All that Money can Buy, or The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). Walter Huston is a hugely entertaining devil, though not at all scary. It's very gentle all round, an engaging light drama about family, community, and greed. And the real devil is greed

Well, I don’t think I’ve ever been dangled off the edge of my nerves for so long, while periodically getting tickled so hard I am made, really against my will, to laugh. Never known the like. Time doesn’t exist, as they say. How long was that flight sequence in the middle? 20 minutes? 50 minutes?

Been studiously avoiding all talk about this. Might have a half-baked take in a few hours

The Chase (1946). This is so great. There’s a weird twist, which makes it even greater, but the real gold is in how the ordinary main story is told. There's a B-movie air, but scenes of such depth, beauty, and originality that suggest auteur status for director Arthur Ripley, who I’d never heard of

Reread Kim Ji-young, born 1982. An interesting companion to Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, though it is not great literature. It’s a polemic, a lightly dramatised run-down of all the crap women have to put up with in South Korea. But it is an important book that affected the culture in visible ways 🧵

Rope of Sand (1949). Great work from the cast. Paul Henreid gives terrific baddie as a sadistic police chief; Burt Lancaster as his tough-nut victim/nemesis; Claude Rains as the suave big cheese playing them off against each other; Peter Lorre mesmerising as a sort of barfly guardian angel

There is a bit where Derek Farr is filling Price's drink and says something like tell me when and Price replies "I never say when" and it is best line reading I have heard this year.

Man Hunt (1941). Walter Pidgeon plays the essential British gentleman amateur, drawing a bead on Hitler, with no fixed intention to shoot, just for a bit of sport, you know. I was glad when they caught him and chucked him off a cliff

Sublime

Bulldog Drummond (1929). 19-year-old Joan Bennett in her first proper role. I hardly recognised her in her blonde flapper haircut, but it’s a full-on spirited damsel-in-distress performance, just the ticket for this sort of thing. Meanwhile Ronald Colman is suave, the villains R-rollingly dastardly

You're not a wartime consiglieri, Keir

a few thoughts on Christmas Holiday (1944), directed by Robert Siodmak: letterboxd.com/jamesewand/f...

My ★★★★★ review of The Maltese Falcon boxd.it/b8pn0j Ultimate cage match: Bogart, Astor, Lorre, & Greenstreet enter the ring for a priceless artifact. Who will emerge victorious? No one remains unscathed in John Huston's hard-hitting, fast-talking noir. Whip smart & funny as Hell. #filmsky 📽

I haven't seen anyone mention Curb Your Enthusiasm in the best sitcoms. Susie Greene with her ability to go from nought to get-the-fuck-out-of-my-house in 10 seconds is such a fine creation

Watched The Long Goodbye (1973) again last night too, but still can't get into it much. It's interesting scene by scene, but Elliott Gould just annoys me with his non-stop ad-libbing, most of the time to himself. I wish they'd scripted it and given him some actually witty lines

He was not inclined To speak his mind 🎵 The Man from Laramie on EBS!

I've only had to queue in a pub once and thought it was a good idea. I could relax and chat with my mate instead of having to be on alert. The chaos of bars has always seemed a bit continental to me. I'd bring back the hatch

Learning to play drums properly is like being admitted into some arcane order where you are taught the ancient crafts of the flam, the paradiddle, and the four-stroke ruff. My guru is a bespectacled Geordie on YouTube who teaches you a rudiment then solemnly intones, "Play this *many times*"

We got the full monty watching Doctor Zhivago at the multiplex today - overture, intermission, entr'acte. We felt like royalty. As for the film itself - well it was stunning. I remember it being grim and beautiful, but it's beyond all that. So many heartstopping moments…

The Reckless Moment (1949). Just delirious. The camera flits around interiors like a moth, like there aren’t any walls there. It’s exhilarating, and quite dizzying at times. Joan Bennett is magnificent. Who else could have done this? Joan Crawford maybe, but she wouldn’t have done it any better

Bit fed up now with people slating the Guardian because they found a "middle class" article about poetry or avocados in the lifestyle section

The tagline has a particular bittersweet quality now doesn't it? It also has a ring of truth for movie superstars... "Some say he's dead...some say he never will be..."

