Film review: The Small Back Room (1949)

I had never heard of this, despite it being a Powell/Pressburger production (the three films they made before this were the murderer's row of: A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes - all glorious technicolor, whereas this is a black and white number), and it turns out there's a good reason for that, because... well, it's not very good.  I cannot recommend this to anyone, except maybe for two segments.  One is a kind of fever-dream-sequence where the main character hallucinates his furniture becoming huge and looming over him, which is gloriously silly, and the other is the climax of the film, where he defuses an explosive device, 

that is genuinely very tense.  The rest of the film was frankly tedious.  It seems to be a kind of propaganda film (a bit late, in 1949!) praising the efforts of the boffins behind the scene who helped unglamorously but essentially in the war effort (meanwhile Alan Turing was probably being chemically castrated at that very moment).  The main character is a, frankly peevish Sammy Rice (well played, I will grudgingly allow, by the dishy (pipe-smoking) David Farrar) who is peevish because he lost a foot in the war and now has a tin one that causes him constant pain, for which the "dope" that the doctors give him appears to do nothing.  This drives him to whisky, despite the entreaties of his bartender "Knucksie" (Sid James, 

looking seemingly exactly the same in the late 40s as he did in the Carry On films) (you should hear the sneering way Sammy says "Knucksie" when he's got surly drunk) and his long suffering love Susan, 

played saintlily by Kathleen Byron, which in itself is distracting, because this is how I think of her:

Most of the film alternates between office politics 

(Sammy is the brains of an outfit run by blowhard RB Waring (Jack Hawkins) with whom he is constantly bickering) and scenes of Sammy moping and Susan trying to cheer him up, and Sammy criticizing himself for dragging Susan down, and Susan saying isn't that for me to judge and so on.  Meanwhile the interesting part of the film, which takes up frustratingly little screen time, is that a new kind of German weapon has started cropping up all over England and Wales (cue some very scenic shots), about the size of a bulky flashlight (I was interested to note that they called them "flashlights" rather than torches), which keeps blowing up the people who pick them up.  The mystery is why they don't blow up before then, and what triggers them, but they keep blowing up before the boffins can get to look at them.  Anyway, the film drags on until Sammy drives Susan away 

(she even takes her picture from his frame and her cat), he gets raging drunk, and then the friendly soldier Captain Stuart (played by Celestial Toymaker Michael Gough) 

who first introduced Sammy to the concept, calls up and says they've acquired two of the things and can he come down to Portland Bill.  Despite Sammy's entreaties Stuart insists on trying to defuse one of them himself, with predictable results.  Cue the tense scene where Sammy defuses the device (dictating what he's doing over a funny strap-on telephone to a very pretty female soldier 

(Renée Ascherson, aunt of renowned journalist Neal Ascherson) who was doing the same for Stuart when... well, you know).  Anyway, Sammy comes out of it smelling of roses and gets to run his own section of the army, and comes home to find Susan's picture back in the frame and the cat back on its mat, 

and a refilled bottle of whisky waiting for him.  All's well.  There's also a minor subplot about a stuttering Corporal who's great with fuses but whose wife is unfaithful and everyone knows it.  I will say that it's possibly the most convincing stutter I've ever heard (handily beating Michael Palin's) - so kudos to Cyril Cusack. 

Overall: just for Powell/Pressburger completists, or those with less stony hearts than me, methinks.

Oh yes, one oddity: they appear to have filmed at Stonehenge, and fired off a big old gun there.  Those were the days.

