The 202 greatest performances of all time

... well, 202 of my favourites, anyway. It was supposed to be 100 male and 100 female, but there's always one it hurts too much to leave out - in this case one of each. I put this together for a poll over at Empire Online, and thought: 'Well, why not tack it up here as well?' I've added links to those films reviewed on the site.

Your comments are very welcome below. Put together your own top 20s, if you like. Or top 21s.

GIRLS



1. Emily Watson as Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)
2. Wendy Hiller as Major Barbara Undershaft in Major Barbara (Gabriel Pascal, 1941)
3. Barbara Stanwyck as Lee Leander in Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, 1940)
4. Anjelica Huston as Gretta Conroy in The Dead (John Huston, 1987)
5. Lillian Gish as Letty in The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928)
6. Dorothy McGuire as Helen Capel in The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak, 1945)
7. Dorothy McGuire as Katie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, 1945)
8. Fairuza Balk as Shade in Gas Food Lodging (Allison Anders, 1992)
9. Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950)
10. Thora Birch as Enid Coleslaw in Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

11. Peggy Ann Garner as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, 1945)
12. Beulah Bondi as Mrs. Sargent in Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, 1940)
13. Thelma Ritter as Moe Williams in Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
14. Barbara Stanwyck as Sugarpuss O'Shea in Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941)
15. Kate Hepburn as Terry Randall in Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937)
16. Jean Arthur as Babe Bennett in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936)
17. Lillian Gish as Anna Moore in Way Down East (D. W. Griffith, 1920)
18. Myrna Loy as Nora Charles in six films (1934-47)
19. Hayley Mills as Kathy Bostock in Whistle Down the Wind (Bryan Forbes, 1961)
20. Judy Garland as Vicki Lester/Esther Blodgett in A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954)

21. Jane Darwell as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)
22. Samantha Morton as Morvern Callar in Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002)
23. Emily Lloyd as Lynda Mansell in Wish You Were Here (David Leland, 1987)
24. Samantha Morton as Hattie in Sweet and Lowdown (Woody Allen, 1999)
25. Norma Shearer as Kathi in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927)
26. Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper in The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
27. Myrna Loy as Connie Allenbury in Libeled Lady (Jack Conway, 1936)
28. Carey Mulligan as Kathy H in Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek, 2010)
29. Joan Fontaine as Lisa Berndle in Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
30. Kate Hepburn as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

31. Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard, 1938)
32. Cynda Williams as Fantasia/Lila in One False Move (Carl Franklin, 1992)
33. Lili Taylor as Rose in Dogfight (Nancy Savoca, 1991)
34. Leslie Caron as Lili Daurier in Lili (Charles Walters, 1953)
35. Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
36. Frances Fuller as Amy Lind Grimes in One Sunday Afternoon (Stephen Roberts, 1933)
37. Dorothy McGuire as Laura Pennington in The Enchanted Cottage (John Cromwell, 1945)
38. Michelle Rodriguez as Diana Guzman in Girlfight (Karyn Kusama, 2000)
39. Jane Horrocks as LV in Little Voice (Mark Herman, 1998)
40. Vivien Leigh as Myra in Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy, 1940)

41. Shirley MacLaine as Fran Kubelik in The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
42. Anna Lee as Mac in The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller, 1959)
43. Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale in Return to Oz (Walter Murch, 1985)
44. Wendy Hiller as Pat Cooper in Separate Tables (Delbert Mann, 1958)
45. Emily Watson as Jackie in Hilary and Jackie (Anand Tucker, 1998)
46. Ginger Rogers as Jean Maitland in Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937)
47. Emily Watson as Martha Stanley in The Proposition (John Hillcoat, 2005)
48. Lizabeth Scott as Antonia 'Toni' Marachek in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Lewis Milestone, 1946)
49. Jean Arthur as Clarissa Saunders in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)
50. Mia Farrow as Hannah in Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)

51. Emily Watson as Ruby Compton in Wah-Wah (Richard E. Grant, 2005)
52. Julie Walters as Rita Susan White in Educating Rita (Lewis Gilbert, 1983)
53. Margaret Sullavan as Luisa 'Lu' Ginglebuscher in The Good Fairy (William Wyler, 1935)
54. Kate Hepburn as Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell, 1980)
55. Björk as Selma Ježková in Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
56. Patricia Neal as Alma Brown in Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)
57. Judy Holliday as Doris Attinger in Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949)
58. María Casares as Nathalie in Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)
59. Claudette Colbert as Mrs. Anne Hilton in Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944)
60. Emily Watson as Lena Leonard in Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)

