Radio review - Lux - "It Happens Every Spring" (1949) **

There's great wish fulfilment in a college lecturer becoming a champion baseball player but its lessened by the fact he is basically cheating and not even through his own ability (an accident in the lab creates a device that repels a baseball... was this the inspiration for The Absent Minded Professor?) Also, even in 1949 was it possible for someone to be a very famous baseball player and not have their face splashed everywhere (he doesn't want his fiancee and father in law to find out). The relationship between the lecturer and his catcher is nicely done, though. Ray Milland is good at this sort of comedy, although it would have been better with a less obviously English star.

Movie review - "The Bowery" (1933) ***

More bromance with George Raft, with him once again part of a love triangle with a guy and a girl - didn't he make any sort of other movie in the 30s? At least this is bright and lively - indeed, Raft has rarely looked more animated on screen, a tribute to director Raoul Walsh. It's set in the "gay 90s" of New York, a world of saloon keepers, Chinese (the movie is irritatingly racist - there's a store sign which says "Nigger Joes"), volunteer fire fighters, religious types, prize fighters, reformers, PR stunts, jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, prostitutes, dance hall girls, shonky press and so on. There's plenty of song and dance rivalry and one up-manship as Raft clashes with Wallace Beery.

Beery had just enjoyed a big success with Jackie Cooper in The Champ so Cooper is here as well, crying and acting cute and blubbering in scenes with Beery. It's a little trying to be honest but Beery does better in his scenes with Raft, who always improved (he's still not a good actor mind) with a stronger, older co-star. Fay Wray is the girl both men love, who of course goes to Raft... but then at the end Raft and Beery go off in the sunset together, to fight the Spanish-American War. Aw, bromance.

A silly story really with some great atmosphere and pace, and surprisingly good work from Raft.

Radio review - Suspense - "A Vision of Death" (1953) **1/2

William Spiers of Suspense loved Ronald Colman - he was the man Spiers wished he could be - but sorry, Colman always got on my nerves. He's not particularly well cast here either as a magician type whose offsider develops the ability to see the future (years before Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost)... or so she says. Decent enough with some strong emotion.

Radio review -Suspense - "The Rescue" (1951) ***

James Stewart is, not surprisingly, a terrific radio actor, with that great voice and ability to convey nervousness. Here he's a PR man who sees a woman outside his window on a ledge - he gets drawn into her mystery, and uncovers a dodgy doctor. This could have made a feature, it's a very strong entry - more time would have enabled developing the love story between Stewart and the girl.

Movie review - "Witchcraft" (1964) **1/2

Enjoyable, unpretentious "cosy catastrophe" British horror film more in the vein of Village of the Damned than the Hammers. Don Sharp directs with brisk pace and efficiency that reminded me of Val Guest at his best and the story isn't bad - some property developers dig up a graveyard which annoys a family of witches nearby.

The family is headed by Lon Chaney Jnr who doesn't seem terribly interested but it's good to see him. It's also easier to tell him apart from other cast members, who tend to blend into "random English actors" category (except Yvette Rees who is a terrific witch). There are some decent shocks with creepy witches walking around nearly deserted houses at night, and it's always fun to find covens in small town England (the black and white photography helps make this more believable). The climax didn't really work for me, though - it's got plenty of action and witches on fire, but I didn't really care for any of the characters by then.

Radio review - BBC - "When We Are Married" by J.B. Priestley (1994) **1/2

Priestly was good with a gimmick - this one has three couples who were all married on the same day 25 years ago discover they are in fact not legally married. It sets off a series of complications which to be honest aren't that interesting - it's mostly a look at bluff Priestley Yorkshire types, most of whom you can see coming a mile off (eg pompous and tight, career climbing, frustrated) but it's breezy enough with some good moments. Brenda Blethyn and Alan Bennett are in the cast.

Radio review - BBC - "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (2004) ***1/2

It's not hard to see the appeal of Edward Albee's play for a certain sort of theatre goer - it has a unique mixture of camp, intensity and ferociousness, as a married couple, George and Martha (well played here by Alex Jennings and Juliet Stevenson) have a go at each other over a few drinks, watched by another couple, Nick and Honey. The latter two are poorly sketched - Nick is some bland stud hunk and Honey is a moronic ninny, perhaps the worst character I can remember in a play that's regarded as a classic.

