tavm With today being Friday, September 13, I decided to watch a movie called Friday the Thirteenth. Now, if you're reading this under the title heading, then you know I'm not reviewing the 1980 slasher flick, nor its sequels nor the remake from a few years ago, all involving the character of Jason Voorhees. No, what I'm reviewing here is an obscure British film that's about a bus crash on that particular day that then flashes back toward the beginning of that day in telling the passengers' lives beforehand. All I'll mention now is that a couple of deaths result but this is not a horror or suspense film but a comedy with some dramatic moments that entertained me quite a bit most of the way through. So on that note, I highly recommend Friday the Thirteenth.

Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki Interesting mix of Hitchcock-type of mystery and early film noir has a London bus careering down the road, on a rainy Friday the 13th, at 11.59pm, when lightning strikes causing an accident which kills two on board. Big Ben winds backward, and we're taken back to Thursday the 12th and shown (in far too much detail?) the lives of the people involved in said bus accident. This series of vignettes ties together each individual's story, placing them together on this doomed bus ride. The mystery comes from wondering which of the two passengers perish in the accident.A bit of fun is had along the way at the expense of ridiculous clichés and superstitions (seven years back luck, throwing salt over one's shoulder, the film's date of occurrence) and the last scene, with the small boy and the old lady, is most amusing.

tedg I urge you to see this. You will enjoy it for its tight writing within each ministory; but there are greater joys in the construction as a whole. The characters are united spatially — they all end up on a bus that has an event. But they are interwoven in a deeper way, as the eye skips from one story to the other. Rather than being separate and requiring work to keep them straight, each event in each story adds to a tone of the movie as a whole. It surrounds a whole people and provides a more universal insight into humanity than any single story could.It is not profound; the writer knows not to be overly ambitious. It is about as perfect as screen writing gets, and in 1933! This is where "Short Cuts" comes from.One story satisfies my notion of folding: a young couple is in love. He is a "professor," she a showgirl. The tension between them has to do with his problems in accepting her appeal being exposed as part of what is called here "the business," meaning the business of theater. London in that era was the world center for the theater and between the wars also the center of thinking about what this new medium of film would bring in terms of constraints and opportunities. The central issues are reflected in this little story — which ends happily for the couple, and us.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

htrm This is an exceptional film. It is part comedy, part drama, part suspense. The dialog is exquisite. Most of the actors and actresses were very famous in their time, and for good reason. You will probably recognize someone, even if you don't usually watch older movies. They are also each in a role that particularly suits their talents. One correction to make on another users comment is that two people, not one, are announced to die in the accident. Maybe the unlucky two are a reflection of what the writer considers important in life. The movie is too engaging to worry about who it is until it happens.The story is ahead of its time, but it does not lose the quality of an older movie. Time and effort was spent perfecting the camera's view and the soundtrack, something modern movie makers tend to forget.