The Wild Bunch

Posted on February 14, 2014 by jaycluitt

In the old west, a gang of outlaws led by Pike Bishop (William Holden) attempt to pull one last job and rob a bank. However, things do not go according to plan (when do they ever?) and a bloody shootout ensues, during which some of Pike’s men are injured or killed, and the loot they obtain is found to be worthless. The guys set out to make another big score, but find themselves hampered by one of their former members, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) being forced to chase them down. Continue reading →

Stand By Me

Posted on January 18, 2014 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written for French Toast Sunday.

Some films have a cult status. They were released and seen by a generation at just the right time to acquire an immovable lodging within their heart, and nothing you can say about them will ever shift that position. The Goonies is such a film, but not for me. My personal right-age-right-time film is The Breakfast Club (more for when I saw it than when it came out, as I hadn’t been born yet). For many people, Stand By Me is such an untouchable classic. I don’t mean to dissuade them from this mindset, in the same way that I’d rather people didn’t rain on my Breakfast Club parade, but unfortunately I wasn’t overly sold on Stand By Me. Continue reading →

Cinema Paradiso

Posted on January 12, 2014 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.

Some films seem to be created purely for people who don’t just like watching films, but who love every aspect of cinema itself. Cinema Paradiso is such a film, and I am such a person, so be sure to take this review with a hefty pinch of salt (preferably sprinkled over some freshly made popcorn), especially if you are not as cinematically inclined as myself. You see, Cinema Paradiso is more than its plot – the story of a young boy in war torn Italy and his frequent visits to his local cinema – it is a love letter to the very medium of film, made by people who love film, and tapping into what the hallowed flickering image can mean to so many people.

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Double Indemnity

Posted on August 12, 2013 by jaycluitt

When a successful insurance salesman visits a client’s house to discuss the renewal of some expired car policies, the last thing he expected was to become embroiled in a plot involving murder and deception, yet that is exactly what happens when he meets his client’s beautiful yet scheming wife. Continue reading →

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Posted on June 29, 2013 by jaycluitt

Two men, sat in some sort of woodland, are swapping stories of unbelievable exploits they have encountered. One man, Francis, tells the tale of Dr. Caligari, a carnival performer with a somnambulist, or sleepwalker, who has been asleep for 25 years, but which Caligari will wake up as part of the show. As soon as the man and his attraction arrived in Francis’ home town of Holstenwall, strange murders began to take place, made even more bizarre by their apparent prediction by the sleepwalker. When his lady-friend seems likely to be the next victim, Francis attempts to uncover the truth behind the murders, starting with the prime suspect of Caligari, who may not be quite what he seems. Continue reading →

Out of the Past

Posted on June 27, 2013 by jaycluitt

In the small town of Bridgeport there lives a man named Bailey (Robert Mitchum). He leads a simple life running the town’s gas station with his deaf mute assistant (Dickie Moore), and frequently heads out with the town’s pretty girl-next-door Ann (Virginia Huston). He seems to be fairly well regarded by most people in the town – apart from Ann’s mother – but all this changes when a mysterious stranger named Joe (Paul Valentine) rocks up and takes Bailey away with him. You see, Bailey isn’t just a mild-mannered gas station owner. No, he has a past, and things are about to come out of it. Oh, I get where the title came from now.
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The Bridge on the River Kwai

Posted on June 5, 2013 by jaycluitt

During World War 2, a squadron of British soldiers are ordered to surrender to the Japanese, and are taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Thailand. There, they are instructed to assist in the building of a bridge (over the river Kwai), and every soldier must help, regardless of rank. The Geneva convention clearly states that officers are exempt from such duties, s when they are forced to work alongside the rest of the men, the officers are thrown into containment. Meanwhile, a small group of men outside of the camp are planning to make their way through the jungle to destroy the bridge.
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The 39 Steps

Posted on March 28, 2013 by jaycluitt

Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), a Canadian man visiting London, thinks nothing of assisting a strange woman (Lucie Mannheim) to escape a theatre riot, especially when, after the melee, she requests he take her home with him. She seems rather odd, with an indistinguishable European accent and clearly fake name, hiding from the windows and the reflection of the mirror, scared of a ringing telephone, and it turns out she’s being pursued by a gunman over some business involving a secret being smuggled out of the country. Hannay of course is sceptical, until she winds up dead on his living room floor, a knife in her back and a map in her hand, with Scotland’s Alt-na-Shellach circled. Hannay suddenly finds himself in the frame for murder, and must flee up north if he hopes to clear his name and save the secrets.

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Vertigo

Posted on March 24, 2013 by jaycluitt

‘Scottie’ Ferguson (James Stewart) is a detective in San Fransisco who suffers from crippling vertigo, exacerbated by his most recent rooftop scuffle culminating in the death of a colleague and the escape of the perpetrator being pursued. He therefore retires, only to be called upon by an old college friend Gavin (Tom Helmore) who is concerned about his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), who may or may not be occasionally under some form of supernatural possession from an ancestor who committed suicide at the same age Madeleine is now.
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Psycho

Posted on March 7, 2013 by jaycluitt

On a bright December Friday afternoon, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) returns to work after some afternoon delight with her similarly cash-strapped lover Sam (John Gavin). When her boss sends Marion to the bank to deposit a client’s $40,000 in cash, on a whim she hastily backs her bags and flees with the money, but draws the attention of a road cop during her escape. When darkness and an incessant downpour prove too much for Marion, she checks into the run down, deserted Bates Motel, where she meets motel manager Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a kind yet awkward young man, unfamiliar with pretty young women entering his life. Norman’s bedridden mother disproves of the presence of Marion, and refuses to let her into the house, but this is no concern of the girl’s as she still has to plan what to do with the money.
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