It's extremely campy - there's references to Bette Davis films, the importance of a good male body and sex, Martha at times seems like a drag queen. You can see why people are always talking about doing an all male version (and also why Albee resisted: the plot about George and Martha's child wouldn't work as well, neither would Martha's status at the college). It's also overlong with an awful lot of repetition. But it's extremely powerful and effective, with some brilliant moments and lines.

Radio review - Suspense - "Beyond Reason" (1948) **1/2

The show was still going at an hour which feels too long, to be honest - but this isn't a bad episode, directed by Robert Montgomery who also narrates, and starring Robert Ryan. He's a mystery man involved in an accident that kills a rich man and he comes to know his three daughters. I kept thinking of A Kiss Before Dying as they all fall in love with him.

Movie review - "The Virgin Spring" (1960) ****

For those who all thought Bergman only went into existential tales of the meaning of life - well, this does too only it's also a vigilante movie. The first 40 minutes are hard going if you know what it's about - a bright happy blonde girl, a little irritating, is off to church, with the fond wishes of her mother and father. She's accompanied by the family maid, a trashy, pregnant and quite sexy pagan - the maid takes off, the girl runs into two herdsmen and a kid... The two guys rape her, we see it and its quite full on, and then they kill her. She's alive for a bit then she dies. The kid throws up.

Then the rapists rock up at the parent's house. Dad and mum figure out what's going on (the maid saw it all) and dad wreck's vengeance. He doesn't feel great about it but we're not too offended (I wasn't anyway) since the rapists were such loathsome creatures. Maybe it was harsh to kill the kid.

Some Bergman fans don't like this - it is kind of pro vigilante, and there's all this stuff going on with the tight bond between father and daughter, and the girl's purity, and the slutty other girl. You could interpret it a lot of different ways, some of them bad. I found it very powerful on a universal theme and it hasn't dated.

Radio review - BBC - "Romeo and Juliet" (1992) ***

Ken Branagh's Renaissance Company takes on the famous romance, with guess who a little too old in the male lead opposite Sophie Ward; superb support from Judi Dench (nurse), Richard Briers (Juliet's dad), John Gielgud (priest), Derek Jacobi (if a little old as Mercutio), Ian Holm (chorus). Simon Callow is in it too, as Benvolio. I'm always surprised how much recap is in this play, and cruelty (Juliet's father is a prick to her and she is very mean faking her death), and there's one or two times where the directors (one of whom was Branagh) allows the actors (including himself) to cry too much - but it's a cracking yarn.

Movie review - "The Midnight Club" (1933) **

British films of the 1930s were wild about jewel thieves, they were popping up everywhere (I shouldn't be too snotty - the modern day equivalent is drug dealers). There was an American movie but feels British: it's got a group of suave thieves who run a nightclub and are terribly smug, led by Clive Brooke, despite bring investigated by Scotland Yard. Then George Raft turns up as a gangster and gives this movie a badly needed jolt of energy.

Unfortunately it turns out that Raft is an undercover US agent, when it badly needs another, tougher bad guy. Helen Vinson is bland as the girl but Brooke is effective. There are one or two bright moments but it's all achingly familiar.

Movie review - "The Trumpet Blows" (1934) **

George Raft's slightly sinister, exotic looks meant it was no surprise he was cast in different nationalities (his limitations as an actor meant he didn't play them that often). Here he's a Mexican, brother to Adolphe Menjou, who is a retired bandit. Both fall in love with the same girl so Raft gets noble and becomes a bull fighter.

It's a really silly sorry, done with one hand tied behind its back - you wait for someone to die or get really angry but it's resolved all neatly at the end. A great many of Raft's films involved a love triangle with the girl and another guy - he tells Menjou he loves him several times. Frances Drake is the girl, Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan later on) turns up as a fellow Mexican, and there's a few dance number. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would even if it is really dopey.