61. Jean Arthur as Miss Nora Shelley in The Talk of the Town (George Stevens, 1942)
62. Ida Lupino as Lana Carlsen in They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh, 1940)
63. Eileen Brennan as Genevieve in The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
64. Jobyna Ralston as Mary Powers in The Kid Brother (Ted Wilde and J. A. Howe, 1928)
65. Sarah Bolger as Christy in In America (Jim Sheridan, 2003)
66. Mia Farrow as Cecilia in The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)
67. Mia Farrow as Tina Vitale in Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 1984)
68. Andrea Leeds as Kaye Hamilton in Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937)
69. Jane Wyman as Helen St. James in The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)
70. Glenda Farrell as Missouri Martin in Lady for a Day (Frank Capra, 1933)

71. Debbie Reynolds as Tambrey ‘Tammy’ Tyree in Tammy and the Bachelor (Joseph Pevney, 1957)
72. Jean Arthur as Marian Starrett in Shane (George Stevens, 1953)
73. Audrey Tautou as Amélie Poulain in Le fabuleux destin d' Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
74. Kate Hepburn as Linda Seton in Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
75. Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)
76. Halle Berry as Nina in Bulworth (Warren Beatty, 1998)
77. Deborah Kerr as Edith Hunter/Barbara Wynne/Johnny Cannon in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
78. Giulietta Masina as Maria 'Cabiria' Ceccarelli in Le notti di Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
79. Sissy Spacek as Margie Fogg in Affliction (Paul Schrader, 1997)
80. Katrin Cartlidge as Sophie in Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)

81. Helena Bonham Carter as Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove (Iain Softley, 1997)
82. Arletty as Garance in Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)
83. Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine Clifton in The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996)
84. Deanna Durbin as Penny Craig in Three Smart Girls (Henry Koster, 1936)
85. Doris Day as Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me (Charles Vidor, 1955)
86. Mary Astor as Mrs. Nancy Gibson in Smart Woman (Gregory La Cava, 1931)
87. Maria Falconetti in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
88. Shirley Temple as Bridget 'Brig' Hilton in Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944)
89. Gloria Grahame as Laurel Gray in In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
90. Margaret O’Brien as Beth in Little Women (Mervyn LeRoy, 1949)

91. Tatum O'Neal as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 1973)
92. Olivia de Havilland as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)
93. Melanie Griffith as Lulu/Audrey Hankel in Something Wild (Jonathan Demme, 1986)
94. Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew in four films (1938-39)
95. Lena Horne as Georgia Brown in Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, 1943)
96. Dianne Wiest as Stephanie in September (Woody Allen, 1987)
97. Una Merkel as Petunia Pratt/Cobb in The Cat's Paw (Sam Taylor, 1934)
98. Peggy Dow as Miss Kelly in Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950)
99. Greta Garbo as Marguerite Gautier in Camille (George Cukor, 1936)
100. Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (Kimberly Peirce, 1999)

101. Joan Leslie as Pat Dixon in Thank Your Lucky Stars (David Butler, 1943)

Most appearances: Emily Watson (5); Jean Arthur (4); Wendy Hiller; Dorothy McGuire; Lillian Gish; Mia Farrow (all 3).

***

BOYS



1. Henry Fonda as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1943)
2. Jason Robards, Jr. as Murray in A Thousand Clowns (Fred Coe, 1965)
3. Jason Robards, Jr. as Theodore 'Hickey' Hickman in The Iceman Cometh (TVM, Sidney Lumet, 1960)
4. Roger Livesey in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
5. Richard Burton as Thomas Becket in Becket (Peter Glenville, 1964)
6. James Dunn as Johnny Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, 1945)
7. Stephen Rea as Fergus in The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
8. Fred MacMurray as John Sargent in Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, 1940)
9. David Thewlis as Johnny in Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)
10. Jason Robards as Jamie Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night (Sidney Lumet, 1962)

11. Jack Nicholson as Robert Eroica Dupea in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
12. Robert Mitchum as Jeff McCloud in The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray, 1952)
13. Lee Tracy as Alvin Roberts in Blessed Event (Roy Del Ruth, 1932)
14. Ben Johnson as Sam the Lion in The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
15. Balthazar* in Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
16. Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
17. Peter O'Toole as T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
18. Salvatore Cascio as Salvatore 'Totò' Di Vita – child in Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988/2002)
19. Jacques Perrin as Salvatore 'Totò' Di Vita – adult in Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988/2002)
20. Charlie Chaplin as The Tramp in countless films (1914-36)

