Unnecessary remakes: Great Expectations, 1974

I have just read Kenneth Branagh is directing (and playing Poirot) in a new MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS - who needs another one? The 1974 Lumet film is so well known even after 40 years and still gets shown a lot, a television staple in fact. There was also a recent BBC version too with their regular Poirot David Suchet. I am not a Poirot fan as such - the all-star Peter Ustinov ones were rather fun though. 

Now though I have finally got my hands on that rather forgotten 1974 version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS - we did not get to see it at the time, despite several of my favourites here. One would imagine Margaret Leighton would be as perfect a Miss Havisham as Martita Hunt, and Sarah Miles just right as Estella, add in James Mason as Magwich, and Michael York is the earnest Pip - all as one would imagine, and with sterling support from Robert Morley, Joss Ackland, Rachel Roberts, Dudley Sutton, Peter Bull and more - yet it all seems deadly dull and just does not soar; the cast seem to be on autopilot, just doing what is expected of them. We know the story so well of course, this apparantly was going to be a musical version, but seems they changed their minds, so its just another dull telly costumer, ploddingly  directed by Joseph Hardy. 
(York of course is one of the stars of the '74 Lumet ORIENT EXPRESS - made the same year as this EXPECTATIONS). 

David Lean's version is still the one to beat here. Its involving and engrossing every time one sees it, one could even see it ignoring the story and just relishing that fantastic black and white photography by future director Guy Green. That version remains a classic film, this '74 one is just a tepid re-working that rightly sank without trace. It is one of Lord Lew Grade's all-star productions, music by Maurice Jarre, and lensed by Freddie Young. They needn't have bothered. 

Summer re-runs: You're A Big Boy Now, 1966

Summer re-runs for a rainy afternoon:

YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW - Francis Ford Coppola's delightful 1966 coming-of-age comedy.

Bernard Chanticleer (Peter Kastner) is an ordinary young man anxious to step out into the "adult world". His plan is to move out of his parents' Long Island house into an eight-floor Greenwich Village walk-up - and to try and convince someone to share his new "liberated lifestyle". This was Francis Ford Coppola's UCLA Film School master's thesis - and a hilarious, high-speed debut in film comedy for the future director of THE GODFATHER and APOCALPSE NOW. Fresh off A PATCH OF BLUE Elizabeth Hartman suitably plays the kooky spiteful actress who toys with Bernard. Karen Black makes her debut as the nice girl Bernard overlooks and Geraldine Page nearly steals the show with her Academy Award-nominated performance as Bernard's possessive mother.

Go-go dancer and actress Barbara Darling (Elizabeth Hartman)

My pal Stan and I loved this when we were 20 (at Balham ABC in '67) and I had not seen it since. It brings it all back - being 19 or 20, living in the big city - that soundtrack by John Sebastian and The Lovin Spoonful. I loved that sound then: "Did you ever have to make up your mind", "Warm Baby" etc. Its certainly a free-wheeling zany take on the standard coming-of-age scenario (a more funny ALL FALL DOWN, another one I like) and for me as essential a 60s romp as THE KNACK or our English equivalent of this, HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH. It captures that mid-60s look too.
The cast here is the thing: Elizabeth Hartman as the man-hating actress and go-go dancer Barbara Darling who gets our hapless hero in her thrall. We see flashbacks to her youth, laughing at horror flicks like THE PIT AND THE PENDELUM ... Kastner is just right as Benjamin, with Tony Bill as his colleague at the New York Central Library (we were back there recently with THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW), where Bernard's father is curator of the secret pornography section which Miss Thing stumbles into.... did I not mention Miss Thing? - she is Bernard's landlady and is the great Julie Harris and she is wonderful here ... there is the rooster guarding the corridor and who attacks girls; and then we have the equally wonderful Geraldine Page (above) as Bernard's mother, with Rip Torn as his father.  This was based on a popular book by David Benedictus which I remember reading at the time. It reminds me a lot too of that zany free-wheeling HAROLD AND MAUDE.

