smudge

THE LAST REUNION - cracking little post-war story with some brilliant playing by an excellent ensemble cast including Eric Portman, Michael Gough and the ever-excellent (Sir) Alfred Burke.

Courtesy of Sduic - and many thanks for it too !

SMUDGE

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

bloodworm

Not a movie but a rather interesting documentary about the bringing down of DB. The two theories investigated were, was he shot down or was his own claim of a mid air collision true, Attempts to find his spitfire failed but research into old documents threw up a third option that is now thought to be correct, he was the victim of friendly fire. Good television that now days there is a sad lack of, well done channel 4.....

C/U The Worm

The one that gets away is always the biggest but not always the best !!

Steve Crook

I thought it was a bit of a non-event. They didn't actually prove anything, just put forward a few theories.

Steve

bloodworm

Thats true Steve, there was no final conclusion and probably never will be even if they had found his spit. I found though that the prog gave an insite into the man through friends relatives and old documents that was not previously common knowledge. In "Reach" Kenneth Moore depicted him as a real goody who was liked by all but was this true, not according to the prog.
Brain stimulation was what i gleaned from it and found it far better than property make overs, big brother type reality shows and that chat crap that fills our screens now days......

C/U The Worm

The one that gets away is always the biggest but not always the best !!

Steve Crook

Hitting your head with a hammer gives you better brain stimulation than reality shows or make overs.

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that Bader was a driven man and could be a bit of a bastard. If he'd been nice to everyone he would have spent the war behind a desk.

Steve

scoman

With regard to DB had a dinner a few years ago with an ex-RN pilot who fought in the BOB and met DB a few times. DB was a big fan of the big wing and would not consider another option this led to a lot of backbiting against him. The old guy I had dinner with called him a complete c$*t, his words not mine.

Steve Crook

As is shown in The Battle of Britain it took a long time, and a lot of mistakes (i.e. dead bodies) before the big wing could be made effective and by the time they had just about got it right - the battle was all but over.

Steve

Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

I feel sure that anybody discovering the body of a dead cat by the roadside would show more emotion than Michael Denison did on suddenly having the cadaver of his father (J. Robertson Justice ((sic)) ) revealed to him in the mortuary in the opening reel of "My Brother Jonathan" (1947) , Denison's stiff upper-lip being affected by scarcely a quiver. Indeed the first twenty minutes of this film contains dialogue so stilted and stagey (matched by the acting) that I was reminded of the parodies of British films that used to be performed in "Round the Horne" sketches.
But, just as I was about to give up on the film and eject the tape from my video-player, the plot developed some interest and Denison's performance began to improve and I ended by enjoying this saga of a doctor working amongst the poor in the Black Country. There was a nice period feel to the settings and some attractive photography and some good support by Finlay Currie and by Stephen Murray essaying one of his usual "nasty" roles. A curate's egg!

bloodworm

The first player to wear a helmet in a test match was Graham Yallop (Australia) in 1978

C/U The Worm

The one that gets away is always the biggest but not always the best !!

Freddy

One of the Battle of Britain pilots Tony Bartley went on to do the flying stunts for 'The First Of The Few' which was directed by and starred Leslie Howard. It was at the film studio where he met his future wife Deborah Kerr who was starring in a costume drama. Their marriage lasted until 1959.

regards

Freddy

Tryavna

I finally got around to watching the Network DVD of Ustinov's Vice Versa, which I found thoroughly enjoyable and far superior to all the father-son swap comedies of the 1980s. However, I do have a question and didn't want to create a thread just for that, so maybe someone can answer me here. I've noticed that IMDb, the BFI, and Leonard Maltin all list the running time for this film as 111 minutes, but Network's DVD runs only 98 minutes. Can anybody who knows the movie and has seen Network's DVD tell me if the DVD is complete?

I know I've asked similar questions about running times before, but I find it incredibly difficult to verify whether or not a lot of British films are complete on home video. Thanks for any feedback.

Steve Crook

The different frame rates between cinema and TV will account for some of that.
111 * 24 / 25 = 106.56

The BBFC pages about it say that the 1947 cinematic release was 10019 ft (111mins 19 secs).
They say that the 2005 video release was 97 mins 43 secs but they say that no cuts were made.

Maybe it shrunk with age? ;)

Steve

penfold

Perhaps no cuts were made at the request of the BBFC, but that's still nine minutes that have disappeared at some stage...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Steve Crook

Yes, but I don't know when, what or where.
I have only ever seen it on TV and video so I can't compare those with the theatrical release.

There's no difference in running time between the 2005 video release and the Network DVD.

Steve

Tryavna

Thanks for the link, Steve. I hadn't thought of checking with the BBFC.

Even taking the usual 4% PAL speed-up into account, there's still about a 9-minute disparity, as Penfold points out. If my math is right, without PAL speed-up, the Network version would run almost exactly 102 minutes. Most of the other Network DVDs I've watched, purchased, or read reviews of (Black Narcissus, Arsenal Stadium Mystery, Ipcress File, etc.) seem complete, so I wonder where the disparity lies? I wonder if e-mail Network would elicit a useful answer?

Maybe there's somebody lurking around here who caught it in the cinema.