Four Days in November

“The least likely thing to happen in the whole world” (David Frost, That Was the Week that Was).

The extraordinary ferocity of a high-powered rifle at short range stops the film, that of a point-blank pistol shot as well.

Catholic News Service Media Review Office, “provides a record of the nation’s trauma over the tragic event”.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Juran’s First Men in the Moon is explicitly cited at the close, in a reference that nonetheless modulates into Charlie Bubbles (dir. Albert Finney). As Buson has it,

the moon goes along
through the splendid central sky
and I through dead streets

The screenplay is credited to Roald Dahl exclusively, but there is said to have been a rewrite by the author of The Hellstrom Chronicle (dir. Walon Green).

In the course of explicating the quintessence of Wonkaism, Stuart films children with the detachment of Truffaut in L’Argent de poche.

One Is A Lonely Number

Love flies out the window with Milton, into the city pool as a lifeguard one must go, fighting off sharks. The East Coast computer executive is a proposition already undertaken. Death of Cordelia, “to Hecuba.” Goodbye to All That (Robert Graves) definitely, Dreams That Money Can Buy (dir. Hans Richter), the plunge.

Rare work of a kind that under unusual direction reaps benefits in rare views of the actors, Melvyn Douglas more at ease, for example, Janet Leigh more comically vivacious et al.

Howard Thompson of the New York Times, “diverting, intelligent surprise.” Variety, “an excellent contemporary drama”. TV Guide, “an underrated picture”. Catholic News Service Media Review Office, “intelligent soap opera”. Craig Butler (All Movie Guide), “it makes a game attempt.” Halliwell’s Film Guide, “interesting moments.”