Miss Harris as Miss Thing - see Harris label for her very nice note to me in 1977

It is all fresh, zany, funny, everything about being young and captures that time perfectly. Good to see this Seven Arts production again now as part of the Warner Archive Collection (no-frills dvds) and great to see theatre legends and friends Page and Harris enjoying themselves here. Elizabeth Hartman was that very individual actress (also in THE GROUP, THE FIXER, THE BEGUILED) who later committed suicide - and Karen Black (before her hits like FIVE EASY PIECES, NASHVILLE or AIRPORT 75) is the nice girl our hero will of course run around New York with at the end with the dog, called of course Dog. We are 20 again when we see this. I must have another look at Lumet's THE GROUP soon...  
I have just seen on IMDB: Peter Kastner 1943-2008, aged 64, he was also in another interesting '60s one: NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE, a Canadian indie in 1964.

Legendary ladies at lunch ....

I remember this particular issue of AFTER DARK from February 1981 and had it at the time, nice to find it on ebay, cheap too. I wanted to re-read this interview with two great Broadway ladies having lunch: Geraldine Page and Julie Harris. They were doing a new play at the time, MIXED COUPLES, their first time on stage together - they had though both been in Coppola's YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW, his lovely debut feature in 1966. 

I read somewhere that we Londoners were lucky in that Maggie Smith and/or Judi Dench were often on the boards here - but New Yorkers had regular appearances by Harris and Page. 
Harris though did bring her wonderful 1977 show THE BELLE OF AMHERST to London, which wowed me so much I had to write and tell her, and surprisingly, she wrote back, with this lovely card - the only time I ever wrote to (and got a reply) from a performer I liked. 

We have been entranced with Miss Harris (who passed away in 2013) ever since THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING and of course EAST OF EDEN. 

Page knew Dean too, as per the photograph below: (They were in THE IMMORALIST on Broadway).

This issue of AFTER DARK too has great interviews and pictures with David Hockney and Lily Tomlin (who I am now enjoying in the GRACE AND FRANKIE boxset) and there are also comments on LA from the likes of LA regulars like Natalie Wood, Bette Davis, Gore Vidal etc. as well as Quentin Crisp on Mae West!

We also remember having this photobook FAME reviewed here, some great images by Brad Benedict of celebrity culture, like this great image of Richard Gere (then hot off AMERICAN GIGOLO)  as presumably a L.A. hustler ... More on Harris & Page at their labels - Julie was a 'Person we Like' in  2010 (that got 1,992 views here).  

Brando - Streetcar

I had forgotten how stunning Brando was in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. No-one looked like this in 1951. Time for a re-view ...

Theatre stills: an occasional series

Shots from great theatre productions I have seen. We start with favourites Sarah Miles and Eileen Atkins as those rival queens in Robert Bolt's VIVAT REGINA, a stunning night at the theatre in 1971. Coming Up: Glenda, Susannah, Alan Bates, Bergman, Bacall, Jill Bennett, Ian McKellen,  Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury and Peggy Ashcroft, and more. 

Those Italian ladies

Regulars here will know how we appreciate those Italian ladies - Sophia, Monica, Gina, Claudia, Silvana, then there's Alida Valli, Elsa Martinelli, Laura Antonelli and of course Magnani .... here are a clutch of new stills. Thanks to Colin for the Sophia pictures I had not seen before; and to that great site Silents & Talkies for that stunning Vitti portrait. (http://silentsandtalkies.blogspot.co.uk/)
I like this one of Claudia and Monica together too - they co-starred a few times in Italian comedies in the '70s, BLONDE IN BLACK LEATHER is a lot of fun, as per my review at their labels. We love Silvana too in those items like MAMBO, THE SEA WALL, TEMPEST and those later Visconti and Pasolini films she appeared in. They all have amazing faces and certainly ramp up the glamour. Its been great too discovering Sophia's Italian movies from 1954 and '55 before she went into American films: I particularly like TOO BAD SHE'S BAD, SCANDAL IN SORRENTO, WOMAN OF THE RIVER etc., as per reviews (Italian labels). 

