Catching up

This week has, for all intents and purposes, been a wash out due to illness, which meant I missed several screenings I'd been looking forward to seeing (All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, Rambo). But being laid up at least allowed me the chance to catch up on a few new DVDs (Weirdsville and Chaos among them) as well as several movies that had been taking up space on my Sky+ planner (including Hammer's horror comedy The Old Dark House which has a weird double credit: "directed by William Castle" followed by "produced and directed by William Castle", the Terry Savalas/James Mason Nazi Gold heist "thriller" Inside Out), my favourite of which was Douglas Sirk's Sleep My Love, a terrific film noir from 1948 starring Claudette Colbert as a wealthy heiress whose husband (Don Ameche) tries to drive her mad (and to suicide) so he can live the high life with his femme fatale mistress, played by the smouldering Hazel Brooks. Wonderfully atmospheric, with a great opening, some stylish set pieces and a real Hitchcockian flair for suspense, it's apparently only available on German DVD, but if it turns up on TV, I urge you not to miss it.