DB7

For which brand Windy?

Windthrop

Pils or Carlsberg - one of the two

Thats the joke that killed the Music Hall !

Lerica

Ooh I quite liked Checkpoint. Big Stan = Great Baddie! The latest one of his I've seen though its fair to say he could be re-named, as 'little Stan' as he was only 15yrs old in it. That was Undercover. Very proganda early 1940's war film.

freewebs.com/stanleybaker/

susanduic

Where is this on?

susanduic

smudge

Cheers Penfold! She does indeed let me get away with murder. Who else would let me fill a whole room full of DVDs and Film & TV paraphernalia and then take over the spare room for a reference library? In reciprocation I surrendered all interest in clothes and she has (almost) every inch of space in the master bedroom wardrobes....

Anyway - back to the plot:

Just watched BULLITT (1968)

On the strength of the previous year's ROBBERY - starring Sir Stanley Baker - British director Peter Yates was made an offer he couldn't refuse by Hollywood and made this now classic, San Francisco set, taut police thriller.

The basic plot where detective Frank Bullitt is determined to catch a hitman who murdered a vital witness just days before a Federal hearing soon blossoms out into one of even deeper intrigues with political undertones and more than a hint of corruption.

Yates very much stamps his style on this film, using some unusual POVs for set-ups which must have come out of his days of working on shows like DANGER MAN for British TV. I like the way he handles crowd scenes - again shooting from odd angles and springing bits of dialogue out of what seemed to be just wild tracks, to capture your attention.

What really made me sit up and take notice was that despite the fact that he had one of the coolest themes of the period to work with, Yates uses music very sparingly within the film. This gives it a very naturalistic, if not documentary, feel most of the time. Note the scenes in the operating theatre in this respect.

He elicits an assured and understated performance from Steve McQueen as the eponymous uncompromising policeman, which is backed up by a suitably smooth and dubious politician as his adversary - again confidently played by Robert Vaughan. Note should also be made of Don Gordon as Dalgetti, Bullitt's right-hand man, and Simon Oakland as his Captain.

Famous for its car chase through the streets of SF, there is much more to this film that just that. An excellent climax across a darkened busy airfield brings the film to an exciting conclusion, and the running time just whizzes by.

Smudge

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

wadsy

Hitchcock's Frenzy from 1972! Grim stuff! Jon Finch & Barry Foster are

very good in a Tense thriller. The scenes with Alec McCowen at dinner with his

wife, ( Vivien Merchant) are a delight!

scholes

Re edited version of A touch of evil directed by Orson Welles.
A far better film than I imagined at the first time of asking.
Welles was more than convincing as corrupt Police Captain Hank Quinlan. The opening and prolonged scene at the begining was mesmerising.
Good supporting cast includes Chuck Heston and Janet Leigh.

batman

I couldn't agree more ... a truly classic film.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

smudge

Just came in from a long day at work and WHAT A CARVE UP! was on Movies 4 Men 2. so we just had to sit and watch it.

It's one of those films I can watch over and over again and still get pleasure from every viewing. After a busy and stressful week (the boss recommended that I take tomorrow off as a reward!) I was sitting in front of the box, laughing out loud.

Mrs. Smudge loved Sid James' line about the ancestral home's stag's head, "Stone me! He must have been going some when he hit that wall!"

Pat Jackson gets the balance right and keeps the old dark house elements just this side of pastiche, to maintain enough of the shudder factor to let the comedy be cathartic. Couple this with perfectly executed central performances by Sid and Kenneth Connor and wonderful turns by Michael Gough, Michael Gwynne and the unsurpassable Esma Cannon, and you have one of the best comedy chillers ever.

Smudge

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

CaptainWaggett

Have you read the very excellent book of the same name? It does have a scene set during the making of the film.

dremble wedge

And we know who appears as a character

smudge

No, but I did hear the abridged version when it was Book At Bedtime, I quite enjoyed it and it was interesting how I reacted to the piece because of that common experience of the film. It just sort of clicked with me because of that shared factor.

Smudge

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

CaptainWaggett

Good grief - yes, I'd forgotten that. Though Sid has a bigger part ()

dremble wedge

Please Turn Over from the Peter Rogers/Gerald Thomas stable.

Margaret Lockwood's daughter Julia writes a saucy bestseller bringing consternation into the lives of her family (dad Ted Ray, mum Jean Kent). Leslie Phillips, Lionel Jeffries and Charles Hawtrey are also involved. Good fun.

smudge

BATMAN (1989)

Another film we watched just because it was on, co-incidentally also featuring Michael Gough - as in WHAT A CARVE UP earlier...

Again a film I hadn't seen for quite a while and I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. When I first saw this at the flicks I thought how miscast Jack Nicholson was, but looking at it again I see that I was wrong. There was a lot more to his Joker than a superficial take-the-money-and-run Hollywood cameo. He gradually lets loose the madness in a very good performance.

The design (respect to the late Anton Furst) and realisation was amazing - it was a pity that they left Pinewood and went all Hollywood; this was a very good interpretation of the Dark Knight and the sequels just went down the drain.

If anything did grate this time round it was Kim Basinger's 80s fashions which didn't go with the film's excellent retro/comic book look, and that irritating cub reporter.

Ever since it has been on the box, Batman has always suffered from its dark print (as per the cinema) and smeary digital transfers. It is about time they gave this one some decent digital restoration. Any time now, as the 20th Anniversary is coming up...?

Smudge

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