Lots more on them at the labels.

Claudia in THE LEOPARD or SANDRA, Monica in L'AVVENTURA or L'ECLISSE or MODESTY BLAISE, Sophia in anything. Valli in SENSO, Magnani in WILD IS THE WIND or BELLISSIMA, Antonelli in L'INNOCENTE, and how could we forget Gina Lollobrigida in so many movie moments ....

RIP, continued

Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) aged 74. A giant has indeed departed. The newspaper coverage and special supplements over the weekend testified to that. An interesting comment likened him to Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley in that he too was a game-changer who changed American life and attitudes. Presley though meekly went into the army when told to do so and was never quite the same again (at least he was sent to Germany in those days, not Vietnam). Fascinating to read of Ali's refusal to be drafted and his wit, grace, style and looks certainly made him unforgettable. His courage in later years is astonishing too. Boxing is a sport I would not have been interested in then or now, but Muhammad Ali certainly was The Greatest. He has been in our life since the early 1960s.

Sir Peter Shaffer ( 1926-2016), aged 90. Another stage titan departs at a venerable age. Playwright Peter Shaffer was a giant of postwar British theatre, producing a string of dramatic – and cinematic – triumphs, bringing ritual, magic and music  back to the theatre. His hits were not only popular with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, but highly regarded too winning Oscars and theatre awards. After FIVE FINGER EXERCISE came THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN (which I saw at The Old Vic in 1966 when I was 20 - I can still visualise that stunning scene where the conquistadores climb the Andes to reach the Inca kingdom, and Robert Stephens' stunning performance as Atahualpa - Christopher Plummer was equally effective if different in the 1969 film)), THE PUBLIC EYE and THE PRIVATE EAR double bill, EQUUS - also stunningly theatrical - and AMADEUS, as well as other writing and scripts. (.It was his twin brother Anthony who wrote SLEUTH). We also saw his hit play LETTUCE AND LOVAGE, with Maggie Smith. Hits don't get any bigger. 

Carla Lane (1928-2016), aged 87. Another titan of British entertainment departs - television scriptwriter Carla Lane wrote that series THE LIVER BIRDS which we loved, as well as BUTTERFLIES and BREAD, which also celebrated Liverpool. She was also a very powerful advocate for animal rights and accomplished more than most. She was one of the most highly paid scriptwriters of her generation, and returned her OBE in disgust at how animals are treated. A nice story is how she saved a wasp from being hoovered up and emptied the hoover on the floor to rescue the dusty insect. Much of her work focused on women's lives: frustrated housewives, working-class matriarchs, and those single girls sharing a flat in Liverpool and coping with dating and life's ups and downs. 

Bill MacIlwraith (1928-2016), aged 88. British dramatist and screen-writer who wrote one hit play THE ANNIVERSARY which I saw on stage in 1966. Bette Davis played the monstrous mother in the 1968 Hammer film version. He also scripted that amusing series TWO'S COMPANY about an American writer and her British butler (Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden) and he also scripted several episodes of the 60s British series THE HUMAN JUNGLE with Herber Lom at the Harley Street psychiatrist. We liked that at the time too. 

ABC plus Chelsea boys after dark ...