21. Richard Farnsworth as Alvin in The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)
22. Klaus Kinski as Don Lope de Aguirre in Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
23. Matthew Macfadyen as Paul Prior in In My Father's Den (Brad McGann, 2004)
24. Christian McKay as Orson Welles in Me and Orson Welles (Richard Linklater, 2008)
25. River Phoenix as Mike Waters in My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)
26. Lee Marvin in Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970)
27. Jean-Pierre Barrault as Jean-Baptiste Debureau in Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)
28. Spencer Tracy as Joe Wilson in Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936)
29. Henry Fonda as Norman Thayer, Jr. in On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell, 1981)
30. Leslie Howard as Basil Underwood in It's Love I'm After (Archie Mayo, 1937)

31. William Holden as Max Schumacher in Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
32. Cary Grant as Walter Burns in His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
33. Jack Lemmon as Shelley Levine in Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
34. Joel McCrea as Steve Judd in Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962)
35. Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950)
36. Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
37. Lee Tracy as President Art Hockstader in The Best Man (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1964)
38. James Cagney in as Rocky Sullivan in Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
39. James Murray as John in The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
40. Monty Clift as George Eastman in A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)

41. Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni, 1928)
42. John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
43. Harry Dean Stanton as Travis in Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
44. Lew Ayres as Paul Bäumer in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930)
45. Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
46. William Powell as Nick Charles in six films (1934-47)
47. Marlon Brando as Ken in The Men (Fred Zinnemann, 1950)
48. River Phoenix as Danny Pope/Michael Manfield in Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet, 1988)
49. Robert Mitchum as Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973)
50. Chris Eigeman as Nick Smith in Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1990)

51. William Powell as George Carey/Larry Wilson in I Love You Again (W. S. Van Dyke II, 1940)
52. Frank Morgan as Dr. Buchanan Prescott in The Nuisance (Jack Conway, 1933)
53. Trevor Howard as Harry Scobie in The Heart of the Matter (George More O'Ferrall, 1953)
54. Henry Fonda as Gil Carter in The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943)
55. Gary Cooper as Dr. Lucius Griffith 'Biff' Grimes in One Sunday Afternoon (Stephen Roberts, 1933)
56. Gary Cooper as Prof. Bertram Potts in Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941)
57. Keye Luke as Lee Chan in 12 films (1935-49)
58. Gary Cooper as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
59. Chester Morris as Boston Blackie in 14 films (1941-49)
60. Kieran Culkin as Igby in Igby Goes Down (Burr Steers, 2002)

61. Buster Keaton as the projectionist/Sherlock, Jr. in Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
62. River Phoenix as Chris Chambers in Stand by Me (Rob Reiner, 1986)
63. Steve Buscemi as Tommy in Trees Lounge (Steve Buscemi, 1996)
64. Fred Astaire as Jerry Travers in Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)
65. Spencer Tracy as John J. Macreedy in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)
66. Walter Brennan as Kris Barden in Blood on the Moon (Robert Wise, 1948)
67. Kirk Douglas as Col. Dax in Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
68. Dirk Bogarde as Hugo Barret in The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)
69. Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert in M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
70. Gregory Peck as Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950)

71. Alastair Sim as Hawtrey Murington in Lady Godiva Rides Again (Frank Launder, 1951)
72. Lew Ayres as Ned Seton in Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
73. John Garfield as Charley Davis in Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947)
74. Johnny Mills as Lt. Col. Basil Barrow in Tunes of Glory (Ronald Neame, 1960)
75. Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972-4)
76. Jimmy Stewart as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)
77. Mickey Rooney as Homer Macauley in The Human Comedy (Clarence Brown, 1943)
78. Jean Gabin as Jean in Le quai des brumes (Marcel Carné, 1938)
79. Robert Williams as Stew Smith in The Platinum Blonde (Frank Capra, 1931)
80. Warner Oland as Charlie Chan in 16 films (four of them now lost) (1931-37)

81. Eddie Bracken as Woodrow Truesmith in Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges, 1944)
82. Tom Courtenay as Colin Smith in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Tony Richardson, 1962)
83. Takashi Shimura as Kanji Watanabe in Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
84. Fernando Ramos da Silva as Pixote in Pixote (Hector Babenco, 1981)
85. Nick Nolte as Wade Whitehouse in Affliction (Paul Schrader, 1997)
86. Monty Clift as Robert E. Lee Prewitt in From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953)
87. Mark Ruffalo as Terry Prescott in You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan, 2000)
88. Robert Ryan as Larry Slade in The Iceman Cometh (John Frankenheimer, 1973)
89. Marcello Mastroianni as Matteo Scuro in Everybody's Fine (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1990)
90. Paul Newman as Hud Bannon in Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)

91. Burt Lancaster as Dr. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham in Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)
92. Gene Kelly as Jerry Mulligan in An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)
93. Frank McHugh as Erwin Trowbridge in Three Men on a Horse (no director credited, 1936)
94. Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1983)
95. Cary Grant as Jerry Warriner in The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
96. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan in Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005)
97. Bob Hoskins as George in Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan, 1986)
98. Jess Lee Brooks as the church preacher in Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)
99. Sig Ruman as Col. Erhardt in To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)
100. Ralph Fiennes as Justin Quayle in The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles, 2005)

101. Robert Mitchum as Jeff Bailey in Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

Most appearances: Henry Fonda; Jason Robards, Jr.; Gary Cooper; Marlon Brando; River Phoenix; Robert Mitchum (all 3).

