Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)

Google: “In this fact-based film, distinguished U.S. Army Col. David Marcus (Kirk Douglas) is enlisted by the Israelis to perform the difficult task of preparing their fledgling nation for battle against the Arabs. Before long, he feuds with the local leaders, quits his post and goes back home to his pregnant wife (Angie Dickinson) in the United States. However, Marcus, who is Jewish himself, soon has a crisis of faith and decides to return to duty to help the untrained Israelis form an army.”

The film is slow and laboured. The sound quality is poor and the dialogue isn’t synchronised quite right. There’s a disjointed, awkward feel. 

John Wayne, Topol, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner all appear, but no amount of star charisma can make the script work. I do like Senta Berger as Magda Simon. She has a certain warmth and charm that is lacking elsewhere. Kirk Douglas is watchable, too, but seems much too chirpy most of the time, adding to a feeling that the whole affair is rather shallow.

On the plus side, there are a few good lines. For example, when David asks his wife why she’s up so late, she replies: “I worry better when I’m awake.”

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Remarkable adaptation of the popular stage musical by Norman Jewison, shot in a way that still seems fresh and lively. There are so many good things about this film...

The songs are strong and memorable. Plus, they work with and within the narrative. They aren’t merely irrelevant add-ons, as is often the case in lesser musicals. 

Topol’s warm, well-rounded character is extremely watchable. It's difficult to imagine anyone else filling the part so well or being so funny. He’s rolling his eyes and fourth-walling it constantly. And the device of him talking to God offers a useful way for him to directly address the audience and bring us into his inner world. 

Even when the film embraces dream sequences, it works.

Flash Gordon (1980)

Highly entertaining adaptation of the comic-book hero’s exploits, wisely playing up the outlandish, cartoonish aspects of the story. The colours are super-bright, the costumes are wonderfully extravagant and everything is over-egged to the nth degree. It’s pure pantomime and it’s enormous fun. 

Sam J. Jones plays the hero as an almost blandly all-American beefcake football star. Melody Anderson is tremendous as Dale Arden, the travel agent who accompanies Flash to Mongo and falls in love with him. Topol is Dr. Hans Zarkov, the batty scientist who kidnaps the pair to investigate the extreme-weather peril Earth is enduring. Max von Sydow is perfect as evil Emperor Ming the Merciless, as is Ornella Muti as his sultry and traitorous daughter Princess Aura. Timothy Dalton (as Prince Barin) and Brian Blessed (as Prince Vultan) are the resistance leaders who join up to help Flash and his friends fight Ming’s empire. Blessed is a joy to watch – a constantly guffawing warrior “hawkman” kitted out in big wings. 

It’s made all the more thrilling and exciting by the soundtrack by Queen. The band contributed not only the famous theme tune, but also all of the incidental music as well. 

Peter Wyngarde plays the Darth Vader-like General Klytus. And Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan has a cameo as a man who has to put his hand in a hole in a tree without being stung by a tree monster. 

Although it’s deliberately daft and cheesy, there’s an uplifting message in there about the power of humanity to display kindness and overcome the forces of evil.

A glorious celebration of silliness.

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

There are a few unusual things about this James Bond film. For a start you see the performer of the song in the title sequence – in this case Sheena Easton. Secondly, the film ends with Margaret and Dennis Thatcher taking a phone call from a parrot they believe to be James Bond. Impersonators Janet Brown and John Wells play the pair, and it’s a genuinely funny scene, but it’s certainly not what you expect from a film in this series.

For Your Eyes Only is slightly grittier than the daft Moonraker, and it’s one of the more watchable Roger Moore films.

Topol is easy to like as the nut-guzzling Milos Columbo, while Carole Bouquet is fairly good as Melina Havelock. Julian Glover is the unspectacular villain Aristotle Kristatos. The subplot about Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), the young ice skater, is somewhat baffling and could have been cut entirely.

The skiing and rock-climbing sequences are fairly exciting, as is the underwater battle in a sunken ship filled with corpses. Also good to see Bond and his girlfriend pottering about in a submersible.

As if all that wasn’t enough, some of the action scenes are accompanied by funky music.