The title of this gay miscellany was going to be: "Where is my ABC book?" .... its a funny story: I was going through some old photos the other day and saw one of some books of mine at a previous address in Brighton (here in England), and it showed a little book from 1997 that amused me and my friends: "The ABC Book, a homoerotic primer" by Marcus Vellekoop. But where was it now? I had not seen it anywhere for ages or when I moved last month and could not find it. They were asking silly prices for it on Amazon (over £40!), then I found a reasonable priced copy on ebay and just as I completed my purchase my partner, who had been re-arranging his books in the spare bedroom, walked in holding my ABC Book in his hand, saying it had got packed in with his books! Luckily, as I had purchased the other copy within the hour, I got back to the seller asking him to cancel my order as I did not need two copies .... so I should hear about that today. If I have to keep the new one, I will send it to whoever asks for it first ....(Its ok, they have refunded.)

Here is the blurb for this delicious treat;

A is for Astronauts floating in space

B is for Bikers having a race

C is for Cowboys under western skies

D is for Dancers at their exercise

E is for Executives reaching their goals

F is for Firemen sliding down poles ...

Written and illustrated by award-winning artist Maurice Vellekoop, this delightfully naughty ABC book for adults is a celebration of gay male archetypes from Jailbirds to Opera Singers, Hairdressers to Truckers. Each letter of the alphabet provides the key to a hot and funny scenario of gay sex,. With erotic drawings reminiscent of a cross between Tintin and Tom of Finland, Vellekoop commemorates and honors these classic homoerotic fantasies with great humour and gaiety. A great gift, and a must for every gay household.

Right: Q is for Quarterbacks getting a spanking. 

My copy also included a few pages I had pulled from a magazine, featuring more Vellekoop wit: "Disco Inferno" imagining what the afterlife would be like for more gay types, based on Dante's Circles of Hell: Drama Queens are shuttled directly to Heaven, where nothing dramatic happens (they all play golf);  disco circuit boys are subjected to an enternal Liberace concert with no ecstasy in sight; closeted celebrities are trapped in a room with limitless supplies of unauthorised tell-alls and TV movies about them (we see Rock and Agnes Moorehead having to endure telemovies about them...) etc, At least my search for the book led me to more Vellekoop items: a book of "Pin-Ups", and "Vellevision". Can't wait to get them. His artwork and style grows on one.    www.google.co.uk/webhp?ie=UTF-8&rct=j#q=maurice+vellekoop

Then there is The Chelsea Boys. We loved the cartoon strips in weekly papers and nice to see them in book form. Again, the blurb puts it perfectly:

Chelsea Boys is the first collection of Glen Hanson and Allan Neuwirth's popular syndicated comic strip that appeared in magazines and newspapers throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The strip follows the often outrageous antics, wild sexcapades, and everyday heartbreaks of three gay roommates who are as different as can be and living together in the heart of New York's trendy Chelsea neighborohood: cuddly Nathan, a short, neurotic, 40-something native New Yorker (who is nuts about Barbra Streisand - and she appears in the strip too); gorgeous, buff Sky, a naive yet deeply spiritual art student raised on a farming commune in Canada; and the fabulous drag diva Soiree, who masks his inner pain with a rapier wit and flamboyant style. Filled with humour, humanity, and wry observations on life in a modern setting, CHELSEA BOYS presents a family like you've never seen before and storytelling that speaks the truth while being outrageously funny. . 
I was a Chelsea Boy myself in 1972/73 - but in London not New York (but at least I got to mix with Joni Mitchell and Elton John, as per previous reports ...). 

We also found some AFTER DARK magazines - these are so '70s and early '80s now, but we liked them at the time, the hip New York slant on theatre and movies, with a very gay slant .... lots of pretty pictures too, but also some interesting interviews and features. I have found a few more on ebay - including one with some great pictures of Julie Harris and Geraldine Page together. Of course all that era is pre-Aids now, so it certainly ramps up the nostalgia factor ...

A Matter of Time, 1976

Finally, thanks to rare-movie-hound Jerry, a look at Vincente Minnelli's last feature, A MATTER OF TIME, from 1976. This one always eluded us here in London, though the BFI did screen it once. I can always happily sit down in front of a Minnelli musical like THE BANDWAGON or a Minnelli drama like TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN or a delicious Minnelli comedy like THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, but this last feature (like Wilder's equally problematic FEDORA) is a different story. Perhaps only Hitchcock had a happy last film in FAMILY PLOT, which delighted us that year, while Howard Hawks happily remade his films over and over ...

