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Our movie guy, James Finnegan, has a couple of Alan Parker classics among today’s film recommendations…
Would you believe there have been ten Pink Panther films, but the first one, is, surprisingly, The Pink Panther (Saturday 2.40pm RTE1).
The world’s most inept detective, Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) heads to Switzerland in pursuit of a gentleman thief, the Phantom, before he steals the priceless Pink Panther diamond.
The Phantom is really Sir Charles Lytton, played in his usual suave manner by David Niven. Little does Clouseau know that Sir Charles and Mrs Clouseau are having an affair.
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Ironically, the leading star was originally meant to be Niven, but Sellers stole the film with a series of improvised scenes, encouraged by director Blake Edwards.
Also starring Robert Wagner, Capucine and Claudia Cardinale, and the memorable Henry Mancini theme, but not, unfortunately Herbert Lom (Commissioner Dreyfus) who passed away last week or Burt Kwouk as Cato, who added so much to the later films.
Incidentally the best of the series, in my opinion, is ‘A Shot in the Dark’ and I am reading that the next in the series will star Eddie Murphy as Clouseau – you have been warned!
I’m a little out of my comfort zone with Trolls World Tour (Saturday 6.35pm RTE1) where Trolls Poppy and Branch embark on a mission to save diverse melodies from becoming extinct.
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This animated adventure stars Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, and all I can say is that my granddaughter Ava (age 6) is looking forward to seeing this very much.
Saoirse Ronan takes the title role in Mary Queen of Scots (Saturday 9pm RTE2). Mary Stuart’s attempt to take the throne of England by overthrowing her cousin Elizabeth the First (played by Margot Robbie, as far away from Barbie as it is possible to go) finds her imprisoned.
Josie Rourke’s direction, and two excellent lead performances make this a very entertaining historical period drama and compares favourably with the earlier 1970’s version, starring Vanessa Redgrave and the late Glenda Jackson.
However both versions contain a scene where the two queens meet, which never actually happened.
Alan Parker’s tuneful adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s novel The Commitments (Saturday 9.50pm RTE1) focuses on the auditions, trials and tribulations of an aspiring music impresario as he tries to make a Dublin based rag-bag collection of musicians into a soul band.
Starring Robert Atkins, Glen Hansard and my favourite female singing trio of Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle and Bronagh Gallagher, this is the story of another time in Ireland.
The second Alan Parker film of the night is the thriller Mississippi Burning (Saturday 11.10pm RTE2).
It stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two mismatched FBI Agents, one a tough former sheriff, the other a by-the-book idealist.
They are sent to a small town in the Deep South to look into the disappearance of three civil rights activists, only to come up against a conspiracy of silence. Enjoy!
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