Young at heart (Doris Day)

(Amazon UK link)

Another Tuesday evening, another opportunity to watch a film with my husband. We had quite liked ‘Pillow talk’, with Doris Day, when we watched it in September. So we decided to watch another film with the same star, which we were given by a friend who was downsizing earlier in the year. 

Doris Day plays a young woman called Laurie in this film. She lives with her father, her father’s sister Aunt Jessie (wonderfully portrayed by Ethel Barrymore), and her two older sisters in a large mansion. Her father Greg (Robert Keith) is a musician, and all three girls have learned to play instruments so they often play together in an ensemble. Fran (Dorothy Malone ), the oldest of the girls, arrives back from a date with Bob (Alan Hale Jr) and announces that they are engaged.

Laurie and her middle sister Amy (Elisabeth Fraser) talk about having a double wedding, or staying old maids together. Laurie has no young man in mind, although it’s clear that their plumber Ernie (Lonny Chapman) is very keen on Amy. Into their lives - via a litter of puppies at their neighbour’s - comes a competent, confident young man called Alex (Gig Young). He composes musicals, rather to Greg’‘s disgust, but he’s full of charm and very persuasive. He not only has dinner with the family, making it clear that he’s very attracted to Laurie, but becomes a house guest.

All three of the girls like Alex very much, despite him being somewhat overbearing at times, but he has eyes only for Laurie. We see them at the beach, and there are some light-hearted moments - it’s not a comedy, exactly, but there were places where I smiled. There might have been amusing comments that I missed since the dialogue was quite fast and strongly accented, so I realised that I missed quite a bit. 

We knew that Frank Sinatra was billed as Doris Day’s co-star but he doesn’t appear until quite a way into the film. He plays Barney, a cynical, rather depressed musician who plays in restaurants, and who does the arranging of Alex’s music. Barney is convinced that life is against him, that he will never have a ‘hit’, and that if anything good happens, he’ll soon be brought down. 

Laurie, who is cheerful and upbeat, can't believe that anyone can be quite as cynical as Barney. She does her best to persuade him to smile, and to be more positive, not realising that he is starting to fall for her. She and Alex seem made for each other...

The acting, 1950s style, is over-played, and we didn’t think there was much chemistry between any of the characters, let alone the ones who ended up getting married. There’s a fair bit of singing - not ‘musical’ style, but in appropriate situations; mostly in the house, as part of a family get-together, or elsewhere, trying out a new song. Both Doris Day and Frank Sinatra sing very well, of course, and I liked the music sections of the film. 

It’s quite a complex story, too. It includes some traumatic scenes, with a jilting at the altar, almost literally, and a marriage that is very one-sided. There's also a dangerous drive through a snowstorm, with increasingly ominous background music… and more. It’s perhaps a bit slow-paced by today’s standards, and some of  the direction and filming seemed a bit crude. But the story is well-told, the ending quite satisfactory.  

I doubt if we’ll watch it again, but it was worth seeing once. The rating is U, although I’d have thought PG would be more appropriate, given the tense nature of some of the incidents. But there’s no bad language, no nudity or even innuendoes.  There’s a lot of cigarette smoking, but that’s not unusual for this era.  It’s not the kind of film likely to appeal to anyone under the age of about 12 anyway. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Cutting Edge (Moira Kelly, DB Sweeney)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly eleven years since we watched the DVD of ‘The Cutting Edge’. We remembered that it was about ice skating, but nothing much else. Indeed, we briefly confused it with the film ‘Ice Princess’, which we saw in 2021.

This film opens at the 1988 winter Olympics, but starts with two separate storylines. Kate (Moira Kelly) is a wealthy and very spoiled figure skater. She has trained extensively, on her private rink, and is strongly encouraged by her father (Terry O’Quinn). But her arrogant attitude has lost her several different skating partners. During her performance, her current partner drops her, meaning they lose their chance of a gold medal. She doesn’t really do solo skating, so her trainer Anton (Roy Dotrice) has to find someone else to be her partner. 

Meanwhile, Doug (DB Sweeney), a young man from a much more impoverished background, is a champion ice hockey player. He is also playing in a match at the Olympics, although he arrives late after a night with a girl. It’s clear that he’s rather arrogant, too, confident in his abilities. But there’s an accident during the game, giving him a head injury, which leads to permanent damage to his peripheral vision. 