A simple young woman helps eccentric old countess deal with her old age and she introduces the young woman to a world of upper class society.

The shock here is getting used to Ingrid Bergman's almost Kabuki-style makeup, with that odd make-up and grey wig. Liza ramps up the gauche quality she often indulged in; it seems now only Pakula, Fosse and Scorsese were able to rein her in for those effective performances in THE STERILE CUCKOO (aka POOKIE) in 1969, CABARET and NEW YORK NEW YORK. 

The simple story is overdone, but great to see Ingrid again, with Boyer (shades of GASLIGHT) and her daughter Isabella Rossellini plays a nun, nice to see mother and daughter (briefly) here. Tina Aumount, Fernando Rey and Gabrielle Ferzetti are also involved. It kind of harks back to GIGI - that period obviously appeals to Minnelli. 

Liza plays Nina, a naive young chambermaid who starts work at a once-grand hotel in Rome, and Ingrid is the ageing countless, a long-time resident whose money is starting to run out. The countess retreats to her dreams and helps Nina to face the world .....  Unfortunately Minnelli's vision was ruined by American-International Films who financed and then re-edited it, so Minnelli disowned it. Perhaps its a miscalculated masterwork, but in the era of TAXI DRIVER and ROCKY it just did not work, but 40 years later it is an intriguing campy mess of what could have been, there's even  couple of Kander & Ebb songs. More on Ingrid, Liza and Minnelli at labels. (Below: Ingrid and Isabella).

Another Marilyn exhibition - I'm going to this one ...

Marilyn Monroe: The Legacy of a Legend is the latest MM exhibition of her dresses, letters, jewellery etc. and is currently on here in London at The Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour,, until June 20 and admission is free. I do not know The Design Centre, but I think I will be heading there before too long - we will file a report.  MM of course would be 90 today 1st June ! The legend goes on .....

As the flyer puts it:

"Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, in collaboration with Julien’s Auctions, presents a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most enduring screen icons. Epitomising the high glamour of 1950s Hollywood, take a journey through Marilyn Monroe’s life and work, transported into her world through the lens of style, fashion, photography and film. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see original designs from the David Gainsborough-Roberts collection, featuring costumes worn by Marilyn in seven notable films such as ‘Some Like It Hot’ and ‘No Business Like Show Business’, as well as never-seen-before personal treasures. In a stunning contrast between Marilyn’s private life and her dazzling public persona, personal papers including her journals, handwritten letters, drawings and poetry from the Lee Strasberg estate reveal her intellectual curiosity, vulnerability and humanity. Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour is a leading platform for a broad spectrum of creative disciplines. A world-leading destination for excellence in luxury interiors, it supports cuttingedge expression across the design agenda, making it a natural home for this event. This will be the first, and only time, that these remarkable pieces are available for public viewing in the UK. Following a worldwide tour, they will go on sale at Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles on 19 – 20 November."

More info at their site:  http://www.dcch.co.uk/Overview

Theatre news 2: Oscar hits Broadway

I was surprised to see that recent revival of David Hare's THE JUDAS KISS about Oscar Wilde, which we enjoyed and wrote about a bit back in 2012, has now arrived on Broadway, with Rupert Everett once again getting rave reviews for his great performance as Oscar - surely the best part of his later career. That London production which I saw initially at the Hampstread Theatre was also the debut of Ben Hardy - recently in EASTENDERS, the BBC soap and he is now Angel in the latest X-MEN. Rupert is also now in dastardly mode in the new BBC series THE MUSKETEERS, which is an enjoyable romp.

