MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Dir: Rob Marshall, 2018). New Years Resolution Is Going Well. Second Movie Of The

MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Dir: Rob Marshall, 2018). New Year’s resolution is going well. Second movie of the year Mary Poppins Returns. The second best Mary Poppins movie I have seen. (Third best if you include Saving Mr Banks.) 
100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

THE SECRET OF THE LOCH (Dir: Milton Rosmer, 1934). My quest to watch as many movies as I can in 2019 continues with movie number 3: The Secret of the Loch. It’s a little bit ancient, a little bit silly and a little bit entertaining. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

I CONFESS (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, 1953).

While I Confess is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser known films, it is certainly not one of his lesser works. The plot concerns a Catholic Priest to whom is confessed a murder which his oath prevents him from telling the authorities of. Knowledge of a pre-priesthood affair with a married woman who was being blackmailed by the victim implicates the priest as the culprit.

While Montgomery Clift is not the obvious casting choice as a Catholic priest he acquits himself well here. Nobody does angst like Monty and Hitchcock, famously not a fan of the method acting to which Clift subscribed, extracts a nuanced and believable performance from the star in a seemingly difficult part. Able support comes from Anne Baxter as his former lover and Karl Malden as the dogged investigating officer.

While not as showy as much of Hitchcock’s work - nobody dangles from the Statue of Liberty or is pursued across Mount Rushmore - it is beautiful shot in black and white on the Quebec locations on which it is set. This unfamiliar setting gives the film a decidedly un-Hollywood atmosphere, maybe a contributing factor to the film’s popularity in France while it was overlooked in the US.

While it is perhaps the most uncharacteristically Hitchcockian of the director’s work, I Confess holds up as a unique, unfairly neglected gem.

100+ movie reviews now available on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.

SATAN MET A LADY (Dir: William Dieterle, 1936). Hollywood’s second adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon is, in spite of the presence of Bette Davis, its weakest. Davis is reputed to have referred to this comedy take on the famous thriller as ‘trash’. That said, Ms Davis is never less than watchable and I could forgive her almost anything. Even trash. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

KING OF THIEVES (Dir: James Marsh, 2018) My quest to watch as many movies as I can in 2019 continues with movie King of Thieves. Based on the true story of the Hatton Garden safe burglary of 2015, King of Thieves is something of a sweary throwback to the British crime caper films of yore. The Italian Job’s Michael Caine stars as criminal mastermind Brian Reader and, as his criminal cohorts, is supported by a top notch cast including Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent and various other Harry Potter cast members. The real-life crime was as audacious as its perpetrators were ultimately careless and is neatly told here against the London locations on which it took place. While King of Thieves won’t change cinema history it is stylish, old-fashion (in a good way), frequently humorous and well worth a watch! 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

RIP Dave Smith; founder of The Walt Disney Archives and its chief archivist from 1970 to 2010. He also authored some fine books on the Disney Studios.