Movie review - "The Seventh Seal" (1955) ***** (warning: spoilers)

After the enchanting Smiles of a Summer Night Bergman took several of the cast, stayed in period, but came up with something very different. This is best known for being about a knight and Death playing chess on the beach but that actually doesn't take up much of the running time: there's lots of the knight riding around with his squire, the squire rescuing a girl from being raped and having an on-going feud with the attempted rapist, some strolling players (one of several Shakespearean touches here - like in Sawdust and Tinsel there's a married couple where the girl is too hot for the guy), a trampy girl and her husband, the knight's wife.

Not terribly plotty - there's a lot of debate, and conversation - but there is an overall structure: death wants some people, and knocks them off gradually. Most people know the images of death on the beach and dancing off with people at the end, but he also chops down a tree with an actor up the top; there's knights going through the mist; the burning of a woman at the stake.

Not always a fun movie to watch - the people who go off to die at the end seem like nice people (not the rapist but the knight, the world weary squire, the young girl, the married couple)... I don't know why the actors deserve to live. But then that's the point. Despite all the jokes thrown at it, it lingers in the mind.

Book review - "Don't Mind If I Do" by George Hamilton (2009)

It's impossible not to have a soft spot for George Hamilton - he is so clearly someone you can't take seriously, with his tan, love of the high life, friendships with Imelda Marcos, role in Where the Boys Are, and erratic list of performances. There is something quite unrealistic about him - like he's a cartoon character. And yet... he's a true survivor, having gone at it for half a century now, and he's done some terrific work on screen. And he's had a hell of a life.

Hamilton was a Southerner, son of a band leader and a vivacious local beauty, both of whom had exotic love lives. He lost his virginity to his dad's second wife, developed expensive tastes at a young age despite a lack of ability to fund them them, had one brother who was a gay interior designer, another with a strong taste for alcohol. He went skinny dipping with a beautiful girl and crossed with a young JFK doing the same thing, and was good friends with Sean Flynn.

Hamilton never seems to have had been gripped by a burning desire to be an actor but it's not hard to see why he found it appealing with its glamour and make believe. (John Milius says Hamilton once described himself as "not a third rate actor but a first rate con man"). So he tried his luck, was cast in the lead in a low budget feature in his first role, got an MGM contract with his second (Home from the Hill). He was in a big hit, Where the Boys Are, but also in a number of expensive disappointments - Home from the Hill, All the Fine Young Cannibals, By Love Possessed, Angel Baby, The Light in the Piazza, The Victors, Act One, You're Cheatin' Heart. A lot of these films are pretty good but he never got a break out hit. (He was one of MGM's last in house stars but the studio was in decline.)

Occasionally he received serious consideration - playing a gigolo in Piazza and Hank Williams in Cheatin' Heart (both roles he went after hard) but he never got as much publicity as for his personal life and over time he became a bit of a joke.

Yet he kept at it, developing a flair for comedy, taking lesser paid jobs when necessary (TV and then dinner theatre), turning producer with some success (Evil Knievel - for which he hired Milius - and especially Love at First Bite). You don't have that sort of record without a strong work ethic, and preparation - Hamilton seems to have had that, although he doesn't talk much about his craft in this book, which is a shame, I would have liked to learned more about it. (He does express frustration so much of his part in Godfather III was cut.) But there was lots of stuff I didn't know, like his being mentored by Colonel Tom Parker (who acted as his agent almost - this bit really made me appreciate Parker's gifts more) and romance with Susan Kohner.

An entertaining ride. Hamilton still feels a little unrealistic even after reading it - all that glamour and money and going to exotic locations - but with the family he came from that's not such a shock.

Movie review - "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012) ****

Gripping tale of the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden. It feels real though I'm sure a lot of it is made up. Jessica Chastian does very well in a role that consists of a lot of biting her nails and looking tense - she is very good looking. This is kind of pro torture but not completely (valuable information is obtained not from torture directly but rather tricking the prisoner) - but the movie doesn't really go into the issues it raises.