I was drawn to THE JUDAS KISS as I had seen the original production a decade or more ago, with Liam Neeson and Tom Hollander as that very petulant Bosie. The Everett re-boot had a successful London west end run too before going on tour, my pal Martin saw it in Dublin.

Here is Rupert writing for The New York Times on Oscar and the play's genesis this time round,

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/theater/rupert-everett-gets-his-oscar-wilde-that-is.html?_r=0

and the paper' review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/theater/review-rupert-everett-brings-oscar-wilde-to-the-stage-in-the-judas-kiss.html

Here is my 2012 review:  http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/rupert-as-oscar.html

More on Oscar (and Peter Finch's portrayal of him) and Rupert at labels.

Laughter in the Dark, 1969

Or: The Burton film that wasn't .... Tony Richardson's LAUGHTER IN THE DARK seems a very rare movie now, there are only 3 comments on it on IMDB - It had a short London run back in 1969, but I caught it on its one screening on BBC2 here, and it then vanished until I got a copy from my pal Jerry - a rare movie hound, always tracking down esoteric items.

This Tony Richardson film caused some publicity at the time, as it was began with Richard Burton who did a few scenes before being sacked for being drunk and causing problems. His replacement was the equally erratic Nicol Williamson, and its an ideal role for him, (he had just done HAMLET at The Roundhouse in 1968, also filmed by Richardson).

Nicol Williamson, Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Drouot star in Tony Richardson's bold adaptation of the Nabokov novel. Updated to 1969 London from pre-Hitler Germany of the early '30s, it's the story of a successful art dealer (Williamson) who becomes so enamored with a degenerate usherette/grifter (Karina) that he literally destroys his life. He loses his wife, his daughter, his job and his eyesight, and finally his life.

Williamson, in a role meant for and started by Richard Burton, gives a great performance, playing an even more obsessive Humbert Humbert. Drouot (from Agnes Varda's LE BONHEUR)  is excellent as the malevolent artist/gigolo who is Karina's real love. The casting of Karina is a bit odd and her French accent is never accounted for. Nevertheless she successfully conveys pure evil. It is one of the international roles she was doing at the time (as in JUSTINE, Visconti's THE STRANGER, MICHAEL KOHLHAAS etc). Siân Phillips (before she became a grande dame) is Williamson's no-nonsense wife. Cast also includes Peter Bowles, and it captures that late Sixties London high life perfectly. Like the films of Nabokov's LOLITA and KING, QUEEN, KNAVE (John-Moulder Brown label) it is another mordantly funny heartless tale, and maybe one of Richardson's most effective films.
A nice in-joke here is that the cinema where Karina works is the old NFT (National Film Theatre, now the BFI Southbank in London, where I idled away a lot of the Seventies) - as the cinema did not sell refreshments in the audiorium. (It was also used as the cinema in Winner's I'LL NEVER FORGET WHATS'ISNAME). 
As recorded previously, Richardson had a problematic '60s after the enormous Oscar-winning success of TOM JONES in 1963, bankrolling his and Woodfall's following films, as he indulged himself with Jeanne Moreau in MADEMOISELLE and THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR, and the expensive  THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE in 1968, all of which under-performed, putting it mildly, so big things may have been expected of LAUGHTER IN THE DARK, but as Losey found out, the Burtons were losing their box office cachet by then ...

Dona Herlinda thinks the world of you

We are back online after almost a month! BT seemed unable to connect it to this new apartment block we moved into over 3 week ago! But you know, one could practically live without it, as we decanted ourselves into our new living space and got used to high-rise living 10 floors up - great views, particularly at night! Now we are back, starting with a brace of too little known gay items from the 1980s - both full of pleasures. Here is what I wrote on the Mexican DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON and the 1988 British comedy WE THINK THE WORLD OF YOU, a few years ago. Great to see them again ..

This 1986 film from Mexico is as delightful now as it must have been then. Director Jaime Humberto Hermosillo presents a comedy of manners raising the lid on sexuality in Latin America, and how a family can resolve things so everyone gets what they want.

