What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Trenchfriend]

Ever see Belle de Jour with Catherine Deneuve by director Luis Bunel?

Nope, but thanks for the tip!

 

[Trenchfriend]

What should I say? I just enjoyed "Les choses de la vie" (1970) so much.

 

[Harp]

What should I say? I just enjoyed "Les choses de la vie" (1970) so much.

Have you seen Valkyrie with Tom Cruise as Klaus von Stauffenberg?
I caught an extraordinarily interesting YouTube clip or two and made mental note to view,
figured if Branagh consented its script and format it had to have some heft.

 

[Edward]

I've watched a dozen or eighteen films in the last month, a good half of those on either end of a last-minute work trip to Beijing in mid December. Lots of good stuff, with honourable mentions for Weapons and the Mad Max Furiosa spin off. Of particular relevance to this place, though.... A reviewing of Sinners showed it up to be every bit as good as I considered it to be in a cinema viewing last year. I'd love to see more of the Sinners universe. A Smoke and Stock prequel on how they made their money in Chicago. Or maybe a sequel focussing on the vampire brother's long life between the 20s and 1992. A film following the career of Preacher Boy Sammy (blues guitarist by night, vampire hunter by day...).

Also finally caught the latest Fantastic Four picture a while back. Loved that. Not a Marvel property I've much cared for over the years, though I have seen all the other film versions and they were... ok. Ish. This one, though, really worked for me with the period setting (which to my eye was a retro-futurist run on that pre-Kennedy assassination part of the early 60s that was still really the 1950s). Not as boombastic as the Avengers pictures nor as important, perhaps, as Black Panther, but I enjoyed it far more. Also nice after so many pictures where Marvel kept upping the anti with more and more heroes in them to see it concentrate on and stick to one property (unless you want to split hairs and call the Silver Surfer another). I don't expect to see a sequel to this one as it didn't set the market alight, I know, but I'd sooner watch that than another run of Spiderman in an Iron Man suit versus too many villains, or three million Avengers in case you get bored if one has the time for any character development. Ironically enough, that said I'm up for Secret Wars, but I wish they would do it as a series rather than films. I read the entire run of the comic book back in December 1987, and I fear they'll be sorely mistaken if they think that can all be neatly plotted into a pat trilogy without losing much of the quality of the storyline. I'd love to see a series that gave it some depth, not least given what it could do with the hints here and there of the psychological impact on the various superheroes and villains as they slogged out a long-running war far away from home.

 

[Edward]

Have you seen Valkyrie with Tom Cruise as Klaus von Stauffenberg?
I caught an extraordinarily interesting YouTube clip or two and made mental note to view,
figured if Branagh consented its script and format it had to have some heft.

A surprisingly good picture - and I say that as someone who loathes Cruise pictures as a rule. It seemed to be a rare production in which he acted rather than just pumping out another slop of the Tom Cruise A-Lister Persona, and it was all the better for it.

 

[Fading Fast]

Postmark for Danger (1955) Robert Beatty, Terry Moore, Josephine Griffin, William Sylvester, and Geoffrey Keen,


Not noir, but maybe noir adjacent, Postmark for Danger is a good, albeit a bit confusing, mid-century British crime drama from a time when British cinema was using smart stories and quality acting to compete against the bigger budgets of Hollywood.

That strategy doesn't fully work in this one – the script is too confusing and the cast too uneven for it to rise above its modest aspirations – but it's still an entertaining movie with some engaging actors that keeps you watching till the end.

A London commercial artist, played by Robert Beatty, pleasantly rejects the affections of one of his regular models, played by Josephine Griffin, so instead, she gets engaged to a cold, wealthy man. At about the same time, Beatty learns one of his brothers has just died in a car crash in Italy.

He receives this news from his third brother, played by William Sylvester, a cargo pilot. The Italian police believe the car crash, which also took the life of a female passenger, was an accident, but Scotland Yard's investigator, played by Geoffrey Keen, is suspicious.

That is the setup, and it's worth keeping it in mind, as things only get much more confusing from here. The first twist involves the father of the girl who died in the car crash – both bodies were burned beyond recognition – commissioning Beatty to paint a portrait of his deceased daughter.

Working from a photograph and a dress the girl once wore, Beatty is making progress on the painting until he returns to his studio one day to find the portrait has been defaced and a woman lies dead in his bedroom wearing the dress.