 

Film review: Crossfire (1947)

Although shot in 24 days for a measly $250K, this B-movie nonetheless got its director, Edward Dmytryk, a best picture nomination, and Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame best supporting nominations.  This movie has a reputation as a classic Noir (and we watched it on the Criterion Channel as part of the "Blackout Noir" collection), and Dmytryk is a name I keep seeing cropping up among lists of great Noir directors, so it's surprising that this was our first Dmytryk.  And false, I discover, because we'd already seen his next film, which in England was called Obsession, and in the US the more prosaic, but descriptive, The Hidden Room, which is an excellent little number starring Robert Newton.  It's also filmed in England with an English cast, which is why I was surprised to find out that Dmytryk directed it, but apparently it's because in the 2 years between the filming of Crossfire and Obsession, Dmytryk got into hot water with the House Unamerican Activities Committee (because he'd actually been a member of the Communist Party during the war) and was even briefly imprisoned, after which he pulled an Elia Kazan and Named Names, and that really tanked his career.  Shame, because this film, while I wouldn't put it up there with Obsession, definitely looks gorgeous (certainly considering how quicky and cheaply it was made) with several very striking shots (usually involving Robert Ryan, the despicable bad guy), as well as having exactly the right values, albeit expressed a little preachily, which is forgivable, considering the time, but which almost certainly got him targeted.

I don't really know why it's thought of as a Noir, except that it's certainly filmed like one, with lots of stark lighting and long shadows 

(it's not uncommon for us to see a character's shadow on the wall before we see them), but, although there are a couple of fairly tortured souls, there is a pretty clear divide between good and evil, and the good end happily, the bad unhappily (cue Miss Prism quote).  Also, the main cop is the most decent of all the characters, and gets to deliver a speech about ethnic tolerance that MAGA could stand to hear today (because of course that's all that's needed to bring them round).  I also don't know why it's called "Crossfire."  One gets the impression with a lot of these B movies that the name and the film have different sources, perhaps there were a couple of people tasked with coming up with all the names, like those people who invent new drug names, presumably by drawing letters from a Scrabble bag.

Anyway: the film begins with a struggle in a darkened room, through which light is shot, but not enough for us to see any faces.  A man is clearly beaten to death 

and then his assailant drags another man out of the door of the room.  It emerges that the man is an ex-soldier called Samuels who, it emerges, was Jewish. While the detective is on the scene a soldier tries to enter the room and says that he's coming back to look for another soldier.  The present soldier is Robert Ryan's Montgomery, and he's looking for a soldier called Mitchell, who immediately becomes a suspect in the killing, even though Montgomery swears he's a good kid.  The military police go to the room in a nearby hotel where Mitchell is staying (this confused me - why are soldiers staying in hotels?  Apparently it's because they've been demobbed.  But why are they still being ordered around, then?  And why is only one of them, the doomed Floyd, out of uniform?).  Mitchell is not at the card game that is happening in his room, but his roommate, Keeley, is.  Keeley is played by the ever-laconic Robert Mitchum (gee but I thought she'd never ketch'em), whose voice is extra sing-song here (it might come as no surprised that he released a croony album).  Completing the trilogy of Roberts 

is Robert Young, who plays the thoroughly decent older detective Finlay, a little worn down by the iniquity of the world, but held together by his trusty pipe and herringbone suit.

We're never quite sure we're getting the full story, and there's a touch of the Rashomon in the telling of events from at least two different points of view, but basically Montgomery, Mitchell, Floyd and another soldier, the Tennessean Leroy are at a bar, and Leroy is jogged so that he spills beer on Samuels' lady friend.  Montgomery makes a huge show of being solicitous, in the process so shaming and ridiculing Leroy that he leaves.  Meanwhile Mitchell and Samuels get to talking and drift to a different part of the bar while Montgomery and Floyd exchange desultory conversation, and Montgomery eyes the other party with some ill-feeling.  Mitchell, Samuels and Samuels' girl exit, and Montgomery and Floyd follow.  Samuels is not that pleased to see Montgomery and Floyd arrive, especially as Mitchell, who appears to be completely hammered (this is why this was included under "Blackout Noirs"), staggers out, saying he's just getting some air and will shortly return.  This supports Montgomery's claim when we first see him come back to look for Mitchell - he claims to have left shortly after Mitchell, before Mitchell had a chance to return.  But Mitchell doesn't return, he wanders in something of a stupor until he stumbles into a bar where he meets Gloria Grahame's Ginny, 

