Steven Mcglinchey

Made by John Huston in the final year of his life, this little masterpiece was to be his swan song. All the indoor scenes of 15 Ushers’s Island were shot in a Hollywood studio. But the movies unforgettable soliloquy spoken memorably by Donal McCann as he gazes wistfully from his Gresham hotel window into the dark snowy night, was accompanied by some truly beautiful winter scenes of Ireland. The film features Angela Huston and a host of Irish character actors. An underrated unforgettable adaptation of Joyce’s masterful short story. The Dead is a tribute to all of humanity who share this brief journey through the veil of mortality. “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead”

Oppenheimer is NOT an anti war movie. For every minute that passes during the 3-hour run time of the movie Oppenheimer, 1200 citizens in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki died. If you haven’t got to see the movie it’s worth pointing out that Oppenheimer - is not an anti nuclear movie either. Nor is it a dramatic reconstruction of the devastating consequences of the use of the first nuclear bombs against the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For this, you would be better advised to seek out the superior acclaimed BBC drama documentary Hiroshima (2005.) That film graphically dramatised what it is like to live through a Nuclear attack, millisecond by horror filled millisecond. The Oppenheimer movie pretty much sidled past that part of the horror story. Oppenheimer is a well made biopic of a man, or to be more accurate - a ghoul. A man who wilfully, along with his Los Alamos buddies, messed round with plutonium, mined from thousands of uranium mines to build a weapon that would annihilate the civilian populations of two cities and possibly one day humanity. What’s good: A fast paced immersive movie into the allegedly tortured mind of the director of the Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer. His team delivered a fission bomb to the US airforce at the cost of $2 billion dollars. The lead up to and the culmination of the Trinity Test contains the movie’s strongest moments. What’s bad: The story of the creation of the worst imaginable weapon and the consequences of its use is virtually skimmed over in favour of the McCarthy era security hearing of Oppenheimer in 1954, which resulted in his losing his ‘security clearance.’ The hearing, the movie shows, was secretly instigated by Levi Strauss, the director of the post war Atomic Energy Commission. Strauss who had taken over the Manhattan project in 1946, never got on with Oppenheimer, who apposed the development of the hydrogen bomb. While it’s an interesting story, it decidedly distracts from the real horror of what happened to the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and descends - somewhat - into yet another attempt to justify the actions and subsequent hegemony of the United States. They even manage to name check JFK near the end for a little old fashioned jingoism. It’s a good movie. But it would be timely for Netflix to stream When the Wind Blows (1986) and The Day After (1983) as well as the aforementioned BBC Hiroshima (2005)

Something unexpectedly moving about this little movie. An old fashioned English village Christmas, deliciously buried in snow with Carol singers, memories and some bitter revelations. A solid cast with Ralph Richardson as the Irish born pastor. Celia Johnston as his daughter who has stayed at home to look after him. Denholm Elliot ( so young here), Margaret Leighton ( at her most elegant and beautiful), John Gregson and the wonderful Margaret Delaney add sparkle to the tale. A forgotten gem finally getting the notice it deserves

An epic and totally engrossing tale of two families and their friends who are swept up by the tide of war. What this drama achieved along with its magnificent sequel War and Remembrance, was to demonstrate how the Nazi dehumanising of European Jews was a gradual malignancy, but coldly planned. The full horror of the Holocaust creeps up on you. The story begins some years prior to WW2 and you are carried on a wave all the way through till its bitter but redemptive finale. Robert Mitchum in his last significant role heads a stellar cast. Some cast changes were made in the sequel ( not Mitchum) but it still worked. I couldn’t recommended it more highly.

The Court Jester is pure joy. One of the funniest laugh out loud movies ever made. Danny Kaye was never better. The screenplay by Melvyn Frank and Norman Panama is hysterically funny. Think of the Marx Brothers Duck Soup and Shrek, only better than both. The plot is as old as the hills but so beautifully played: an awkward carnival performer ( Kaye) is recruited by his Robin Hood style leader known as The Fox, to pose as Giacomo - “ king of jesters, jester to the kings!” His task, to enter the palace of an evil ruler who has usurped the throne from the rightful king. Thankfully it has aged very well should not offend 21st century social attitudes. In simple terms it’s a timeless family classic. A stellar supporting cast all join in the fun including Basil Rathbone, Angela “if he dies, you die!” Lansbury, Cecil Parker, Glynis Johns, Robert Middleton, John Carradine and Mildred Natwick.

I first saw this movie late one night in the early 1980s when the BBC devoted an entire evening to rock n roll history. I can’t overstate the impact it had on me. As a cultural milestone ( it is set just before the post WW2 American dream begins to unravel following the assassination of JFK) and a masterpiece of cinema in storytelling, cinematography and sound design, it is a movie you can return to again and again. In many ways American Graffiti is not so much a ‘coming of age’ story as it’s often glibly summarised but rather a wistful goodbye to an age of innocence which everyone shares in their short time on Earth. It launched the careers of several famous directors and actors. It’s rare when everything goes right in a film, this is one of those films. It is a joy to watch. See it!

“Yay Ho little feesh don’t cry, don’t cry!” A true classic. Spencer Tracy’s dodgy Portuguese accent may have been a tad off the mark but his performance as Manuel Fidello the Fisherman earned him an Oscar. A lovely film version of a great Kipling tale about a spoiled rich brat, wonderfully portrayed by Fred Bartholomew, who falls off an ocean liner only to be fished out of the ocean by Manuel.