Movie Nation

The great Western director John Ford’s idea of filming a British police procedural was to make it a lot like his Westerns.

He’d make the hero ironic — serious when need be, but comically bewildered at times. Domestic life would play a big part. He’d stuff the picture with incidents, plot threads and characters, and populate the supporting cast with familiar faces — some British, some Irish.

There might not be any horses or sagebrush, but you could bet your last farthing there’d a company of men being men, with a little gunplay.

“Gideon’s Day” premiered in the U.K. in Eastmancolor and later inspired a British TV series in the ’60s. It came to the U.S. as “Gideon of Scotland Yard,” apparently shown in black and white. It isn’t mentioned among Ford’s Finest because it isn’t.

It’s a day in the life of a Detective Chief Inspector named George Gideon, played by Jack Hawkins, who explains in voice-over that he’s with the Metropolitan Police, better known by the name of its headquarters, “Scotland Yard.”

Over the course of a very long day, Gideon will cope with crime sprees that began in Manchester and end in London, with murderers and “payroll snatchers,” lifelong hustlers, a dirty cop and innocent victims.

He will juggle the stereotypical demands of movie domestic life — “Don’t forget the salmon” pleas from his wife (Anna Lee), don’t miss “my recital” from 18 year-old daughter Sally (Anna Massey) — miss a couple of meals, dash from the phone to the office to crime scenes to The Old Bailey (court) to church to single sentence interrogations of suspects and a jump to furious conclusions over an underling who may be taking bribes.

Gideon will light his pipe approximately 62 times and a few cigarettes to boot as he checks in with a “dope” hating informant (Cyril Cusack), buy drinks for the informant’s Cockney wife (Maureen Potter), brushes past a bullied vicar (Jack Watling), invades the privacy of a cute criminal accessory (Dianne Foster) and joins in a safety-deposit-box robbery’s stand-off.

He will browbeat his underlings (John Loder, Barry Keegan, Michael Trubshawe, Frank Lawton) into working the same insane hours that he does, and suffer the sputtering complaints of his moose-head mounting chief (Howard Marion-Crawford).

And damned if case after case after case is solved, resolved or tidied up on Gideon’s harried single day in May.

As police procedural, even with a little bit of sleuthing involving tire tread analysis, victim interviews and “leads” procured off camera, “Gideon” is rubbish.

But as a by-the-book green recruit (Andrew Ray) insists on writing one and all a traffic ticket, only to by-the-book nab a suspect, as that vicar is pranked one time too many, and that “damned salmon” is forgotten for the umpteenth time, Ford’s flair for the corny and the comic shines through.

There’s something very folksy, Fordsy and Irish about this accused posh Brit’s reaction to the warning “If you’re fool enough to fire that gun…”

“I don’t see why you should speak in the subjunctive! I am going to fire this gun.”

Based on a novel by John Creasey (under the nom de plume J.J. Marric), Ford makes his modest intentions with this material and this working vacation in London clear as the film opens with a musical nursery rhyme — “London Bridge is Falling Down.”

Hawkins smokes and sputters and lashes out and voice-over narrates his dismay at the work, the nature of the cases and the system as he’s chewed-out for being late to a suddenly-moved-up court appearance, which requires his presence for all of about 40 seconds. Hawkins is light on his feet and light in town as Gideon is rushed from dawn to well after dusk, and those “dinner plans, darling” will go by the boards.

Ford built communities on his sets, bringing back favorite stars, character actors, stunt folk and wranglers (and even an on-the-payroll according player) to his Western location shoots. He even did this on a few non-Western dramas and the ironically-titled Irish comedy “The Quiet Man.”

Unable to do anything of the sort with “Gideon,” Ford made do and tried not to appear to be phoning it in. But the way the film’s violent action finale feels tacked on after the fact just underscores how anti-climactic this not-quite-cop-thriller/not-quite-cop-comedy feels, start to finish.

