THE EYES HAVE IT 4: HITCHCOCK SPECIAL

Vertigo

Frenzy

The Wrong Man

Psycho

Family Plot

Psycho

Suspicion

The Lodger

Spellbound

Rear Window

Stage Fright

The Birds

Spellbound

UNMADE HITCHCOCK: KALEIDOSCOPE (1967)

Kaleidoscope Frenzy was the working title for an unrealised Alfred Hitchcock project to be released as Kaleidoscope. He had the screenplay, location stills and test footage but his neorealist serial killer movie never saw the light of day. We will never know if this new direction for Hitch would have taken him to new heights but the images of the project give a glimpse into what might have been

MY TOP TEN COMEDY MOVIES

My top ten comedy movies

Not what I consider the best-I think that comedy is possibly the most subjective of the arts-just my favourites. I've limited my selection to only one movie per Director or Star and while I love Laurel & Hardy I am a big fan of their shorts not so much their features but I had to find space for them, likewise I think the Marx Brothers are great but find their movies have stretches of dullness. So here is my selection.

1.Young Frankenstein

2.Love and Death

3.The Nutty Professor (1963)

4.Animal House

5.Airplane

6.The Life Of Brian

7.The Man With Two Brains

8.Sons Of The Desert

9.Happiness

10The Odd Couple

WORLD WAR II WOMEN GO KODACHROME

I stumbled upon this fantastic Kodachrome photographs of women at work on the home front during WWII: the majority taken by Alfred Palmer

They superbly capture the essence of the times and the quiet determined women that helped the allies win.

SCHOOL DAYS

The Simpsons

The Bash street Kids

Lord Snooty and His Pals

Winker Watson and chums

St Trinians

Peanuts

Archie

AVENGERS REASSEMBLE

The Avengers Age Of Ultron is pretty slick with an over reliance on CGI. Whereas the first Avengers movie was witty and engaging this second instalment lacks charisma. Oh, it’s enjoyable enough with some great moments but it feels very much like a stepping-stone to a reconfiguration.

The villain Ultron is criminally underused and by killing off Quicksilver an opportunity to delve into the Maximoff sibling’s relationship has been lost.

In effect the retirement of the heavy hitters at the film’s end point towards a less bombastic version of the Avengers and if this leads to the type of movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier was this can only be a good thing.

Don’t get me wrong: Age Of Ultron is an enjoyable movie and certainly the introduction of The Vision and Scarlet Witch is a good thing, but at times there are just too many characters vying for screen time, War Machine, Nick Fury, The Falcon and a character set to become Klaw all jostle for space but there is a nod towards the possible introduction of the Black Panther next time around.

It’s interesting to note the make up of the next Avengers as one of the features of the source material was the ever-changing membership and frankly Hawkeye’s character didn’t offer much so his departure to a happy home life seems engineered.

I guess for me my initial delight at seeing these characters, whose exploits I had read for many years, appear in the flesh in Avengers 1 has not been sustained for their second outing but I look forward to a part 3 without the God of Thunder, The rampaging monster and the billionaire philanthropist.

It feels like we are moving from Lee and Kirby’s Avengers to Thomas and Buscema’s iteration.

DAREDEVIL YELLOW

With the new Daredevil series on Netflix, it got me to thinking that I quite liked the original Yellow Daredevil outfit