It's because of people like Huston that we expect bloodlines to spread talent through a family's gene pool - a shaky theory that has kept such the likes of Joey Travolta, Frank Stallone and Chris Mitchum in some sort of employment. John Huston, bookended by dad Walter and daughter Anjelica, delivered such a strong and daring body of work that only the very stupid could chalk it up to showbiz nepotism. His legacy is made up of undisputable classics (The Maltese Falcon, Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The African Queen), heroic failures (Moby Dick, The Man Who Would Be King), and the just plain weird (the criminally underrated Wise Blood). Also worth catching in this two-month retrospective is the seldom-seen Beat The Devil, a Bogart-starring, joke of a noir, riddled with great dialogue from Truman Capote. po'n

National Film Theatre, SE1, Fri 3 to Dec 30