belated sequel to the classic The Mummy completely misses the point of a horror film by deciding to play most of the film for laughs. Universal Studios didn’t seem to know what to do with their horror franchises by the 1940s, this one even uses the same flashback as the original. George Zucco attempts to lend gravitas and fails. The result is grim. One elaborate temple set, a host of plot holes and extremely wooden acting. Heroine Peggy Moran looks decorative. Surprisingly, Halliwell’s rates it very highly. 

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

    This movie is about Robert Stroud who spent 54 years in prison. He was imprisoned for murder and later killed a warden leading to life in solitary confinement. Stroud found a sparrow in a fallen nest in the prison yard. He took it to his cell and nursed it there. His interest grew until he had hundreds of birds in his cell and wrote two groundbreaking books on avian deseases. The birds gave his life meaning and calm. He was later transfered to Alcatraz where he wasn't allowed to have birds, so Stroud was in fact the birdman of Leavensworth and not Alcatraz. Karl Walden plays a vindictive prison warden and Telly Savals plays a fellow inmate, a role he was nominated to an Oscar for. The movie is also very well made and ...... captivating to watch. Everyone delivers very good performances and big themes like the penal system and human dignity are raised. In real life Stroud never became the mild-mannered man he turnes into in the movie, he was described as a psycopath who often difficult and often in trouble. I don't think this makes the movie less good, the movie is its own thing.

    For free on YouTube: Birdman.of.Alcatraz.1962.720p. - Bing video

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited July 2022

    My favourite war (2020)

    This is an autobiographical (mostly) animated movie about Ilsa Burkovska who grew up in Soviet Latvia. The themes are oppression, truth and how deeply the trauma of WWII is in the former Soviet Union. The imagery is very inventive and striking in the way the movie tells a story we rarely see.

    Trailer: My Favorite War - trailer - Movies on War 2020 - Bing video

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    edited May 2022

    GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)

    Part-Robocop, part-Bladerunner, part-Terminator 2, Ghost in the Shell is an impressive looking but soulless extravagance set in the far future where a cybernetics corporation is privatising law enforcement and conducting experiments on humans, turning them into synthetic obedient command-and-destroy cyber-humans. The occasionally stunning visuals can’t compensate for such drab exposition, which might be so because it’s based on a Manga comic book, or it might be the lack of a decent script. It’s interesting for the first half, although the gun play seems less necessary than you’d think. By the end, it’s gone all Schwarzenegger on us. Scarlett Johansson parades about in a skin-tight CGI-smoothed cat suit, shoots some people and beats other people up. She appears to be re-enacting her role as Black Widow. Michael Pitt is a sympathetic ‘bad’ cyborg; Juliet Binoche, the genius creator with a conscience. Good, but not very original.     

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    There is also the 1995 anime Ghost in the Shell. It doesn't have Scarlett Johansson in a skin-tight tight suit, but in spite of this it's a better movie.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    edited May 2022

    Interesting - and that final act is the worst bit of the 2017 version, so clearly someone didn't do their homework before penning the script. Perhaps I should look this manga version up.

  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)

    I rewatched Hitchcock's classic chase thriller for the umpteenth time after purchasing a blu-ray set containing 3 of Hitchcock's 1950s thrillers - Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder and North by Northwest. 

    This is always an enjoyable film to revisit, with many memorable sequences, my favourite is always the cropduster scene, including the 5 minutes or so of suspenseful build up as Cary Grant waits by the roadside. One thing that stood out to me even more than on previous viewings was how memorable Bernard Herrmann's score is, in particular the main theme and some of the secondary action/suspense themes as well. From an acting standpoint, I always find James Mason's main villain character Vandamm really memorable. The only negative is I do think the film goes on a little bit too long, but despite that it is still a 5 star movie in my opinion. 

    I'm looking forward to revisiting Strangers on a Train and Dial M for Murder in the near future. 

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited May 2022

    I haven't seen it, but Lea Seydoux has made a re-make of the erotic classic Emanuelle. No, I didn't dream it up: Emmanuelle: Lea Seydoux to Lead New Adaptation of Erotic Novel – The Hollywood Reporter



  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    edited May 2022

    I caught this at the B.F.I. recently. It's taken me a while to write the review.

    PULP (1972)

    Mike Hodges’ sparingly, muddily, incandescently photographed Pulp [deliberately sparingly, muddily, incandescently photographed] is a fascinating black comedy thriller concerned with mistruth and corruption. Michael Caine plays pulp fiction writer Mickey King, who has abandoned his wife and family, choosing instead a disparate existence in southern Italy. His pseudonymous novels have wonderfully tacky titles like My Gun is Long and The Organ Grinder. They are a mixture of violence and sex and cut from a cloth cruder even than Mickey Spillane, who was clearly the inference. We hear snippets narrated over the action, firstly during the credits, as the members of a young typing pool become steadily aroused by the bloodletting and sudden amore. The effeminate manager is as carried away with the revelatory stories as his employees and propositions Mickey King with a delightfully disdainful air; it’s okay for the boss to play, not so his staff.

