Double Indemnity

Double indemnity

Running time: 107 minutes
Colour: Black and White
Certificate: PG

Double Indemnity has a reputation as one of the best-loved classic films of all time. This verdict is well-deserved as the movie sets a cracking pace. I had always associated Barbara Stanwyck as the matriarch in the classic television series, The Big Valley. Some older readers may remember this.

The screenplay for Double Indemnity was written by Director Billy Wilder in collaboration with the great Raymond Chandler who created the private eye, Philip Marlowe.

The story opens in flashback as dying insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) crashes into his office, picks up a dictaphone and tells his story in flashback to a colleague who investigates insurance scams.

Neff is a mess. How did he get this way? While out selling insurance policies he met an extremely attractive young woman, Phyllis Dietrichson, (Barbara Stanwyck) who feels trapped in her marriage to her boorish husband, (Tom Powers). The ultimate femme fatale, Phyllis asks how she could work an insurance scam to murder her husband and collect the insurance.

Infatuated by Phyllis's charms, Neff proposes a scheme that makes it look as if the crutch-bound Mr Dietrichson fell or jumped off a moving train. All seems to be going well, but the investigator Barton Keyes (Edward G Robinson) is suspicious. He feels in his bones that something about the grieving widow's claim is not right. This has to be one of the best roles of Robinson's career. He is like a terrier who won't let go. When he sees something that doesn't seem right, he worries away at it until he gets to the solution.

There's not a lot of action in the modern sense in Double Indemnity yet there are no boring lulls.either. Instead, the tension builds up gradually through the magnificent performances from Stanwyck, MacMurray and Robinson. Will they get away with it? What went wrong? It's powerful stuff?

This classic is now available to a whole new audience on DVD. It's a perfect example of the film noir genre.

Mickybo & Me

Mickybo & Me (2004)

Certificate 15

Directed by Terry Loane

Starring Adrian Dunbar Ciaran Hinds Gina McKee Susan Lynch Julie Waters, John Jo McNeill and Niall Wright

Mickybo & Me brings back a lot of memories for me. It’s a bittersweet comedy set in a divided Belfast in 1970, just as the troubles were starting to get underway. The opening shots show a shop exploding into the middle of a city street as Johnjo and his mum go to buy a pair of shoes. Part of the fun for me is identifying where in the city the different scenes were shot.

Oblivious to the disintegrating society around them two bright youngsters from each side of the rapidly widening sectarian divide in the city meet and become firm friends in the face of a gang of older boys led by Mickybo’s archenemy, a bully he calls ‘Fartface’. Mickybo (Niall Wright) fascinates Johnjo (Niall Wright) who is quite unlike anyone he has ever met. Mickybo is cheeky but loveable – he’s definitely the leader - brash, self-assured and confident.

After blagging their way into a local cinema to watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the boys become obsessed by the lives of Butch and Sundance and decide to run away to Australia, living as outlaws on the way. A scene in which Mickybo ‘robs’ a small town banks branch while Johnjo waits outside on a getaway bike is priceless. And a scene where the boys, like their heroes Butch and Sundance, are chased by security guards and gardai (across the border in ‘Australia’) is terrific.

Sadly the reality of Seventies Belfast hits the boys hard in a shocking twist to the storyline just as they return from life on the run. Powerful stuff!

The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Directed by: Michael Curtiz; William Keighley

Writers:Norman Reilly Raine; Seton I. Miller (original screenplay)

WATCHING a DVD of The Adventures of Robin Hood is a revelation. It's incredible to think that this restored classic was released as long ago as 1938 - nearly seventy years ago!

One reason why it has stayed the course and still appears regularly on television is that it was made in colour - Technicolor. Many younger people today just have no patience to watch black and white films. This is a big mistake as they then miss out on many of the terrific classic movies I have featured in this series of classic reviews.

As virtually all films today are made in colour, it is hard for a modern audience to imagine the impact of a full-colour film on an audience in 1938. The colours are rich and natural looking, especially in outdoor settings. Its fresh new look and vivid colours then must have blown the cinema-going public away back then. It's no wonder that it took three Oscars that year, for art direction, original score and film editing.

Errol Flynn was made for swashbuckling and it shows in this marvellous movie. Flynn looks like he enjoyed every minute as the outlawed Robin of Locklsey takes on the tyrannical Prince John and his lackeys, the Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisbourne. Oddly enough, James Cagney was originally cast in the role of Robin Hood. Cagney had a big row with Warner Brothers and walked off the set. Enter Tasmanian-born Flynn, who had impressed the directors with his role in the pirate movie, Captain Blood.

The story is well known. A Saxon nobleman, Robin of Locksley, opposes the rule of the Norman usurper, Prince John who has terrorised and taxed the whole countryside and treated the Saxons very badly. Claud Rains makes a scheming Prince John and Basil Rathbone excels as the evil Guy of Gisbourne while the Sheriff of Nottingham (Melville Cooper) brings some comic relief to the production. There’s also great character acting from the merry men and Marian’s nurse.

The on-screen chemistry between Robin and the lovely Maid Marian as his love interest was given a boost by a real-life relationship between Flynn and DeHavilland. This film has it all: good versus evil, Normans versus Saxons, the True King versus the Usurper, the rivalry between Robin and Gisbourne for Marian's affections, comic moments, sword-fighting and archery. The final fight between Gisbourne and Robin set the standard for on-screen duelling for decades to come. The sets are sumptuous and - as you'd expect - extremely colourful.

This is a fun, thrilling classic that all the family can enjoy. Warner Brothers have gone to a lot of trouble with their DVD release. The first disc is taken from a restored print of the movie. The quality is superb. The second disc gives the history of Technicolor and its use in film making. There's also a background story to the making of The Adventures of Robin Hood, Robin Hood through the ages, some vintage cartoons bloopers and out takes. It's good for at least another seventy years!