Rating: “approved,” TV-PG

Cast: Jack Hawkins, Anna Lee, Michael Trubshawe, Derek Bond, John Loder, Frank Lawton, Andrew Ray, Barry Keegan, Jack Watling, Dianne Foster, Cyril Cusack and Anna Massey.

Credits: Directed by John Ford, scripted by T.E.B. Clarke, based on a novel by John Creasey. A Columbia release on Tubi, other streamers

Running time: 1:31

Any fans who go to comic book movies for escape from the real world and the comfort of familiar godlike characters achieving something resembling justice and just deserts for evil-doers is going to lament the experience that “Captain America: Brave New World” offers.

Set in a diminished-and-shrinking America, with a somewhat distracted hero facing a dangerous, unstable, ill-tempered president controlled by an evil entity, it’s a little too “real” to pass for “escape.”

And having the “president” devolve into a raging Red Hulk is entirely too on-the-nose.

A fine cast struggles with a patchwork script that never adds up to much more than a big bummer. Some aerial scenes impress, and “Captain” Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez (as Joaquin Torres, the next Falcon) handle the CGI-assisted fight choreography well enough.

Giancarlo Esposito makes what he can with an under-written, quick-to-“explain” heavy. Harrison Ford reaches for gravitas as a general turned president of a Thanos-depopulated Earth and America. And Tim Blake Nelson hopefully paid off his house playing Samuel Sterns, the uninteresting, shadowy supervillain in this outing.

This whole enterprise could be a real come-to-Jesus bummer moment for the heavily-invested Marvel faithful.

In this timeline, this thread of the post-Avengers universe, the depopulated, realigned world is struggling over a new “miracle” element found in the rocky remains of the dead “Celestial” Tiamut, jutting out of the Indian Ocean. Mining Adamantium will “save” the world, the future or what have you.

And the Japanese (Takehiro Hira plays the prime minister) and everybody else want their share, which President Ross (Ford) has negotiated with the cherry blossoms in full bloom.

But Ross still isn’t over the fact that Captain America is “no Steve Rogers.” Sam Wilson (Mackie) and he have things to work out.

When Sam’s old mentor and boxing coach, the former Super Soldier Isaah (Carl Lumbly) attempts to kill Ross, everything positive is off the table.

Sam, his flight-suited sidekick Joaquin and the president’s crack Israeli-born head of security (Shira Haas) have to sort out who is controlling whom and is who about to throw what’s left of the world into chaos.

The president? He’s got to break free of his puppetmaster and control his temper as he does.

There isn’t a laugh or light moment in this unwieldy beast of a movie. As a political allegory, it doesn’t play. As Marvel action pic, it’s sorely lacking. At least they spared no expense in the cherry blossoms dept.

Lectures about “If we can’t see the good in each other, we’ve already lost the fight” ring hollow. A divisive president who ran on the slogan “Together” hardly seems fictional.

And a Captain America reluctant to crush evil without first first chirping “This is the last time I’m going to ask you to stop it” seems as ineffectual and diminished as literally every thing else about this dull, dispiriting dog of a popcorn picture.

Rating: PG-13, violence, profanity

Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Blake Nelson, Xosha Roquemore, Carl Lumbly and Takehiro Hira.

Credits: Directed by Julius Onah, scripted by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah and Peter Glanz, based on the Marvel comics. A Marvel Studios/Disney release.

Running time: 1:58

The old rule that film series for children tend to go one sequel too far pretty much applies to “Paddington in Peru,” the third Paddington Bear picture to celebrate all that’s twee about a bear learning to be British

The strain of finding a proper plot for the bear to play around in is obvious before you note that five writers made it into the credits. And whenever you take a comedy built around a beloved character out of its element — be it a sitcom or a film series — that’s a give away that you’ve out of ideas.

“The Simpsons’ are going to…Knoxville!”

But a lot of the charm is still here, much of it coming from the innocent, well-mannered bear abroad, perfectly voiced by Ben Whishaw.

“You can take the bear out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the bear” isn’t funny unless the bear has that soft, sweet voice, and the bear’s in a jacket — with a marmelade sandwich tucked under his hat.