With a flimsy alibi, Keen is suspicious of Beatty and even considers him a suspect in his brother's death. There's more: the dead woman from the car crash – Laura-like from Laura, but played here by Terry Moore – shows up alive in Beatty's studio saying she wasn't in the car.

Now the story becomes a swirl of confusing events, including a sleazy used-car dealer trying to sell a key piece of evidence related to the Italian car crash, a suic*de or murder, another murder, and all sorts of intrigue around a postcard with a bottle of Chianti drawn on it.

Good luck trying to put all the pieces together before the tangle is explained at the end, but you'll still enjoy the pretty good ride, especially as Keen does that relentlessly persistent yet mannered thing Scotland Yard investigators do so well.

He's so good, as is Griffin, that you wish the movie had focused on them instead of Beatty and Moore. Beatty is fine, but a bit wooden; plus, the man just doesn't read artist – factory worker or businessman, yes, but not artist. Look for his fight scenes; he doesn't fight like an artist.

Moore, a talented actress, sleepwalks her way through parts of this movie. Since we don't know until the end what Moore's character's motives are, maybe she was attempting to be "mysterious," but it comes off as unengaged with the role.

You'll wish she and Griffin had switched roles and the entire effort had been written from Keen's perspective. They had a better movie hiding inside the one they made.

Beatty's studio is the main set and it's good; still, it won't fool you, as it looks like it's from a stage play. Thankfully, though, the movie opens up a bit with some on-location filming around London, all shot in that gorgeous black-and-white stock British cinema used back then.

It's not noir in look or feel, but it does have a noirish story and a few moments when you sense the dark ennui of film noir creeping in. Yet it's really just a solid police drama told from the perspective of a suspect – the one guy who inadvertently connects most of the dots.

Confusing scripts need better payoff than Postmark for Danger provides, nevertheless, it is well worth the watch for its overall thoughtful effort and a few very good performances. Plus today, it's valuable simply for being a very good postwar-England time capsule.

 

[Harp]

A surprisingly good picture - and I say that as someone who loathes Cruise pictures as a rule. It seemed to be a rare production in which he acted rather than just pumping out another slop of the Tom Cruise A-Lister Persona, and it was all the better for it.

Nor do I favor Cruise; however, the snippet seen showed a mature thespian instead of staid
adolescent, and I concluded Branagh was a definite step up in class served notice. Branagh forced Cruise's
best, which even Paul Newman couldn't do in The Color of Money. Anyway, the doomed elegiac legendary
plot itself recommends interest. Branagh's capable presence. And Cruise kicked in the keister.

 

[Fading Fast]

Great Expectations (1946) with John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Tony Wager, Martita Hunt, Jean Simmons, Francis L. Sullivan, and Finlay Currie


Starting with good source material makes a difference; starting with Charles Dickens makes all the difference in the world. Still, good source material, even Dickens, can be brutalized, but thankfully, not here in the hands of director David Lean and the movie's talented cast.

Lean, who co-wrote the screenplay, showed much respect for Great Expectations by faithfully adapting it, with not too many variations from the novel. Instead, at almost every turn, he thoughtfully brought Dickens' world to life.

The story is too complex to easily summarize, but as a thumbnail, in 19th-century England, a young boy of humble background – a blacksmith's apprentice – is, through a series of happenstances, lifted out of that world and made a "gentleman with great expectations."

Nothing is ever that simple, though, as the young man, "Pip," played by Tony Wager as a boy and John Mills as an adult, has an encounter with a convict at seven, becomes the occasional companion to a rich woman in adolescence, and, as noted, is eventually made a gentleman.

Central to it all is the rich woman's young ward, played by Jean Simmons, who toys with Wager – a meanness encouraged by the old woman, played by Martita Hunt. Simmons would fire up Wager's inchoate libido and then haughtily dismiss him.

The Act I scenes where Simmons lets Wager "kiss her" (a chaste peck on the cheek) are early signs of aborning s*xual politics: Simmons, a few years older, knows exactly what she is doing and is luxuriating not in the prurience, but the power that twists poor Wager around.

All the above disparate threads and more are pulled together as Act Two unfolds, now with Simmons giving way to Valerie Hobson, who plays the ward as a young woman – more polished, but as haughty and selfish as ever – and who now fires up Mills' adult libido.

By Act Three, you're emotionally spent, but can't afford to be, as overlapping stories get exposed, plotlines get settled, and several relationships are resolved. You learn one thing you knew going in: Dickens is one of the great storytellers of all time.