This means he can no longer participate in competitive ice hockey. His brother Walter (Chris Benson) wants him to help in the family business and he does so, playing ice hockey in a local league but hoping for more. His brother has little patience with his ambitions and doesn’t understand his need to skate. 

Unsurprisingly, Anton tracks down Doug, and invites him to try working with Kate. Doug rather looks down on figure skating, but he’s willing to give it a go. He’s shocked at the magnificence of Kate’s family home and her private rink, and rather scathing at what he is expected to do. He struggles at first with the figure skating boots, and doesn’t like Kate laughing at him when he falls down. They have a lot of conflict, but he’s persuaded to stay… 

Most of the film charts their progress as Doug realises just how strong and flexible he has to be for figure skating. He and Kate have a lot of arguments but evidently she needs someone with a strong character who is willing to stand up for her. And he’s full of determination and courage. 

There are scenes at the US national competition where Kate and Doug just scrape a place at the next winter Olympics. And then they work on a new routine which includes a dangerous and unusual move which takes them a long time to perfect. Even then they’re not sure that they’re going to include it…

Alongside this, rather inevitably, Doug and Kate realise they find each other very attractive. It’s kept as a low-key part of the story, which contributes to the film's PG rating, despite some bad (though not ‘strong’) language in places. We see Doug in a ‘morning-after’ role more than once with other women, but there’s nothing explicit. 

In a sense there isn’t much of a storyline: without the skating it would be a very predictable romance with two people clashing strongly and gradually realising they are attracted to each other. But the ice dancing makes this a different and very watchable film, with some humour as well as some exceptional skating. It’s also interesting to see how the two principals gradually mellow - just a little - realising they have to rely on and trust each other.  

I wouldn’t class it as one of my favourite films, but I’m glad we decided to watch it again, and expect we’ll get it out to see again in another decade or so. Cheesey? Undoubtedly, but the figure skating pulls it out of the ordinary.  According to the IMDb site, neither of the main actors could skate at all, so they had to undergo three months of extensive training prior to filming. I assume that some of the most advanced skating must have been done by stunt doubles although it's not mentioned anywhere that I can find. 

Recommended for teens and adults if you like films about ice skating with a bit of romance thrown in.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who Series 1 (Christopher Eccleston)

(Amazon UK link)

Although the 21st century Doctor Who revival started in 2005, we didn’t watch the first series until 2011. Since then we have gradually acquired DVDs of the various seasons and ‘specials’. We finally caught up with ourselves in June this year, when we saw the 60th anniversary specials that followed the 13th series, ‘Flux’. At that stage, there were no more DVDs to be bought. 

So we decided that we would re-watch from the beginning, starting in the middle of August when we were both back in Cyprus after travelling. It’s going to be a lengthy process, watching Doctor Who one evening per week, so we agreed that sometimes we would watch two episodes in an evening. 

Disc One

The first episode of Season One, just called ‘Rose’, is, I thought, very well done. We first meet a young woman (Billie Piper) who works in a big department store. At the end of the day, she has to take something down to the basement… and very peculiar things start happening with the display mannequins. Then her hand is grabbed by a strange man, who rushes her away and saves her. Christopher Eccleston tells her he is ‘The Doctor’, and leaves her to go home. 

But he hasn’t stopped the danger. Rose’s boyfriend Mickey (Noel Clark) is somehow assimilated and cloned, and once again the Doctor comes to the rescue - although Rose has to rescue him, too. Little bits of information about the Doctor are cleverly introduced for the benefit of anyone who was not familiar with the series before. It’s a dramatic episode, with a bit of humour here and there to lighten the mood.

The second episode, ‘The End of the World’ sees the Doctor taking Rose several billion years into the future, to the moment half an hour before the Earth is due to be destroyed. They arrive on a spaceship with many different representatives of a variety of alien races, including the last ‘human’, Lady Cassandra. She has had so many surgeries to preserve her essence that she looks nothing like a human. Inevitably there are more dangers, and sabotage, and more information about the Doctor is revealed, including the fact that his own planet (Gallifrey) no longer exists.

In the third episode, the Doctor takes Rose to the 19th century where they discover an alien force trying to take over the bodies of people who had recently died. I found it  a bit disturbing at first, but the episode is lightened by their meeting with Charles Dickens. He is played to perfection by Simon Callow, who apparently loves Dickens, and has acted his character many times. The ‘extras’ on the first DVD mention that the Doctor has not previously been shown with historical figures, although in the previous incarnations he sometimes mentioned having met them. Historical figures play a significant role in many of the later ‘new’ seasons: I had not realised that the 20th century episodes did not include these. 