Much attention is paid to the number of attacks that took place after September 11, the final assault is excitingly staged and extremely well done (they still brought a dog!), Joel Edgerton doesn't deserve his third billing in what is a very small role, the attack at Chastian's compound felt tacked on and un-authentic, I kept wondering how she remained so slim when all she seemed to do was work, eat and drink soft drink. Over long but still worth watching.

Book review - "Rumpole of the Bailey" by John Mortimer

The first collection of stories from perhaps the most favourite fictional defense barrister of all time. I've read them a bunch of times so I can't be too objective but they remain terrifically entertaining.

The first story, "Rumpole and the Younger Generation:, introduces all the initial main characters in brilliantly distinctive strokes - Hilda, Gutherie Featherstone and his wife, Tom, Nick, Eskine-Brown and the Timsons. It's a shock to realise how few of them stay the course. There's also the Timsons.

Rumpole falls in love in "Rumpole and the Younger Generation"; he later gets in severe trouble with the barristers board, scares off his prospective daughter in law by attacking a rape accuser in court, gets his wife jealous, teachers his pupil Phyllida a valuable lesson and has various other adventures. Brilliantly witty, quite decent plot, memorable characters.

Radio review - Suspense - "The Last Letter of Dr Bronson" (1943) ****

Top notch episode of the series, with an intriuing (if admittedly contrived) set up: a doctor tries to convince various people to murder him. He goes for a murderer, an old nurse who hates him, a greedy person, some others... if you think too much about it, it doesn't make sense, but if you don't it's interesting and Laird Cregar is perfectly cast in the lead. Terrific support from George Colouris, too.

Radio review - Suspense - "The Queen's Ring" (1953) **1/2

A bit different for Suspense: a look at Queen Elizabeth's famous fling with Essex. Normally he's depicted as a dashing good looking spoilt idiot - James Mason is cast here, giving the role a far more mature, villainous dash. Queen Bess is still a whiny idiot who at the end begs for Essex to come back so it's not exactly fresh drama, but Mason's performance keeps it fresh. He's supported by his wife Pamela, who plays the other woman.

Movie review - "Limehouse Blues" (1934) **

The title track is one of my favourite tunes from this era, and is heard over the opening credits, but the movie doesn't match it. George Raft is again running a nightclub, only the difference here is the club is in London's Limehouse district and he plays a half Chinese.

The plot concerns him falling in love with a girl (Jean Parker) - the daughter of a rival - but she falls in love with some other dopey guy (bland Kent Taylor). There's a lot of talk about Raft being half white and the girl being white and Anna May Wong as a Chinese girl who loves Raft and is jealous. They were obsessed with bloodlines in the Fu Manchu 30s, which has made this piece date badly.

It also suffers from slow direction. There is novelty value, plus some Anna May Wong dance numbers, but it's not enough.

Movie review - "Night After Night" (1932) ***1/2

Surprisingly fun George Raft vehicle - after seeing The Glass Key I was in an anti-Raft mood but he's very effective here. I wouldn't say "good" but he's so well cast it doesn't matter. He's a former gangster turned nightclub manager who is having a mid life crisis: he's attracted to a toff girl who used to live in his nightclub when it was a house, he's not sure he wants to do his job, he's got a crazy trashy ex who keeps causing him trouble, rival gangsters want to buy him out, he's taking self improvement lessons. It's an extremely likeable, engaging character and forms a strong core for the movie.

Raft's sex appeal is greatly exploited by the director - the opening scenes have great emphasis on him combing his hair, putting on clothes, hopping in and out of the bath while nude (this is pre-Code). Raft is helped by having a very strong support cast: Constance Cummings (as the classy girl he loves) looks pretty and is mostly good but is given a scene where she's allowed to monologue for far too long; Alison Skipworth is great fun as Raft's elocution teacher who winds up having a big night out with him in order to impress Cummings (she has a hilarious drunk scene); Roscoe Karns is solid as Raft's Man Friday; and especially there's Mae West, in her film debut, as a crony of Raft's.

Every line of West's is gold, and there's some stand out comic set pieces such as West winding up in bed with Skipworth both hungover, and West inviting Skipworth to work with her and the latter assuming West is a prostitute. It's a shame Raft didn't get to work again with West the two form a strong combination as their personas clearly came from the same world.