Widowed Dona Herlinda wants what she sees as every woman's right: to be loved and cherished and for her only son to be married and provide her with grandchildren. But Rodolfo is gay and in love with Ramon, a music student. But with goodwill on all sides, including that of Olga, the bride-to-be, all ends happily as Dona Herlnda makes Ramon part of the family. This charming comedy is perceptive, discreet, unshocking and witty and recommended to all but the most blinkered. 

Rodolfo is the surgeon son of Dona Herlinda, a wealthy widow, expertly played by Guadalupe del Toro, Rodolfo is having a relationship with Ramon, a music student, but they can never find time to be alone at the cramped house where he lives. Dona Herlinda, who obviously must know what is really going on between her son and Ramon, invites the young man to move to her large house in Guadalajara, but she also wants Rodolfo to marry and present her with a grand-child. The film is endearing, the characters very much alive, and the many twists and turns on the story make this movie funny and poignant at the same time. Arturo Meza (Ramon), Marco Antonio Trevino (Rodolfo) and Leticia Lupercio (Olga) suit their roles perfectly. Hermosillo seems the only openly gay Mexican director and he is still making movies. I shall have to investigate further ...

Rodolfo, who must cover his true nature, begins to see Olga, a young woman from his same circle. He proposes and marries her, breaking Ramon's heart in the process. Dona Herlinda, who is more intelligent than she is given credit for, pulls strings to keep Ramon at her home and decides to expand the house so that Rodolfo and Olga can move in with the grandson and live together happily ever after. Olga wants to study and travel so the arrangement suits her, and the boys can be together too.

Of course, the film is in simple terms a fun story, but deep inside it touches a lot of themes that have been taboo in so many societies. Usually mothers aren't as accepting as this Dona Herlinda, who acts as a procurer for the son she loves by inviting the young lover, Ramon, to come live with her. One deeply amusing scene has Dona Herlinda and Ramon together at a music event, while Rodolfo and Olga are away on honeymoon. Ramon is affected by the music and begins to cry, as Dona Herlinda without a word passes him a hankie. It ends with the expanded family all together as the son toasts his wonderful mother, who smiles serenely back at us.

Hermosillo seems a very interesting director, I should see other of his films, I caught one on television once, another gay related story, starring Fassbinder's muse Hanna Schygulla. His movie reminds me a lot of Almodovar of whom more later.

I particularly like WE THINK THE WORLD OF YOU in 1988, an engrossing drama from the novel by J R Ackerley with Bates as the solitary civil servant who falls for the neglected Alsatian dog of his sometimes lover, a spiv well played by Gary Oldman. The marvellous cast includes Liz Smith and Max Wall as Oldman’s malevolent parents and Frances Barber as his opportunistic wife all out to make capital from Bates’ involvement with Oldman. Both Alan and Oldman play it perfectly together and the scenes with Alan and the dog are a joy as is the 1950s period detail. Man and dog are happily re-united at the end as Oldman after a spell in jail has to settle for dull, if noisy, domesticity with that screaming infant!

Or as the BFI put it: "OK, so its not as great as Ackerley's perfect novel, but its an intelligent, entertaining gay movie - rare in Britain. Alan Bates plays the literary gent bosotted by ex-sailor boy Johnny (Gary Oldman) and his grotesque working class family and their Alsatian dog. Baically its more about class than anything else, and therefore typically British. Often witty and astringent, and finally moving". UK 1988, director: Colin Gregg." 
Bates playing gay again (as he did in BUTLEY, NIJINSKY, AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD, 102 BOULEVARD HAUSSMAN) is a joy as usual - and Oldman, a year after his Joe Orton in PRICK UP YOUR EARS - see recent review, gay label - is compulsive as usual, while Frances Barber in one of her early roles is perfection as the grasping wife.