There you go. Now it's your turn.

Submarine, chemistry and Woody Allen floundering - Reviews #57

I went to the cinema three times at the weekend. I'd recommend it to anyone.



*SOME SPOILERS AND ONE RUDE WORD*
CINEMA: Submarine (Richard Ayoade, 2010) - What a refreshing, distinctive and arresting film this is: a hysterically funny portrait of teenage life in Britain as it's really lived and a film we've been waiting for, without really knowing it. In 15-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), writer-director Ayoade gives us a new kind of hero: introspective, self-obsessed, occasionally noble, with a burning sense of his own importance, but no idea how it's going to manifest itself. The tone is set by a superbly-conceived fantasy sequence in which he imagines his own death and the outpouring of grief that would be felt "by all of Wales". This appealing, sometimes appalling protagonist exists in a painfully well-observed world, the school scenes - with their bullying, idiocy and moral compromise - conjuring the opposite of a Proustian rush as they throw up every guilty secret or suppressed memory of your teenage years.

It's at school where Oliver finds love, beginning an intense relationship with classmate Jordana Bevan (Yasmine Paige) that's built on bullying, but blossoms into a shared love of spitting and setting fire to things. Oliver tries to broad their horizons by offering her Salinger, Nietzsche and sex, but with limited success. The scene in which he reclines on his bed in some grotesque parody of '70s manhood is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. At home, our hero is also going through a sticky patch, his mother Jill (Sally Hawkins) having her head turned by obnoxious mystic Paddy Considine, with his depressive father (Noah Taylor) unwilling - or unable - to act. The twin storylines dovetail perfectly, with a punchline that's completely unexpected and rings utterly true. Indeed, there isn't a false note in the plotting or the acutely-detailed characterisations, from Chips (Darren Evans), the school bully who compounds Oliver's sorrow with a well-timed 'wanker' sign, to Taylor, who offers one of the most affecting and realistic treatments of mental illness I've seen on screen.

This is a brilliant debut: moving, original and dazzlingly cinematic, its singular feel augmented by dreamy Super 8 segments, eye-catching credits and a great song score from Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner. And I laughed almost constantly. Film of the year. So far, anyway. (4)

***



CINEMA: The Adjustment Bureau (George Nolfi, 2011) - Matt Damon and Emily Blunt make a wonderful couple in this enjoyable mixture of sci-fi, thriller and romance. Their effortless, glorious chemistry takes the thought-provoking, well-plotted storyline to another level and there's also a nice turn from Anthony Mackie, though the abrupt ending and Terence Stamp's lacklustre one-note showing mute the impact a little. It's still compulsively entertaining; the only serious misstep being the voiceover from the guy in the row in front, which lasted until he was thrown out of the cinema halfway through. (3.5)

***



CINEMA: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Woody Allen, 2010) - Woody Allen has made more truly great films than any other American writer-director. His extended reign as the king of comedy - and a deft dramatist - lasted from Take the Money and Run in 1969 to the beguiling Sweet and Lowdown 30 years later and included an unbroken, decade-long run of masterpieces that took in Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo (see #90, sorry about the formatting - it all dropped off when we changed to the new site), Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanours. Only Buster Keaton and '40s screwball comedy wizard Preston Sturges have achieved anything comparable. Since '99, though, pickings have been slim, with Allen's creative paralysis coupled to a paucity of ambition which has turned the biggest lie about his work - that he can only make one type of film - into the truth. Anything Else was a lovely update of Annie Hall, Melinda and Melinda had some bright moments and both The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Scoop offered some escapist fun. But the blind film director of Hollywood Ending, the risible darkroom petting of Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the laughless second half of Small Town Crooks have been rather more representative.

