Movie Diary 9/30/2019

Where’s My Roy Cohn? (Matt Tyrnauer, 2019). A documentary about the monster, with plenty of solid connections made to Donald Trump. If only the people who needed to see this movie would see this movie. (full review 10/9)

Lonesome (Paul Fejos, 1928). A completely dear almost-silent film, about a single fellow and gal who find each other at Coney Island one afternoon. A wonderful New York movie, among other things, with a consistently playful way of thinking through images, except for those occasions when brief dialogue scenes punctuate the action.

Pool of London (Basil Deardon, 1951). My man Bonar Colleano leads an ensemble cast in this wharfside drama that looks at harmless smuggling, racial prejudice, loneliness, and a diamond robbery. There are also music-hall sequences. It absolutely qualifies as Brit-noir. Deardon’s treatment of an interracial attraction (between sailor Earl Cameron and ticket-taker Susan Shaw, Colleano’s real-life wife) anticipates his later odd film Sapphire. Nicely understated presence from Renee Asherson, balancing out Colleano’s brashness.