He knows to never hang a g*n and not use it. and he knows how to wrap all his storylines together. He even raises his hand and says, "yes, this is a coincidence, but here's why it's believable," regarding a lawyer with a couple of clients who, just a bit too conveniently, overlap.

That lawyer, played by Francis L. Sullivan, walks off with almost every scene he's in. Oversized, loud, brilliant, confident, cocky; he's also honorable in a real way as he'll bend facts within the law, but on the big issues, his moral north star guides him to integrity every time.

Look for the scene where Sullivan is talking to Mills about Finlay Currie, who plays the convict from Wager's boyhood, but for legal reasons they cannot acknowledge they are talking about Currie or even know where he is. It's a masterclass in smartly nuanced writing and acting.

There are too many fine performances to call them all out: Simmons is pitch perfect, Wager captivates, Hunt is haunting, Mills serene, and others not even noted here – like Finlay Currie's incredible portrayal of a complex convict – stay with you long after the movie ends.

All of this would probably have worked on a bare stage where you had to fill in the set details, but Lean created a visually engaging world in crisp black and white cinematography. The famed director knows when to let a scene unfold naturally until he perfectly shifts angles or lighting.

His smooth transitions, meaningful pauses, captivating use of shadows, and even the use of the sound of wind hint at his coming work in future classics including Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago. It's movie making in full.

There is no way you'll miss them because the scenes in Hunt's dilapidated mansion use atmosphere, light, dust, and sound so powerfully you'll forget you're watching a movie. It's one medium bringing to life another medium in the best way a movie maker can.

Honor, class, integrity, selfishness, charity, family, friends, love, hate, money, and s*x are just some of the big issues that collide in Dickens' timeless tale of human passions, emotions, courage, and cowardness – with almost all of them centered around humble "Pip."

Reading Dickens (aloud if possible) is the perfect way to start. But if you already have read Great Expectations or just want to see a faithful and impressive adaptation, this 1946 version is the one to start with. It will exhaust and haunt you in the best way possible.

 

[Harp]

^ David Lean. Jean Simmons. John Mills.

Ladies first. Years ago, a professional acquaintance and I were having dinner, and converse wandered
to film and Hollywood, where he had motion picture production ties. JFK chased Ms Simmons all over LA,
but her agent forbade her go anywhere near him. Later, she started voicing her abject disappointment
over missing out on the lad and all. Hot-to-trot-but-apparently not. Jean really wanted Jack's scalp.

David Lean directed Ryan's Daughter, a 1970 Flaubert recast of Madame Bovary set in 1917-18 ****** Peninsula,
County Kerry, Ireland after the Easter Rebellion. Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles are two-thirds a triangle
with Christopher Jones, an English officer nearby garrisoned. John Mills plays a town simpleton
to considerable effect; taking home Oscar as ***-life achievement award.
Ryan's Daughter is lightning inside a bottle cast adrift off the southwestern Irish coast.

 

[EngProf]

What is a six-letter word that goes with "Peninsula" that the AI robot doesn't like??

 

[Harp]

What is a six-letter word that goes with "Peninsula" that the AI robot doesn't like??

D-i-n-g-l-e, not to be confused with dangle; because the angle-of-the-dangle is in reverse proportion
to the heat-of-the-meat. To borrow from the late Jacques Barzun; whose Dawn To Decadence opus
is must reading, the book to read is Anton Myrer's The Last Convertible. A semi-biographic Harvard
Class of '44 yarn to devour if haven't. A not bad television series done in the 1980s chaser.

Also, I heartily recommend Ryan's Daughter. Mitchum fought with Lean throughout its production,
but considered the film some of his finest work. And, definitely Sarah Miles as the ***ually frustrated
colleen turgid behind unconsumated marital chastity.
Irish girls can raise the dead, doncha knows lad.

 

[Jon Crow]

Have you seen Valkyrie with Tom Cruise as Klaus von Stauffenberg?
I caught an extraordinarily interesting YouTube clip or two and made mental note to view,
figured if Branagh consented its script and format it had to have some heft.

I like Valkyrie, interesting movie

 

[Jon Crow]

D-i-n-g-l-e, not to be confused with dangle; because the angle-of-the-dangle is in reverse proportion
to the heat-of-the-meat. To borrow from the late Jacques Barzun; whose Dawn To Decadence opus
is must reading, the book to read is Anton Myrer's The Last Convertible. A semi-biographic Harvard
Class of '44 yarn to devour if haven't. A not bad television series done in the 1980s chaser.

