REVIEW POTPOURRI – Films: Memory & Harry Brown; Show: Love that Bob

Liam Neeson

by Peter Cates

Memory

Memory is a 2022 film starring Liam Neeson as a very skilled contract killer who is encountering ominous moments of forgetfulness and has an older brother already incapacitated by Alzheimer’s.

He is assigned two hits, one being a corrupt ac­countant and the other an underage teenage girl from Mex­ico. He disposes of the accountant but draws the line at children.

The organization he works for then comes after him.

The story also has local police, FBI agents and investigators from Mexico. The story mainly takes place in El Paso but, interestingly, the scenes in Mexico were filmed in Bulgaria.

Very entertaining.

* * * * * *

Michael Caine

Harry Brown

Emily Mortimer

A 2009 film, Harry Brown stars Michael Caine as the title character, a retired military officer living in a South London apartment complex overrun by gangs and drug dealers.

When a friend is brutally murdered by them and the police display little response for “lack of evidence “, he takes matters into his own hands a la Charles Bronson/ Clint East­wood.

The film was poorly paced and bedeviled by prolong­ed scenes of graphic violence, the very few redeeming qualities being the acting of Caine and Emily Mortimer as a detective who’s the only one on the force willing to see justice done.

* * * * * *

Love that Bob

Bob Cummings

Nancy Kulp

A 1950s comedy show, Love that Bob, ran from 1954 to 1959 and starred Bob Cum­mings as a womanizing photographer who refuses to settle down. Cast members included Rose­mary de Camp as his widowed sister with whom he lives, Duane Hickmann as her son and Ann B. Davis as the photographer’s secretary.

Frequently appearing were Lyle Talbot and King Donovan as friends of Bob, and Nancy Kulp (better known later as Miss Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies) as a lovesick plain Jane contributed immensely to what was, for me, the most hilarious comedy show of that decade, not to mention Cummings also portraying the photographer’s obnoxiously flirtatious grandfather.

Episodes from the show abound on Youtube.