    Mickey King prefers the secretary of his agent, who he seduces in a toilet. She seems to prefer anybody but her own boss. Meanwhile, Lionel Stander’s Ben Dinucci wants King to pen the biography of his own employer, but won’t explain who it is. He waves a huge sum of dollars while potting snooker balls in a fusty old working man’s club, the players disturbed by the political rally outside. It appears the neo-fascist Frank Cippola, a respectable modern Count, monied, well-married, incorruptible is due for re-election. His American wife takes no chances, creating extravagant, unnecessary canvases for his supporters to wave. Unnecessary because there appears to be no opposition.

    King accepts the commission and is asked to join a coach trip where he will be contacted, a trip which turns from the bored to the bizarre to the deadly and back again. The contact, who accidentally occupies King’s room, is murdered; the body and all trace of its demise disappears before King has a chance to uncover why a transvestite college lecturer is pursuing him. Instead he’s distracted by Nadia Cassini’s Liz Adams, and who wouldn’t be with a figure as beautiful as hers? [The female film student sitting next to me whispered to her friend: ‘Magnificent legs.’ I concur.] Liz is the play thing of Preston Gilbert, a once famous movie star whose life story King has been asked to write. The mysterious wandering route to reach Gilbert’s private island has its purpose, but no one will tell Mickey King what it is. After several weeks of interviews and nights of illicit love with Liz, King derides Gilbert over his self-indulgent life and accidentally uncovers another story, one of rape and murder.

    Michael Caine is simply superb as Mickey King, displaying all the insecurity and indignation of a writer still uncertain of his worth. He’s so self-effacing as to be almost unrecognisable. His movements are slow, his actions ordinary, studious, non-confrontational. He watches everybody, observes, makes no comment until spoken to, never takes the initiative until it is forced upon him. It’s hard to know who’s being manipulated, him or Preston Gilbert. Caine’s performance is as far away from the driven, violent, obsessive Jack Carter, a role he inhabited so brilliantly in the previous year’s Get Carter, from the same director and producer. Indeed, Hodges, Caine and Michael Klinger got on so well they formed a production company The Three Michaels specifically for this movie.

    Caine is given wonderful support by newcomer Nadia Cassini, who slinks about in hot pants, making home movies and seducing whoever she desires, and returning American veteran Lizbeth Scott, who plays the politician Cippola’s bitchy scheming wife. Stander as ever is a garrulous delight, whether playing sober or drunk, lucid or unintelligible. The scene where he drowns his sorrows in a swimming pool is a master class of how to play a buffoon: completely straight. The humour comes from the script, not the act.

    Best of all is Mickey Rooney as Hollywood ex-star Preston Gilbert, a man in love with his own career and his mother, so much so he has returned to live out his retirement in a castle with her. His tomb has already been built, a homage to his movie career, the film roles emblazoned across the stained glass. He has multiple mirrors in his dressing room so as never to leave a hair out of place or a suit unpressed. He prepares for dinner as if auditioning for a big movie part. He treats all his employees as thankless subordinates. He has the energy and patter of a man half his age and twice his size, yet we sense all is not well with a man who lives his fantasies in the Roaring Twenties, right down to the big band music he plays on an old phonograph.

    Hodge’s witty script barely puts a word wrong. It is at once intriguing and humorous. By not taking itself too seriously, we understand the institutions of fame and fortune, how they are mythologised, destroyed and maintained, how striving for fame doesn’t always bring reward, socially, emotionally, financially. Above all, there is no sense of law and order. Terrible things happen to people and life carries on. The labyrinthine plot skirts across almost too many subjects and eventually decides that injustice for the weak is its homily. The dialogue crackles with subversive, knowing glee, poking fun at those same institutions: politics, the church, fame, money.

    “It’s best to sit down when you meet him,” is one of the great lines and when Caine / King forgets, Rooney’s reaction is a mixture of impatience and resigned acceptance. The social faux pas keep happening from every angle. Dinners are awkward. Drinks are slow, often unfinished. Conversations are difficult, a series of riddles and half-truths which neither the characters nor the audience can quite understand. Even a soothsayer, who styles himself Del Duce, can’t have a normal discussion, so intent his he on keeping secrets. As King’s frustrations grow, the cat’s cradle of lies he’s walked into starts to unravel. The snap and thud of cue balls on the billiard table becomes the echo of gunshots.