who is initially sulky and standoffish, but warms to him and even gives him her apartment key and says she'll meet him there when she gets off her job (which is to dance with the customers).  Mitchell goes there, passes out, and is awoken by the weirdest character in the movie, 

who is a man who first claims to be Ginny's husband, then says he's lying, he's just a customer, then later claims to be the husband again when talking to Finlay.  We never do learn his real deal, which lends a realistic randomness to the whole affair.  Anyway, Mitchell's army buddies, led by Keeley, try to keep him away from arrest until a better candidate for the murderer can be found.  In the meantime, Floyd is in hiding, but calls Leroy, who alerts Keeley, who goes to visit Floyd to ask him what's what.  This enrages Montgomery to an, shall we say, murderous extent.  Anyway, it all leads up to a plan cooked up by Finlay and Keeley to entrap Montgomery with Leroy's help.  Leroy really doesn't want to help (he's understandably terrified of Montgomery 

(remember, Robert Ryan is about 6'5")) and has to be talked into it with the aforementioned lecture (Montgomery's motivation for killing Samuels turns out to be simple antisemitism).  Oh, and meanwhile Mitchell's wife is in town and seems incredibly willing to forgive Mitchell for his almost-transgression with Ginny, even going with Finlay to try to get her to provide Mitchell with an alibi 

(in the end it's Ginny's "husband" who does so).  Mitchell is the closest to the tortured soul common in Noir, and Samuels was the guy who talked him out of it, by explaining that his problem is that the end of the war has robbed him of his purpose, if not the artistic talent that provided him with employment before the war.  Well, let's just say that the closest the film comes to living up to its title is at the end, and antisemitism does not go unpunished.

As I said, a bit heavy-handed, but timely.  I have found that Twelve Angry Men is surprisingly popular among the TikTok set, and this seems due for a similar revival, for similar reasons.  Mitchum is a little wasted (no, not in the sense he used to get arrested for) in this film, but Ryan is effectively loathsome, and Grahame walks away with the film with her scenes.  And I like Robert Young - he was a solid presence.  I'd watch him as a detective in a series any time.

2025's Film-watching summary

2025 - Wake Up Dead Man
2025 - Weapons
2025 - Mickey 17
2025 - Companion 
2025 - The Ballad of Wallis Island
2025 - Heart Eyes
2024 - Strange Darling
2022 - Troll 
2014 - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2013 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2012 - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2011 - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2010 - Trollhunter
1981 - The Prodigal Son
1980 - Encounters of the Spooky Kind
1979 - Knockabout
1978 - Warriors Two
1977 - Eraserhead
1976 - The Bad News Bears
1973 - Paper Moon
1966 - Blow-Up
1966 - The Battle of Algiers
1966 - Andrei Rublev
1963 - Irma La Douce
1962 - Knife in the Water
1961 - Murder, She Said
1960 - The Apartment
1957 - How to Murder a Rich Uncle
1957 - Blue Murder at St. Trinians
1956 - The Green Man
1955 - The Ladykillers
1954 - An Inspector Calls
1954 - The Belles of St. Trinians
1953 - Ugetsu
1953 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1951 - Scrooge
1951 - The Man in the White Suit
1950 - The Happiest Days of Your Life
1947 - Dear Murderer
1947 - They Made Me A Fugitive
1946 - Green For Danger
1945 - And Then There Were None
1945 - Children of Paradise
1944 - On Approval
1941 - Inspector Hornleigh Goes To It
1941 - Love Crazy
1940 - Night Train to Munich
1939 - Inspector Hornleigh
1939 - Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday 
1938 - Bank Holiday
1935 - The Phantom Light
1933 - Lady Killer
1933 - Picture Snatcher
1932 - Jewel Robbery 

