smudge

Can't sleep due to crocked shoulder, so have just watched EYEWITNESS, followed by ENGLISH WITHOUT TEARS. I haven't watched either of these for a while.

I was surprised how successfully EYEWITNESS gets away with such a skimpy plot. The basic robbery/witness scenario is used as hook on which to examine various relationships throughout the film; husband and wife, gangster and patsy, nurse and boyfriend. I didn't remember how interwoven all of these were, but director Muriel Box pulls all of this storytelling off with ease.

There are excellent turns by Sir Donald Sinden as the fast-thinking career crook and Nigel Stock as his hapless assistant. Nice touches; the dash of suspense in the grounds with the flower-filching doctor, and the fight in darkness when Sinden's character attacks the ward nurse. Also the nice long 'sleeper' period for Nigel Stock prior to the denouement.

Old George Woodbridge should get the sack from security though - I have never seen so many people milling around hospital grounds after dark...

All in all still as watchable as ever - lovely bit of insensitive policing from Allan Cuthbertson, breaking the news to the widow at the scene of the crime with the bloodstains still fresh in the carpet!

ENGLISH WITHOUT TEARS - again, haven't watched this in many a year. Terence Rattigan's wartime piece of froth about class and national differences is ultimately unfulfilling, relying as it does on literal reversals of earlier scenes for some of its gags.

Notable mainly for the faces in the background such as a younger Esma Cannon and stalwart Irene Handl. In the end though the principal characters are bound to get married as they are perfect for each other, being equally insufferable! Even the lovely Peggy Cummins manages to be irritating as the baby sister character. Best bit: Albert Lieven slowly disinegrating and disappearing in a haze of alcohol at the bar. All fluff and nonsense really...

Smudge

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

batman

I watched Before I Wake (aka Shadow of Fear) with Jean Kent and Max. A standard 'is she mad or isn't she' potboiler. Nicely done with a good performance from Jean. Max is wasted in the role of the local doctor.

Steve Crook

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
It was on TV so I thought I'd see what the great Tim Burton had done to it.
The answer seems to be that he sucked all the life out of it

A lot of it was a straight lift from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), things that were in the 1971 film but not in the book. But it was done without any charm or any soul. They missed a lot of the best gags and the effects weren't really all that much better either.

So they used CGI squirrels to test the nuts instead of Oompa Loompas. To what advantage? It didn't add anything.

They added Charlie's father, but he didn't do anything much and you can see why they cut him out of the 1971 version.

They added Willy Wonka's inability to say words like "father" or "parent" and the extended ending and the little back-story interlude involving his father (Christopher Lee) didn't really give any reasons. They just said that Willy Wonka was starved of love so he cut himself off from his father. Big deal

Johnny Depp can be a good actor, but he wasn't required to do much here. The supporting cast were adequate. It didn't make me laugh out loud or cry (as the 1971 film continues to do), it just about made me smile in a few points.

What a colossal waste of talent and energy

Steve

CaptainWaggett

Aw! I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Oompa-Loompas were absolutely great as were the squirrels (who were all Equity members, not CGI)

Dame Starry

I have to agree entirely.
My brain switched off after about 20 minutes and the TV was switched off shortly after that – it was absolutely appalling.

I love Johnny Depp – usually – but the pudding-basin haircut and those strange teeth made him look sexless and, sadly, his talent seemed to have deserted him.

Maybe it’s a ‘generation’ thing, but Gene Wilder will always be the only Willy Wonka for me!

DS x.

Joe Fraguela

Last night I watched the 1972 Eurovision Song Conest, which was held in Edinburgh and presented by the lovely and elegant Moira Shearer. Some very good songs from United Kingdon, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands and of course the winning entry from Luxembourg, Apres Toi sung by Vicky Leandros.

julian_craster

<< Last night I watched the 1972 Eurovision Song Conest, which was held in Edinburgh and presented by the lovely and elegant Moira Shearer...>>


Does Steve know about this role for Moira ?

Dame Starry

I'd put money on it (and I don't bet!).

DS x.

stevie boy

wow, I bet you were the only person in the world watching that last night

stevie boy

Is that the AA man in the League of Gentlemen???

stevie boy

I watched the Jigsaw Man again, mainly for the Strand on the Green Locations, if any film was made purely for money then this is it(Olivier & Caine), good to see a stunning Susan George and also my namesake Robert.

Steve Crook

Yes, she's listed on the IMDb for it
Although I've not seen it

You should have tried harder to get someone to take that bet Dame Starry

Steve

Steve Crook

Even the squirrels that attacked Veruca Salt, and then the one who kicked Mr Salt (James Fox) down the rubbish chute?

The Oompa-Loompas were OK, although I wondered if a few of them had blacked (or browned) up. I thought their songs were a bit suspect, part of the updating for no apparent reason. Not that the Oopma Loompas songs in the 1971 version were anything particularly wonderful.

It was adequate. But it still seemed soul-less compared to Gene Wilder in the 1971 version

Steve

batman

The Brothers. Patricia Roc and Max. Bat heaven!

Joe Fraguela

I was actually, it says a lot doesn't it. I know Eurovision isn't to every one's taste but for me it's an annual ritual, i can't help it, I just love it, highly camp!