Also, I heartily recommend Ryan's Daughter. Mitchum fought with Lean throughout its production,
but considered the film some of his finest work. And, definitely Sarah Miles as the ***ually frustrated
colleen turgid behind unconsumated marital chastity.
Irish girls can raise the dead, doncha knows lad.

Oh yes, never underestimate a pretty Colleen

 

[Harp]

Oh yes, never underestimate a pretty Colleen

I waited table at a local Holiday Inn when around fourteen. A staff front desk clerk named Shauna,
fresh off the boat, just knocked me out. Grace, beauty, and elegance. A daughter of Ireland and Venus.
I've never forgotten her. My mother thought Irishmen were the worst bachelors, and, I know I disappointed
her by not marrying, but the kid brother made up for it. If a genie ever shows a magic lamp and gives three wishes, Shauna would be my first wish.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Ladykillers (1955) with Alec Guinness, Katie Johnson, Herbert Lom, and Peter Sellers


Farce or black comedy is hard to pull off, as it often risks slipping into camp. The Ladykillers walks near that line a few times, but its cast, headed by Alec Guinness, knows how to keep even a ridiculous moment from getting out of control. It's still not believable, but it is a whole lot of fun.

How many movies are really believable anyway? Complicated heist films lend themselves to humor, as the efforts are normally so crazy that only those with a touch of the absurd would attempt them. There's a reason the heist-comedy genre is so busy throughout movie history.

Here, Guinness' gang, which includes a young Peter Sellers and veteran Herbert Lom, plans to rob an armored car. First, Guinness rents rooms in a strategically located house – from an old widow – to use as the gang's headquarters under the cover of the gang being musicians.

Katie Johnson plays the old widow as a sweet, slightly dotty woman – she's always offering to make tea and she treats her parrots like her children. Yet her pleasantness also has an old-person's obstinance. It's not bred of meanness or arrogance, just a "set in their ways" mentality.

Being kind, she sees "the boys" as nice men, and they – other than Lom, who is mad at the world – become fond of her in a protective way. She's even duped into helping with the heist – in a quirky, unaware manner, she ferries the money safely home after they've stolen it.

Then things get crazier and funnier, but you'll want to see how this unwinds fresh; just know that, like every movie heist ever, nothing goes smoothly. All heist strategies are like military battleplans – they look great on paper until the first shot is fired.

What works really well is Guinness and his collection of misfit crooks juxtaposed with a sweet, honest, but slightly batty-in-the-belfry old woman. With the money back at the house, things break down, but the boys don't want to hurt Johnson. Yet, they might have to, to succeed.

At one point, the boys are drawing lots to see who will have to do the deed, but still they can't bring themselves to do it. These are criminals pulling a large heist – desperate men – but hurting, or doing worse to, a sweet old lady who's been kind to them has them all queasy.

Everybody plays his character one notch past reality, but not two. Guinness is a bit mad as the genius leader, but he still has enough humanity to almost make you root for him. The rest of the gang, too, are all a bit off, but none zoom into an orbit that makes you dislike them.

Even Lom, angry as he is, has enough humanity left in him to know you can kill a cop or cheat a fellow crook, but my God, man, you can't just kill a kind old lady in cold blood. For her part, Johnson all but steals the movie.

Her kind, naive stubbornness – a complete blindness to the men's criminality and even an only partial acceptance of it when it's revealed – is a thing of acting beauty, as you understand why these bullying men are helpless when facing her.

Heck, these tough guys can't ruin her tea party with her old-lady friends even if not doing so increases the risk of capture. Some things just aren't done. Johnson's is an Oscar-worthy performance.

Shot on location around London and in color – but not "bright" color – director Alexander Mackendrick gave his movie the look and feel of a real heist picture, but one that knows at times not to take itself too seriously.

The spectacle of five determined criminals blunted by a half-batty old lady is wonderful farce if it doesn't become absurd, which somehow, here it doesn't. That is the genius of The Ladykillers: a film that occasionally has you tense, but much more often smiling.

 

[Harp]

^^
A vague memory...didn't Tom Hanks feature in a film awhile back titled same?
Seems a recast effort of this classic, which probably shouldn't be touched.

