Cinema Essentials

In The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw , Kenneth More stars as Jonathan Tibbs, the errant nephew of Lucius (Robert Morley), the pompous and irascible owner of Tibbs and Co., gunsmiths since 1605. Giving up his malfunctioning invention of a “horseless carriage” (it will never catch on), Jonathan instead reluctantly takes his place in the family firm.  But he has just the idea to turn its fortunes around. Since the American Wild West is full of outlaws and gunslingers, and is having trouble with “a frightful female outlaw named Jessie James”, it seems like just the place to sell his company's wares. Why, the premium products of Tibbs and Co. could bring just the touch of class these colonials need!

Beginning in London in 1912, Suffragette focuses on Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) an ordinary working class woman, who works in a laundry and struggles to bring up her son with her husband Sonny (Ben Wishaw). When one of her friends is invited to speak to a Parliamentary committee about the possibility of votes for women, Maud tags along too, but circumstances force her to speak instead of her friend. Maud is then gradually drawn into the Suffragette movement, violent protesters in favour of extending the democratic franchise to women. She forges friendships with fellow Suffragettes Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) and Edith (Helena Bonham Carter), meets the Chancellor, David Lloyd George (Adrian Schiller), and the leader of the Suffragette movement, Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep). But her involvement in a bombing campaign also brings about her arrest, imprisonment, separation from her husband and the loss of custody of her young son.

In 1965 Michael Caine starred in The Ipcress File , his first starring role, and the first of three films featuring British spy Harry Palmer. Palmer is a relatively lowly field operative who spends much of his time engaged in routine surveillance work for the department of Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman). When a Government scientist is kidnapped, and his minder killed, Palmer is transferred to the department of Major Dalby (Nigel Green), to replace the dead man and to help track down the missing scientist. Palmer is gradually drawn into a web of intrigue, unsure of who he can trust. At his new department he meets reliable Jock (Gordon Jackson) and the intriguing Courtney (Sue Lloyd). Palmer takes a romantic interest in Courtney which seems to be reciprocated, but does she have an ulterior motive in getting close to him? And is she really working for Major Dalby as she claims, or is she secretly under the orders of Colonel Ross?

William Friedkin was one of the top Hollywood directors of the 1970s, with two big critical and commercial successes in The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). But his career faltered with the fallout from his 1977 film Sorcerer , one of the most infamous box office disasters of the 1970s.