Lazybones 1935

[CaptainWaggett]

I quite like Night of the Party - it's by no means the worst of the quota quickies (that title goes to either Her Last Affaire or Crown vs Stevens). It's not bad for a country house thriller and the gay interest makes it seem a bit like one of those new ITV Poirots or Marples.

[orpheum]

As an afficianado of quota quickies i cannot agree with your views on Crown V Stevens or Her

Last Affaire.I think that The Tell Tale Heart directed in 1934 by Brian Desmond Hurst is virtually unwatchable.To me it was a source of great irritation that this was shown as part of the season at the NFT a couple of years ago.

[Merton Park]

Unfortunately, most of the British films of the 1930's I find very difficult to watch, unlike the late 1940's and 1950's which are good entertainment.

[Steve Crook]

name='orpheum']As an afficianado of quota quickies i cannot agree with your views on Crown V Stevens or Her

Last Affaire.I think that The Tell Tale Heart directed in 1934 by Brian Desmond Hurst is virtually unwatchable.To me it was a source of great irritation that this was shown as part of the season at the NFT a couple of years ago.

I think that you have to make the distinction between the vast majority of the quota quickies - and those made by Michael Powell. I may be a bit biased but I think that even the worst of the ones by Powell is well above the standard of the vast majority of the rest of them.



He may have been bored by having to churn out yet another film that held no real interest for him. But you can sometimes see him trying out different techniques, some of which will be used again (done much better) in his later films. And some techniques he never used again



And even given the very low budget and the speed of production required, he does turn out some very good films.



Crown v. Stevens and Her Last Affair are probably the worst of the quota quickies - made by Powell. But they're still a lot better than many of the other QQ films.



And others, particularly The Love Test and His Lordship are really quite remarkable



Steve

[Steve Crook]

name='Merton Park']Unfortunately, most of the British films of the 1930's I find very difficult to watch, unlike the late 1940's and 1950's which are good entertainment.

The 1930s was the period when the quota reigned supreme. They had to churn them out very fast and on a very low budget. And they were paid per foot of completed film. There was no criteria for anything like quality so any old rubbish would do



Steve

[orpheum]

I agree that Powells quota quickies were better than most.In fact with the odd exception i find a period charm in them all.After all given that the films were produced for no other reason than to fill legal obligations rather than to entertain people.Also the producer wanted to produce them as cheaply as he could bearing in mind that he was being paid £1 per foot by the distributor.It is remarkable that it produced as many decent films and developing talents as it did.

[CaptainWaggett]

name='orpheum']As an afficianado of quota quickies i cannot agree with your views on Crown V Stevens or Her

Last Affaire.I think that The Tell Tale Heart directed in 1934 by Brian Desmond Hurst is virtually unwatchable.To me it was a source of great irritation that this was shown as part of the season at the NFT a couple of years ago.

I was only talking about Powell's quota quickies since I've only seen about half a dozen by other directors. And I still say that those two films are fairly rubbishy - nowhere near as good as the Love Test, as Steve says, or, my particular favourite, Something Always Happens.

[penfold]

It's hard to tell because we see so few. I could name a couple of cheapos from the thirties (Quota quickies?? Hard to define...) the equal of Mickey's....William Beaudine's Father Takes A Walk for Warners at Teddington,....and Henry Edwards' version of A Christmas Carol with Sir Seymour Hicks, for Julius Hagen at Twickenham .....whether because these were both from silent-directors-met-hard-times, or what, I don't know.

[CaptainWaggett]

I saw Money for Speed (rubbish) and The Ghost Camera (excellent) last week (both edited by David Lean. As Penfold says, we don't see many and the ones we see either star or are directed by someone Before They Were Famous so perhaps we give them more attention than they deserves? (Who would bother with Hotel Splendide or indeed Lazybones if it didn't have Powell's name on it?)

[Steve Crook]

name='CaptainWaggett']Who would bother with Hotel Splendide or indeed Lazybones if it didn't have Powell's name on it?

Not many bother with them even though they've got Powell's name on them



When they did that series of Powell's QQs at the NFT in March 2000 it wasn't exactly packed out. And we're still waiting (and hinting to everyone we can) for them to be released on DVD



Steve

[orpheum]

Given that they no longer get an airing on C4 weekday afternoons it is not surprising that most people are unaware of their existance.Furthermore the NFT hardly ever shows them so that does not help.

[penfold]

name='CaptainWaggett']I saw Money for Speed (rubbish) and The Ghost Camera (excellent) last week (both edited by David Lean. As Penfold says, we don't see many and the ones we see either star or are directed by someone Before They Were Famous so perhaps we give them more attention than they deserves? (Who would bother with Hotel Splendide or indeed Lazybones if it didn't have Powell's name on it?)

Father Takes A Walk is a case in point....it was played on US TCM last winter, and a friend over there raved about it and copied it for me. I'd never heard of it, or the star, but the director was William Beaudine, director of silent classics such as Sparrows, with Mary Pickford, on his way to directing such US poverty row productions as Billy The Kid Meets Dracula...the quality of the film is nearer to his silent work, and has moments on location in the English countryside not far from A Canterbury Tale in effect. It's a cracking film....and few people know about it.

[mrjenkins]

name='MrT']One for Steve Crook probably, but has the country house featured in Michael Powell's 1935 qouta quickie "Lazybones" been identified? Watching the film again yesterday it looks just the kind of place that is probably now a National Trust property.



Mike (MrT)

I have only watched 'Lazybones' once but I think the house might be "Shardloes" just north of Old Amersham. A walk can be taken in the park as a footpath runs along the bottom of the valley below the house. It can also be seen from the A413 toward Great Missenden.

[mariocki]

Link to earlier thread about Shardeloes:



http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/lo...er-1954-a.html

[Wee Sonny MacGregor]

This house was under threat in the 1960s and might have been demolished as the upkeep was so great. Happily, the Tyrwitt-Drake family turned the house into luxury flats and the old pile survived. When the Queen Mother visited Michael Dennison and Dulcie Gray, she is supposed to remarked on how psoh the place was.