Film Reviews by BN

Madcap story of Holden the scriptwriter tasked with delivering a script to exacting producer Noel Coward in 19 weeks but he's been goofing off, boozing mainly, until a critical 48 hours before Coward appears in Paris on Quatorze Juillet (Bastille Day) expecting a completed screenplay. Hepburn is the secretarial temp who helps writer Richard Benson (Holden) to imagine loads of different scenarios for his script ranging from spies to vampires to costume balls to international safecrackers & the Mafia, to virtually....anything! All supposedly under the title of the Girl Who Stole The Eiffel Tower.

Frank Sinatra sings a short intro theme song and Marlene Dietrich does a beautifully coiffed tiny cameo getting out of a Rolls and going into the Dior Boutique, although costumes in this were provided by Givenchy. A young suave Tony Curtis has quite a big role, yet is uncredited.

Had never heard of, or seen it before, but it's sorta fun and worth a gander.

Good TV series but first disc I got (from Cin Para) only comes with Episode 1 and some special features. I thought I'd at least get a

couple of episodes per disc !!

The inimitable Martin Shaw stars as George who considers retiring from the Metropolitan Police in 1964 after a personal tragedy but encounters Sgt John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) on an external investigation and decides to take him under his wing and stay working.

A focussed copper, honest and intent on finding proper evidence in his cases but meanwhile fighting the endemic police corruption of the time.

Capital punishment did not cease until 1965 in England.

Initially as no reviews were available, I rather naively thought from the cover picture and title that this would be an interesting drama about sisters in British law, having just watched a couple of UK legal dramas so was surprised to find that this was not only a documentary film but took place in the West African country of Cameroon.

I was under the impression Cameroon was French speaking but in this apparently Muslim dominant state they seem to use English and pidgeon English. Definitely needed the subtitles!

The sisters are a hard-hitting judge-prosecuter and a lawyer doing their best against entrenched ideas of male superiority and features several real cases mostly relating to children and women woefully abused by both males and females. Gripping stuff.

Surprises me that the sisters as a formidable force don't get a lot of retaliation as they tend to state very feminist views (good for them!) but the like of which would be bound to piss the local men off - and is Cameroonian law so advanced that it affords inherent governmental legal protection for defenceless women against centuries of Islamic codes of conduct and the still commonly held views that women are simply chattels and objects for sexual gratification, both in or OUT of marriage?

What is not explained is either of the sisters' backgrounds - where were they were trained, or their reasons for why have they taken on the local establishment ? An interesting eye-opener nevertheless.