This year started off incredibly strong, with the first two or three months seeing us watch tons of movies (notably a lot of 30s and 40s British films), but petered out considerably in the second half of the year.  Probably a major factor was that I was on sabbatical in that period and working on a book.  But also we tended not to want the mental effort and just collapsed into our King of the Hill binge watch (motivated by the reboot, which we have yet to get to).  Highlights of the year for me would include (in chronological order) Children of Paradise, Scrooge, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ugetsu, An Inspector Calls, The Green Man, The Apartment, Andrei Rublev, The Battle of Algiers, Blow-Up and probably The Ballad of Wallis Island.  It really is true that the classics are classics for a reason, even if you have to gird your loins to watch them (I'm looking at you, Andrei Rublev).  They're nourishing meals that stay with you.  (A few films would also be in this list were they not re-watches - The Man in the White Suit, The Ladykillers, Green for Danger, The Bad News Bears, and Trollhunter for example.)  There are also films that I didn't necessarily love but that have lingered, like Knife in the Water and Eraserhead (long a favorite of Jami's).  If I had to pick just one film, it would probably be The Apartment (which I can't believe I watched for the first time in 2025), for pure enjoyment, or The Battle of Algiers, which is sort of the MC5 (or perhaps Gill Scott-Heron) of movies, but oddly, the film I most want to re-watch is Children of Paradise, mainly because I think I didn't wring everything out of it the first time.  Biggest disappointment was almost certainly Mickey 17, because it just should (and could) have been so much better. Once again, the most under-represented decade (with ZERO) was the 90s, which is now regarded as being a great decade for movies, but maybe it's because we were in LA, going to actual cinemas and walking distance from a fantastic video rental place that I don't feel the need to revisit it.  But it's weird that there's such a huge gap between 1981 and 2010 in our viewing this year.  It chaps my hide that we still haven't watched every film in our Criterion Art-House box set, falling three short, but they're not very appealing and it's hard enough to persuade Jami to watch any film these days, let alone Ballad of a Soldier or Miss Julie.  Still: that will be my New Year's resolution.

One last note: we started the year with the 2011 film of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and we're about to watch the final episode of the 1979 Alec Guinness BBC version tonight (we haven't gone out for New Years in about 4 decades).  I have newfound respect for Gary Oldman because of his performance as Jackson Lamb, but nobody's beating Alec Guinness as Smiley. 

Last year's summary 

Film review: Weapons (2025)

I've been excited to see this film since before it came out, because it's the second film by the person responsible for Barbarian, which I thought was one of the best genre films in recent memory, and a film that I always recommend if a person wants to see a film that will constantly surprise them.  Weapons shares with Barbarian a basic horror format, this time with a sprinkling of the fantastic (well, Barbarian was certainly unrealistic, certainly in its crazy ending, but was in theory grounded in the possible, whereas this one involves actual magic).  What I liked about Barbarian was that it was laugh-out-loud funny, and this one is a lot less like that, although there are moments of absurd dialogue, particularly from the hapless cop Paul.  You could call this Zach Cregger's Pulp Fiction, because, not only is it a bigger-budget follow-up to a smash debut, it plays around with time a bit.  Having said that, it's not particularly experimental (it's not like Strange Darling, for example), but it does have you view the same events from different people's perspectives, so you keep rewinding and going over the same timeline.  At least, until you aren't, and the movie gallops towards its climax.

Here's the basic premise: you are told right up front about a bizarre event where all-but-one of the kids in an elementary school class get up at 2:17 AM one morning and run out of their houses 

(all running in the same strange Tina-from-Bob's Burgers arms-akimbo fashion) 

into the night, and vanish.  Suspicion from the distraught parents immediately falls on the young teacher of that class, Justine, 

played by the excellent Julia Garner, who is rather shockingly ordinary-looking for an in-demand young actress, showing that talent occasionally wins out.  But, apart from being a bit too fond of liquor, and having a DUI and a dismissal from a previous teaching job (for an affair with another member of staff), she doesn't appear guilty, and in fact is clearly devastated and desperate for answers herself.

