SHORT TAKES II

Philip Winchester of In My Sleep

IN MY SLEEP (2010) presents a young massage therapist named Marcus (Philip Winchester of Law and Order: SVU) who suffers from a sexual addiction as well as from being a parasomniac, which means he can do virtually anything while sleepwalking, including having sex with his best friend's wife. When he wakes up all bloody one morning he wonders if he killed someone while asleep. The film is absorbing, suspenseful and well-acted, but it hasn't got much style, and another problem is that there's really only one major suspect. The basic plot might have worked better had it been used for a Dario Argento-type giallo film with several more murders. Written and directed by Allen Wolf. **3/4.

Kim Cattrell and Jeff Fahey

EVERY WOMAN'S DREAM is a 1996 telefilm based on the true story of David Russell Miller (herein called Mitch Parker and played by Jeff Fahey), a narcissistic sociopath, pathological liar and bigamist who keeps two women (DeLane Matthews and Kim Cattrell) on the string while he indulges in a high end lifestyle on other people's money. Mitchell uses a perpetual stream of deception to keep one step ahead of his wives and creditors. He even convinces his first wife that he is an agent for the CIA! It all leads up to a terrible tragedy. This is an absorbing and well-acted telefilm directed by Steven Schachter. ***.

Emrys Jones and Zena Marshall

DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (1953; directed by John Gilling) presents a prisoner on the run who manages to change places with a perfect lookalike, only to discover that the lookalike is responsible for worse crimes than he is. There are interesting story elements to the movie, but the film is just lackluster and fails to take advantage of any of its potentially dramatic situations. It doesn't help that the lead actor, Emrys Jones, is kind of dull no matter which character he's playing. The other actors, including Zena Marshall as the fugitive's ex-fiancee, are much better, and Joan Hickson, famous for her portrayal of Miss Marple many years later, scores as the housekeeper, Mrs. Fenton. **.

Mary Germaine and William Sylvester

HOUSE OF BLACKMAIL (1953) has a woman (Mary Germaine) picking up a hitchhiker (William Sylvester) -- a possible fugitive -- and enlisting him in a scheme in which she hopes to outwit a nasty fat man who is blackmailing her brother over some bad checks. Instead the man is murdered in his mansion, and all of the suspects are locked inside. Although made in the fifties, House of Blackmail comes off more like a 1930's movie, and may indeed be a dusted-off script, The identity of the murderer comes off like a joke. This was directed by Maurice Elvey. Despite his British accent in this, Sylvester was born in California. **.

So superior: Hugh Grant as Jeremy Thorpe

A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL (3 part 2018 UK mini-series.) stars Hugh Grant as British politician Jeremy Thorpe, who was put on trial for allegedly planning the assassination of his former lover, Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw). This true, if heavily fictionalized and rather sordid story suffers from the fact that neither of its two lead characters are especially admirable, and it unavoidably wallows in a pre-Stonewall time period when homosexuality was seen as sinful. Attempts to add some kind of Gay Lib perspective don't really work. However, the series is absorbing for the most part, and Grant, Whishaw, and others in the large cast all give superior performances. **3/4.