Steve Crook

It is an odd one isn't it. A Year in Provence meets The Wicker Man

Steve

A Pemberton

Much better than my description and to the point exactly

ProfMarcus

I still can't believe I saw David Niven taking a whip to a woman (Sharon Tate). Not the act of a sahib at all. (Though if he'd done it to Margaret Leighton in Carrington VC, it might have brought a round of applause.)

. . . and new thumbscrews for me . . .

Steve Crook

I just watched the Timewatch program about Ten Pound Poms. Very interesting to see interviews with those that stayed the course and did well, and those that objected to the exaggerations in the promotion and felt they'd been lied to. They were the ones dubbed "Whinging Poms" by the Australians.

But one very odd technique that they used. They had a lot of photos of the people they were interviewing at various stages through their lives. Rather than just doing the usual rostrum camera shots and zooming in on them they seem to have cut them up (probably digitally) so that as they panned across the photos the people in the foreground moved against the background. But in the manner of a bad 3D image where everything seems to be in fixed planes like scenery flats in a stage show.

And even stranger, they'd added a few little bits of their own so that a photo from the 1950s of two brothers had smoke curling up from the cigarette held by one of the brothers. And a photo of a family with a dog showed the dog's tail wagging. I think somebody in the production team got a new toy for Christmas

Steve

suzepulcheria

This was a very light Bobby Howes musical but the revelation was Vera Pearce. A British (originally Australian?) cross between Margaret Dumont and Queen Latifah but the most marvellous gymnastic dancer. Her routine "Exercise" is brilliant and the quip "look after the om, look after the bom, and the pom will look after itself" (embonpoint) will now become a suze family saying. Also Bobby Howes's "You're too seraphic for city traffic!"

I also watched Rome Express again- one of the greats. Thank you MrT for both of these.

"I've come a long way you know!" "Equally long way to go back..."

batman

Dilemma (1962) with Peter Halliday. This is a rather nifty little B-thriller from Bryanston. Harry Barnes arrives home from work to find a dead man in the bathroom and his wife missing. Thinking Mrs B has killed the man he decides to dispose of the body. Good direction and a tight script which has some nice touches of black humour lift this out of the rut. Halliday is excellent. You could do a lot worse than spend 65m of your time watching this film. Recommended.

Bats.

I wish I had claws.

smudge

Sitting with our poorly puss at the mo, so we've got one or two films in with the furry one on our laps...

ALL NIGHT LONG - Basil Dearden's jazz take on Othello with a very edgy performance from Patrick McGoohan as ambitious drummer and dope fiend, Johnny Cousin. Excellent film with a wonderful score played out onscreen by some of the top jazz men of the period...

THE IPCRESS FILE - The classic 60s 'anti-Bond' spy thriller with Michael Caine never better than here. Wonderful work by director Sidney J. Furie with some brilliant camera set ups by Otto Heller and his operator, Brian Elvin. Oh yes, and some great onscreen sparring between Caine, Guy Doleman and Nige Green. Top film !

DANGER MAN - again part of a McGohhan fest whilst fussing the poor old kitty. Been watching Network's edition of the hour long shows and enjoying them all again immensely...

Smudge

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

stevie boy

I am halfway through Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, very good.

Joe Fraguela

Last night I watched a double bill which consisted of Straight On Till Morning from 1972 starring Rita Tushingham, Shane Briant, Tom Bell, Katya Wyeth, James Bolam, Annie Ross and Claire Kelly and John Clive. Directed by Peter Collinson, not your usual type of Hammer Film but an enjoyable one all the same.

Following on was Sebastian from 1968 starring Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, Lilli Palmer, John Gielgud, Janet Munro, Nigel Davenport, Margaret Johnston, Ronald Fraser, Donald Sutherland and Ann Beach. An excellent, cool Swinging 60's British film, excellent performances from Dirk Boagrde, Susannah York, the lovely Lilli Palmer and John Gielgud. Very good use of London locations, the music by Jerry Goldsmith is excellent and also has a lovely song by Anita Harris, Here Comes The Night.

stevie boy

Wild at Heart, lightweight programme but it has Amanda Holden in it(she is a beauty). I can see why Neil Morrisey had a dally with her.

Steve Crook

You join a small band of people that have seen this film
It is very well done - except maybe for Mr Sebastian's acid trip, but is rarely seen.

Directed by David Greene, written by Leo Marks, and to a certain extent based on his own life and experiences, and produced by Michael Powell.

Steve

Freddy

Imagine Me & You

This film was a BBC and Ealing Studios creation, it starred Lena Headey and Sue Johnstone.
A girl gets married but finds herself attracted to a lesbian flower seller, they have a slight dalliance, she realises she loves her and leaves her husband to be with the flower seller(Lena Headey), her husband fulfills his wish and begins to travel so that he can write a book on festivals and carnivals throughout the world.
Very awful, contained some familiar tools in the 'let's write a comedy in London' idea.

Fashionable flats, handsome friends, good jobs, classic cars, love and angst, they all live happily ever after in one and a half hours and London looks a great place to live.

Freddy

Joe Fraguela

Yes I agree with you about the Acid trip. I seem to recall that the last time Sebastian was shown was on BBC2 about 20 years ago. It doesn't make sense that some films are shown every year and then you get a film like Sebastian with some very fine acting which hasn't been shown for 20 years or more.

smudge

Must say that I find STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING possibly the most disturbing of Hammer's films. In the end neither of the leads has any qualities to draw you to them. An interesting experiment from Hammer - if developed, I wonder if that sort of trend might have kept them in step with the movies of the time which eventually saw them off...

Smudge

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

Redstar

I watched "The House that Dripped Blood" last night a nice four story horror set in the same old house, (obviously a film set) Well made if a bit hammed up by Jon Pertwee at the end!