Bracken

A fantastic little black comedy, up there with Kind Hearts And Coronets and A Fish Called Wanda. This is a very funny film, in a dry, witty way which gives it real style. The four lead performances are all good, but Jean Rochefort in particular does a brilliant dead-pan in the lead role. There are plenty of good lines, but the funniest jokes are visual- the synchronising of the push-chair gently bumping the car with the noise of the crash behind, or the re-appearance of the parrot behind Madame Maynard. And Patachou's cameo in that role (the mother, not the parrot) makes the movie worth seeing alone. Highly recommended, and worth seeing twice for the subtle jokes you miss the first time. And if you're wondering: yes, Guilliame Depardieu does have his father's nose.

I can't believe I watched this movie on television, with the capacity to turn it off at any moment, and yet didn't. This is a terrible 'comedy'. It takes a bizarre premise- downtrodden librarian confesses to a murder in order to get respect- meanders off into a half-baked plot about the Mafia, and fails to include any jokes whatsoever. It's also staffed by off-the-peg movie stereotypes: dowdy librarian who turns out to be beautiful, hooker with a heart of gold, sinister Mafia boss- they're all there for the thousandth time. It's a bad film. Not 'so bad it's good'. Just bad. Even the 'cute' dog is ugly.

A fairly rare thing; a film version of a play which really works- partly because of the quality of the original play, and partly by using flash-backs as a natural way of introducing more locations. These new scenes are well-written enough to fit seamlessly with Priestley's lines; and Eva Smith is beautifully acted. What makes this movie, though, is the magnificent performance by Alistair Sim in the title role. A great piece of casting- it would have been so easy to have cast some brooding, fierce actor like Basil Rathbone in the part, but Sim's gentle, avuncular, and sad performance is far more compelling, and finally, far more sinister. The only bad thing about the film is the classic fifties close-up and Da Da DAAA! music whenever someone looks at the photograph. I think we got the point already...