The absolute antithesis of a tongue in cheeker criminal flick is DeNiro's Heat.
Cold blooded first degree murder whenever necessary-or not. And so methodical,
precisely planned down to arcane legal cognizance mixed contemporary every day
marriage stuff like Val Kilmer's wife problem played by what's her beautiful gorgeous self?
Gotta see it if haven't. Should be requisite law school One-L Criminal Law.

 

[Edward]

^^
A vague memory...didn't Tom Hanks feature in a film awhile back titled same?
Seems a recast effort of this classic, which probably shouldn't be touched.

He did, and it was indeed a remake. I have never seen it, but it reviewed very poorly and I think bombed at the box office as memory serves. 2004, I think.

I saw the Linehan stage adaptation in the West End in 2011 with Peter Capaldi (pre-Doctor Who) as the gang leader. It worked rather well on stage.

 

[Fading Fast]

Hell's Highway (1932) with Richard Dix, Tom Brown, and C. Henry Gordon


The thing you learn watching prison pictures from the early 1930s is that, back then, you didn't want to be in a prison in the south, in general, and you really didn't want to be part of a chain gang from a prison in the south, specifically.

Movies like Hell's Highway and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) – Hell's Highway came out first but is less well known today – make it clear that there are all but no rules to control the sad*stic guards and profiteering overseers who treat the prisoners like beasts of burden to be worked and beaten until they fall.

That – as noted in a public service announcement right at the opening of Hell's Highway – is the point of these movies: to garner public awareness and push for prison reform. Over the years, legislation did pass and conditions did dramatically change for the better.

None of that, however, would help in 1932. Here, a group of chain-gang prisoners live in a ramshackle camp as they build a road under heavy guard, with poor food, poor hygiene facilities, and cruel punishment. The men are even locked in chains and to their bunks at night.

Richard Dix plays one of the prisoners who, owing to his strong personality, is a de facto leader of the men, but he can do little to change conditions or save a man from being put in the "sweatbox," a small corrugated-metal shack set in the sun that they lock men in as punishment.

A construction company won a contract to build a road with a low bid that includes using prison labor. To turn a profit, the foreman has to work the men nearly to death. Most of the prison guards go along because they are sad*stic and because they get kickbacks from the contractor.

There are a few decent guards and even a ringer sent in by the state to investigate, but it's too little. At some point Dix's kid brother, played by Tom Brown, arrives as a prisoner, which forces Dix to agree to be a better prisoner in exchange for better treatment for his brother.

What happens is the only thing that can happen in these movies: the men try to break out but get caught. The men also riot and destroy much of the camp bringing needed attention, but the cycle repeats until outside officials step in and take over.

The movie is good at capturing the "culture" of the camp, including a Bible-quoting bigamist, black prisoners singing elegiac folk songs, and the excitement of visiting day. The climax centers on a big escape, the ensuing manhunt, and the fallout opening the window for reform.

Dix is solid as the smart veteran prisoner, but the real star isn’t the top-billed actor – it’s the brutal, unforgiving prison itself. The point of the movie is to show the public how bad conditions are and to advocate for reform. You identify less with Dix and just think, man, I don't want to ever be there.

On the other side of the divide, C. Henry Gordon plays the sad*stic, crooked head guard who makes you afraid of what a human can become. Until the Naz*s in World War II came along, southern prison guards ranked high on the list of evil humans.

Change eventually did come, but as always, true reform takes a long time, as – especially in the south – cruel treatment of prisoners was almost part of the culture. There was a belief that these men were getting what they deserve.

The writers create a framework that has you forgetting that part of the equation: the part that these are prisoners who have done some very bad things. After all, we learn Dix is a four-time offender – he's no good soul unjustly trapped in a cruel system.

Regardless, prison should never be cruel. Spartan but fair is fine; cruel, never. Unjust treatment of prisoners still appears in the headlines today – sometimes it's true, sometimes exaggerated – but rarely institution wide as prison-reform advocacy is now an active field.

With a small budget and early talkie wonkiness, the appeal of Hell's Highway is that it exists – that it stands as a cultural marker of the period that said this is happening in some prisons and we want it to stop. Reform is always a long road, but it starts with awareness.

We don't have the balance perfected today as there are still problems, but movies like Hell's Highway helped to move the needle far in the right direction. These old prison movies also remind us that, contrary to our most negative thoughts, sometimes things really do get better.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) with Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, and David Niven


Two things come together nicely in The Prisoner of Zenda: Anthony Hope's popular novel and Hollywood's incredible talent in the 1930s for making romantic swashbuckling "historical" movies, especially if you care more about the romance and swashbuckling than the history.

