Robert Day (2)Critiques

Western

Two key pillars of Early Christianity and Western Civilization.

Farce isn't quite sidesplittingly funny, but likable characters (and the stunning actresses Jill Adams and Eileen Moore) make it more than watchable. Sim is a man who blows people up for a living, but his latest plot is going off track due to vacuum cleaner salesman Cole.½

Peter the Fisherman (Robert Foxworth) and Paul of Tarsus (Sir Anthony Hopkins) assume leadership of the Church as they struggle against violent opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ and their own personal conflicts.

Collection of Sellers' early works is rather disappointing if you're looking for the Sellers of Dr. Strangelove or Being There or some of his more slapstick comedies. These are well-made films, and they're entertaining, but Sellers isn't even the main character in all of them.

Boris Karloff plays James Rankin, a social campaigner investigating perceived miscarriages of justice including that of the "The Haymarket Strangler", a murderer hanged twenty years previously. He discovers a strange mystery around a Dr Tennant who disappeared around the same time as the Strangler was hanged. As Rankin closes in on the mystery he finds himself becoming possessed and following in the murderous path of the Strangler. "Grip of the Strangler" (which I watched under the title "The Haunted Strangler") is an odd take on the Jekyll and Hyde story with an elderly Karloff doing well in pulling of what looks like quite a painful transformation. The film has some good moments, particularly the graveyard scenes which look like a throwback to the classic Universal style of the 1930s. These sequences are creepily effective and highly atmospheric. Cinematographer Lionel Banes provides some nice, crisp black-and-photography but director Robert Day lets the narrative meander a wee bit too much for the overall good of the film.½

This epic network television mini-series brings to life the precarious existence of early Christianity. The new movement is beset by violent opposition from without and constant turmoil from within. Two key leaders emerge--Peter and Paul--who struggle to keep the faith alive. This dramatic presentation follows the pair, together and separately, through three epochal decades. Included are the stoning of Stephen, the road to Damascus, their encounter in Jerusalem, their conflicts over how the word of Christ should be spread. Paul’s travels to Asia Minor and Greece, Peter and Paul’s clashes over Jewish law, and Peter’s decision to follow in Paul’s courageous footsteps. The drama concludes in Rome in approximately A.D. 64 with the beheading of Paul and the crucifixion of Peter under Emperor Nero.

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