Midnight Oil:Movies and More

"To Catch a Thief" (1955)IMDb Hitchcock's romantic thriller packs in the glamour on the French Riviera. Always the gentleman, Cary Grant plays the super suave ex-cat burgler, Monsieur John Robie, opposite the exquisite and exciting Grace Kelly. Cary Grant, as Robie, is fingered for a series of robberies which he didn't commit and finds himself obliged to solve the mystery with the aid of the beatiful Ms. Kelly.

 

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 Catch the TVOntario video preview for  "To Catch a Thief" here.

"To Sir With Love" (1967) INDb makes me remember  why I never became a high school teacher . . .  and why I'll never be able to get teaching out of my soul. Sydney Poitier's dynamic performance in this film portrayal of E.R. Braithwaite's novel gives glimpses into some of the challenges of the classroom environment and glances of an era. My, those dresses and dos are something to behold! I wish though, that we had been permitted to behold a most interesting interview that I remember with the original author, Braithwaite, that TVO must have stashed in their archives somewhere.

View the TVOntario video preview of "To Sir With Love" here.

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Catch the video trailer of "To Sir With Love"

"Went the Day Well?" (1942) INDb, from a short story by Graham Greene, is a wartime propaganda film with some surprises up its sleeve. The film, set in a sleepy English village, depicts the responses of ordinary folk to the extraordinary situation of having some German paratroopers land in their backyard posing as a British engineering detail. Watch out for dithering sweet little old ladies who serve tea and crumptets while hiding an axe behind their backs!

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Catch the video trailer of "Went the Day Well?"

"West is West" (1987) is a bit of an unusual mix. A young Indian man from Bombay shows up in San Francisco intent on gaining admission to the country and to the University of California. Things go terribly amiss and Vikram (Ashutosh Gowariker) ends up living the less than desirable version of the American dream as an illegal immigrant. Bollywood and its stylized vision of life in India is never far away from Vikram's imagination. The American girlfriend, played by Heidi Carpenter, somehow gets incoroporated into the mix (or should I say mix up) and goes from gothic to glamourous (Bollywood style). But it all works somehow.

It should work because Ashutosh Gowariker has been able to make a success of himself back in India going from actor to writer/director/producer with much critical acclaim. While "West is West" may not be the greatest movie ever, it certainly tells an important story about the immigrant experience that is perhaps not heard often enough in North America.

View the TVO Saturday Night at the Movie Interview segment dealing with the immigrant experience "East Meets West" featuring video clips from "West is West" (1987)

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"Witness for the Prosecution" (1957IMDb) Billy Wilder's classic court room drama features Tyrone Power as the accused, Leonard Vole, and Marlene Dietrich as his wife. Charles Laughton is at the top of his form as defense lawyer Sir Wilfred Robarts. You never can tell with a wily old fellow like Sir Robarts up to his old tricks in the court room. Not to be missed in this production is the irrepressible Mrs. Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester. Lanchester plays the rather shrill Nurse Plimsoll to the hilt, running after Sir Wilfred with her sharp hypodermic syringe and a wit too dull to perceive crafty old coot’s concealed flask of brandy. Thoroughly entertaining fare derived from a successful Agatha Christie play.

Catch the TVO preview of the movie “Witness for the Prosecution”.

Also presented on on SNAM on the same evening highlighting legal wrangling were films previously featured on Midnight Oil, "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943)and "Compulsion"(1959).

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A must see is this short video scene of the irritating Miss Plimsoll plying her trade with the irascible Sir Wilfred.

Catch the original movie trailer for "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) here.