Hiroshima Mon Amour - 1959 *

I know this is supposed to be a masterpiece but I found the entire concept of the movie very upsetting. The footage of Hiroshima was too much and made me feel quite distressed. I remember studying Hiroshima at school and the impact it had on me then was tremendous. The actors did their best with what they had and I appreciate it was a tricky idea to execute but I found the film matter a bit much and it left me feeling very unsettled for hours afterwards.

Our Man in Havana - 1959 ***

With such a wonderful cast you would imagine that this would be a wonderful film. But it wasn't what I expected at all. I like Alec Guinness very much but felt there was something distinctly lacking in this film. I felt sort of the same way watching 'The Man in The White Suit.' Guinness plays the owner of a vacuum cleaner shop in Cuba who is roped into recruiting a network of spies by the British Secret Service. He doesn't have a clue what he is doing however which leads to some very interesting situations.

If you compare his acting range in this to him in 'The Ladykillers' you would be forgiven in thinking it was another actor.

Not as much as a masterpiece from the normally excellent Carol Reed as I had hoped.

A Summer Place - 1959 ***

The best thing about this film was the theme tune, I think I knew that before I started watching it. The movie cannot compare to how wonderful and typically 50s the music is.

The movie has become dated, despite the fact it deals with many modern topics such as adultery and teenage pregnancy.

Sandra Dee is utterly infuriating but she isn't the worst thing about the film by far.

A couple and their daughter (Dee) go to a lovely resort on an island in Maine for the summer to spend time together and when they arrive the father bumps into the love of his life whom he left a number of years ago when last at the island. She is now also married and has a son (Richard Egan), but both of them realise they still have feelings for each other and that they are still married to their spouses purely because of convention and their children. The same time they are there, the daughter and the son of the 2 families meet and fall hopelessly in love, despite the almost tyrannical afflictions of the girl's mother, who is completely backward in her way of modern thinking, and believes her daughter is becoming some sort of harlot.

Despite being forbidden to meet or see each other the couple exchange words on the phone and letters when they are back home and plan to meet secretly whenever they can. The next big blow comes when the daughter's father and the son's mother publicly divorce their partners and get married. The 2 children are distraught and refuse to accept it despite going up to spend time with the family in their lovely new home.

The film plays out like a modern day soap opera and the acting is completely ridiculous and over the top. The characters are mostly unlikeable (except for the father of the daughter and the mother of the son) and watching Dee and Egan exchanging romantic words and acting up to their parents gets completely predictable.

This film is only popular (I'm assuming it is actually popular although I have never heard anyone mention the fineness of the film without leaping in to praise the music) because of the breaktaking theme music immortalised by Percy Faith. Nothing more.

Too Many Crooks - 1959 ***

I think in all honesty, that if Terry Thomas and Sid James hadn't propped up the majority of this film then I would have been rather disappointed.

A gang of crooks set out to kidnap a wealthy man's (Thomas) daughter, but get his wife instead who, unbeknownst to them is driving her husband up the wall. The initial excitement of having kidnapped his beloved and thinking of the huge ransom they can ask for is short-lived when he tells them that they can have her for nothing because he's fed up of her and has his eye on his new secretary.

Hearing this, his wife decides to get her own and join the crooks, and help them to a vast sum of his money, stupidly stashed under the floorboards of his house.

The plot sounds funny and it really is, but I felt the presence of some actors (such as Bernard Bresslaw) really dampened the mood. Bresslaw would later go on to play in the Carry on films with Sid James, but his character is so desperately unfunny and dull that it's only luck that gives us Sid James to actually make us laugh. (Why is Sid James always called 'Sidney' in his films??)

Terry Thomas is always funny, and as I said at the top, without him this film would not be as well thought of as it is. Despite being a thoroughly unpleasant character he still manages to be charming and very 'caddish' which only Thomas can be. 3 stars for him.

The Tingler - 1959 ****

This is a totally bizarre film with the always wonderful Vincent Price.

This time, Vincent stars as a scientist who discovers a parasite that feeds on the fear of humans, named the Tingler (aptly named because it makes the victim's spine tingle when they are scared). After finding out that his friend's wife who is deaf and mute has died from shock, he sets out to discover the truth about her death.

It's very camp, but actually some scenes are very scary, and I did have to look away sometimes.

The tingler is the weirdest looking creation, sort of a cross between a person's spine and a large caterpillar and there is a particularly eerie scene in a theatre where the tingler is loose amoung the audience. Watch for Price, preferably on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Pickpocket - 1959 ***

I don't feel really that I am qualified enough to comment properly on Bresson's work, for he's obviously one of the great cinematic directors of all time, but I would just like to say that I found 'pickpocket' to be an incredibly skillful and sharp production of the highest quality, even down to the precise slight of hand tricks that the main character pulls of to pick pockets. The story is simple, but I suppose you could say that it works on many levels as a morality tale, or just a thrilling ride with a man who has the stealthiest fingers ever. Either way you should watch this film.