Disc Two

The second DVD in our box set has three episodes. It’s a good thing we allowed the time to watch two of them, as the first two are a dual-part episode. ‘Aliens of London’ begins with Rose discovering that she’s been away for longer than expected. Then a spaceship crash-lands in the Thames, after destroying the clock face of Big Ben. This is the episode where the ‘Slitheen’ are introduced. I found them quite scary when we first saw them, thirteen years ago. This time they looked rather dated, and much less intimidating. 

There’s some humour in the episode as well as tension, and it ends on such a cliffhanger that I would have wanted to see the sequel at once, even if it had been late. That episode, ‘World War Three’, resolves the issue, as we expected. It also includes some good scenes with Rose’s mother Jackie (Camille Coduri) and also her boyfriend Mickey. Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) is introduced, as a backbencher with political ambitions. We thought she was excellent, providing some of the light relief as well as aiding in the eventual solution. 

I was not looking forward to Episode Six (third on the second DVD), simply entitled ‘Dalek’. Of all the Doctor Who enemies, the daleks are the ones who terrify me the most. But it was a very good episode. The Doctor and Rose land in a kind of museum of aliens, and discover the final dalek in existance. It is being tested and tortured to try to make it speak, but only in the presence of the Doctor does it find its voice. By the end, I almost (though not quite) found myself feeling sorry for this dalek… 

Disc Three

The third DVD begins with episode Seven, ‘The Long Game’, which features a satellite populated with humans many thousands of years in the future. They are apparently all happy, and are broadcasting news around the universe. I had vaguely remembered some of what transpired; it’s perhaps a warning not to accept the status quo, and to be suspicious of ‘promotion’ which nobody is allowed to speak about.

‘Father’s Day’ is the next episode, one I thought particularly engaging. Rose asks to go back in time to the day her father died. She’s warned about the dangers of time travel to one’s own past, and that it might be traumatic for her. But the Doctor doesn’t take into account Rose’s emotional reaction to seeing her father hit by a car. And then it becomes rather disturbing, with results quite at odds with the principles established in the very different ‘Quantum Leap’ series. But I very much liked the background into Rose’s life, and the scenes involving her mother Jackie.

It’s a good thing we had plenty of time the following week when we watched ‘The Empty Child’, another episode that’s full of human interest. The Doctor and Rose arrive in London during the Blitz, to find odd things happening after a strange object landed near a hospital. Jack Harkness, another time traveller from the distant future, is introduced in this episode. I recalled him appearing every so often throughout the series, with a mixed kind of relationship with the Doctor and his companions. John Barrowman is excellent as a charming rogue who rather bewitches Rose, and makes the Doctor oddly jealous.

That episode ended on such a cliffhanger that we immediately watched its sequel,’The Doctor Dances’. Again there’s a lot of human interaction and some insights into the London Blitz. For instance, we see a young girl, stealing from wealthy houses during air raids in order to feed hungry boys. And the conclusion of this double episode was, we both thought, very well done and entirely satisfactory. 

Disc Four

The fourth DVD in our box set contains the last three episodes of Series One. The first, ‘Boom Town’ takes place in Cardiff. The Doctor, Rose and Jack think they’re just relaxing for a few hours while the Tardis recharges. But it’s quite a stressful episode, featuring an alien whom the Doctor thought had been fully destroyed. There are some interesting exchanges and it’s impossible to know who can be trusted. There’s also some emotional turmoil as Rose catches up with her former boyfriend Mickey.

Then there’s another two-parter to end the series: ‘Bad Wolf’ and ‘The Parting of the Ways. The Doctor, Jack and Rose are back on the satellite of episode Seven, a hundred years later. This time it’s broadcasting game shows, many of them spoofs on real television game shows. But there’s a drastic end for anyone eliminated from the competitions. It’s quite a complex storyline involving some unexpected terrible enemies and the potential destruction of the human race.

The climax of ‘The Parting of the Ways’ is a bit ‘deus ex machina’ but well done nonetheless, after some humorous attempts on Rose’s part (helped by Mickey) to open up the tardis. What happens is far from amusing, and I’m not sure I entirely understood the significance. But in the end, as we knew would happen, The Doctor is unable to continue as he is, and regenerates into a very young-looking David Tennant. 

