James Martin Charlton
@jmcfire.bsky.social
"...a poet of the tower blocks" - What's on. Theatre 🎭 and Film 🎬, Academic 📚. Author of Fat Souls, Divine Vision. Views my own. https://linktr.ee/jmcfire
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My two most recent play publications - Divine Vision: William Blake in Felpham and The Pilgrim's Progress - are available from TSL publications:
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The Life of Chuck (2024) is a structurally different but spiritually thin King adaptation - apocalypse as therapy session, Whitman reduced to fortune-cookie wisdom, and a finale that cannot justify the toe-curling banality that precedes it. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★ review of The Life of Chuck (2024)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:37 PM
The Life of Chuck (2024) is a structurally different but spiritually thin King adaptation - apocalypse as therapy session, Whitman reduced to fortune-cookie wisdom, and a finale that cannot justify the toe-curling banality that precedes it. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
I took a close look at Riz Ahmed’s notion that Hamlet is about ‘resistance’ for The Critic and found he doesn’t seem too familiar with the play. thecritic.co.uk/hamlet-is-no...
Hamlet is not about resistance | James Martin Charlton | The Critic Magazine
A short interview with the actor Riz Ahmed caught my eye last weekend, headed: Hamlet is about “resistance”. My immediate thought was, no it’s not. But I gave Ahmed — a very fine actor — the benefit…
thecritic.co.uk
February 15, 2026 at 8:08 AM
I took a close look at Riz Ahmed’s notion that Hamlet is about ‘resistance’ for The Critic and found he doesn’t seem too familiar with the play. thecritic.co.uk/hamlet-is-no...
Eyeball (1975) is a grisly but second-tier Lenzi giallo in which bland tourists wander through Catalonia while a retiring detective is praised for solving a case he hadn't a clue how to investigate. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★ review of Eyeball (1975)
Someone is killing young women as a coachload of American tourists explores Catalonia. This is an entertaining, if hardly essential, giallo. As often with the genre, the solution relies on a motive re...
letterboxd.com
February 14, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Eyeball (1975) is a grisly but second-tier Lenzi giallo in which bland tourists wander through Catalonia while a retiring detective is praised for solving a case he hadn't a clue how to investigate. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Always The Sea. Edward Bond did write others (and better) plays. How about a bunch of drill rappers in Saved? | Jennifer Saunders to star in The Sea revival www.whatsonstage.com/news/jennife...
Jennifer Saunders to star in The Sea revival
Saunders will return to Theatre Royal Bath
www.whatsonstage.com
February 13, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Always The Sea. Edward Bond did write others (and better) plays. How about a bunch of drill rappers in Saved? | Jennifer Saunders to star in The Sea revival www.whatsonstage.com/news/jennife...
Brandy for the Parson (1952) is a featherweight post-war smuggling comedy - handsome English locations, Kenneth More doing his chap routine, Hawtrey somewhat subdued, and stakes so low you could nap through the customs chase. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★½ review of Brandy for the Parson (1952)
A young, wealthy couple go yachting and end up smuggling brandy by mistake. This is a very slight, sub-Ealing comedy - in fact, the script was an Ealing reject which the short-lived Group 3 Films took...
letterboxd.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:52 AM
Brandy for the Parson (1952) is a featherweight post-war smuggling comedy - handsome English locations, Kenneth More doing his chap routine, Hawtrey somewhat subdued, and stakes so low you could nap through the customs chase. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) is one of Jesús Franco’s rare moments of visual discipline: a near-plotless, death-and-sex phantasmagoria anchored by Soledad Miranda’s icy, committed performance. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★½ review of She Killed in Ecstasy (1971)
A doctor conducting experiments on foetuses is struck off by a panel of four senior doctors. This leads to his suicide and to his wife killing off the panel one by one. The story is barely the point. ...
letterboxd.com
February 10, 2026 at 9:34 AM
She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) is one of Jesús Franco’s rare moments of visual discipline: a near-plotless, death-and-sex phantasmagoria anchored by Soledad Miranda’s icy, committed performance. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Sabata (1969) is a baroque, cynical Spaghetti Western where staying just inside the law is rewarded, taking no side is fatal, and Lee Van Cleef turns profit-seeking gunplay into a grimly entertaining moral code. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★★ review of Sabata (1969)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
February 8, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Sabata (1969) is a baroque, cynical Spaghetti Western where staying just inside the law is rewarded, taking no side is fatal, and Lee Van Cleef turns profit-seeking gunplay into a grimly entertaining moral code. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) is a watchable but ultimately disposable Benoit Blanc outing, rescued by Josh O’Connor’s brilliantly played priest in a film more interested in therapeutic faith and blunt satire than in mystery, either theological or criminal. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★½ review of Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
A young Catholic priest is sent to assist at a church run by a charismatic, hellfire preacher who rules over his congregation in near-cultish fashion. A murder plot ensues. The third Benoit Blanc myst...
letterboxd.com
February 8, 2026 at 12:17 PM
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) is a watchable but ultimately disposable Benoit Blanc outing, rescued by Josh O’Connor’s brilliantly played priest in a film more interested in therapeutic faith and blunt satire than in mystery, either theological or criminal. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
River Beat (1954) is a neat little docklands B-movie where diamonds, romance and Customs men wash up on the Thames, rescued from bland leads by grubby character actors, great locations and a surprisingly punchy river-mud finale. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★½ review of River Beat (1954)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
February 7, 2026 at 9:28 AM
River Beat (1954) is a neat little docklands B-movie where diamonds, romance and Customs men wash up on the Thames, rescued from bland leads by grubby character actors, great locations and a surprisingly punchy river-mud finale. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Hammer’s first gothic horror shows promise in mood but confusion in story, Room to Let (1950) is atmospheric, messy, and ultimately more interesting as a historical curiosity than a coherent thriller. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★ review of Room to Let (1950)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Hammer’s first gothic horror shows promise in mood but confusion in story, Room to Let (1950) is atmospheric, messy, and ultimately more interesting as a historical curiosity than a coherent thriller. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
One of the weaker poliziotteschi: Highway Racer (1977) mistakes endless car chases for momentum and leaves you stuck with an unlikeable cop and nowhere to go. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★½ review of Highway Racer (1977)
An arrogant, immature cop, obsessed with cars and speed, goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of bank robbers. Surely one of the weakest of the poliziotteschi, this serves up an eminently dislikeable ...
letterboxd.com
February 6, 2026 at 10:30 AM
One of the weaker poliziotteschi: Highway Racer (1977) mistakes endless car chases for momentum and leaves you stuck with an unlikeable cop and nowhere to go. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Relentlessly sleazy and brutally effective, The Big Racket (1976) pushes vigilante cinema to its moral breaking point – repellent, thrilling, and, unfortunately, hard to dismiss. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★★ review of The Big Racket (1976)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
February 5, 2026 at 10:20 AM
Relentlessly sleazy and brutally effective, The Big Racket (1976) pushes vigilante cinema to its moral breaking point – repellent, thrilling, and, unfortunately, hard to dismiss. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Savage Three (1975) is a cool, unsettling slice of Italian crime cinema which pairs Joe Dallesandro’s chilling insouciance with immaculate style, leaving you unsure whether you’ve watched pure exploitation or a bleak diagnosis of modern violence. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★½ review of Savage Three (1975)
Three young men with respectable jobs at a computer science lab engage in extreme acts of antisocial behaviour after work, including rape and murder. A dogged, disgraced police inspector gets on their...
letterboxd.com
February 4, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Savage Three (1975) is a cool, unsettling slice of Italian crime cinema which pairs Joe Dallesandro’s chilling insouciance with immaculate style, leaving you unsure whether you’ve watched pure exploitation or a bleak diagnosis of modern violence. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love by Phillip Hoare is a bait-and-switch that sidelines Blake’s radical Christianity in favour of a muddled procession of posh, non-realist admirers who illuminate neither him nor themselves. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
James's review of William Blake and The Sea Monsters of Love
2/5: I was very much looking forward to reading this, but soon realised that it is a bait-and-switch. Although there are snatches of William Blake’s life and work, the book mostly consists of a meande...
www.goodreads.com
February 3, 2026 at 10:52 AM
William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love by Phillip Hoare is a bait-and-switch that sidelines Blake’s radical Christianity in favour of a muddled procession of posh, non-realist admirers who illuminate neither him nor themselves. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Cathy's Curse (1977) is a witless Exorcist knock-off whose possessed child, random horrors, and defenestrated housekeeper add up to moments of accidental comedy but the only horrors are the acting and script. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★½ review of Cathy's Curse (1977)
Cathy is too young to have the curse, so she gets possessed in the meantime. The possessing spirit turns out to be her paternal aunt, who died as a child in a car crash years earlier. Why this child h...
letterboxd.com
February 3, 2026 at 9:37 AM
Cathy's Curse (1977) is a witless Exorcist knock-off whose possessed child, random horrors, and defenestrated housekeeper add up to moments of accidental comedy but the only horrors are the acting and script. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Obsessed (1949) is a stagey but watchable thriller that promises Robert Newton at full psychotic throttle, then frustratingly keeps him on a tight leash. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★½ review of Obsession (1949)
A wealthy psychiatrist is lumbered with a wife who is constantly unfaithful. So, in a move anyone might consider, he decides to kill her next lover. He does not simply murder the man when he appears; ...
letterboxd.com
February 2, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Obsessed (1949) is a stagey but watchable thriller that promises Robert Newton at full psychotic throttle, then frustratingly keeps him on a tight leash. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Peter Mandelson is a figure of Shakespearean proportions. A snake with fangs deep in the heart of the body politic, a major contributor to the sickness that has overtaken the land. Simply put - a villain.
February 2, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Peter Mandelson is a figure of Shakespearean proportions. A snake with fangs deep in the heart of the body politic, a major contributor to the sickness that has overtaken the land. Simply put - a villain.
Laxdale Hall (1953) is a bargain-basement Whisky Galore! whose misty-eyed Highland sentimentalism is redeemed mainly by the pleasure of watching Fulton Mackay and Prunella Scales young, hopeful, and in love. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★½ review of Laxdale Hall (1953)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
February 1, 2026 at 9:25 AM
Laxdale Hall (1953) is a bargain-basement Whisky Galore! whose misty-eyed Highland sentimentalism is redeemed mainly by the pleasure of watching Fulton Mackay and Prunella Scales young, hopeful, and in love. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
The Adventures of Gerard (1970) is a lavishly mounted misfire whose cartoonish tone, wasted cast, and stylistic indecision make the collapse of its production company dedicated to Conan Doyle material feel grimly inevitable. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★½ review of The Adventures of Gerard (1970)
One of those flops where you feel that the squandering of money is happening insultingly in-your-face on screen. Born of a short-lived production company set up to produce films based on Arthur Conan ...
letterboxd.com
January 31, 2026 at 2:31 PM
The Adventures of Gerard (1970) is a lavishly mounted misfire whose cartoonish tone, wasted cast, and stylistic indecision make the collapse of its production company dedicated to Conan Doyle material feel grimly inevitable. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970) is a handsome Lawrence adaptation that ends in a silly flood of symbolism, turning a subtle period drama into a time capsule of 60s sexual-utopian wishfulness. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★★ review of The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
January 30, 2026 at 1:08 PM
The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970) is a handsome Lawrence adaptation that ends in a silly flood of symbolism, turning a subtle period drama into a time capsule of 60s sexual-utopian wishfulness. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Two on the Tiles (1951) is a limp Coward-lite marital farce whose only real interest lies in watching Herbert Lom glide through an evil foreign butler role on automatic pilot. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★½ review of Two on the Tiles (1951)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
January 29, 2026 at 9:53 AM
Two on the Tiles (1951) is a limp Coward-lite marital farce whose only real interest lies in watching Herbert Lom glide through an evil foreign butler role on automatic pilot. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
Top Banana (1954) is a curious filmed-theatre oddity whose early-TV satire, star-tailored schtick, and abandoned 3D gimmick explain why both film and source show have sunken into obscurity. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★½ review of Top Banana (1954)
A curious artefact, this film of a 1951 Broadway musical can perhaps be described as a precursor of today’s filmed performances. After the show finished its national tour, its sets were transported to...
letterboxd.com
January 28, 2026 at 10:13 AM
Top Banana (1954) is a curious filmed-theatre oddity whose early-TV satire, star-tailored schtick, and abandoned 3D gimmick explain why both film and source show have sunken into obscurity. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
New Substack for UK Holocaust Memorial Day: a piece I wrote in 2016 after visiting Auschwitz and reflecting on Claude Lanzmann’s Pourquoi Israël. It was never published at the time. I’m sharing it now, unchanged.
Link 👇
Link 👇
January 27, 2026 at 12:29 PM
New Substack for UK Holocaust Memorial Day: a piece I wrote in 2016 after visiting Auschwitz and reflecting on Claude Lanzmann’s Pourquoi Israël. It was never published at the time. I’m sharing it now, unchanged.
Link 👇
Link 👇
A Small Town in Texas (1976) is a muddled genre-hopper that can’t decide between drama, political thriller and hickploitation, and ends up compensating for a gaping credibility hole with endless car chases. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★ review of A Small Town in Texas (1976)
A convict is released after a five-year term on a trumped-up drugs charge, vowing to get back his girl and child and to take revenge on the sheriff who framed him. The sheriff is complicit in the assa...
letterboxd.com
January 27, 2026 at 9:55 AM
A Small Town in Texas (1976) is a muddled genre-hopper that can’t decide between drama, political thriller and hickploitation, and ends up compensating for a gaping credibility hole with endless car chases. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973) is a grubby, fast-moving Papillon knock-off whose sharks, communists, and carnival shoot-out add up to a cheerfully nasty slice of Corman-era exploitation. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...
A ★★½ review of I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
letterboxd.com
January 25, 2026 at 4:57 PM
I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973) is a grubby, fast-moving Papillon knock-off whose sharks, communists, and carnival shoot-out add up to a cheerfully nasty slice of Corman-era exploitation. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...