Allen's latest has the virtues and the vices we've come to expect over the past 12 years. Plotwise, it's nothing new. Love and death. There are four affairs across the film's 98 minutes, as married couple Naomi Watts and Josh Brolin bicker and her mortality-minded parents (Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones) split up. These characters, and thus the story, aren't sufficiently engaging, and the film has an acute case of voiceoveritis, though in places the old Allen magic - or some faded semblance of it - shines through. A reunion between Hopkins and Jones is brief but affecting and there's an agreeable absurdism to Watts' despairing farewell chat with boss Antonio Banderas. Allen also draws an amusing supporting performance from Lucy Punch, playing Hopkins' mouthy, uncultured young wife. "It wasn't scary,” she complains, following a theatre trip. "It wasn't supposed to be scary,” he replies. "The ghosts were symbolic.” But a few great lines, one fine comic turn and solid dramatic work from Watts and Jones can't obscure the fact that Allen's 41st film just isn't very good. (2)

***



Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936) - A truly wonderful film, one of Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin's very best. Small-town good guy Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) inherits $20m and winds up in the big city, where he's screwed over by crooked lawyers, scheming relatives and a hack (Jean Arthur) who's falling head-over-heels for him. It's superbly written, directed and played, with Arthur absolutely irressistible - particularly in the courtroom finale. (4)

***



A Big Hand for the Little Lady (Fielder Cook, 1966) - A clever Western comedy, with sweaty poker fiend Henry Fonda getting in over his head taking on the big guns (including Jason Robards, John Qualen and Charles Bickford), leaving wife Joanne Woodward to bail him out. It's a bit repetitive to begin with, but the interest builds and builds, there's a neat ending - and what a cast. (3)

***


"Haha, gay people like dancing." Oh shut up.

In & Out (Frank Oz, 1997) - Too infantile in its first half, too worthy in its second, with no internal logic and a gross over-abundance of terrible jokes about what gay people like (it's basically Barbra Streisand, 50 times). Having said that, Kline is pretty good, Joan Cusack has a really powerful dramatic scene in the back room of a church and the climax works well. (2)

Summer round-up* - Reviews #44

*sung to the tune of 'Woody's Round-Up' from Toy Story 2. Because I say so.

I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks. Here's a round-up of everything I've seen since the last update. I know I watch a lot of movies. Post contains owls.

***

FEATURES



Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957) - This Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn musical has a sizeable following, but to me it's one of Fred's weakest, with poor plotting and the great Gershwin song score given largely disposable treament. A real disappointment, with just some nice shots of Paris and one memorable Fred dance to compensate. (2)

***


Bob Fosse (serving) hatches a plan to help Janet Leigh (in the pink).

My Sister Eileen (Richard Quine, 1955) - This blissful musical version of the 1942 film was Bob Fosse's first as choreographer. The story sees sisters Betty Garrett and Janet Leigh move into a rundown apartment in Greenwich Village and run into a host of colourful characters. It's funny and energetic, with great numbers, including an unforgettable challenge dance between Fosse and Kiss Me Kate co-star Tommy Rall. Garrett's love interest is a young Jack Lemmon, who neglects to throb with nervous energy as he would in so many comedies. Instead, he's rather appealing, and even gets the chance to sing, performing It's Bigger Than You and Me. (3.5)

***



Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947) is an exceptional police procedural, with inspector Louis Jouvet investigating the murder of a dirty old man, his suspicions alighting upon a stage star, her jealous husband and a female photographer caught between the two. It's witty and well-played - each character imaginatively, convincingly written - while the direction is simply startling. The setting and story reminded me of the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Lady of Burlesque, though that's a vastly inferior film. (4)

***



The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry, 2006) tops the overrated Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (from the same director), with affecting characterisations from Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg, great 'homemade' production design and hilarious support from Alain Chabat as the most ridiculous boss on film. The scene where he picks up one of his underlings and puts them in the bin is hysterically funny. Bernal is a graphic artist whose shyness sees him continually retreat into a fantasy world. His vivid dreams start to affect his real life, particularly when he imagines that he's written a confessional letter to neighbour Gainsbourg and must deliver it in the nude. A lovely, uncategorisable film whose emotional intensity and off-kilter sensibility should appeal most acutely to adolescents. (3.5)

***



Broadway Melody of 1936 (Roy Del Ruth, 1935) was the second of four Melodys, each with a slender plot but massive musical numbers. This one begins with a spectacular take on Got a Feelin' You're Foolin set in an Art Deco hotel suite where pianos rise up through the floor. Eleanor Powell stars: her sensational solo tap sans accompaniment and climactic routine are other major highlights. But while this 1935 instalment is great fun, it took another four years for the series to strike the perfect balance between music, plot, comedy and romance. (3)

***


Fur-le Oberon. Sorry. The film is in Technicolor, incidentally.