There are a couple of interesting ‘extras’ on this last DVD of the set. One of them looks at the incredible detail put into the creation of the sets (in particular the tardis) and some of the aliens. I’m astounded that anyone would spend so much time and effort on things that were only needed for one episode, but the people involved loved what they were doing. The second extra is by John Barrowman, talking about Jack - I found that rather more interesting, but then what matters for me is the human interest part of the show. 

Three things struck me overall, watching these episodes again, thirteen years after we first saw them. One is that the pace is rather slower than it was in the later series. I liked the slower pace very much, as it makes the stories so much easier for me to follow. 

The second thing I noticed is that the Tardis looks oddly old-fashioned! It reminded me somewhat of the 1960s Tardis, which, perhaps, was deliberate. By the thirteenth series, it had been modernised and transformed many times.

The third is that, although I thought Christopher Eccleston did a good job as the ninth Doctor, he seemed quite hard in the earlier episodes. He did soften in the later ones, and I thought he was an excellent choice to introduce Doctor Who to a 21st century audience. 

Rose, we thought, was a very good companion. We weren’t too sure the first time around, as she looks a bit too like some of the rather fluffy companions of the past. But she has lots of determination and ideas, and The Doctor is evidently very taken with her. We’re glad to recall that she remains as companion to the Tenth Doctor in Series Two, which we hope to start watching next week. 

I would recommend this series very highly to anyone who likes this kind of TV show. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

The King's Speech (Colin Firth)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s twelve years since we first watched ‘The King’s Speech’. We recalled liking it very much, despite our general lack of interest in royalty. It’s the story of King George VI’s ascension to the UK throne, with Colin Firth brilliantly starring in the title role. His performance is flawless. 

The story starts when his father King George V is still alive, though elderly. Michael Gambon is excellent as the grumpy monarch who feels a lot of frustration with his two adult sons. David (Guy Pearce), the elder, heir to the throne, is something of a womaniser. And while that’s not unusual for royalty, if discreet, he is currently involved with Mrs Wallace Simpson, an American who has already been married twice. At the time it was unthinkable that a monarch could be married to someone who was divorced. 

But the King rather despises his second son, known by the family as Bertie. Bertie is married to the beautiful Lizzie (Helena Bonham Carter), who is elegant, and charming, and very supportive of him. They have two young daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. Bertie is shown as a fond father and loving husband. But he has a speech defect: a terrible stammer, which has affected him since early childhood.

To make things worse, he has to make speeches in public, some of which are broadcast on the ‘wireless’, as the early radio was known. And he is very nervous of the microphones, which tend to echo back everything he says, making him even more inclined to stammer. As his father becomes frailer, Bertie has to make more speeches, and feels increasingly humiliated. 

Lizzie has persuaded him to try working with several renowned speech therapists, none of whom has been the slightest use. Then she finds Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a specialist at Harley Street. His initial meeting with Bertie is not very encouraging, but Lionel is confident that he can help, if only Bertie will cooperate. He is very discreet, but insists on terms of equality. Although this leads to a lot of frustration at first, the two start to develop a relationship of trust, and eventually a real friendship. 

The story is superbly told, the pace exactly right to hold our interest, with some moments of mild humour which nicely contrast with the seriousness of the story. When David takes the throne as Edward VIII, he is unwilling to make any real decisions despite the likelihood of World War II breaking out. And he is torn, eventually (as is well known in 20th century history) abdicating for the sake of the woman he loves. 

So Bertie, who has been the Duke of York, has to take the throne. He adopts the name of King George VI, but he is not well respected due to his speech problems. Thus it becomes increasingly important for him to develop techniques that enable him to read a speech without stammering, particularly when he has to make important announcements over the radio. 

We see quite a few of the speech therapy sessions, in one of which Bertie is persuaded to swear since he doesn’t stammer while doing so. It’s the scene which has given this an ‘18’ rating in the US, as there are a large number of instances of ‘strong’ language. But, as our DVD says on the back, they are all in a speech therapy context, and the UK censors, rather more reasonably, have given it a ‘12’ rating. Were it not for this scene it might even have been PG, since there’s nothing else that would trigger warnings: no nudity or violence, and only hints at what Bertie’s brother is up to with Mrs Simpson.