It's fast paced and unpretentious, Cummings gets turned on by Raft being violent, there's an unpleasant scene where Raft forces himself on Cummings, the abrupt ending was effective.

Movie review - "The Glass Key" (1935) ***

The Alan Ladd version is better known although this has a strong cast - George Raft and Edward Arnold as the love duo (Arnold is a political boss and Raft is his devoted right hand man) who get involved in various machinations once Arnold decides to go straight, and his girlfriend's brother (Ray Milland!) winds up dead.

The story remains strong - tales where everyone is basically corrupt and out for themselves age very well. Some of the dialogue is a bit creaky - "I've got a story that will blow this town wide open", "this town isn't big enough for the two of us". There's a scene where Raft punches out a girl - who subsequently falls in love with him (a romance even more undercooked than that between Ladd and Lake in the 1942  version).

Of course the real love story here is between Raft and Arnold and these two don't have much chemistry. Arnold is very good - he could play political bosses in his sleep - but Raft is weak. It should have been a natural role for him, and I guess he's well cast, but his inadequacies as an actor are too apparent - that weak voice and inability to convey complex thoughts. (It probably doesn't help that his character is mostly passive - he gets beaten up in an extended sequence, the only time he punches someone out it's a girl).

Not as good as the 1942 film but still entertaining and worth watching for Dashiell Hammett fans especially.

Movie review - "Smiles of a Summer Night" (1955) ****

This is so sexy. Ulla Jacobsen shimmies and pouts as the 19 year old virgin bride, Harriet Andersson also pouts as a Bardot-like maid Petra, flirting with everyone, Eva Dahlbeck being wise and world weary, Margit Carlqvist being proud as she's cuckolded. The men are behind the eight ball most of the time - pompous Gunnary Bjornstrand who hasn't had sex with his wife in two years (this actor always leaves me a bit cold in comedy), Bjorn Bjelfvenstam as his dumb son... you're not likely to remember the guys actually (including Andersson's guy who just sort of randomly comes along) but the women are so good.

The jokes aren't terribly memorable, the situations and characters not exactly fresh (sexy maid, sexually experienced actress, naive young man, randy count) but it has an air of magic about it, like those Shakespeare comedies set in a forest. Lovely.

TV review - "Boardwalk Empire - Season 3" (2012) ****

The series retains its high standard with some great plotting and twists. The difficulties of Steve Buscemi's marriage to Kelly MacDonald, the increasing nuttiness of Michal Shannon, a great new villain in Gyp Rossetti, the (to be honest) super heroics of the henchmen. It's got a great arc with Buscemi under attack and only barely getting out by the skin of his teeth. Wonderful.

Radio review - Suspense - "Ordeal in Donner Pass" (1953) ***

Suspense were increasingly doing historical tales around this time - Edmund O'Brien is a survivor of the famous Donner Party, stuck in snow on the way to California. Snowy starvation stories work well on radio, with wind and jumping time and a sense of claustrophobia - so does this, even if you are frustrated by the Donner party being such idiots (not tying up animals, I mean come on). No cannibalism here but some strong acting and atmosphere.

Radio review - BBC - "Hamlet" (1992) ****

Ken Branagh on the rise backed with some major talent: Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench, Richard Briers, Emma Thompson (as the player queen not Ophelia), James Wilby, John Gielgud. It's a very strong production, very long (almost four hours), the words are beautifully spoken and its conveyed with passion and energy. The dopiness of the plot of this always irritates me a little but it's tackling of big issues (death of dad, invasions, people going insane) give it such power.

Radio review - Suspense - "Night Cry" (1948) **1/2

Radio and movies were always so open about police brutality in the old days - here is Ray Milland as a copper who likes to smack around and is blamed for killing a prisoner. It sounded familiar as I read it - I did some research and discovered that the source material was later filmed as Where the Sidewalk Ends. It adapts well to half an hour.

