Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

A Tale of Two Cities (1980). A made-for-TV version which was briefly available on Video. I'm surprised that this enjoyable version seems to have been forgotten about. Chris Sarandon plays the Sydney Carlton/Evremond roles with perhaps more differentiation of character than Dirk Bogarde achieved in his performance in the better-known movie version and the rest of the cast is mouth-watering; Peter Cushing, Kenneth More, Billie Whitelaw and Flora Robson in the principal roles with Nigel Hawthorne, Norman Jones and David Suchet among those who play some of the supporting characters.

DB7

Trial and Error (aka The Dock Brief)

Something of an oddity due to it's framing, flashbacks and multiple characterisations. Sellers would normally take the acting honours in such films but it's Richard Attenborough's pathos and timid portrayal of the unrepentant murderer that steals the show. That said, the constantly laughing Beryl Reid would drive most men to distraction.

smudge

KEEPING MUM - nice little dark comedy which tips the hat to the Ealing little community comedies of the past. Great cast with the incomparable Dame Maggie Smith, Rowan Atkinson, the lovely Kristin Scott Thomas and some nice scene stealing from Liz Smith. Also a nice little cameo from the late James Booth.

A little predictable, but you can easily forgive it this and just go with the flow...

SMUDGE

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

smudge

THE PAROLE OFFICER - Steve Coogan's effort was difficult to get into at first as his characterisation didn't seem to be much different from Alan Partridge/Gareth Cheeseman, but the team of supporting actors drew us into the film. Before we knew it we were laughing out loud. Not so bad after all.

JUDGE DREDD - Danny Cannon's 1995 stylish adapation of the 2000 AD comic strip. We saw this at the pictures and liked it ; shame the competition was so stiff at the time of release, otherwise this might be better remembered - particularly for it's overall look. Possibly the best realised sci-fi cityscape since BLADE RUNNER and the futuristic costume designs were just as good as the classic STAR WARS Stormtroopers.

SMUDGE

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

MrDrakesDuck

Those Were the Days


Will Hay's first feature, a period comedy with John Mills.


Very good.

"I thought I had to shoot Germans, not chew 'em"

DB7

Following on from Trial and Error I checked out another boobing barrister - Claude Hulbert in My Learned Friend. Will Hay's last film is a fine swansong and one that delves into black comedy for Ealing well before Kind Hearts and Coronets.

DB7

Working through the Somerset Maugham omnibus trilogy; watched Quartet on Saturday; and Trio last night - now to have a dig round for Encore.

smudge

Dig round ???

For shame !! Leave that sort of disorganisation to us professionals, would you please ?!

SMUDGE

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

DB7

I have a system. It's called "I know it's here - but where???"

Steve Crook

Sounds very similar to the system I use with the Video Mountain!
People have gone missing on some of the more remote faces.

Steve

smudge

I have similar systems to yourselves chaps, but in dire cases have to resort to the 'Where I Find Everything' search engine, or WIFE for short...

SMUDGE

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

Steve Crook

I've heard that search systems like that take a lot of maintenance

Steve

smudge

You'd better believe it !

Trouble is this version is always requesting new skins and aside from the standard ones, these are very expensive. You have to keep paying out as its using the default skin could cause several crashes - particularly if it got into the public domain !

SMUDGE

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

MrDrakesDuck

Somewhere In England (1940)


Harry Korris & Frank Randle


Has one of the best lines I've ever heard.

Korris:- "You'd be a lot of good in the front line without teeth"



Randle:- "I thought I had to shoot Germans, not chew em'"


Now that's comedy.

"I thought I had to shoot Germans, not chew 'em"

DB7

The League of Gentlemen.

One of my favourite heist films although the build up, particularly the raid on the army base led by Roger Livesey, is more exciting than the bank heist itself. Jack Hawkins is cast against type as the criminal architect and has a lovely line when Nigel Patrick spots a portrait of his wife and questions whether she has passed away - sadly the bitch is still alive retorts Hawkins. There also appears a slight nod to Hitchcock as their planning for the raid is masked by some noisy dancing in the room above - very reminiscent of Margaret Lockwood enduring the same in The Lady Vanishes.