Over the Moon (Thornton Freeland, 1939) is pleasant fluff, with Yorkshire lass Merle Oberon inheriting £13m, putting her at odds with fiance Rex Harrison. It's not especially well-written and the interiors jar with the pleasant location shots, but the leads are bright and Peter Haddon is amusing in support, playing an idiotic lord. (2)

***



Tirez sur le pianiste (Francois Truffaut, 1960) aka Shoot the Piano Player, is playful, joyful and ultimately heartbreaking, Truffaut's endlessly inventive direction bringing to life a fatalistic, pulpy story about a nihilistic pianist (Charles Aznavour) being pulled into the criminal underworld. (4)

***



Broadway Melody of 1938 (Roy Del Ruth, 1937) can't quite match the previous outing, despite reuniting leads Robert Taylor and Eleanor Powell and treading much of the same ground, albeit with the gossip columnist subplot replaced with one about horse racing. The main problem is that the knockout numbers are fewer in number, though chubby Judy Garland is aces in an early role, performing Everybody Sing and Dear Mr. Gable (You Made Me Love You), while Powell and George Murphy (the star of the next Melody) perform a superb routine in the rain: I'm Feeling Like a Million. (3)

***



Nanny McPhee (Kirk Jones, 2005) isn't perfect, but offers sub-Poppins fun as its titular governess comes to the aid of Victorian funeral parlour worker Colin Firth and his seven naughty children. There's warmth and humour, but also some rough edges (like putting a baby in peril) and other elements that simply jar (the donkey dance, anyone?). The excellent sequel ironed out those problems. (3)

***



Cry of the City (Robert Siodmark, 1948) is an unexpectedly fine film noir from a director whose ventures into the genre could be sublime (The Killers, Criss Cross) or, well, not (Christmas Holiday). The story follows a cop killer (Richard Conte), struggling to protect his innocent lover (Debra Paget) as a dragnet closes in - led by the hood's flipside, law enforcer Victor Mature. Conte, later a star of Joseph H. Lewis' immaculate crime picture The Big Combo as well as The Godfather's Barzini, gives surely his greatest performance, a devastating characterisation thats quiet malevolence creeps upon the viewer almost unnoticed, replacing a certain twinkly-eyed charm. His screen adversary, Victor Mature, was never the most compelling screen presence, but has an ideal face for the expressionist, shadow-drenched photography of noir and exudes nobility in one of his better turns. The presentation of Conte's family suffers from cliche and the plotting ultimately goes a little off-track with the appearance of muscly stick-up merchant Betty Garde, but this is a fascinating, gripping little film, blessed with a stunning central performance. (3.5)

***



The Bride Came C.O.D. (William Keighley, 1941) was released by Warner Bros the same year as Torrid Zone and for 30 minutes delivers the same bruising characterisation and lightning-paced banter. But then James Cagney's plane - carrying cargo Bette Davis - crash lands and soon afterwards the plotting goes the same way, getting caught up in the desert with ghost town hotelier Harry Davenport, whose character should surely have been sad and wise, rather than sporadically malevolent. The story picks up again before the end, with a fun last 20, but remains hampered by that draggy mid-section, light in ideas. Still a (3) though.

***



Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1957) is an underrated romantic comedy from the great writer-director, stuffed full of gags inspired by his hero, Ernst Lubitsch. Like the the emphasis on doors opening and closing, the running gags with waiters and gypsy musicians and Audrey Hepburn's scheming, which cleverly inverts the plot of Lubitsch's One Hour With You. The star of that film, Maurice Chevalier, is delightful here, playing a private investigator oblivious to the infatuation of his daughter (Hepburn) with a key source of his livelihood, inveterate philanderer Gary Cooper. The age difference between Coop and Hepburn is too pronounced, but everything else about the film is just right. (3.5)

***



A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, 1945) is impossible to fault, an utterly draining movie about teenager Peggy Ann Garner's coming-of-age in early-20th century New York. Dorothy McGuire excels as Garner's mother - hardened by poverty - with Joan Blondell superb in a rare dramatic role as the girl's oft-married aunt. Best of all is James Dunn, playing Garner's dad, an alcoholic pipe dreamer who oscillates between euphoria and desperation. His reading of the folk song Annie Laurie soundtracks one of the most wondrous sequences I've ever seen on film. This is a very special film: the direction flawless and the performances simply immense as every detail, every gesture rings true. (4)

***


Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka, released the same year as Tell No Tales.

