The Lodger (1944) **

Jack The Ripper tale elevated by the marvelous Mr. Cregar.

Corridor of Mirrors (1948) ***

Handsomely produced Brit melo with an above average and offbeat screenplay, excellently played by the lovely Ms. Romney.

Jigsaw (1962) **

Brit police procedural is a slow burn but worth the wait. A little disappointed with the photography.

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) *

Only Ms. Balk survives with her professional reputation intact from this misguided remake of a much better film.

Patricia Highsmith: Notebooks: 10/29/1949

On the insane: they are only trying to find a reality. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find a reality in existence. The greatest philosophers have never found a satisfactory reality, or its explanation. Going under gas, for instance, the world is quite different, more overwhelmingly convincing than the so-called normal world, as to its reality. There is really no reality, perhaps, only writing a system of expedient behavior, action and reaction, by which people have come to live. That is, most people, who live like this for the same reason most peas fall into the center compartment when dropped from a central point above.

No One Ever Said It: On the Long History of “Ye Olde” in English

But that’s not to say it has no roots in the past. Once there was a letter called thorn that made a “th” sound. It looked like this: þ. Over the centuries, þ was written increasingly like the letter y with some scribes using them interchangeably. Early printers even substituted y for þ, so the word “þe” (the) ended up looking like “ye.” Eventually þ fell out of use, but people continued using “ye” to abbreviate the word “the” in print during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and in handwriting until the nineteenth century. English speakers’ memory of the origin of “ye” faded over time, until people began reading the word anew, pronouncing it wrong, and eventually creating the habit in English of saying “ye” to sound old.

The Drum (1938) **

Colorful actioner takes a bit to get going but has a rousing second half. Sabu steals it.

All in a Night's Work (1961) *

Dino tries hard and we have peak Shirley but even allowing for the typical old Hollywood rom-com tropes, this script is just too much to take.

The Years Between (1946) **

The great Ms. Robson is in it, but not enough, and it takes forever to get Mike Redgrave in the picture.

The Oxford Murders (2008) *

Abysmal cinematography and overall weak production. Too bad because Leonor Watling is stunning.

Dark City (1998) **

Literally a noir, borrows heavily from the Coens, Lynch, Gilliam and German expressionism, is a bit too long and unfortunately influenced too many cinematographers with its darkness. Nice role for Riff-Raff, but Kiefer does a terrible Peter Lorre imitation.

Hangover Square (1945) ***

Bizarre noir about a fugue state homicidal pyromaniac who happens to be a devoted and gifted composer. Complications ensue. Terrific score and terrific performance by Laird Cregar.

The Hughes-Nixon-Lansky Connection

President Nixon’s immediate answer to news of the Watergate burglary arrests was simple: The CIA, he told Haldeman (as recorded by the White House tapes) would close off the investigation because **if it gets out that this is ail involved, the Cuba thing would be a fiasco — it would make the CIA look bad — and it is likely to blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing...” Watergate, the Bay of Pigs, indeed a change of government in the Bahamas and a paint company going into real estate and gambling ail were woven together, all rooted in a World War II alliance.