The films that helped to shape cinema as we know it today.

A classic film is a comforting dose of nostalgia for a bygone era. Whether you are revisiting your youth or seeing a classic movie for the first time, it can evoke a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Sit back, relax, and crack open those chocolates because here are some reminders of all-time classics made for rainy afternoons.

The 39 Steps

Starring: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Peggy Ashcroft Year: 1935

You can’t beat a heart-thumping, Hitchcockian thriller. This film is a masterclass in mystery, unravelling and revealing the narrative with a sharp script and keen eye. Robert Donat plays the suave Richard Hannay, who is forced to go on the run. Dramatic scenes ensue across familiar locations in London and Scotland; it departs slightly from John Buchan’s novel, on which it is based, with a performance on the Forth Bridge. Hitchcock makes his obligatory cameo, and Madeleine Carroll stars as the traditional icy blonde.

Rebel Without a Cause

Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Dennis Hopper Year: 1955

This is the second of three films James Dean starred in (well, was credited with) during his successful but short-lived career. A melodrama with all the attitude of 1950s teenage angst with James Dean method acting his socks off. The ill-fated Natalie Wood stars as the love interest when the main character moves to a new town with his parents and is challenged to a drag racing contest, which is when his troubles begin.

Red River

Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Chief Yowlachie Year: 1948

This quintessential Western says ‘howdy’ to John Wayne as the curmudgeonly old man leading a cattle drive to Missouri. There is conflict along the way as the older character clashes with his unofficially adopted son (Montgomery Clift), prompting the son to take off with the herd on The Chisholm Trail to Kansas. Horses, big skies, wagons, stampedes, Native Americans portrayed as savages; it’s all there along with ‘yee-haws’ aplenty, y’all.

Some Like It Hot

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe Year: 1959

Two musicians, Jerry/Daphne (Jack Lemmon) and Joe/Josephine (Tony Curtis), accidentally witness a mob hit in prohibition-era Chicago. Desperate to get out of town, they disguise themselves as women so they can join an all-female band headed to Miami. They vie for the affections of Sugar, the ukulele player and singer played by Marilyn Monroe. Fun Fact: the mob hit that Joe and Jerry witness is inspired by the real-life St. Valentine’s Day massacre.

Apocalypse Now

Starring: Marlon Brando, Charlie Sheen, Dennis Hopper Year: 1979

Adapted from the 1899 Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola’s film is an epic Vietnam war adventure with an iconic 12-minute helicopter combat scene, complete with speakers swinging from the choppers while blasting the soundtrack Ride of the Valkyries. Martin Sheen’s character, Captain Willard, follows the river from South Vietnam into Cambodia to assassinate Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz, who has gone renegade and is presumed insane.

Mary Poppins

Starring: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, some animated penguins Year: 1964

Fun for all the family with some supercalifragilisticexpialidocious songs thrown in. One of Disney’s classics and a mix of live-action and animation. Julie Andrews plays the nanny who (literally) flies in to take care of Mr and Mrs Banks’ children. She has a bottomless carpet bag and a parrot-headed magic umbrella and is friends with Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep. Fun Fact: Dick Van Dyke was sorry for his ‘atrocious’ cockney accent.

Take a BREAK

Everyone likes a summer read, relaxing on the beach, in the garden, or basking on the balcony; there is plenty to choose from. So, here are some page-turners which double up as fans to keep you cool during these hot days and warm nights. From romance to murder mysteries, dear reader, we have you covered.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

A dystopian novel set in the almost immediate present examines the cult of motherhood and what it takes to be a good mother. In a training camp, mothers who have made mistakes in a broad area of the neglect or mild verbal abuse (not childproofing the home, ‘coddling’) are rehabilitated. The essence of the story is the right of mothers versus the right of society to teach and impose standards for the child’s future role in society. Moral ambiguity, maternal ethics and guilt, technology and surveillance are threads running through the narrative. One of Britain’s bestloved actors candidly reflects on her life and career. After being hit by illness, bereavement and Brexit, she was labelled ‘extremely vulnerable’ during the lockdown. So, home alone, she started talking to pigeons and shouting at the TV. Now a nonagenarian, Sheila is as funny, feisty and honest as ever as she looks at a world very different from her wartime childhood. Having weathered widowhood and age milestones, she admits she has a nice life but is now experiencing old rage.

Old Rage by Sheila Hancock

This is a retelling of a Greek myth; like most Greek myths, there are curses, vengeance and violence. Three women, Clytemnestra, Cassandra and Elektra, are tied to the curse, the Trojan War is in full force, and the god Apollo has cursed Cassandra so that she can see into the future, but no one believes her when she tells of what she has seen. If mythology rows your ferryboat, then this genre has had a renaissance over the past few years, so there are plenty of titles to become engrossed in.

The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton

Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

This is the debut novel by British Nigerian writer Lizzie Damilola Blackburn. In this rom-com, Yinka is caught between two cultures; the Nigerian aunties pray for her to find a husband, while her work friends think she is too traditional because she is saving herself for marriage. Yinka Oladeji is a British Nigerian woman, who is Oxford-educated and in her early 30s with a good job, but her mother’s constant refrain is, ‘Yinka, where is your huzband?’ Huzband = Noun, pronounced auz-band (The Nigerian accent Dictionary). This long-awaited sequel to The Miniaturist picks up the narrative in Amsterdam’s golden age in 1705. The story follows 18-yearold Thea Brandt as family secrets from the past spill over into the present. Jessie Burton weaves a beautiful storytale of fate and fortune, dreams and destiny, and one young girl’s determination to resist a lucrative marriage as her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly.

Murder Before Evensong by The Reverend Richard Coles

This crime caper is the first in a series of murder mysteries. English villages are synonymous with murders, it seems. The village in question has bodies piling up, sausage dogs, rude old ladies, and a dose of humour. The hero is Canon Daniel Clement, the crime scene is the local church, and the murder weapon is a pair of secateurs. The time of the murder? Before evensong, of course. If you like The Thursday Night Murder Club by Richard Osman, this one is for you.