Couple Indemnity

Strangers on a Train (1951)

We are back with another cracker in the Alfred Hitchcock marathon and this week Hal has selected Strangers on a Train (1951), the film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel. 
Tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is enraged by his wife's refusal to finalise their divorce so he can wed senator's daughter Anne (Ruth Roman). He strikes up a conversation with a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), and unwittingly sets in motion a deadly chain of events. Psychopathic Bruno kills Guy's wife, then urges Guy to reciprocate by killing Bruno's father. Meanwhile, Guy is murder suspect number one.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Izzy has gone all Arthouse this week and selected the highly acclaimed French historical romance ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’.
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Director: Celine Sciamma

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Hal has come back with another of his heavy-hitters this week by selecting the powerful romantic drama starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, depicting the downward spiral of two average Americans who succumb to alcoholism and their repeated attempts to deal with their problems. 
Director: Blake Edwards

Annie (1999)

Izzy has practically transported us in a time-machine to her childhood by selecting the 1999 made-for-television adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Annie, the young girl (Alicia Morton) living a “hard-knock life” in an orphanage. Fed up with the dastardly Miss Hannigan (Kathy Bates), Annie escapes the run-down orphanage determined to find her mom and dad. It’s an adventure that takes her from the cold, mean streets of New York to the warm, comforting arms of bighearted billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Victor Garber) - with plenty of mischief and music in between.
Director: Rob Marshall

The Master (2012)

For a special one-off episode, we have taken a trip to the cinema to see yet another Paul Thomas Anderson highly-acclaimed film The Master (2012), telling the story of Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a WWII Navy Veteran struggling to adjust to a post-war society, who meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the leader of a cult known as The Cause.
Dodd sees something in Quell and accepts him into the movement. Freddie takes a liking to The Cause and begins traveling with Dodd's family to spread his teachings.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Hal has returned to his love for Frank Capra this week and has chosen one of the most important political dramas from Hollywood history with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), about a naive, newly appointed and idealistic United States senator (James Stewart) who fights against government corruption. 
Director: Frank Capra

Legally Blonde (2001)

Izzy has picked out one of her childhood and early teen Rom Com favourites in Legally Blonde, the story of fashionable sorority queen Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) who follows her ex-boyfriend to law school, where she discovers that there is more to her than just looks.
Will Hal be just as enamoured and as unrestrained in his praise for this early 2000's female classic movie as Izzy? Listen to find out.
Director: Robert Luketic

Midsomer Murders: Tainted Fruit (2001)

Hal is returning to one of his old favourite murder mystery shows set in the rural murderous world of Midsomer with the 2001 episode of Tainted Fruit with another case for  Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby (John Nettles) and Sergeant Troy (Daniel Casey). Melissa Townsend (Lucy Punch), the daughter of the manor, has been accused of causing the death of a local poacher and has received a number of disturbing death threats. When she is later found dead, with a syringe in her stomach, Barnaby and Troy proceed to investigate.
Director: Peter Smith

Amadeus (1984)

Izzy has selected the 1984 Best Picture Academy Award Winner Amadeus as her selection this week, the depiction of the life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce), as told by Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman

Stage Fright (1950)

Hal is back with the next in the series of his favourite Hitchcock films starring Jane Wyman & Marlene Dietrich. Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is wanted by the police who suspect him of killing his lover's husband. His friend Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) offers to hide him and Jonathan explains to her that his lover, actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) is the real murderer. Eve decides to investigate for herself, but when she meets the detective in charge of the case, she starts to fall in love.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock