Davoo

Four films directed by Val Guest will be screened as part of the Cinecity Film Festival at the Duke of Yorks cinema in Brighton in November:

Hell is a City
Jigsaw
80,000 Suspects
The Day the Earth Caught Fire


Dates to be confirmed.

marker

I would love to watch these films in a cinema but alas I live far from Brighton are any of them available on dvd ?

Cheers Marker

bertie

Hell is a City is certainly available. Play.com has it.

Jigsaw is the one that really needs a commercial DVD release and is set in and around Brighton.

Aaryk Noctivagus

'Hell is a City' and 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' are both available on DVD... I have them in my collection.

ChristineCB

Those are four of the last Brit films to be shown here, too. I'm unfamiliar with 80,000 and only know JIGSAW thru its reputation and reviews, and the films are being advertised as another in a series of Val Guest films.

Since so many unseen films are now being put out onto DVD, I wonder if this heralds those films' DVD releases, too?

batman

Jigsaw is a terrific film. Jack Warner gives a great performance as a cop on the trail of a killer. This is one of the few films where it is genuinely difficult to guess whodunnit. 80,000 Suspects is also excellent. It is exciting and fast paced (like most of Val's films), only this time the crook is a deadly virus, Richard Johnson and Claire Bloom are the doctors on the case.

Bats.

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

ChristineCB

Thanks for that. Your comments make 80,000 sound all the more inviting, and JIGSAW was a must-see anyway because of its reputation aboard.

I came back from burping our theatre-owner and going over the festival's ticket sales and 'voting ballots' (where the audience votes each weekday film into one of the two weekend 're-watch' slots, with the top 2 vote-getters reprising on Sat and Sunday afternoon) and we've had decent increases in ticket sales, but over 3 times the number of votes being cast on each film.

In years past, 200 ballots for a film would have probably won it a weekend re-watch slot, but no weekend repeat showing has won with less than 800 votes this year. Sometimes, a 3rd place loser film ends up with 1600 votes (out of combining two weekday showings) because the winners get 2000 or more.

Every "first-time-ever-in-Texas" Brit Film showing used that fact in the newspaper and radio advertising as a slogan or logo, and now we think it's usage alone brings people out, regardless of the film or its reputation.

But that's only successful because the audiences have been very happy with every other Brit film that's played. And I think our city's audiences owe a lot of their viewing pleasure to the folks aboard here, because last year in my rookie season, I was given a lot of treasures to watch, and watch out for.

And we've still got 10 weeks and 68 films left! Yes yes, it's tough work, but someone's gotta... yada yada...

Davoo

JIGSAW is an excellent film, the main house where the murder takes place is in Peacehaven just a few miles east of Brighton & the rest of the action takes place in Brighton & also in Lewes.
80,000 SUSPECTS is also good most notably as it contains a cameo & last big screen appearance for Graham Moffatt.

batman

I never knew that ... what scene is he in?

Bats.

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

jules9

I love the Duke of Yorks cinema. In the world of concrete block so called cinemas, this building is a Brighton showpiece. The good thing is that it is located at the entrance to Brighton, eg Preston circus - so its highly visible and people can see what a cinema should look like!
Looking forward to the Val Guest season, "Jigsaw" is a great Brighton film, not quite up to "Brighton Rock" but still well worth seeing.

Jules

"Brighton rock" walks tour guide

noglea

I haven't seen the film for a while but if I remember correctly he is in a scene in a pub. The story goes that he was running a pub in real life in Bath and when Val Guest heard about this he went down there and asked him if he wanted to make a cameo appearance.

Aaryk Noctivagus

This day will long go down in history, it has seen the end of Batobi and will soon see the end of...!!!

batman

Thanks very much noglea, next time I watch the film I will keep an eye out for him.

Bats.

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