And tossing a couple of Oscar winners into the mix — Jim Broadbent as a German-accented curio-shop owner, with Olivia Colman beaming as a too-chipper, too toothy singing nun, and vamping Antonio Banderas into half a dozen parts as generations of a Peruvian clan, pays off almost as amusingly as Hugh Grant’s villainous turn in an earlier Paddington picture.

Paddington’s back story is the subject this time, how he grew up in the Andes, lost his family and was raised by a bear who took him in — Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton). The bear was meant to travel all along, according to her.

“If ever you get lost, you just roar,” she counsels him. “And I’ll roar back. I’ll hear you, no matter how far away you are.”

That’s as comforting a message as any film for small children can give. And the tykes are never too young to learn what “foreshadowing” is, are they?

Because when the singing nun (The Andes are alive with the Sound of Music.) who runs the Andean Retirement Home for Elderly Bears calls, telling Paddington how much his Aunt Lucy misses him, there’s nothing for it but for the whole family to join Paddington on a junket to Peru.

Yes, the kids (Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin) have grown up enough to start going their own way. Mom (Emily Mortimer) is starting the empty nest weeping early. And yes, Dad (Hugh Bonneville) is still a risk-averse risk-management expert about to get laid off by his younger, risk-embracing new boss (Hayley Atwell).

But “purple kneed tarantulas” and piranhas be darned, Paddington and the Browns are going to Peru.

Aunt Lucy’s gone on a walkabout, Reverand Mother regrets to tell them. But Paddington discovers a clue to her whereabouts. If they can just charter a boat to go down river…

Banderas plays dashing Hunter Cabot, boat owner, “Svelte, strong, easy on the eye,” he purrs. “And that’s just the boat!”

He and daughter Gina (Carla Tous) will transport the Browns.

But all is not what it seems with this rakish, clumsy riverboat skipper. The walls of his cabin are decorated with paintings of his ancestors — a pushy conquistador, a crusty miner, dapper jungle explorer and aviatrix among them. And those ancestors have their own agenda, which they bark into his ears in the most insistent (and hilarious) ways.

What do they want with Paddington? When the chips are down, “Eat the bear!” may be a part of that.

There are few more reliable laughs in the movies than Antonio Banderas milking that Spanish accent to the “Puss in Boots” max.

Colman, given a song and dance number and a few subtexts to toy around with in her character, is a hoot.

Throw in some ursine pratfalls in a photo booth, a river boat and Incan ruins, with or without his family, with or without his new “brolly” (umbrella) and you’ve got a perfectly cute kids’ movie, no matter how derivative and cut-and-paste makeshift the plot might be.

Rating: PG

Cast: Olivia Colman, Hugh Bonneville, Antonio Banderas, Emily Mortimer, Jim Broadbent, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Carla Tous, Julie Walters, and the voices of Ben Whishaw as Paddington and Imelda Staunton as Aunt Lucy.

Credits: Directed by Dougal Wilson, scripted by Mark Burton, Jon Foster and James Lamont, based on the character and books by Michael Bond. A Sony/Columbia Pictures release.

Running time: 1:46

These movies have been adorable entertainment for small kids. Let’s see if that “They always make one sequel too many” rule applies.

“Almost,” is the verdict. My review here.

Lot of horror titles loaded into the beginning of the year. Most have been busts, or under performers. But hope and deadly toy monkeys spring eternal, right?

The film version of Stephen King’s story has Theo James, Elijah Wood and Maine in it.

Good turnout for a rainy Wed night here in Dook Town.

Review to come shortly. (And here it is.)

Clark Gregg, Anthony Anderson, Ramon Rodriguez and Antony Starr co-star in this “Air Force One” styled thriller.

Amazon has this one set for April 10 (Streaming only? release.

If only…

A true story, an Argentine coup in the making, private school kids inspired by “The Penguin Lessons” from a teacher who reluctantly rescued one on the beach.