Particularly keen to point the finger at Justine is Archer (we don't learn if that's a first or last name), 

played by Josh Brolin, who seems a little old to have a child in elementary school, but I suppose that's getting more common these days.  He is so distracted that he keeps fucking up at his job running a construction business (all of the houses featured in this film are incredibly nice, so it makes sense that he would have a high-powered job), but the wrongly-ordered paint he has to return comes in handy when an opportunity for intimidating Justine arises.  Justine and Archer are (I think) the first two characters whose names are announced at the beginning of a film section, indicating that we are about to see things though their eyes (although, not literally - this isn't Lady in the Lake).  Other important ones include the aforementioned Paul 

(played behind a big mustache by the impressively dowdified Alden Ehrenreich, who certainly doesn't look like the young Han Solo here), who is a recovering alcoholic and Justine-oholic, who falls off the wagon in both respects, to the disgust of his current squeeze Donna, who, to complicate his life, is the Chief's daughter.  And then there's James, 

who is the local ne'er-do-well druggy, who has repeated run-ins with Paul but who also inadvertently solves the mystery (or at least, finds the children).  The Paul-James dynamic is the nearest the film gets to comedy, and if anything, James comes off better in the comparison.

Next, and crucially, there's Alex, 

the sole remaining member of Justine's class, about whom she is worried, but from interacting with whom she is barred (although that doesn't stop her following him).  When his story comes to be told is when we truly understand the root cause of the whole affair, and the film moves fully from a mystery into horror.  The kid has to be excellent to carry the narrative weight, and this kid is - worryingly so, given what usually happens to talented child actors.  And also given the horrors the character gets to witness.

Finally among the characters who get a section named after them we have Marcus, 

Justine's Principal and all-round decent guy, played by Benedict Wong (which means Marvel fans get to witness a Wong-Thanos tussle).  His section ends up being particularly nasty, especially given how well-meaning he is.  (In fact, almost too nasty, so that the director seems teetering on the mean-spirited.  But you decide.)

I have not named a very key character, whose actor gives the most magnetic performance in the film, because that would be hard to do without revealing too much, but suffice to say this film has an excellent antagonist.  In fact, I think I'll leave it there, plot-wise, because it's practically impossible not to give key facts away, and the mystery element of the film is a key one.

Overall, I wasn't as wowed by it as Barbarian (of which we are reminded by Justin Long's quick cameo), but it was certainly gripping, once it got past its slow-burn beginning (which should also remind us of the slow-burn beginning of Barbarian, which turns out to be a MacGuffin).  Everybody played their parts very well, but one is left with a fair number of questions about The Rules of the particular supernatural elements (such as, how were the children being used? to what effect?), and while things are technically tied up at the end, one feels that more use could have been made of the antagonist.  Oh, and the title is a bit of a giveaway for the ending.  So, actually, I think it is like Pulp Fiction in that it has been a bit overpraised and I liked its predecessor more.  The question is, does Cregger have a Jackie Brown up his sleeve?

Floods! Gales! Flurries!

 We must be getting what's left of what New York got over the weekend.  Yesterday it started raining and the temperature slowly rose.  But because the ground was frozen, the water had nowhere to go and so there were massive puddles everywhere.  Overnight the temperature hit a high of 50 and then The Winds started.  I hear on the radio that tens of thousands are without power, so we dodged a bullet, but the effect of the winds was to bring the temperature all the way down into the 20s, so that now it's snowing.  Crazy 12 hours.

 

I joined the Kirkland Kult

Thomas found out we now have a Costco in Flint, so he got me a membership for Xmas. It's... overwhelming (see above, me, overwhelmed). Vast quantities for ridiculously low prices, but don't expect to find everything you're looking for (or to be looking for most of what you find).  (And no, Thomas, I didn't wear the hat.)