    Someone has heard of Gilbert’s desire to write his life history. Someone wants it buried. Or Gilbert buried. Or Mickey King buried. The question is why? Dennis Price’s peculiar English tourist quotes Shakespeare. King prefers pulp fiction. The ending has elements of both. As the heat swells and time begins to run out for Mickey King, he unearths a tragic mystery: a long buried body, a young girl, a shooting party, a night of debauchery. The protagonists have been in his sights all along, the killer on his heels from the off, the ring leader sat at his own table.

    Like Jack Carter, Mickey King uncovers the culprit on a beach. Also like Carter it’s too late for all the victims. King at least manages to escape alive. Recovering from a gunshot wound, he’s left quoting his own thriller and cursing the monied aristocracy. “I’ll get you, you bastards,” cries Mickey King, but he’s accepting hospitality from the same fascists he’s just chased down. Justice is buried, not Mickey King. As he continues to read, everyone abandons him on the terrace and the boars are still being hunted by the aristocracy, just like the teenage girls twenty years before, hunted to their ruin.

    Superb.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    edited May 2022

    X THE UNKNOWN (1956)


    Or “Quatermass 1.5”. After the success of “The Quatermass Xperiment” (1955) Hammer Studios were keen to produce a sequel and there was one obvious choice sitting there waiting. “The Quatermass Xperiment” was based on a similarly titled BBC series “The Quatermass Experiment”- the spelling was changed to emphasise the then topical “X” (adults only) certificate- and it was followed by “Quatermass II”.

    The author of all this, Nigel Kneale, hadn’t been pleased with what Hammer had done with his work (long story) and initially refused permission for them to film the sequel (eventually that happened though- another long story). In the meantime Hammer went ahead with their own take on a sequel, written by their in-house Jimmy Sangster, and just changed the names.


    This film was the result, with Dr Adam Royston (who might as well have had a sign on his chest saying “I’m not Quatermass, definitely not”) aiding the military against a radioactive creature which keeps getting larger. He’s played by Oscar winner Dean Jagger, as Hammer continued their policy of importing American actors to play the lead in hope of getting their movies distributed in the US. Jagger underplays to the point of disappearing into the background- more interesting is that with this movie being made at the height of McCarthyism his objections to director Joe Losey resulted in Losey being replaced with Leslie Norman.


    The film is well made, especially when the tiny budget normal for Hammer is remembered, and carries a few genuinely chilling moments. It’s very acceptable as a Quatermass substitute (quasi Quatermass?).


    Playing some of the army guys are young British actors who would become better known later- including Kenneth Cope (“Randall & Hopkirk- Deceased”), Fraser Hines (a Dr Who sidekick), and Anthony Newley.

  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    CARLITO'S WAY (1993)

    A Brian De Palma crime thriller about a Puerto Rican criminal who is released from prison after his lawyers exploits a procedural technicality to cut his 30 year sentence short. The film opens with Al Pacino, the lead character, being taken to hospital after evidently being shot. The film then goes back in time to his release from prison, and Carlito being resolved to go clean. As a result the film has a nagging sense of doom as the inevitable moment of Carlito being wounded nears.

    This was a film that took a while for me to really get into. I was about halfway through the film before I started to really feel invested in the story. The film then culminates in an absolutely gripping chase, in which Pacino is pursued through New York, and on a train to Grand Central station. This chase truly had me on the edge of my seat, and if I had any feelings of indifference towards the film earlier on they certainly were well and truly gone by that stage. The bit on the train reminded me a little of the Paris Metro chase in Le Samourai. Excellent stuff!

    Some good performances by quite a large ensemble cast. Sean Penn was a standout as the slimy lawyer Kleinfeld. Pacino looks a lot younger than he looked in The Godfather Part III a few years earlier. James Rebhorn was also quite memorable as the district attorney, as was Viggo Mortensen in a small role.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    I'll read ChrisNo1's Pulp review - it's an odd film in that it's well known, but hardly ever on telly.

    Crazy Rich Asians

    Caught this on telly at the weekend, it's shown again this week at 9ish one night. This four-year-old movie is great fun, essentially a sort of Pride and Prejudice except the couple are already up and running, rather it's the culture clash of the basic American Chinese gal who finds her boyfriend belongs to a rich and illustrious family 'back home' - this appears to be Singapore. Anyway, we are rooting for her as she has to be on her best behaviour and impress, and her prospective mother in law is 'our own' Michelle Yeoh who is in the big current release out of course. She's great as a cow in this.

