Although Anthony Mann was initially hired to direct Spartacus (1960), producer and star Kirk Douglas fired him after only one week of filming, and replaced him with Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick reluctantly accepted the job, and Spartacus is the only film to his credit in which he did not have complete creative control. This is evident in the lack of signature camera tricks associated with a Kubrick film. The film, however, is Epic and powerful... focusing on a slave turned Gladiator who rises up to challenge the forces of Ancient Rome. The cinematography is great, Dalton Trumbo's screenplay is tight and the all-star cast does a fine job, including Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis, Charles Laughton, Woody Strode, John Gavin and Peter Ustinov (in an Oscar-winning supporting role).
Written and directed by Julian Fellowes, based on "The Chimneys of Green Knowe" by Lucy M. Boston, From Time to Time (2009) is a creative adventure with some paranormal and mysterious twists. The story centers on a boy that returns to his ancestral home in 1944, and soon finds himself traveling back and forth through time to revisit past personages and events at the manor house in the 1700's, including a devastating fire and the unsolved theft of valuable jewels… shedding some light on the historic mysteries that surround the place. The whole cast is great, including Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, Carice van Houten, Alex Etel, Hugh Bonneville, Dominic West and Eliza Bennett.
Co-written and directed by Jonathan Lynn, based on the popular Parker Brothers board game, Clue (1985) combines humor, murder and detective tenacity in an enjoyable mixture. When several seemingly unrelated people are drawn to an art-filled Gothic Revival house in 1954 New England, it soon becomes apparent that their paths are interlinked and quite nefarious… and when people in the house start getting mysteriously murdered, the finger pointing and sleuthing begins. Much like the board game, the film provides three possible endings and conjures up the curious nature that still spurs armchair detectives to solve the crime. The sets are lovely, offering up plenty of visual Victorian flare and stimuli. The cast does a good job, including Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren.
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