Rob Compton

One of my favourite roles for NP was his Alfred Jingle in Pickwick Papers. A magical performance

batman

He was very good in that. I really like that film, it brings back a lot of memories of watching it with my family when I was a kid.

Bats.

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

TheLatePeterCook2

The Clouded Yellow (1950)

Quite an intriging little film. It start's off in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold terriotory, then seems to prempt Angel Face by a couple of years, then ends up as a 39 Steps style chase movie.

Very nice use of regions (Newcastle, Liverpool) and a great cast.

helvis

Just sat through 'The Playbirds' Yes it's cheap and tacky but that's the way i like 'em! Great cast including Alan Lake (later sadly commited suiced after the death of his wife Diana Dors.) Kenny Lynch (who i bumped into in Soho a few days ago.) Gavin Campbell and of course Mary Millington (another who took her own life).
Seems this was basically a promotion vehicle for David Sullivan as with also The David Galaxy Affair. Does anyone know if these were made back to back as they have almost identical cast and characters i know the IMDB states 1979 for this one and '78 for Playbirds. Anyway worth a watch if not just for the location shots of Soho alone.

Mr Flash

Playbirds is from 78, David Galaxy from 79, so there is about a year in-between the two. Some of the same people were in Queen of the Blues (also, 1979), but after the flop of David Galaxy, Sullivan seems to have lost interest and the films just got worse and worse, especially with John M East calling the shots.

The tie-in paperback novel of The Playbirds (written by David Weldon aka Millington’s probation officer) is worth looking out for, as it adds a whole supernatural subplot thats nowhere to be seen in the film, as well an unbelievable ‘extended’ ending in which the killer transforms into the devil and the world comes to an end! Its also full of Sullivan’s usual self-publicity and general nonsense, including an attempt to confuse the reader into thinking that Pat Astley and Anthea Redfern are one in the same person!

helvis

That sounds fantastic Mr Flash i've gotta get me that paperback! As for the Sullivan self publicity i would imagine that all the racehorses in Playbirds would have been his own as there was no real reason for those scenes in the 1st place.

Mr Flash

Sullivan likes his horses, so I’d imagine all those scenes were done at his insistence. He even named a racehorse after Playbirds actress Suzy Mandel, despite the fact that the horse in question was a male. A recent episode of BBC’s Hustle, featured an obnoxious porn millionaire with a penchant for racehorses, a coincidence, or maybe not?

Watched SWEET BEAT (1958) last night, promoted as a rock and roll musical its more a “young girl from the sticks, comes to the big city and finds its not all its cracked up to be” yarn. Young girl in question being Bonnie Martyn, who gets her first taste of fame by winning a Butlin’s beauty contest. Bonnie however feels “like a joint of meat in a butcher shop window” flashing her legs to bored campers, and has aspirations beyond Butlins. Just as well then that her prize includes train tickets for her and her boyfriend Bill to go to London and record a single. Cue Bonnie and Bill watching lots of acts performing in the recording studio, all lifelessly filmed. There she also meets slick, sweet talking American record producer Dave, who manages to drive a wedge between Bonnie and dumb, slack-jawed Bill and takes her off to New York. Predictably his promises of stardom don’t really come true though he does take her to Times Square to see some more musical acts (the American acts and New York location shots all look suspiciously like stock footage). Dave eventually tries it on with her “alright, I’m a heel, you dumb broad”, Bonnie being a good British girl slaps him around the face, and gets the first plane home. Acting, directing and editing are on the primitive level of a nudist camp film or a skin flick, only here with that raison d’etre never materializing. William Mishkin, the film’s American distributor, must have obviously thought the same since he cut in unrelated striptease sequences for the American release and re-titled the film “The Amorous Sex”.
Not very good to be honest, its of minor interest as an early British attempt to emulate an American exploitation film, as well as a snapshot of the pre-Beatles music scene. You can tell from the American acts that rock and roll is coming, but the British acts are very rooted in war era crooning. DVD from “Hepsville Films” a dodgy American public domain outfit, whose company logo is bizarrely the old 1990s logo of our own Bravo satellite channel (remember the one with the fanfare music and floodlit tower). The cheeky swines.

batman

I have bought a couple of dvds from Hepsville via e-bay which have been OK. They do sell some dodgy stuff (ie a terrible dvd-r of Hell is a City) but some of their more obscure titles are well worth a look. According to their e-bay listing they are based in the UK.

Bats.

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

Rob Compton

Saw "The Painted Veil" last night. A wonderful film in many respects: acting; literate screenplay from Maugham's story; music; locations and the cinematography was simply stunning. If you haven't seen it - thoroughly recommended

rgds
Rob

dyranian

Saw 70mm exhibit of 2001 a Space Odyssey at Arts Cinema in Cambridge. Couldn't afford to see this film as it was intended when it was first released, had to make do with diminished version at the Essoldo,Kilburn and subsequent tv and video releases. Didn't realise how expensive it is to obtain this print, several thousand pounds plus permission fron Kubrick family, apparantly this was due to a large contribution from a local benefactor who wanted it to be included in a sci-fi season at the Arts and ironically couldn't be there for this one-off showing. Well worth my £7 admission.

Steve Crook

Did they also supply the LSD that most of us were on when we first saw it?
I'm sure that helped with its reputation

Steve

dyranian

for £7?

Steve Crook

You could buy a lot more for £7 back in 1968

Steve

clitheroekid

Watched The Way Ahead on Film4 yesterday afternoon. I was sure I had seen it before but soon realised I hadn't - what a cast, and some lovely atmospheric pieces in it

And then in the evening I watched From Beyond The Grave, which I obtained from a forum member - very odd that it was supposed to be widescreen but had two thick black borders left and right, and two thick grey borders top and bottom which made the viewing area very small indeed. Perhaps the member could comment on this weird cropping?

ChristineCB

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS mini-series. I think there are too many elements to allow a 2-hour film to do justice to this story. I could envision slicing out parts or speeding up parts, but without long, holding shots of empty streets and the dead, lying about, and without the long boring food-foragings, how else can the magnitude of the situation be conveyed?