ollie

The Entertainer, how this gem has passed me by for so long i'll never know,some absolutly crackin performances,and what a cast,i should have recorded but missed the first 5mins,will have to check availability

cheers Ollie.

"Bullseye !!"

Steve Crook

Yes, it's commercially available

Steve

ollie

Thanks Steve, and only a fiver !!

cheers Ollie

"Bullseye !!"

batman

Last night I watched a western called China 9 Liberty 37 .... it had Jenny Agutter in it and was directed by Monte Hellman. It is a strange US/spaghetti hybrid in which, surprisingly for a western, everyone seems obsessed with sex. The late Warren Oates gives a great performance as a man whose wife (Jenny) runs off with the man sent to kill him. Not an original idea but is a well written character piece and is beaurifully photographed. Jenny looks stunning and is convincing as a frontier wife fed up with her lot in life, and seeks excitement with a gunfighter in it's place. Fellwanderer should enjoy it, there's a lot of Jenny on show here ... as demonstrated below ....

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

Fellwanderer

Rarely seen on our screens. I caught it on Sky nearly 3 years ago by the greatest of good fortune and managed to record it - if I recall correctly, it was a lovely birthday treat for me!

Unique in the only film in which Jenny sings - she admits that she can't.

Naturally, she looked stunning - or should that be: she looked stunning naturally.

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

George Fry

Watched an interesting D.V.D last night, "Jim Henson's The Storyteller". Seems like it was something done for a T.V. series as it is compact episodes. Does anyone know? We did not have it in Canada as far as I recollect.
And somewhere someone is corresonding about "The Avengers". Nothing beats Dame Diana as Mrs. Peel. She knocked spots off the other ladies before and after. Saw her in "Bleak House" the other nyght. She was wonderful as Lady Dedlock., but what a sad story. Haven't read it for years and did not remember how tragic it was.
George in Canada.

smudge

As I recall, wasn't THE STORYTELLER done for children's TV ? With John Hurt as the title character ? As far as I remember it got some pretty good reviews.

Now to what I watched the other night :

THE STATEMENT
Michael Caine gives IMHO one of his best performances ever as a former Vichy collaborator and killer who has been protected across the years by church and the establishment. Suddenly, someone is onto him and he has to flee for his life through France.

This compelling film has some great performances in it with plot, counterplot and Caine's world turning full circle in collaboration and betrayal. I am surprised this film didn't attract more attention at the time of its release.

Smudge

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

A Pemberton

The Flesh and the Fiends 1959/60?

I havent seen this before and its a pleasant surprise, , the film is the story of the notorious methods of procurement by Burke and Hare of cavaders for surgeon Dr Knox in 1820s Edinburgh.

Peter Cushing is splendid as Dr Knox the eminent doctor putting progress before humanity and Donald Pleasence is excellent as ulsterman William Hare.

Hammer(-esque??) in its style (though not sure if it is a Hammer
film).It begins with a standard graveyard scene and the lovely scene setter of a title.

""This is the story of lost men and lost souls.It is a story of vice and murder.We make no apologies to the dead.It is all true"" wonderful!!

batman

THE LONG HAUL with Victor Mature, Diana Dors and Patrick Allen (1957)

This was one of a few films that Victor Mature made in the UK when his Hollywood career began to slow down in the mid/late 50s. The film makes an attempt at a British film noir coupled with the 'social realism' of the 50s. Mature is an ex-GI down on his luck who ends up in Liverpool with his wife and son. Falling foul of Patrick Allen's road haulage scam, he loses his job as a driver and begins working for Allen. Along the way he becomes entangled with Allen's mistress, Dors, and suffers domestic problems at home. With Mature torn between his family and Dors and the police closing in on Allen, the scene is set for one last smuggling job and some revenge for Allen who has found out about the Mature/Dors affair. Cue lots of truck action in the Scottish highlands, a great fight between Mature and Allen in a cold river and an emotional finale involving Mature's young son.

While not in the same class as the similar Hell Drivers, this is an entertaining film which is let down by the script and some of the performances. The dialogue is really corny at times and Mature wanders around trying to look interested. Dors' limitatons as an actress show through in what should be a stroll for her as the brassy moll. Patrick Allen really chews the scenery as the heavy with a cigar permanently in his mouth. By comparison he makes Patrick McGoohan's performance as Red in Hell Drivers seem like a study in restraint.

What is most enjoyable about The Long Haul are the settings. Good location filming in and around Liverpool and the docks, the murky world of transport cafes and scenes of big trucks on 50s roads make for a good hour and a half of viewing. Not a classic then, or even a really good film, out of ten I'd give it a six.

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

ChristineCB

WEEKS PASS... Stevie, no I am not familiar with the other performances. Thanks - please don't tell me something is better because it just makes me want to see them all the more! ha ha... you people are cold-blooded!

I think my collection has risen by a thousand since I've fallen in with this wretched group.

After a few weeks' since my viewings of GIDEON, it still remains a delight to recall. This isn't a great film but one that is more than anecdotal in my mind - it's more than a collection of scenes. It's more like a collection of expressions with some story and scenes thrown in between. Hawkins adopts a deep-breath-push-on attitude that makes me also feel, "Ah well, just another day..." Murders, mayhem, etc. And the film's dawn-to-dark limit helps this along - I think having the film end with my suggested next-day's alarm going off would have underscored that even more, but there's no need to spoon-feed us every detail.

I enjoyed the construction of this film as much as anything. "Jack, add an expression here..." "Let's intro another character..." "Bring in the first evidence of a running gag between go-workers..." "Jack, time for another expression..."

Layer upon layer. Very nicely done.

ChristineCB

Wed night, May 30, TCM-America broadcast three wonderful Somerset Maugham films, QUARTET, TRIO and ENCORE.

Wonderful films that are 4, 3 and 3 adaptations of Maugham's short stories, done by different directors, different casts. Maugham introduces two of the three films' collections, and discusses his critics and his career's writings. "Sometimes fact and fiction are so intertwined, I can't remember who the real people were and which were only characters," he laughs.

Fortunately, the DVD forests remain untouched because these films aren't worthy of DVD production. This week's other 497 titles get released instead. We're so lucky these films didn't make it an even 500. (Why hasn't DB installed that Sarcasm Font yet?)

Aaryk Noctivagus

They were released last week onto DVD.

Trio.
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3317291/Trio/Product.html

Quartet.
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3317294/Quartet/Product.html

Encore.
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3342623/Encore/Product.html

As for the Sarcasm font... I don't get sarcasm and so posted up these links just in case you really didn't know they had been released. I'm Autistic... sarcasm isn't really something I pick up on much... so sorry if I've replied inappropriately... I'm glad if I haven't and this is in fact news to you.

Joenoir

I'm confused too, Aaryk, on this one!

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

Aaryk Noctivagus

lol - I'm glad it wasn't just me

ChristineCB

Thanks, A... I was only looking at the North American list of 497 DVDs released this past week - I hadn't got to the Region-2 lists! Excellent!

This is even more interesting - TCM-USA is then absconding with Region-2 DVDs and loading them up for North Americans to view! Ah haaaa... so much for the attempts to keep Region-2 entertainment away from Americans - it's SO trashy and corrupt, after all.

Or is it the other way around?