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daviditam
Reviews
The Brothers (1947)
The Brothers + The Perfect Woman with Patricia Roc as lead
By the time this is posted, only Bay Area film-lovers have a chance to attend two screenings Sunday, 12Oct08, of The Brothers (4 pm, 7:30 pm) + The Perfect Woman (5:50 pm, 9:20 pm) with Patricia Roc at Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto CA (3 blocks east of CalTrain station. with weekend trains leaving on hour from SF) as part of series Gainsborough Melodramas & Other Rare Treasure of British Cinema. I have only seen Roc as amiable but wise daughter to Phyllis Calvert's split personality title character in superb Madonna of the Seven Moons (1946) so far (http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/calendars/British%202008.html), which ends 31Oct08.
Roc's cheerfulness counterpointed Margaret Lockwood in The Wicked Lacy (1945) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440901/index.html (which I have not seen), the most popular Gainsborough film. Upcoming 17-18-19Oct08: Lockwood and Roc rivals for Stewart Granger in Love Story (1944).
I compagni (1963)
A wonderful film about not giving up on solidarity
Titled "I Compagni" (The Comrades), 1964 American release of this controversial Italian film was as The Organizer, no doubt to avoid an anti-Communist reviewer backlash. While Marcello Mastroianni's Professor Sinigaglia endures some embarrassing indignities, he overcomes them. Working-girl refugee Niobe (wonderfully portrayed by Annie Girardot) helps him both emotionally and nutritionally. This is a wonderful film about not giving up on solidarity. I hold it in higher esteem than Norma Rae, one of the very few other films about working people organizing. The film suffers from being viewed as a not-so-funny comedy because of its over-individualized title. For many years, it was difficult to get a print for showing. Bosley Crowther favorably reviewed it for New York Times 7 May 1964. There is a review in Film Quarterly, Autumn 1964, which I have not seen.