Radio review - Suspense - "The Guilty Always Run" (1954) **1/2

Tyrone Power is very effective as an unhappily married man whose supposed mistress winds up dead. When a friend offers to provide an alibi you can kind of guess who the real killer is but this is a quite enjoyable entry in the series.

Radio review - Suspense - "Circumstantial Terror" (1954) (warning: spoilers) **

Never heard Ronald Regan in a radio drama before - he's really good, though I should be surprised since he broke into acting via radio. The story he's in is full of contrivance though - he's a man wrongly accused of murder who finds the real killer is on the jury. That's very gimmicky and the gimmic really isn't exploited that much. (NB I read a Jeffrey Archer story with a similar twist once).

Movie review - "I Shot Jesse James" (1949) **1/2

Sam Fuller's directorial debut starts off with a bang - after a credit sequence (with the obligatory 'Ballad of Jesse James' playing) we plunge into a robbery, with extreme close ups and a camera zapping around as Jesse James and his gang hold up a bank. It sets us up for a bold exciting first half hour, full of emotion - Bob Ford's panting over a sultry actress, Jesse James' homoerotic longing for Ford (check out that bathing scene with James indicating his back to Ford), Ford trying to find opportunities to plug Jesse James, intense emotive acting.

Then after James' death the piece loses momentum - Ford is gripped by guilt, goes nasty and the film becomes more about a silver prospector (Preston Foster) who is in love with Ford's girl (Barbara Britton). As if we care - neither of them is interesting. Like many Westerns the cowboys seem more intp each other than girls - there is also bromance between Foster and John Ireland (who plays Ford), plus Ireland and an old character actor who plays a prospector.

So although this is an impressive debut with some great moments and strong work from John Ireland, it's not really in the classic territory. Fuller fans will adore it.

Radio review - BBC - "Dangerous Corner" by JB Priestley

Very good production of Priestley's play with some strong performances. The cast is a decent size but I could tell them apart and they enter into it with passion. The piece suited radio because it's done in sequences with revelations for each character. Ripe for revival - but keep it set in 1932 I think.

Movie review - "Rebecca" (1940) ***** (warning: spoilers)

Astonishingly good adaptation of du Maurier's novel, which may have been a knock off of Jane Eyre but is executed with complete conviction and the perfect combination of American pace and English touches. It's a tribute to David O Selznick, who produced this at his peak - perfect selection of director, cast, writer, cinematographer, etc. It all works beautifully.

Joan Fontaine anchors the piece as the girl - the perfect Cinderella before a transformation, shy and uncertain - she was never this good in anything again. (She is less compelling when she "grows up" but that is the point.) Laurence Olivier is brilliant as the doomed Maxim - it's not hard to see why Selznick wanted Ronald Colman, but for my mind Olivier is better than Colman would have been; younger, with a darker tone.

Outstanding support cast, including Nigel Bruce, Gladys Cooper and especially George Sanders and Judith Anderson. The piece is less good in the last quarter as Fontaine and Anderson retreat to the background and it becomes about Olivier and the trial - despite Sanders' sterling work and a nice turn from Leo G Gordon at the end, the deux ex machina of the cancer feels like a massive cheat. But a great example of Hollywood in its Golden Age.

Radio review - BBC - "The Three Sisters" adapted by Brian Friel

This didn't do it for me. Friel's adaptation is performed by Irish actors complete with accents but still seems to go on forever and it was hard to tell who was who. Around the middle it picked up - less whining, the human stakes increased, it got deeper and better. But it lacks strong narrative drive. I still haven't seen (heard) this done in a way that really touches me.

Book review - "On Warne" by Gideon Haigh

Another book on Shane Warne? Yes, but the first really good one - although I didn't mind Louis Nowra's. Not a straight biography but a look at the man - his action, persona, relationships. Derives from secondary sources but extremely well written - some wonderful passages. Passionate and well reasoned, a great look at what is already a bygone era.

Movie review - "The Planter's Wife" (1952) **1/2

The war film was perhaps the most sure-fire genre in British cinema of the 50s, matched only by comedies. Most of their emphasis was on World War Two but occasionally filmmakers would vary things by getting Imperial - this is an early depiction (the first?) of the Malayan Emergency.

