batman

Ok, they are all trash .... but good trash

"Do you know why fattries are called fattries .... it's because they are big and people make things in them."

ChristineCB

I should have named this like my other "Can you help me build..." collection threads!

I have to agree about CIRCUS OF HORRORS and PEEPING TOM. I'd have a hard time considering GORGO in that trashy light, too, although "filmed in darkness" is a rather persistent and necessary filming technique for those trashy monster movies! And most of the Gorgo footage is in dark... so at least the cinematographer and lighting folks knew how to use trashy monster filming techniques. Still, for my Trash definition, Gorgo fails because it has a fun and unique story-line.

CIRCUS OF HORRORS and PEEPING TOM certainly deals with trashy subjects but, here again, they stand as proof that an unfortunately good story, good acting, directing and writing will betray even the trashiest of subject matters. Even FRENZY can be indicted along the same lines. These three might further indict the British inability to constantly produce trashy films.

It's a shame. I'm afraid that, even separated, Powell & Pressburger might not achieve a Cormanesque stature. tsk tsk... I guess we're stuck with the P&P as they are. (sigh)

smudge

SMOKESCREEN - with Vaughan playing an underpaid insurance investigator. His brolly gets broken in the end and we see him wandering off to fiddle his expenses about it, to supplement his income

Apologies likewise Bats ; should've realised the true implications of your 'priceless' at the tail of the earlier post...

Is the 52 GHOST SHIP the one with Dermot Walsh ? I love that old creaker. COSH BOY I haven't watched in ages.

Apart from the cheapo horrors and sci-fis, I think our real trashy period came post-CONFESSIONS with some of the amazingly bad sexploitation comedies - so Christine, widen your net a little and take in the 70s ; you'll be inundated ! :

SMUDGE

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

julian_craster

<<Apart from the cheapo horrors and sci-fis, I think our real trashy period came post-CONFESSIONS with some of the amazingly bad sexploitation comedies >>

The excellent book by Simon Sheridan KEEPING THE BRITISH END UP (on amazon.co.uk) will give you lots to awful titles to check out.....

ChristineCB

Groan... net widening?!! NO! No way. Well, probably not. Maybe. But certainly I refuse to get great books that send me off on deeper trails that are too inviting to ignore-! The fact that my neighborhood library has that book - just sitting on its shelf, taunting me - that's bad enough, OK?

batman

That's right Smudge, Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court were in it and it was directed by Vernon Sewell who simply wanted, allegedly, to make a film to show off his new boat !!!
Smokescreen - what a great little film .....
Cosh Boy - watched that again the other night, my wife had never seen it

"Do you know why fattries are called fattries .... it's because they are big and people make things in them."

Moor Larkin

This one sounds pretty good: From Hell It Came (1957)
A wrongfully accused South Seas prince is executed, and returns as a walking tree stump.

That one came from my 1959 book but imdb had it.... well done.

One they didn't have was a Rank short called "Distant Neighbours".
That was tagged as "Half-hour interest film about the Hebrides".
I'll bet they were shouting Trash in the back row seats

[code]http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487363@N02/sets/72157606700675506/code]

Ljelja

I just saw "Torture Garden" (1967), is that a trashy one as well? It's rather good, for a horror of that period. I'm kinda not into trash movies, except for Ed Wood's, but the're kinda curiosity for themselves.

ChristineCB

FROM HELL IT CAME sounds just about perfect.

Unfortunately, it appears to be American, and as such, another blow to my hopes for British Trash.

I think Trashy - by definition - is a moveable feast of too many subjectives. I do believe one rule remains: if the Monster or the Bad Guy must be drawn on the DVD box because the make-up is too poor for a still-photo, this paves the way for this film's acceptance into the Trashy genre.

And I certainly can't limit "trashy" to mere monster movies, but those are my preferences at the moment. Some American monster movies have such bad monster make-up so the monster is kept out of bright lights until the very last moment of the film - I suspect the film-makers realized how pathetic the monster looked and wanted to limit the audience guffaws to being mixed in with sighs of relief that the film was finally over.

Then there's the Dutch film like REPTILICUS where the monster (several logs, jointed together and suspended by wires, being swung back and forth) is brought out early and often, in broad daylight. It's like the film-makers said, "We'll show our bad effects so often that, by sheer quantity, we'll overcome audience hysteria."

REPTILICUS is a great trashy film. I don't know if Britain was able to top that. How disappointing!! Holy wooden shoes, Batman!

My husband says, "Never fear - we'll find a copy of THE VULTURE or THE CLAW, and Britain's trashy honor will be restored."

I can only hope...

orpheum

Up till January Performance on satellite were showing some glowing examples of British trash just after midnight.Many of them were made by Renown and Eros.Unfortunately the titles dont stick in the mind other than Radio Cab Murders with Jimmy Hanley,and Port of Call.I am also going to be a bit controversial as i consider the Edgar(yawn)Lustgarten crime films come within this definition.Were they shocking or just shockingly bad.I wish they would show them at 11pm so that i could get to sleep early.

Merton Park

Of their time the Edgar Lustgarten films were better than most supporting features, B films. I used to go to the cinema in the 1950's and really looked forward to them, it was way before the TV was wall to wall with crime series. They became a little dated once that began but they are a tremendous dose of nostalgia, and as things aren't what they used to be, I quite enjoy that. Takes you back to what seem more innocent times.

Great series!!

ChristineCB

I definitely like the trashy crime films because all of their special effect money were tied up in fake-blood, the occasional stunt double, prop guns and screeching tires.

Thanks for Edgar's name - this gives me something to shoo - er, look for.

Wee Sonny MacGregor

Merton Park, I'm with you on this one. I used to really enjoy Edgar Lustgarten (or Edgar Lastgasper as Stanley Baxter portrayed him). It's high time they were released on DVD.

Getting back to the thread - I find it worrying that on the terrestrial TV channels British films of the 50s and 60s now seem to be an endangered species. Is it just me or have British films pre about 1980 just virtually disappeared, with the occasional and very familiar exceptions. It seems that it is now mostly US TV movies that the programmers have decreed we should see.

orpheum

OK then what about Terror of The Tongs,my first ever X film in 1962.By the way to the manager of the ABC Golders Green,sorry i was under age at the time!

ChristineCB

Wee, there is a similar fear being fanned on Turner Movies USA as they're presenting more post-'80s films.

My complaint about post-80s films is only that I know just about all of them. The '30s, '40s and '50s gems that appear are lost treasures to me. This forum has been a boon to my collection-itis because I'll hear about Edgar Lustgarten or some Kenneth More film I'd have written off merely because it was only billed as a Jayne Mansfield pic. None of these are the P&P treasures, true, but I like the archeological side that this forum - and Turner Movies and other old-film channels - present.

If they start removing themselves from giving me those opportunities, it's easy for me to watch them less and less often.