 

Film review: The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)

We're never not in the mood for an uplifting comedy, and this, I think, qualifies.  It was released this year (as you can see) but it's based on this, which was a short film starring the two male leads, released in around 2007.  A cursory glance shows that that short is literally just those two, whereas the film has added two fairly major female roles, and one extra man (along with bit parts that I'm not sure got any lines).  But the songs in the original short are there in the film we watched, which is perfect, because in the full-length films, they're the old songs of his youth that's he's tried to put behind him.

Anyway, the film begins with a man being ferried over to an island off the coast of Wales (the island that you see in the opening shot 

is in fact Ramsey Island, an RSPB nature reserve (like at Arne), and the locations that the actors actually act in were on the Welsh mainland) and the boat is met by an awkward, effusive bearded man (who seems a bit older than the passenger he's meeting).  There is no dock, and no sharp drop off, so you have to get out in knee-deep water and wade, which immediately puts the boat passenger, a slightly-past-his-prime ex-hottest British Folk Act of 2014, Herb McGwyer (although his real name is Chris Pinnock (or something like that)).  It emerges that beardy (whose name is Charles) is a huge fan of McGwyer Mortimer, which was the folk duo that had all the success before Herb broke it up by going off and doing a solo album.  His albums since then have declined in sales, in part because he's tried to reinvent himself as a pop act, and it's all a bit cringe, and now he needs a cash infusion just to finish his most recent album "Feat".  This is why he's agreed to come to Wallis Island to play a gig, with the promise (negotiated by his agent) of half a million quid.  As they're trudging up the lane from the beach, Herb discovers that there's no hotel, as he thought, and that he will be a guest in Charles's house (which is very nice, although the tap in the sink in Herb's room can't be turned off).  He also very slowly pieces it together that the gig will be for an audience of one (he initially asks how many people are expected, and when Charles says "fewer than 100," assumes that means 100, until realization dawns.  How did Charles get the money to afford this?  Well, as the revelation contains a very good joke, I won't tell you, although the same joke is in the short film, slightly altered, because in the long film Charles was married.  In fact, it was his wife who was the bigger McGwyer Mortimer fan, and the concert is because it's five years since she died.  (Yes, teetering on the maudlin, and if this film had been written by Richard Curtis, it would have fallen headlong, but this film manages to maintain its footing, and that's in great part due to Tim Key, who plays Charles.  

It's a beautiful performance, because Charles is essentially very annoying: he's an inveterate witterer, who reminded me wincingly of a rather tragic figure from my friend circle at college, but who reveals a wounded soul in small glimpses.)  And, of course, Herb also works out that Charles has invited the other half of McGwyer Mortimer, Nell, over whom he is not.  However, to his shock, she (Carey Mulligan) shows up with husband in tow - an American, no less - and she lives in Portland selling Pickles (sounds like a nursery rhyme) but is also a bit short of cash, so showed up for the gig anyway.  (Her husband, who is annoying in a different way, but a lot sharper than he initially appears, winkles it out of Charles that Herb is being paid $500K while Nell is only being paid $300K.  Conveniently the husband is a birder and vanishes for an unrealistically long time (given the tiny size of the island) in search of puffins, giving time for the three main characters to hang out and for Herb to realize how deep his feelings for Nell still are.  However, things don't go perhaps as you might imagine, thankfully, although it is plenty heart-tugging.  Throw in Sian "the sister from Fleabag" Clifford as the woman who minds the shop 

as a potential love interest for Charles (although she appears slightly simple - probably just badly written - which might be just as well if she's to take Charles's wittering).

Most of the film is hanging out in nice scenery, 

playing plausible folk songs, setting off paper candle-driven balloons 

and the like.  Basically it's a Local Hero for the '20s, albeit in Wales, and without the rabbit killing.  But there are enough very solid jokes, and Charles and Herb/Chris have a good enough comedic chemistry (and Herb and Nell a convincing enough romantic one) 

that it's a very enjoyable time.  Recommended.  (Although be warned: you may end up coveting Charles's house.)