Radio review – Suspense – “The Face is Familiar” (1954) **

Jack Benny is a nebbish type so anonymous that some old school pals think he’ll be ideal for a robbery. A comic idea but it’s not that funny or thrilling - it kind of falls between two stools.

Radio review – Suspense – “Parole to Panic” (1952) **

Broderick Crawford had a very distinctive presence – his voice not so much as demonstrated by this performance. He plays a recently paroled man who wants to go straight but is convinced some of his old mates want him dead because they reckon he's turned stool pigon. Not bad little melo - you could see it as a film.

Radio review – Ford Theatre – “Anna Christie” (1949) ***

Ingrid Bergman and Broderick Crawford are both excellent in this strong adaptation of the Eugene O’Neill play. She's a hooker whose dad is a sailor; Crawford plays the sailor who she falls in love with. Bergman was best known for her whispy oh-I'm-so-in-love-I-can't-help-it parts as in Cassablanca but here she plays someone with a bit of spine and fire and it's great. Crawford is a lot more animated too than we normally hear him. Ann Revere is in the cast too.

Radio review – Suspense- “The Moonstone” (1953) **

Peter Lawford never became a genuine star – I think partly because he had a weak voice, on display here. It’s a two part episode based on a novel by Wilkie Collins, the first detective novel in English or something - the announcer goes on and on about what a classic it is. The story isn't terribly involving and there aren't many memorable characters which is probably why it's not much remembered today (even though it was very influential and much copied). Lawford plays the hero, an amateur detective who solves the mystery of a missing diamond. It's from India and much of the plot concerns Indian cults and corrupt army officers.

Movie review – “Three on a Match” (1932) ****

A three girls film but really the focus is only on two: Ann Dvorak, as the hoity one who marries a rich lawyer and has a kid but gets bad post natal depression and really goes off the rails, running off with a gambler and getting hooked on cocaine (beautifully alluded to). There’s also Joan Blondell as the good time girl who goes to reform school and becomes a show girl, but is actually really nice, and marries the lawyer. Bette Davis is the third but doesn’t do much except look after the kid and wears a swimsuit in one scene which is weird. At the end Blondell, Davis and Warren William are living in this ménage a trios – Davis is the nanny, but is that all…? Maybe I’m reading too much in to it. William is dull but the three leads are terrific and the support includes an electrifying young Humphrey Bogart plus Allen Jenkins and Edward Arnold.

Movie review – “Midnight in Paris” (2011) ***1/2

Charming comedy from Woody Allen. It’s still a bit long, any lines about the corporate word clunks and he re-uses a lot of old ideas (the pompous brilliant love rival, sexually aggressive beautiful mistresses, young enchanting flowers, a generation gap romance), but Paris looks very pretty, Owen Wilson is a perfect Woody surrogate (the Texan um-ah drawl is just like the New York Jewish natter), the fact Owen is obsessed by the past makes the old references work, the cast is terrific (the guy who plays Hemingway is a real find) and it’s a lot of fun. Finding Marion Cotillard's diary I felt complicated things – wouldn’t he want to know what happened to her? (I did.) Also I’m surprised he missed the opportunity for an Anais Nin and Henry Miller joke. Personally I think you’d always pick Rachel McAdams over Marion Cotillard but that’s just personal taste.

Radio review – Suspense – “Eyewitness” (1956) ***

Howard Duff is a journalist visiting a prison when it breaks out into a riot –led by an inmate who is an ex reporter who was framed which feels a bit contrived, but the rest of it is pretty good, a solid version of those old Warner Bros 30s prison films, and Howard Duff is always well suited to these story of stories. The intro lists cities in which recent riots took place which inspired this – there are a lot of them.