Torquemada

The Lost Room mini-series, top notch sci-fi that beats the pants of Heroes, but in the genre that usually means it gets canned and no second series - see Firefly, Space Above and Beyond, for other excellent examples.

Harbottle

One of my favourite second features with a really excellent cast.

Joe Fraguela

Yes it does boast an excellent cast. I find that a lot of these B movies do have an extremely good cast. They are one of my most favourite genre.

batman

You and me both Joe, I have pencilled in The Teckman Mystery as this week's B-movie treat for The Bat. Great cast in that one too ... Margaret Leighton, Roland Culver, George Colouris and Michael Medwin et al.

Bats.

Don't miss out on a chance to win a rare film in Bat-Quiz 13 closing date - 31/8/8.

Rob Compton

The Teckman Mystery was the first film I ever recorded on to VHS tape on my newly acquired video recorder in 1978. Good film, Bats, hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Question, though - now that TV has all but stopped showing these 1950's B features, where do folks acquire them from? Ebay? This thread keeps whetting my appetite for them, but where do I get them?

rgds
Rob

batman

I acquired The Teckman Mystery via trading on this very forum. I have obtained quite a few good films from members here. I also pick up a lot from ebay. There are quite a few 'one man band' sellers who list mostly British films. They tend to be off air recordings transferred onto DVDr or VHS to DVDr transfers of deleted titles. Some 'legit' distributors such as Odeon and Network are good sources too.

Bats.

Don't miss out on a chance to win a rare film in Bat-Quiz 13 closing date - 31/8/8.

Rob Compton

Thanks Bats!

rgds
Rob

duffy moon

I watched 'Peeping Tom' last night for the first time. Quite an odd film, odly named also as he doesn't do much peeping, more impaling and piercing.

Or is the title more a subtle allusion to peeping at Tom? I don't know really. Still, worth a watch.

Duffers

batman

As far as I know he title is a reference to the person who 'spies' on lady Godiva in the old legend. Michael Powell experts may know different.

Peeping Tom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bats.

Don't miss out on a chance to win a rare film in Bat-Quiz 13 closing date - 31/8/8.

smudge

Courtesy of BBC4, just re-watched Mike Leigh's ABIGAIL'S PARTY. Truly timeless, because you know that in hundreds of houses up and down the land this sort of 'keeping up/putting down' scenario is still going on today; like meglomaniacal Monopoly but with real houses...

Excellent creations perfectly executed by the cast of five. Still as watchable as ever.

Smudge

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Joe Fraguela

There is a seller on Ebay who is based in Canada and they are always selling lots of rare British film titles. Some even I had never heard of.

Gone are the days when you could rely on the TV stations to show rare british film titles. Now you only get the recycled british films of which most of them have already been released on DVD now, and are constantly churned out every year. They also show the same british films on the Sky Channels, Film 4, TCM. This for me is a real bug bearer. I can't tell you the amount of times I have e-mailed TCM recently about the screening of their films and whether they will be screening the rare film titles that have been shown on TCM in the USA, and have they bothered to reply, no is the answer, all I get is the standard TCM response. No one from TCM has actually bothered to give me a direct answer. Even some years ago I wrote to Sky about their showing of the same british films. Needless to say I didn't get a very positive response. Unfortunately, for me things haven't improved with Sky. I feel another letter is needed, I wonder what kind of a response I'll get this time?

We can only look towards fellow brit forum members to trade with. Admittedly, Odeon Entertainment have been releasing quite a lot of rare film titles. I recently purchased Breakaway and Hell Is Sold Out, and I was astounded to read that these films were only transmitted once or twice on TV. Considering, that Breakway was made in 1956 and Hell Is Sold Out was made in 1951, it makes me wonder how many more hundreds, possibly even thousands of british films out there have only been shown once or twice on TV.

I know stations like Movies For Men did show a number of rare british films, mostly b-films a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, this has since dried up. So, what are we left with ?. Not very much I'm afraid. OK, the BFI have a vast collection of british films and yes you can arrange to view these films, but at a cost, no doubt. Why, can't they release more rare british films on DVD. Instead, they seem to focus on World/European Cinema and Documentaries.

Anyway, it's time I got off my soap box.

batman

I picked up Vernon Sewell's Jack of Diamonds from that Canadian seller and the quality is OK.

Last night I watched another episode of Captain David Grief in which Max fought a big octopus!

Great fun and well produced too.

Bats.

Don't miss out on a chance to win a rare film in Bat-Quiz 13 closing date - 31/8/8.

Joe Fraguela

Last night I watched the 1969 film The Body Stealers, also known as Thin Air. Released by Tigon and starring Patrick Allen, George Sanders, Maurice Evans, Neil Connery, Hilary Dwyer, Robert Flemyng, Lorna Wilde and Allan Cuthbertson. The story concerns Parachutists from the Air Force who have mysteriously disappeared whilst in mid-air.. Have they been abducted by aliens from outer space ?. General Armstrong played by George Sanders asks Bob Megan played by Patrick Allen and Jim Radford played by Neil Connery, Sean Connery's younger brother, to investigate. I quite enjoyed the film, some ropey bits, but overall OK.

smudge

Just got back from the flicks after watching David Cronenberg's latest London-based film, EASTERN PROMISES (Mrs. Smudge's choice). Bit of a mixed bag with a completely un-Cronenberg ending. Strong central performances from Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel - sadly let down by a miscast Naomi Watts as the female lead.

Pleasantly surprised to see a nice little cameo performance from our very own Mike Sarne in this though. That made the film for this particular ageing Britmovier !

Roll on DRACULA for tomorrow night....

(Love the Halloween theme BTW !)

Smudge

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Joe Fraguela

Last night I watched the 1955 film Touch & Go starring Jack Hawkins, Margaret Johnston, June Thorburn, John Fraser, Roland Culver, Alison Leggett and James Hayter. Jack Hawkins plays Jim Fletcher who works as a furniture designer he has an argument with his boss Kimball played by James Hayter. He resigns and announces to his wife Helen played by Margaret Johnston and his daughter Peggy played by June Thorburn that they are emigrating to Australia. I truly enjoyed this film and the performances too especially from Margaret Johnston.