*SOME SPOILERS*
Tell No Tales (Leslie Fenton, 1939) is a crisp B picture that shoots out of the blocks but fails to maintain that momentum. It's still well worth seeing, with a fast-moving plot and some bravura moments, including a powerful sequence set at a black boxer's wake that features the great African-American actress Theresa Harris. The plot has Melvyn Douglas as a newspaper editor trying to save his paper by solving a kidnapping case. This is probably your only chance to see Halliwell Hobbes (who almost always played butlers) as a psychotic cuckold. He's scarier than familiar Golden Age villains Gene Lockhart and Douglas Dumbrille put together. (3)

***



Let's Make It Legal (Richard Sale, 1951) isn't as bad as you might have heard... but it's still not great. Claudette Colbert, newly-divorced, starts dating old flame Zachary Scott, as ex-husband Macdonald Carey, daughter Barbara Bates and son-in-law Robert Wagner buzz around. The script is strictly standard and the best joke is accidental - an overbearing breakdown of just how young grandmother Colbert is (the actress was notoriously touchy about her age) - though the cast gives it a decent shot. Marilyn Monroe appears briefly as a bathing beauty trying to crash the jet set. (2)

***



Indiscreet (Stanley Donen, 1958) features Cary Grant at his most unbearable, stuck in that pre-North by Northwest rut where the lightness of his early performances had been replaced by vanity, superficiality and a big, smug magohany face. He's a banker who wins the heart of actress Ingrid Bergman, but says he can never marry her. It isn't until the final 20 minutes that the film really delivers as a comedy. Until then it's just a miserable romantic drama: uninspired and uninvolving. David Kossoff (the tailor in A Kid for Two Farthings), Cecil Parker and Phyllis Calvert offer notable support. (2)

***



Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953) is, by contrast, an absolute wonder: escapism of the highest order, with journo Gregory Peck romancing incognito princess Audrey Hepburn during one glorious day in the Italian capital. It's funny, moving and full of fine location work. The leads are an utter joy and Eddie Albert is hilarious as Peck's photographer pal. (4)

***



The Cowboy and the Lady (H.C. Potter, 1938) is thin, but saved by the cast. As the 1998 action-comedy Rush Hour boasted the tagline: "The fastest hands in the East meet the biggest mouth in the West", so this one could have gone with: "The smallest mouth in the East meets the slowest mouth in the West". In the event they opted for: "Straight-shooting GARY meets flirting MERLE - and it's the fireworks! Battle of the sexes! Man and girl in East vs. West love duel!", which is also pretty cool. As you may have guessed, Gary Cooper is the taciturn cowhand who finds love with "maid" Merle Oberon, little realising she's the daughter of a Presidential hopeful (Henry Kolker). Kolker and Harry Davenport (as Oberon's black sheep of an uncle) are both fine providing pathos, though Patsy Kelly is a bit underused. Cooper's mime scene is great fun. (2.5)

***



La gloire de mon père (Yves Robert, 1990) aka My Father's Glory charts the early life of playwright Marcel Pagnol, his idolising of his schoolteacher father and the forging of his character during a long summer holiday in the wilds of Provence. Based on the writer's memoirs, it's light, entertaining and utterly true, with sumptuous photography and first-rate acting across the board. There's a scary owl, too. (4)

***



Confessions of Boston Blackie (Edward Dmytryk, 1941) is one of the best B movies of all time, and featured in the Top 100 I compiled last year (see #89). Chester Morris is the former crook chasing a gang of murderers in a bid to clear his name. A fun script and a neat double-ending provide serial-like thrills, while all the series regulars are at their best in this, the second of 14 Blackie films. (4)

***



Born to Dance (Roy Del Ruth, 1938) - or Broadway Melody of 1939, as it was really - follows the usual template, with starry-eyed hoofer Eleanor Powell making good, and finding love, on the Great White Way. The big draw for classic movie fans will be the chance to see screen titan Jimmy Stewart singing and dancing - his take on Cole Porter's Easy to Love was a smash hit - along with the usual big budget production numbers. A host of familiar faces appear in support, including Una Merkel, Raymond Walburn, Virginia Bruce, Alan Dinehart, Buddy Ebsen and Sid Silvers. This is a notch above the Broadway Melodys of '36 and '38, thanks to funny running gags and consistently strong dance showcases. (3)

***



Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) is a peerlessly witty Lubitsch comedy, with jewel robber Herbert Marshall forced to choose between thief Miriam Hopkins and heiress Kay Francis. The whole film exists on a heightened plain, where lush romanticism jiggles for space with thousands of sex jokes. (4)

***


We're not sure what this is or why it's in Mexican.