Hope's novel, set in the late 19th century in a fictional European kingdom, perfectly fits 1930s Tinseltown's love of movies about that type of generic, fake European kingdom – especially one where the throne is up for grabs while pretty maidens and adventurers await a new king.

Madeleine Carroll and Mary Astor do more than wait, though, as each figures in the intrigue. Carroll, playing a maiden, works from a position of integrity, while Astor, playing an adventurer, mixes it up with the boys, trying to manipulate the pieces on the chess board in her favor.

The real battle for the kingdom, though, is fought between the rightful heir to the throne, played by Ronald Colman, and his illegitimate and aggrieved conniving half-brother, played by Raymond Massey.

Massey might have won a quick victory if fate hadn't intervened to drop a perfect double of the king in Colman's lap: the double is an Englishman, also played by Colman (solves the make-them-look-alike challenge), vacationing in the kingdom and descended from the same royal line.

After more highly unlikely happenstances, including King Colman being drugged by evil Massey, Englishman Colman impersonates the king at the coronation so that the throne doesn't pass to Massey. Massey is none too pleased even before he figures out what happened.

It's Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (a lot of handsome men in this one), playing Massey's scheming noble frenemy, who pieces together what happened. In response, he kidnaps the real king and tries to force the fake king from the throne so that Massey can become king.

While all this is going on, the "fake" king falls in love with the real king's arranged-marriage princess, Carroll. She doesn't like real king Colman, but falls for the fake one, not knowing he's fake, thinking the real king's personality and character has improved.

The last piece of this convoluted little puzzle has Mary Astor playing a wealthy French woman in love with Massey who first schemes to get him on the throne, but then, realizing he'd have to marry Carroll, "re-schemes" to keep him for herself by helping Englishman Colman.

If all that sounds confusing, that's because it is and it's boiled down from the novel. You can follow it, but even if you lose a point or two here or there, the real fun is rooting for the good guys, Colman and his team, to beat the bad guys, Massey and Fairbanks Jr.

Also on Team Colman is a young David Niven as a captain and loyal aide to Colman, and C. Aubrey Smith playing to his acting brand as a slightly cantankerous but honorable colonel and long-time advisor to Colman – as he had been to Colman's father when he was king.

What you really care about by Act III is whether Colman the king will ascend to the throne and what poor Carroll will do if he does now that she's fallen in love with his doppelgänger. She'll be the only person on earth who knows if "everything" between the men is an exact duplicate (tee-hee).

The inevitable climactic castle battle for control of the kingdom is fun from beginning to end as Englishman Colman and Fairbanks Jr. have a rousing sword fight punctuated the entire time with verbal repartee. It's not that believable, but it is great entertainment if you just go with it.

It echoes the castle sword fight scene in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone – a long battle up and down stairs and over furniture, with their fortunes changing as they banter. It is done equally well here and looks cool in black and white.

The plot is a good story as these made-up royal-interregnum stories go, but the real fun in the movie is the actors, starting with Colman in his double role. Is he a good actor, yes, but does his look, refined presence, and that resonating voice make him more fun to see, yes.

An extra kick comes from Fairbanks Jr., who seems to greatly enjoy playing a villain – if he was on your side, you'd love him. Here he isn't; so you don't, except a little part of you enjoys his spirit so much that you almost forget yourself and start rooting for him.

On the distaff side, Carroll is the blonde fairmaiden – beautiful and regal – but it's Astor as the scheming Frenchwoman who has the grit to play with the boys and nearly win. Like with Fairbanks, you find yourself almost rooting for her until you remember whose team she's on.

Niven and Smith deserve mentions, too, as they're likable actors who make Team Colman more appealing. Also appealing are the lavish sets and attention to detail any David O. Selznick production receives. You won't think you're in 19th century Europe, but still, it's all very pretty.

Palace intrigue, sword fights in lugubrious castles with drawbridges held in place by spindles of heavy cord – plus, plenty of witty exchanges, snide asides, and romantic intrigue – drive the movie in a spirited swashbuckling way that smartly balances dialogue, plot twists, and action.

Go into The Prisoner of Zenda with a mindset of "I want to see a roaring 'period' swashbuckler with no real history in it, but one that 1930s Hollywood mastered" and you'll see the studio system doing what it did best: turning dreams into movies.

 

[Jon Crow]

Sean Connory, Audrey Hepburn, Robin and Marian