Movie review - "Countess Dracula" (1971) ** (rewatching)

 Great moment where Ingrid Pitt is busted nude having a blood bath. But that's the one memorable scene. This lacks energy and excitement. It should be great - Pitt worried about ageing, killing peop.e Undercast the actor who plays her lover. Nigel Green doesn't have the star power of a Cushing or Lee. Not enough sex, violence, nudity. Needed to be more full throttle.

Movie review - "It's a Bikini World" (1967) **1/2 (rewatching)

 Fun. Bright. Fantastic music. Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley ideally cast. Others are too. Not enough story. Needed a few more subplots. Stephanie Rothman has nothing to be ashamed of.

Movie review - "Tender Mercies" (1983) ***

 I resisted seeing this - I felt it would be a well observed excellently acted slice of life drama that wasn't that interesting, at least not to me, and I was right. Maybe it means more if you're into country music or alcoholics. I would rather have seen a film about Robert Duvall on the piss, slapping around singer wife Betty Buckley, or more of hot mess daughter Ellen Barkin and her deadbeat bloke. Her death and it's impact is the strongest section of the film.

This is good and all that I just didn't care and there's a reason no one much talks about it. 

Great Unmade British films - a random selection

* Alex Korda - I Claudius (started filmin), War and Peace (with Orson Welles!)

* Hammer - I am Legend (yes, more but that's the main one)

*Kubrick - Napoleon, The Aryan Papers

* Hitchcock - No Bail for the Judge, Greenmantle 

* Alistair Maclean - HMS Ulysses

*Mistress of the Seas

*Mary Queen of Scots from Alexander Mackendrick 

*Tom Paine by Richard Attenborough

*The Knight by Ridley Scott

*Barnado Boys, Feathers of Death and The Long Loud Silence from Bryan Forbes at EMI

*Nat Cohen - the Nat King Cole Story yes, remake of Kind Hearts and Coronets with Dick Emery no

 *Lawrence of Arabia from Terence Rattigan

*the Lewis Collins Falklands film 

Movie review - "Handgun" (1983) ****

 Tony Garnett produced a lot for Ken Loach. He directed this but it feels like a Loach movie - or, more accurately, a Garnett movie! It's a look at gun culture in the US. Karen Young is lovely and heartbreaking as a school teacher who gets raped by a walking red flag, but it was the times back then.

This is extremely well done. Karen Young is sensational - heartbreakingly naive, then traumatised. 

Movie review - "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) **

 An attempt at making a literate blockbuster - the story of Michelangelo painting the Sinse Chapel focusing on his clashes with the Pope. Thing is it's not that interesting. He paints. They squabble. It feels better suited to a TV play or stage play.

It needed another subplot of more emotion. Someone in love with the Pope. Or a more compelling person into Michelangelo than Diane Cilento's noblewoman - nothing wrong with her performance but there's no heart.

I liked the scene where Michelangelo wants to discuss the painting before the Pope goes into battle - that's fun. It comes alive. The movie doesn't have enough life.

Gorgeously shot, smart, literate, attempts to raise the bar... But dull. Didn't need to be an epic/road show.

Fine performances from all - Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison. Harrison slightly miscast in a role that needed someone macho but he teams well with the more stoic Heston. 

Rex Harrison top ten

 1. My Fair Lady (1964)

2. Cleopatra (1963)

3. Anna and the King of Siam (1946)

4. The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)

5.  Blithe Spirit (1945)

6. Night Train to Munich (1940)

7. Dr Doolittle (1967)

8. Midnight Lace (1960)

9. Major Barbara (1941)

10. The Rake's Progress (1945)