maturin

Never heard of it! Sound like a great film - judging merely by the cast it must be interesting. I guess Richard Attenborough does an In Which We Serve panic attack.

I watched Stanley Baker in A Prize of Arms - excellent film.

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

dpgmel

Watched Conel Wilde's allegorical white man in Africa in peril film " The Naked Prey ", for a film with only a few spoken lines very engrossing however the film's length was padded out with lots of African wildlife stockshots cue elephants, snakes etc.

batman

The Hideout - a pretty good B-thriller with Dermot Walsh and a more prominent than usual Sam Kydd. This one is about missing cash and smugged furs and, a few moments of dodgy plotting aside, is well worth watching.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

Steve Crook

I've just watched The Last Word with the always wonderful Sheila Hancock.

It's the first of a series of what are essentially monologues to the camera. There's one tomorrow with Rhys Ifans and then Bob Hoskins will do one on Wednesday. All on BBC1 at about 10:35 (or 10:45) for 30 minutes.

Sheila is at a euthanasia clinic in Switzerland. She's just sent her husband out of the room while she composes her thoughts for what to say to him before she finally does the deed. She's got some unspecified incurable and fatal condition that has put her in a wheelchair. Her upper body can still move OK, we presume her legs don't work very well. We are told she twitches violently at night.

But really it's an average lady telling the story of her life. No big successes, but no really big failures either. Just an average life, but quite important to her of course. A few musings on the meaning of life and the possibilities of an afterlife. She wants to thank her husband for all that he's done for her and tell him a few of his failings. But mainly to thank him for a good life.

But this was Sheila Hancock doing it so of course it was superbly done and had me in tears by the end. Not because it was sad, just because it was such a brilliant portrayal of an ordinary person who never had that much control over her life who wanted to take control over the ending of that life.

Steve

smudge

Finally got round to watching CONSENTING ADULTS, the BBC Drama about the Wolfenden report. This was miles away from the comedy that was the Mary Whitehouse story and was, I think, a superbly executed piece. I thought they had the period pretty well down and Charles Dance looks remarkably distinguished these days. Good performances all round, particularly from David Bamber as the distinguished witness.

As well as the tribulations of the Committee they managed to capture the tragedy of so many people living hidden lives. Very well done Auntie!

Smudge

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

batman

The final episode of the latest series of New Tricks ...... the plot was a bit similar to one in the last series of Waking the Dead but was well written and beautifully performed.

I also watched the first two episodes of Republic's serial answer to Casablanca called Manhunt in the African Jungle (???) with B movie stalwart Rod Cameron. Good fun.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

Windthrop

Sat up and watched The Vault of Horror last night. There was the usual mix of reasonable and weak stories and a surprise pairing of Daniel and Anna Massey as brother and sister. Favorite story - Terry-Thomas/Glynis Johns - cos it was daft. Thought the linking story was very weak though and badly scripted. Anyone else feel the same ?

Thats the joke that killed the Music Hall !

dremble wedge

Casino Royale with David Niven, Peter Sellers et al.

A complete and utter mess that shouldn't work but somehow does. I was particularly delighted this time around by Richard Wattis in a tiny role and the fact that Joanna Pettet loses most of her hair for the finale, neither of which I'd noticed before.

Supposedly David McCallum has a cameo but I didn't spot him...

Great Bank Holiday entertainment.

smudge

Was that the one where the lift deposits them all in the sub-basement?

Smudge

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

Windthrop

That's the one - with Michael Craig, Tom Baker, TT, Curt Jurgens and Daniel Massey

Thats the joke that killed the Music Hall !

Joe Fraguela

Last night's viewing consisted of The Reluctant Widow from 1951 starring Jean Kent, Guy Rolfe, Paul Dupuis, Kathleen Byron, Scott Forbes, Anthony Tancred, Peter Hammond, Lana Morris, Julian Dallas, Jean Cadell, Andrew Cruickshank, Ralph Truman and James Carney.

The delightful Jean Kent plays Helena who arrives at a large Manor to become a governess to a small child, but finds she has travelled on the wrong carriage and arrived at the wrong place. Helena then gets involved in a web of intrigue before the night is out she has married a cad Francis Cheviot played by Julian Dallas who is on his death bed. Sometime hours later she has become a widow and owner of the manor. Soon Helena becomes even more entangled in intrigue.

A very good story with some fun performances especially from Jean Kent and Guy Rolfe.

Rounding off last night's viewing was The Romantic Age from 1949 starring Mai Zetterling, Hugh Williams, Margot Grahame, Petula Clark, Paul Dupuis, Raymond Lovell, Marie Ney, Jean Anderson, May Hallatt, Carol Marsh, Judith Furse and Mark Daly.

Mai Zetterling plays Arlette a spoilt rich french schoolgirl who uses her feminine charms to attract and get whatever she wants. She sets her sights on the new english teacher Arnold Dickson played hy Hugh Williams whose daughter Julie played by Petula Clark is in the same class as Arlette.

smudge

I know what you mean then, but the linking stories never were the strongest element in a lot of the Amicus portmanteaus. Both THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD and THE TORTURE GARDEN were fairly thin - the latter being very EC Comics in the denouement with Burgess' stag party horns.

About the best, for contributing anything like a decent feel to the overall atmosphere of the piece, was DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS in my opinion...

Smudge

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

Windthrop

I would put DTHOH as a photo-finish with Asylum which did have quite a strong linking story IMHO.

Thats the joke that killed the Music Hall !

dpgmel

Watched Philip Leacock's stunning " Reach For Glory" starring Harry Andrews and Kay Walsh ( plus briefly a young Alexis Kanner ), a tale of wartime exacuee children that examined issues such as anti-semitism etc.

Stunningly shot on location in Suffolk a real gem of a film, sad to think that the director of this ended up directing episodes of US tv series such as The Waltions and Falcon Crest !

Cannot recommend too highly

julian_craster

The classic Reach For Glory only received a limited UK cinema release - thanks to Kenneth Rive and Gala Film Distributors, after it was deemed uncommercial and dumped by Columbia .....