LADY ON A TRAIN

 

As murder-comedies go "Lady on a Train" is certainly one of the best, if also one of the least known. It's a Deanna Durbin vehicle, (yes, she sings and charmingly), and a screwball comedy of the first rank, (the supporting cast includes Edward Everett Horton, Elizabeth Patterson and, although he gets star billing, Ralph Bellamy in a relatively small role, at least for him).

Deanna is the lady on the train who, like Miss Marple, sees a murder from the train window and sets out, like the scatterbrain amateur detective she is, to solve the case aided and abetted by crime novelist David Bruce (excellent). Throw in the likes of Dan Duryea, George Coulouris and Allen Jenkins as suitably shady characters and it's anybody's guess who the killer might be. More than just a guilty pleasure this Charles David directed movie is a little gem that is well worth seeking out.

VICTIM

 During his lifetime Dirk Bogarde never admitted to being gay and before his death he destroyed many of his private papers. Nevertheless, his sexuality has long been an open secret and Bogarde's desire to keep his private life private had to be respected. It was, therefore, an astonishingly brave decision to take on the role of Melville Farr, the closeted gay barrister who is willing to 'come out' in order to break a blackmailing ring in Basil Dearden's pioneering thriller "Victim".

Bogarde says he chose the part because he wanted to break free of the matinée idol roles he had played up to that time but by doing so he risked alienating his fan-base. Of course, by playing Farr and subsequent similar roles in films like "The Servant" and "Death in Venice" it could be argued that he was vicariously acting out on screen what he was feeling in real life.

That "Victim" was made at all is as astonishing as Bogarde's decision to take the lead. This was 1961 and homosexuality was still illegal in Britain. "Victim" broke new ground by making it the central theme and by making the gay characters sympathetic, the victims of the title, and by making the law, (at least in the form of John Barrie's investigating copper), sympathetic to their plight. This was a crusading work and is today largely credited with bringing about the change in the law that decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults in Great Britain.

Viewed today it is, of course, both melodramatic and didactic. At times it seems the characters aren't saying lines but making speeches. As a thriller it's reasonably exciting, (it's got sufficient red-herrings to keep us guessing), and Dearden admitted that without the thriller element the film might never have been made. (He did something similar with racism in the film "Sapphire").

"Victim" also featured a number of other gay actors in the cast, notably Dennis Price, superb as an ageing actor, and the actor/director Hilton Edwards. Whatever his motives for taking on the role, Bogarde is superb and he has at least one great scene when he finally admits his true nature to his wife, beautifully played by Sylvia Syms. There is certainly no doubt the film has dated and yet it remains one of the greatest of all gay movies.

JANET PLANET

 Another Marmite movie in that you will either love it or hate it but if, in the initial scenes, you're a detractor don't rush to judgement because "Janet Planet" is finally hypnotic and in a good way. It's another movie in which 'nothing happens'; there's no plot just an observation of life passing slowly for a young girl, her mother and the people who 'intrude' in their lives one summer in rural Massachusetts. Since it's set in the past, 1991, you might see it as autobiographical and it marks the directorial debut of writer Annie Baker.

Janet is Julianne Nicholson, a forty or fifty something acupuncturist who lives near the woods and who is unhappy. A superb Zoe Ziegler is Lacy, her friendless young daughter, mature beyond her years and the very centre of her own universe. People played by Will Patton, Elias Koteas and a terrific Sophie Okonedo drift in and out of their lives leaving no mark.

It's a slow, you might even say, pretentiously 'arty' picture which makes no concessions to its audience or their expectations. Dialogue is sparse and literate and it's gorgeously photographed by Maria von Hausswolff. I began by being a little bored by the lack of anything resembling 'action' but gradually I became enchanted by the imagery, the music and the performances. Yes, like Marmite it's an acquired taste but if you stick with it you will be amply rewarded.