This Thing Called Love (Alexander Hall, 1941) is a cut above the rest of those Columbia comedies directed by Hall and starring Melvyn Douglas, like The Amazing Mr Williams and Good Girls Go to Paris. Comedienne Rosalind Russell plays an insurance agency statistician who believes marriage should begin with a three month trial period free of sex. Douglas is her fiancee, who consents to act as guinea pig, thinking he can win her round through sheer charm. The first hour is terrific - smart, sophisticated and packed with laughs - before the film settles into standard farce. Douglas, by this time tired of such roles, must have recognised the superior quality of the script, as he gives it his all. This was Lee J. Cobb's first movie, he plays a Peruvian financier who's obsessed with parenthood (not the film). (3)

***



Affectionately Yours (Lloyd Bacon, 1941) is a daft but amiable comedy about foreign correspondent and all-round affable rogue Dennis Morgan trying to win back ex-wife Merle Oberon from under the nose of Ralph Bellamy (who else?). The script isn't that sharp, but it's all very pleasant and Rita Hayworth offers fine support as Morgan's scheming admirer. Oddly, the ending is virtually identical to that of the Ann Sothern-Gene Raymond RKO film The Smartest Girl in Town. For a livelier movie about an amoral roving reporter messing womenfolk around (this time in Stalinist Russia), catch the incomparable Lee Tracy in Clear All Wires! (2.5)

***



TVM: The Iceman Cometh (Sidney Lumet, 1960) is a televised record of the Broadway adaptation that sparked interest for the first time in Eugene O'Neill's then-neglected masterwork. It's a phenomenal reading, blessed with arguably the greatest actor of the 20th century - Jason Robards, Jr. - at his zenith. He plays the pivotal character, salesman Hickey, who looks to reform his barfly pals, the gallery of lost souls baffled by his unwavering commitment to abolishing their "pipe dreams". It's difficult - perhaps even fruitless - to compare this with Frankenheimer's cinematic version 13 years later (see #35 in my Top 100), as both are so special in their own way. So see both, if you can. (4)

***

SHORTS


A bouncing sheep confronts the harsh realities of life in Pixar's Boundin'.

I rented the Pixar Shorts, Vol. 1 DVD and watched a heap of those. The Adventures of Andre and Wally B (Alvy Ray Smith, 1984, 2) has a single joke, and it's not very funny, though the establishing shot is great. Luxo, Jr. (John Lasseter, 1986, 2.5) explains how Pixar got its lamp - and provides a bit of pathos. Red's Dream (John Lasseter, 1987, 3) is oddly melancholy, creating an impressive universe but offering no glimmer of hope for its dreaming unicycle. The first film with the recognisable Pixar sense of humour is Tin Toy (John Lasseter, 1988, 3), a clever, funny short dated by its computer technology, including a primitive take on a baby that's frankly terrifying. Geri's Game (Jan Pinkava, 1997, 3) is a smart film about an aged chess fanatic (and "cleaner" - see Toy Story 2) playing a game against himself - and using every trick in the book to win. For the Birds (Ralph Eggleston, 2000, 3) passes in a blaze of appealing sight gags, DTV: Mike's New Car (Pete Docter and Roger Gould, 2002, 3) is top slapstick, but runs out of gas before the end, while Boundin' (Bud Luckey and Roger Gould, 2003, 3.5) is sentimental Americana of a sort, a narrative poem about a dancing sheep, with spirited presentation. DTV: Jack-Jack Attack (Brad Bird, 2005, 3) - a spin-off from The Incredibles - is good value, providing several belly laughs. Happily, as WALL-E and Up! are among Pixar's very best features, so their shorts continue to improve - recent additions Lifted, Presto and Partly Cloudy are my three favourites.

***


The Jane to Johnny Weismuller's Tarzan, Maureen O'Sullivan, appears in this next one. So does Chico Marx.

Hollywood - The Second Step (Felix E. Feist, 1936) is a self-obsessed short that repeatedly appears as if it's about to disillusion any young starlets watching, before reverting to the slightly irresponsible contention that anyone can become a star. It also blends fact and fiction in a confusing manner: central focus Jane Barnes was a real Hollywood bit player, but she never did get the lead role she's promised here. (2)

***

And a couple of early works from one of my favourite moviemakers, the great Humphrey Jennings (standing):



S.S. Ionian (Humphrey Jennings, 1939) is an odd propaganda film from the future master of the medium, which follows a merchant boat around the globe, repeatedly observing in an off-hand manner that the British sure do have a lot of warships positioned absolutely everywhere. There are a couple of glimpses of the filmmaker's genius, including a shot of a crew member simply re-arranging his hat that gives real insight into his character, but this is generally little more than a politically-charged travelogue, and it's hampered by a stolid voiceover. (2.5)

Spring Offensive (Humphrey Jennings, 1940) is a portrait of rural Britain readying for war, similar in some respects to Powell and Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale. It ebbs and flows, and the non-professional actors are wooden as anything, but just as the country was finding its feet in our time of need, so was the country's greatest state filmmaker: the passages here fusing music and image are nothing short of wonderful. (3)