Tunes of Glory (1960)

I was going to review "The Machinist" with a skeletal Christian Bale (diet hint: he lost 60 pounds for the role by eating only a tin of tuna and one apple per day), but I fell asleep within minutes.  It probably wasn't really that boring, but I will need to have a go on another occasion.  So I bring you the above British classic instead -- a movie by a middling director and rather murkily filmed, but boasting not one but two barnstorming performances by Alec Guinness and John Mills, with the bonus of a super supporting cast including Susannah York in her debut.  The interesting thing is that the actors could have swopped their roles easily with equally brilliant results.  Guinness is cast as the rough and ready commander of a peacetime Scottish Highlands regiment who is about to be replaced by troubled martinet Mills (a similar personality to Guinness' in "Bridge on the River Kwai".)  The battle of wills that follows is devastatingly played by both actors and leads to an unexpected denouement.  Sporting a bright red crewcut and an immaculate not quite pukka accent, Guinness has said that this was one of his favourite roles, but the quiet desperation of the Mills character was also something of a departure for him.