Our local multiplex is showing Doctor Zhivago on Friday. Hope they give it the jntermission

- Why don't you eat something? - I’m not hungry enough yet Soylent Green (1973). Edward G Robinson bows out in style. It has the familiar dynamics of a police procedural ("You're off the case!" etc), but peppered with odd, chilling moments. I saw it yesterday and had a nightmare about it last night

Pulp editions or fancy editions. I like the ones you can stick in your back pocket

My ★★★★½ review of The Train on Letterboxd boxd.it/b4pMSp

The Woman in the Window (1944). Twin sister to Scarlet Street, with the same three stars locked in a similar triangle. The characters here though are more convincing - they were all a bit cartoonish in Scarlet Street. It’s much noirer too, with outlandish coincidences and fate a palpable character

Name a film that's so beautifully shot it feels like a painting. All that Heaven Allows (1955)

Age verification I played on WWII bombsites

Scarlet Street (1945). There's A LOT wrong with this. Dan Duryea is cartoonishly bad, as is the portrayal of Edward G’s domestic situation. His relationship with Joan Bennett isn’t that credible either. It recalls The Blue Angel, but at least Emil Jannings’s character was getting some And yet…

First watch: The Reckless Moment (1949), noirish 'Woman's Film' about a mother who gets caught up in a blackmail drama when her teenager daughter falls for a crook. It stars Joan Bennett as Lucia Harper, one of many female protagonists in Max Ophüls films whose first name begins with 'L'. 1/3

Portrait of Ida Lupino, ca. 1951. This was captioned in one article: “A Producer-Director-Writer-Actress-Business Executive’s Lot is Not a Happy One”

I use this as a textbook in one of my classes. In the section on values and principles of the UK, it says, "There is no place in British society for extremism and intolerance." I could hardly look my students in the eye talking about that today

"But you won’t save yourself from the screams in the night that will lodge in your bones all your life!” The Red House (1947). Simply one of the bestest, darkest, buried secret yarns ever. Edward G. Robinson excites both fear and pity as the haunted man at the centre of this twisted rural noir

First week back at school, some things I have taught: - It's double-oh-seven, not zero-zero-seven -It's chicken breast, not chicken chest - That power dynamic you experienced constantly when you were in the army, you can call that 'shit flows down' (All my lads have to do national service)

My mate brewed his own pickled onions. He put all kinds in there, chili, garlic, cinnamon... They're really strong and a riot of flavor. Proper gourmet onions

Today's Edward G. is Nightmare (1957). I won’t show the poster because, weirdly, it reveals the plot twist. The opening sequence is a real barnstormer, and had me right by the short and curlies. It slowed down a bit after that though, mainly cos there just wasn’t enough story to fill the 90 minutes

On Anna May Wong for the Guardian www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

For any Ida Lupino fans out there, this is an excellent discussion about the multitalented actor, director and writer, featuring @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social, @sheilakathleen.bsky.social & @nicolasrapold.bsky.social, via the Film Comment podcast. #FilmSky podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Vice Squad (1953). Quotidian police procedural, reminded me of them old Ladybird 'People at Work' books - Edward G. is 'The Police Captain'. He keeps it watchable in no-nonsense Barton Keyes mode. Dunno why it's called Vice Squad, he's chasing bank robbers so I don't think he's in the Vice Squad

Black Tuesday (1954). Bleak and nasty little prison break thriller, steeped in an awful sense of doom. It is pretty much just a succession of people waiting to die. Edward G. Robinson is electrifying as the moral black hole at the middle of it all, a sort of half-human avatar of violence

My ★★★½ review of Sorry, Wrong Number boxd.it/aWKJkf Bratty Barbara Stanwyck acts like one night without servants will kill her. She might be right. Ingenious setup, convoluted flash backs & whole lotta Stanwyck telling everyone she's an invalid. Just wanted her to shut up! Great end. #filmsky 📽

This is certainly the most problematic bottle I have ever bought, but me and a colleague have just had a go and it tastes alright for the money

Office bottle. Don't know what this one will taste like, it cost the equivalent of £4.24

Mood in the Department of British and American Studies

Brilliant example of the stripped-down three-piece dueling-vocals school, which is one of the best schools

First day of the new semester. This is the view from my office window. I keep expecting something to emerge, like a giant gorilla or something

Sean Bean should have been Bond, not a Bond villain

The more I watch it the more I think this is the finest screen performance of the 70s

Sorry for being so utterly trivial but WTF is going on with that centre-justified text? It looks like the label on a wine bottle