illbebackreviews

Chaplin's "City Lights" was my first exposure to silent films and to Chaplin's films. It was one of the best films I'd seen and I was eager to watch more of his films.

"Modern Times" is hilarious, entertaining, inventive, exciting and heartwarming. Telling the story of The Tramp as he struggles with the change with modern society, he meets a young girl whose father was killed and whose sisters were taken from her, Chaplin forms a bond with her and does everything in his power to assist her.

Perfectly directed with stunning cinematography and iconic shots (none more so than Chaplin in the interior of the machinery as he goes through the assembly line), Chaplin masters everything once more. The score is beautiful, his direction is perfect, his performance as perfect if not better and with a strong supporting performance, Chaplin's "Modern Times" masterfully conveys the struggle of poverty better than most "talkie" films ever could.

Brilliantly paced for a film with no dialogue, "Modern Times" is a hilarious film that is satisfying in every possible way.

"Secret Agent" tells the story of a two secret agents who pose as a couple as they attempt to capture and kill a German agent, "Secret Agent" was possibly an original Hitchcock story and one of the earlier spy films. However, an interesting premise, two great lead performances by Carrol and Gielgud is botched by poor storytelling, an overlong duration and the highly irritating character that Peter Lorre portrays.

Lacking suspense and all the elements that make Hitchcock a master director and my all time favourite director, the only redeeming qualities found in this bloated Hitchcock picture are the attempted story its telling, an interesting romance story developing between the two leads and the two lead characters themselves.

"Secret Agent" is the biggest step down from "The 39 Steps" that Hitchcock could seek. If his intentions were to make a film that is in every right, worse than its predecessor, he has succeeded otherwise its simply not something he'd want to remember.

Following the classic Hitchcock themes that he was well known for in "The 39 Steps" and his later works, "Young and Innocent" is a well made movie with strong tension, great characters, exciting premise built up terrifically within the opening minutes and is an exciting adventure of a wrongly accused man attempting to his clear his name from wrongdoings.

Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney are absolutely terrific in the lead roles, having great chemistry back and forth, a romance story that is both interesting and necessary and a script that easily allows them to convey their thoughts.

It is said that this is indeed Hitchcock's favourite British film and whilst this is a little far stretched, it is to me, one of his most exciting and overlooked films.