Inside Cinema Shorts Episodes 61-70

 

"Everyone loves a good cameo" says Ali Plumb in Episode 61 Cameo Overload. But she shows far too many to mention here. From David Bowie in Zoolander (2001) to Alfred Hitchcock putting himself somewhere in all his movies. But what was David Beckam doing in King Arthur (2017). However our presenter's favourite was "the late, great Stan Lee".

Of course it's Escape to Victory that starts off Carl Anka's The Beautiful Game that is episode 62. But it's not easy getting films about football right. But Kes (1969), Gregory's Girl (1981), Bend it like Beckam (2002) and Fever Pitch (1997) did OK. Although I skipped the documentaries.

Leila Latif tells us about Senegalese film maker Ousmane Sembene in Episode 63 The Father of African Cinema. A pioneer.

Here are Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in 2003's Freaky Friday that starts off Episode 64 Body Swaps. We see the original 1976 movie later. Tara Judah takes us through so many going back to 1948 and Vice Versa. 13 Going on 30, The Change Up (2011) and even Jumanji. 

Episode 65 is Uncanny Spaces from Wendy Ide. It's about when films deviate from physics. Such as Jack Nicholson losing touch with reality in The Shining (1980), Jim Carey being set up in The Truman Show (1998) and Anthony Hopkins succumbing to dementia in 2020's The Father. Among other examples we see obvious stuff from Harry Potter and Inception (2010).

Who else but Keanu Reeves in Episode 66 The Cult of Keanu. James King looks at  these films that star this one actor, in all sorts of different genres.

It's Caitlin Quinlan who looks at Underdogs in Episode 67. They come in various forms, but are typically young, male and American. Typically Rocky (1976) and lots more. It was more interesting to see female heroines in films such as A League of their Own (1992), Fighting with my Family (2019), Whip It (2009), She's the Man (2006) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).

Episode 68 is All About Bette. Yes it's all about Bette Davis, and Anna Bogutskaya takes us through " a career spanning six decades". From Of Human Bondage (1934) when she first showed her anger and belligerence that were to become her trademarks over the years. Anna tells us "how she went through physical transformations that were such a trademark of Bette. Her greatest role may have been All About Eve (1950) but she was also famous for her totally deranged role in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) where her sparring with Joan Crawford is so well remembered. 

Christina Newland surprisingly presented Episode 69 about boxing: Heavyweight Drama. Not my favourite genre as we see films from 1926's Battling Butler (directed by Buster Keaton no less) to all those of the modern era. We also saw lots of boxing documentaries.

In the last of these ten shorts, John Cunningham looks at The MacGuffin in Episode 70. "They may seem every day objects" but are crucial to the plot. It's always something that motivates the characters, always an object like the ring in The Big Lebowski (1998) that kicks off the whole story. In Mission Impossible 3 everybody wants to know "where is the rabbit' foot". They are everywhere in the Indiana jones movies. The word Macguffin came from screen writer Angus MacPhail in his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock. It just had to be him.

James Bolam

 

We have been watching the BBC detective drama series New Tricks for many years. The first series started in 2004 and finally finished with series 12 in 2015. Every episode is on BBC iPlayer and we have started all over again. One of the stars was James Bolam who played Ex Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Halford. James is now 89 and it occurred to me that I did have a photo on this blog from when I saw him on stage at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in 1968. See post of 22nd March 2009. With Liz Frazer and a young Ian McKellen.