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It’s great when a fancy costume picture really has something to say — Alan Bennett’s crazy tale of a king’s episode of mental illness becomes a highly entertaining comedy of errors, but with serious personal and political ramifications. Nigel Hawthorne is exceptionally good as the sovereign whose brain has de-railed; Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Rupert Everett and Amanda Donohoe variously try to help him — or steal his crown.

The Madness of King George

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1994 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Amanda Donohoe, Rupert Everett, Julian Wadham, Jim Carter, Rupert Graves, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Anthony Calf, John Wood, Robert Swann, Peter Woodthorpe.

Cinematography: Andrew Dunn

Film Editor: Tariq Anwar

Production Design: Ken Adam

Written by Alan Bennett from his play

Produced by Stephen Evans, David Parfitt

Directed by Nicholas Hytner

Every few years the...

Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Christine Noonan, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Rupert Webster, Robert Swann, Hugh Thomas, Arthur Lowe | Written by David Sherwin | Directed by Lindsay Anderson

If…. is a satirical look at the public school system in the late 1960s but while there is a dark sense of humour in place there is also a scathing examination that seems all too real. The system of privilege that is in place and the bullying culture feels not only to be a part of the school system, but society itself. In fact the problems we have with politics to this day can be seen in If…. where these children in a boys only school are being moulded to take the top jobs in society, even as political leaders, being given a warped view on society and a perspective on life that many of the unprivileged (read that as the ‘normal people’) could never...

Producer Ross Hunter’s 1962 film If A Man Answers (directed by Henry Levin) is a sweet, silly and lighthearted romantic comedy featuring Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. Sandra is Chantal Stacy, daughter of Boston businessman John Stacy (John Lund) and former Folies Bergere burlesque dancer and professional Frenchwoman Germaine Stacy (Micheline Presle). The film focuses on Chantal’s negotiation between the Boston practicality and the French passionate nature that runs through her genetic line. Bobby Darin, as fashion photographer Eugene Wright (“Mr. Wright”), finds himself in the middle of this mess as Chantal’s willing romantic victim.

Chantal’s first scene in the Stacy master bedroom after returning from a date features Dee in an ice-blue coat and white cowl-neck sweater (gowns are credited to Jean Louis), perfectly matching the walls of John and Germaine’s bedroom, illustrating via costume that she considers her place to be in her parents’ home,...

If.... Directed by: Lindsay Anderson Written by: David Sherwin Starring: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Robert Swann Lindsay Anderson's 1968 film If…. sets a counterculture revolution within the walls of an English public school, creating an allegorical fantasy which reflects the volatile atmosphere of the time. Featuring a pre-Clockwork Orange Malcolm McDowell, comparisons to Kubrick's masterpiece aren't totally misguided. Both films are populated with rebellious youths and flashes of ultra-violence, but Anderson's approach is a less austere look at aggression as a means of change rather than simply a way to curb boredom. The film begins with the start of the school year at an English school for boys. While the youngest kids (do they call them freshman in England?) attempt to navigate the halls of the school and acclimatize to the demands of their surroundings, Mick Travis (McDowell) returns for another year, lugging a giant suitcase and sporting...