    Love interest Henry Golding impresses me as a potential James Bond though born in Malaysia. It all fits, he has a bit of the young James Mason about him and you warm to him. He hasn't done masses since though he's about to appear in some Assassins film which looks promising. Maybe not much range to his style...

    The move is great fun and moves fast, some sumptuous locations and settings in it. Funny, too.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    Eagle Eye

    Another not too recent film, this time with Shia LeBouf as a slacker who finds himself framed when his apartment is chocabloc with explosives, framing him as a terrorist. It becomes a sort of on-the-run movie - the Radio Times critic said it was Hitchcockian and I'm not sure it is, until you remember The Man Who Knew Too Much, I guess. It references other, more recent films but if I listed them you'd guess the premise right way and some of the fun is in spotting them.

    The movie moves fast as the protagonist finds himself taking instructions over the phone, in fact there are two protagonists and a few investigators on the trail too. I found it really too preposterous to take on board - and I like my conspiracy thrillers - but I stuck with it all the way anyhow. Like a lot of modern movies there's a sense that it's done in shorthand, you're not expected to quite believe it or have the dots joined for you.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Operation Mincemeat (2021)

    A true story, although I understand the love triangle aspects have been added in.

    At the height of WWII, the British come up with the idea of planting fake papers on a body to be found in the sea. These papers will imply that there will be a huge Allied surge through Greece, while the actual advance will be through Sicily. If the Germans believe this, they will move their forces to Greece leaving Sicily relatively undefended.

    Part of the plan, indeed partially behind it, is none other than Ian Fleming, played by a Johnny Flynn. There's a few Bond references and one good joke, though to a Bond nerd like me not an accurate one.

    Solid film, excellent performances.

  • The Red KindThe Red Kind EnglandPosts: 3,119MI6 Agent

    I enjoyed Operation Mincemeat too. Nicely produced film and good performances from the cast. I thought Johnny Flynn was excellent and would love to see him in a proper Ian Fleming biopic.

    "Any of the opposition around..?"
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    There's an earlier version of the same story called "The Man Who Never Was" (1956) based on a book by Ewen Montagu (played by Colin Firth in the recent film), which I wouldn't mind seeing. Apparently it was limited in what it could reveal (Sorry old man. Section 26, paragraph 5. Need to know. Sure you understand) but I'd like to see it for comparison.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited July 2022

    Mogambo (1953)

    This movie was directed by the great John Ford and stars Clark Gable, Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner. So why isn't it more famous? The movie is about Victor (Gable) who has a hunting company in Kenya, but he mostly traps animals for sale instead of killing them. Kelly (Gardner) is a brash American who arrives at his camp so late she has already missed the people she intended to go on safari with. Later Linda (Kelly) and Donald (Donald Sinden) arrive. They're a rich couple who are there so Donald can film and tape gorillas. Of course both women fall for Victor. This mirrors real life where Gable had affairs with both actresses. All three got a lot of heavy drinking done too. The leads have plenty of old-fashioned starpower and the two actresses must be among the most beautiful women ever put on screen.

    Mogambo is from the very tail end of the colonial era and it feels like a "colonial" movie in spite of being an American movie. This shows in the credits where a list of colonial administrations are thanked. It doesn't feel particularely racist to me. The native population are extras or have small roles at best, and grown men are called "boy". Not good, but I belive it reflects real life at the time. I prefer it to current movies where a black man can be a police commisoner in 16th century France and a Chinese woman a lady-in-wating for queen Elizabeth I. Largely the natives are largely portrayed with respect and often in a positive light. The scenes of them in the beautiful landscape look magnificent. The scenes showing how wild and dangerous animals were captured at that time are both interesting and exciting. Many of the scenes are shot on set, and some scenes are obviously the actors reacting to footage of African wildlife. But the stars really filmed in Africa and some of the best scenes are of them interacting with real animals. Especially Gardner was game and a scene where a leopard visits her tent is a standout. The director even got the idea after it happened to Ava Gardner in real life!

    The reason why the movie isn't better known may because it belongs to a time that was ending fast and may have felt backward even then? The plot is okay, but not especially new or engaging. The movie is fine for watching true Hollywood stars in a exotic setting, but it's not a great cinematic experience. Most movies aren't.

    Mogambo 1953 - Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly - Bing video

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    It's possibly not better known because it's a remake. The earlier film was called "Red Dust"and also starred Clark Gable.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    It's also a better film. Shorter by half an hour. Jean Harlow plays what would become the Ava Gardner role, but is quite obviously playing a prostitute. The movie is set in the more tetchy, sweaty and less exotic climate of Indo-China and a rubber plantation. It's a seedy, nasty, gorgeously, trashily erotic pre-code piece of decadent fluff.

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