We thought the principals were all extremely well cast: Jennifer Ehle as Lionel Logue’s wife Myrtle deserves a mention too; her expressions of shock are entirely realistic when she learns, unexpectedly, who her husband’s eminent client is. As for Helena Bonham Carter, we had forgotten that around the same time she was playing Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter series. We would not have recognised the same actress as the gentle, but firm young woman who was eventually to become known as the Queen Mother. 

However it was quite a jolt to see Winston Churchill played by Timothy Spall, looking almost exactly as he did when playing the traitorous Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter franchise. He did Churchill very well, as did the actors who played other important politicians and churchmen of the time. But it was a pity his face wasn’t made up to look more Churchillian.

That’s a very minor gripe in what was, overall, an excellent film that tells the true story in a believable and watchable way.   

We saw a couple of the ‘extras’ afterwards: a ‘making of’ documentary which was interesting, and a fascinating interview with the real Lionel Logue’s grandson, who had found a box of his grandfather’s diaries just a couple of months before the filming started.

I would highly recommend this film whether or not you have any interest in the British royal family.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

Relative Values (Julie Andrews)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nine years since we watched ‘Relative Values’, and we had both entirely forgotten what it was about. That’s possibly because the plot isn’t all that memorable. But we watched it again yesterday evening, and thought it was good light entertainment. Apparently it was based on a Noel Coward play of the same name. 

The opening sequences are quite long and somewhat hectic, with newspaper announcements flashing up, and photos of film stars. It doesn’t make much sense but gives a hint of what’s to come. The story involves an American film star who has been romantically linked to other actors. But she is now engaged to be married to a British peer. 

Julie Andrews is one of the main characters in this 2000 film, which is set fifty or so years earlier. She is perfectly typecast as the widowed marchioness, Felicity Marshwood. We meet her discussing her son’s engagement with her maid and close companion whom she calls Moxie (Sophie Thompson). Neither is happy about him falling in love with someone unknown, who is not in their circles. And the engagement has happened far too rapidly for their tastes.

Julie Andrews is a great actress, but as she grew older she almost always seemed to play exactly the same kind of person. It was impossible to forget who she was, while we were watching the film. And at times Felicity reminded me forcibly of the grandmother in ‘The Princess Diaries’. Not that it mattered at all. 

The other family resident of the stately home is Felicity’s nephew Peter, played to perfection by Colin Firth. Again, the character was very much in keeping with many of the actor’s other roles, and we couldn’t forget who he was. But he and Julie Andrews have excellent screen chemistry in this film, and some of the humour comes from Peter’s rather sarcastic asides, given with excellent timing. 

The other famous actor in a typecast role is Stephen Fry as the butler Crestwell. Although rather older, he’s very similar to Jeeves, in the brilliant TV adaptations of PG Wodehouse’s iconic series. Perhaps he was specifically chosen for the role due to the similarity. 

Felicity’s son Nigel (Edward Atterton) arrives in a sports car with the flashy Miranda (Jeanne Triplehorne) who is welcomed, but rather clearly not popular. She admires the stately home, but isn’t entirely comfortable in it. Her agent - and former boyfriend - Don (William Baldwin) follows her and tries to persuade her to return to the United States with him to continue her career. He’s rather sleazy but although she resists, it’s evident that he’s not going to take ‘no’ for an answer…

There’s one extra subplot which relies on a huge coincidence but works well all the same. Felicity’s maid Moxie doesn’t feel that she can remain in the same household with Miranda visiting. When she eventually explains her reasoning, Felicity, Peter and Crestwell come up with a story to make her look different, and behave like a close family friend. It’s all a bit ridiculous but Moxie does this very well, and there’s a lot of humour in the interactions that take place over dinner. There’s also some poignancy and anger which arise later. 

The story is partly about class consciousness and snobbishness, and partly about some of the differences between American and British culture. It’s dated, as one would expect of a Coward story, set in the 1950s, but the people seem believable for the era, and the story, if somewhat ridiculous, works well as a film. We chuckled at one scene and smiled several times as it’s extremely well made. 

The outcome is somewhat predictable, with a nice little cameo scene at the end as the family go into church on a Sunday morning. We were a bit caught between eye-rolling at the snobbery and amusement at the way it was made. We didn't think it 'outstandingly funny' as the DVD case suggested, nor did we roar with laughter. But overall, I liked it very much.  

Recommended if you like this kind of film. 

The rating is PG which reflects the refreshing lack of bad language, nudity and scenes of intimacy.  But it's unlikely to be of interest to anyone under the age of at least fifteen. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews