Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

Good story. Margaret's father, a cleric, stubbornly refuses to go along with his new superior. They move north to manufacturing town based on Manchester.  London ways v Manchester ways.  Education, refinement v. business and striving. Thornton runs the mill.  Hard man,  anti union, but with integrity as he sees it. Margaret dislikes his hard ways, but is drawn to him.   Strike.  Thornton confronts workers. M goes out on balcony and is hit by rock.  Hitting a woman puts the strikers into a weak position; they capitulate.  The man who threw the rock is ostracized and kills himself. Strike leader takes over his family. M. brother is a seaman wanted for mutiny.He sneaks back to see his mother before she dies. He's recognized, a fight, the other man dies. What a mess! 

 Four part miniseries.  Tom Hardy as Heathcliff.  Acting was great, some liberties taken with story, but the main feel came through strongly.  

 James Caan and Kathy Bates Caan is author of series, Misery, which he hates. His most recent novel kills her off, and he has just finished a "real" book for the first time.  He's heading home. Snowstorm, accident, crash. Bates "rescues" him. She LOVES the Misery series so loves him.  When she reads the latest installment, she's appalled. Misery dead! No.  When she next reads his new novel, she's even more appalled.  Profanity. Bates turns out to be a crazy mass murderer.  She keeps Caan in hiding, forces him to bring Misery back to life in a new novel, tortures, torments him.  (Broken legs in car crash) Enjoyable movie, directed by Rob Reiner

 2007 Fancy Daye comes back to her village to care for her dying father. Immediately three men fall in love with her.  Richest man in town; the parson; and Dick Dewey, laborer. Fancy is educated with aspirations.  All three men offer something.  Wealth, intellectual life and travel, and love. Fancy opts for love and marries the laborer, but the film does a great job of making this choice not so obviously correct.  The parson, were he not a prig of sorts, does offer her a fuller life. Well acted  . . . charming in the best way

 BBC version. First two hours were very good; third hour less so; last hour didn't work for me. Jane Eyre is taken in by cruel aunt who hates her.  Evil child. Sent away to a boarding school where she is mistreated.  Her one friend dies of flu? She is a good student in spite of it all, advertises for a job as governess, and is hired by Edward Rochester of Thornfield Hall.  He's gruff, older, etc., but love blooms.  Mysterious noises at night.  Fire at night in ER's bedroom.  Grace, servant, responsible. The crazy woman in the attic is too well known for any mystery to work, but they give it a try. Wife backstory.  He marries her in Jamaica, sultry beauty who turns out to be promiscuous. Back in England she goes crazy, attacking people, gets hidden away. ER wants to marry JE, almost does, but crazy wife's brother shows up and exposes the fact he has a living wife.  JE goes off for a year, inherits a ton, of money, hears her name called. Return...

 Strong ending.  Daughters read the screenplay.  Father, in alcoholic stupor, is frail and vulnerable in hospital  Daughter takes the main part.  Younger daughter's son is also in the movie. Final scene "looks" like a suicide . . . only when the word "cut" is shouted does the viewer realize it's actually a scene from the movie Dad has been wanting to make (though there are hints earlier).  About 20 minutes of cuts would have made this a very good film.