CinemaSerf

With nuclear warfare having eradicated most of the population of the world, it seems that only Australia still has a population - and they know that it is only a matter of time before the irradiated dust reaches their coastline and death will follow. Just ahead of that, though, is the USS Sawfish under the command of the now widowed "Towers" (Gregory Peck) who arrives with a grateful but demoralised crew. Their hosts welcome them with open arms, and swiftly he befriends local sailor "Holmes" (Anthony Perkins) whose wife "Mary" (Donna Anderson) has just given birth to a baby and he is also introduced to a rather dejected figure of "Moira" - that's m.o.i.r.a, she explains. Now I'm not sure there are many actresses who can play a drunk better than Ava Gardner and it's after a session on the sauce that she and the captain begin to bond. She is also close friends with "Osborne" (the underused Fred Astaire) who races cars for a living and proves to be quite a useful sounding board for her as her relationship with "Towers" strengthens whilst he and his submarine set off for San Francisco to see just what is left of their homeland. Curiously enough, there is actually precious little physical damage to the cityscape when they arrive, but the only remaining trace of mankind emanates from some string and a Coke bottle! This isn't so much a sci-fi film as a touching and quite insightful look at just how people deal with grief, with loneliness and with an unpleasant inevitability that challenges much of the fabric of their hitherto ordered, structured and fruitful existence. The main thrust focuses on a gently stoic effort from Peck as his character deals with not just his own predicament but that of his sailors too, whilst Gardner makes a classy contribution with little dialogue but huge screen presence. The sub-plots offer less by way of importance, though the Perkins/Anderson theme does pose a particularly ghastly scenario when faced with what to do with the incapable occupant of the cot when the time comes, and by the conclusion the futility of the entire military enterprise is laid bare in a remarkably simple and human fashion. Sure, it can stray a little into soap at times, but on this occasion that adds a little to the realism of a situation in which there are, and can be, no winners - and for me, Gardner is at the top of her game.

With barely more than a week to go until "Murtaugh" (Danny Glover) retires, he and his now uniformed (and pony-tailed) partner "Riggs" (Mel Gibson) thwart an armoured car robbery and arrest the culprit. Before he can be rigorously interrogated, though, his brains get splattered against the walls of the interview room and our intrepid duo are charged by "Murphy" (Steve Kazan) to work with the IAD detective "Lorna" (Rene Russo) and track down the perpetrator. It takes them all of five minutes to work out that they have to track down rogue "Lt. Travis" (Stuart Wilson) who is involved in a nefarious gun-running enterprise. Finding him might have got a little easier when realtor "Getz" (Joe Pesci) reckons he has seem him somewhere so that starts them on a trail of the usual pyrotechnics, shoot 'em ups and car chases which, along the way, sees "Murtaugh" enter a depth of despair that only his pal can drag him from as "Travis" has now made everything just a little bit more personal. It is at it's best when it is just Gibson and Glover, the pithy script and some wise-cracking but I found the burgeoning romance between "Riggs" and "Lorna" a bit of a drag and the only highlight from the downright annoying Pesci is on his head. It's a solid story well executed by a director who keeps the pace moving whilst letting the two stars clearly have some high-octane fun. I reckon it is the weakest of the three so far, but it's still watchable escapism.

I have a fairly pathological hatred of dentists, and I can't help but wonder whether screenings of this film on BBC2 in the early 1970s might have been the cause! Indeed, for a few scenes here Norman Wisdom manages to create a sense of peril that easily outdoes anything the horror genre can illicit! Add to that the fact that he works in a butcher's shop and, well, anyway... "Pitkin" is employed by the long-suffering "Mr. Grimsdale" (Edward Chapman) and it's an accident in that shop that sees them both in the hospital of the fastidious "Sir Hector" (Jerry Desmonde) and the altogether nicer nurse "Haskell" (Jeanette Sterke). Needless to say, everything he touches turns to chaos and he finds himself repeatedly chased from the premises, even barred, but he wants to return to help out the traumatised "Lindy" (Lucy Appleby) whose parents were killed in a plane crash and who hasn't uttered a word since! Of course the story is all predictable but as ever, Norman Wisdom made the slapstick comedy at which he excelled look effortless and natural. He easily puts the lutz into clutz as he skates around on the floor of the hospital ward, he clings for grim death to the roof of a speeding ambulance and he even has a go in a marching band playing in a key hitherto undiscovered - and all along he has the redoubtable Chapman to provide just enough of a foil to keep the pace racing along entertainingly for ninety minutes. It's also quite a charming little showcase of life in London in the early sixties with the fashions, the cars and some glass half full attitudes and I did quite enjoy it.