bloodworm

THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER

Sat down and gave this a revisit. A John Mills production of a D H Lawrence short story. A simple likeable plot but with few acting attributes. However the great music score and some excellent camera work using light and shadow gave the film an eerie feeling. A feeling that i remember from when i first saw it ****years ago. Well worth A revisit if you havent seen it for many years.

C/U The Worm.

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

DB7

Dead Fish (2004)

Don't think this has ever seen the light of day in the UK and maybe never will. Despite a strong cast including Gary Oldman, Robert Carlyle, Terence Stamp and Billy Zane the plot is just an unadulterated mess and at times seems to veer into a Casino Royale spoof. It's the story of gangsters, drugs, hitmen, love and crossed-wires (so Guy Ritchie territory) but making head nor tail of the plot is another story.

Billy Liar

I've always thought he would make a great psychotic gangster type, he has a right look of insanity in his eyes, add to that he looks all cute, you have perfect on the edge nutter.

I watched Bresson's Mouchette last night and it floored me, again!!!

theuofc

Way behind in viewing it, but I just saw "The Lion Has Wings" on VHS and absolutely loved it. Okay, not so much every inserted clip from various newsreels although they were interesting looks at the time. And yes, there were a bit too many shots of men in their flying machines, but my problem as the film is called Lion Has Wings and some of the early daredevil flips and swoops through the air did raise the pulse. But my real interest was in the segments focusing on the four characters. I'm a people not a machine person. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

Who would have thunk it, but Merle Oberon and Ralph Richardson had a marvelous chemistry together and a wonderful energy to their roles. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clapping.gif[/img] Yes, it is a propaganda film, but I love optimism albeit a tad thick here. One couldn't help but think it was furthered by the actors' and crew's own feeling of the war upon them in 1940 and thus stirring them to give their all for this film which was meant to rally the country. This is the first time I've seen the film so PnP experts here will know much more about it, but this is my spontaneous and, I must say, unexpected reaction to it. If it was put together in only 12 days...well, an amazing effort on all concerned and a job well done. Which segment did Michael Powell direct, Steve?

Barbara

Steve Crook

The first, documentary segment was directed by Ian Dalrymple. It was interesting when they showed that in Spain. When it came to the part where they had the extracts from Fire Over England with Queen Elizabeth encouraging her troops to go out and fight the Spanish. No actual complaints from them but they were oddly silent.

Powell filmed the real bombers returning from the raid on the Kiel Canal. All the footage of the raid itself was made up in the studio and with library shots of course. I like the way that as they fly over the Royal Navy ship they have time to flash the Aldis lamps to identify themselves, explain what they're doing and get a "Good luck" message. They must have been flying very slowly. Also, all the compass bearings given are wrong. If the bombers followed the course given they'd finish up in Switzerland, not Kiel.

Powell also did much of the part about the Nazi bomber raid on London and the defence against it. A lot of that was fantasy as well of course. The defences weren't that well organised and the balloon barrage wasn't really that effective or that frightening to the bomber crews. But nobody had done a bomber attack against a well defended city at that time. After Things to Come, Guernica and the Blitzkrieg attacks against Warsaw, some people thought that bombers were unstoppable. This film may have helped to make them think again about that, even if the film was all made up.

That leaves Brian Desmond Hurst who I think must have done the scenes between Ralph Richardson & Merle Oberon that you liked so much. They are a bit too twee for Powell to have done.

There's a Mass Observation Report that one of the PaPAS group found that shows what audiences thought of it at the time.

Apparently it was shown in Berlin - as a comedy!
But I don't know if it was just shown to party members or if they'd risk letting the general public see it. The documentary section does take the micky out of the Nazis quite a bit. Although, if you've bought into the party message, it could also show how soft the British are - amateurish at sports, the King playing children's games and things like that.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

penfold

That also leaves Adrian Brunel....according to his own account, written in '46, while Dalrymple edited the documentary segments using pre-existing stock and newsreel material, Brunel was responsible for the specially-filmed documentary material (not including the Kiel sections) and general script editing...Brunel himself preferred Dalrymple's work because he said he had better material to work from...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Steve Crook

Sorry, my mistake, misreading what Powell wrote. Dalrymple was credited as producer and writer, not a director. It sounds like he might have done a bit of the editing as well. They probably overlapped quite a bit to get it all out as quickly as they did.

Steve

smudge

SHERLOCK HOLMES - Dressed to Kill...

The great Basil Rathbone. Simply because today is the anniversary of Conan Doyle's birth and I have watched this one for some time.

SMUDGE

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/vampire.gif[/img]

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

Harbottle

Law & Disorder (1958) A delightful comedy starring Michael Redgrave and featuring a great cast of favourite faces including Lionel Jeffries (why not Sir Lionel by now??) and Robert Morley [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clapping.gif[/img]

mysteriesofedgarwallace

An ep. of filmed TV series 'DIAL 999' called 'Motor bike Bandits'
Starring Robert Beatty as a Canadian mountie over in the smoke.
A gang of bikers steal removal vans and then stand on the roof of the van and hold up offices and factories to rob the payroll; pointing their guns through the wages dept. windows; conveniently located on the first floor.
They then use their bikes to make their getaway.
Culminates in a shoot-out at Wembley stadium.
Brilliant fun. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

foha80

You watch the coolest stuff why don't you ever invite any of us round [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Terry

DB7

The Agitator (1944)

A forerunner to Chance in a Mllion and every bit as fanciful. Tub-thumping union man William Hartnell is battling his bosses of an engineering firm for better pay and a share of the money from an invention he claims his late-father discovered. The owner discovers Hartnell's father did in fact make the invention the company has been built on and as a result... leaves the whole company to Hartnell in his will. Hartnell now finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being billy-no-mates; his co-workers dub him a class traitor while the affluent townsfolk see him as a new-money loudmouth. Within six months of taking control the company is losing money and the workers on short-time, so having learnt his lesson Hartnell steps down.

smudge

Roger Corman's THE RAVEN (simply because it was on.) Well, it may be American International but it does have the lovely Hazel Court in it, and Dulwich's own Boris Karloff. Also Vincent Price who was so urbane, he might as well have been English ! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] A daft bit of nonsense far removed from it's proclaimed Poe source, but fun nevertheless.

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE - again because it was on (not exactly last night though !) and for the memories of Michael Sheard and David Tomblin. Give Lucas and Spielberg their due, they certainly know whow to make a modern swashbuckler.

Fpisode 1 of NETWORK's release of BUDGIE. I had frgotten two things ; 1. How tiny Adam Faith was 2. How much I used to enjoy this. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clapping.gif[/img] Looking forward to the further episodes with the scrummy Georgina Hale... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wub.gif[/img]

SMUDGE

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/vampire.gif[/img]

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

Harbottle

The Small Back Room (1949) Rather a good film with particularly fine performances by David Farrar and Kathleen Byron.

Steve Crook

Particularly fine [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]
The others are quite good as well.

And Sid James playing the ex-boxer barman. The photos of him in the ring behind the bar were made especially for the film but probably led to the rumour that he was a boxer in his shady past. Sid & his agent never denied that he was a boxer, but his main job in South Africe, where he grew up, was as a ladie hairdresser!

Steve