Jack Hawkins glowers a lot as a planter whose plantation is under communist attack. While there is some support down the road - the local military man is Anthony Steel - he has to do a lot himself: there are sandbags on the front porch, little kids have grenades (an effective moment), the car he drives to town in has armour, he keeps his gun handy.

Hawkins is ideal as a man of action. Problem is, he isn't given enough action to do - there's an awful lot of scenes where servants are making him cups of tea or serving him dinner. He is mostly tense and worries. Part of the problem is there's a big subplot involving Claudette Colbert as Hawkins' wife - he wants her to go home with their kid, which is understandable, but she doesn't and they squabble. They needed to be ambushed more.

Claudette isn't very convincing as a planter's wife (she's meant to have been there for ages - they talk about living in a Japanese POW camp), she has poor chemistry with Hawkins, and just feels all wrong. I know why Colbert was cast, they wanted a name, and Colbert has charisma and can act - she still feels wrong. In her defence it's not much of a part. There's a scene where Steel has tea with her and I hoped maybe for a plot where these two had an affair or some flirting but they don't go there (Steel's part isn't very good). There is some fun to be had at the sight of Claudette Colbert being approached by a communist guerrilla wielding a machete, shooting him dead and then fainting; she also blasts away with a machine gun at the end through sand bags. That's fun.

The British presence in Malaya and the politics of the Emergency aren't really explored. There are two nice Asian characters who meet deaths at the hands of the nasty baddies (no leading Europeans are killed). The one decent sized Asian character part allowed to survive is a young boy, a white actor browned up, who plays a friend of the Hawkins-Colbert union.

The action is handled well enough - better than the domestic scenes. Location shooting helps (even if the actual location was Ceylon). And the sheer novelty of it gets this over the line.

It was a hit at the box office, in Britain at least.

Movie review - "Duel in the Sun" (1946) ***

Trashy, racist tabloid entertainment consciously devised as an attempt to repeat the success of Gone with the Wind - a spirited woman in a time of turmoil is loved by one man, who is good for her, but loves another, who isn't. It isn't as good for two main reasons - Jennifer Jones and Gregory Peck are okay rather than excellent and it lacks an interesting back drop (there's some stuff about settlers disputes with other settlers, but Selznick just should have set it during the Civil War too).

The crux of the plot involves Jones fighting her sluttish instincts - mum was a tramp, dad shot mum and mum's lover. She's torn between decent Joseph Cotten and bad boy Gregory Peck - Peck isn't the first actor one thinks to play a bad boy and there's a reason for that, but he's alright. The support cast is really stunning, including Lilian Gish, Walter Huston, Charles Bickford and Herbert Marshall - they are excellent. The production values and colour make this easy on the eye and if you don't mind the racism (Mexicans = whores, Butterfly McQueen as a dopey maid) you will probably have fun with all the action and over the top sex melodrama.

(Orson Welles does the opening narration.)

Radio review - Suspense - "The Big Shot" (1949) ***

Burt Lancaster in a radio version of a sort of story he was often playing on screen around this time - a big lumbering sap who tries to commit a crime but gets betrayed by a dame. This has the benefit of being set in Mexico with some comment on Mexican US relationships at the time. Lancaster didn't have the greatest voice (he depended a lot on his physique for his power) but he does pretty well.

Radio review - CBS radio - "Brave New World" (1956) **

Decent adaptation of Huxley's famous novel although it is tricky at times to tell who is who. And was the original novel this sexist? I can't remember - this has turned into propaganda for having children and staying at home, and getting old. Reassuring all those Eisenhower era housewives. Life in this society didn't sound too bad - plenty of food, good health and sex.

TV review - Hallmark Hall of Fame - "St Joan" (1967) ***

One of Shaw's most famous plays isn't as good as his comedies, for me at any rate, but it well done here. The cast includes Theodore Bikel, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans, Leo Genn and a young Genevieve Bujold as Joan - she's very impressive. Joan is sympathetically depicted but is still barking mad; Shaw seems more at home with the squabbling aristocrats.