Films that have disappeared from our screens

[batman]

One that I would like to see again is Four men And A Prayer with Richard Greene, George Sanders and David Niven. It's a John Ford directed adventure yarn and is terrific. CH4 broadcast it years ago but it hasn't surfaced since.

[Mr Sloane]

I agree but what makes it worse is the repeated showing of the smalll selective groups Independence Day ,TheBatmans etc even if the want to show more modern films they could be more adventurous.



I don't believe there is no market for a dedicated film channel on freeview showing the full history of the cinema.

[Windthrop]

name='Mr Sloane']I agree but what makes it worse is the repeated showing of the smalll selective groups Independence Day ,TheBatmans etc even if the want to show more modern films they could be more adventurous.



I don't believe there is no market for a dedicated film channel on freeview showing the full history of the cinema.

Film 4 could do alot better instead of repeating that same films ad nauseum. How many times do we need to see That Riviera Touch ?

[darrenburnfan]

I don't think it's that the films have disappeared, as I'm sure the television companies could book them if they wanted to. I suspect that the main reason they never get shown is that the people who run television today and have responsibility for choosing which films get shown, are twenty or thirty-somethings for whom any film made before 1995 is positively prehistoric and any film made before they were born, twenty-five or thirty years ago, is completely off the radar as far as they are concerned. Film 4 shows a lot of modern films in the evening that in my opinion are absolute junk, while restricting earlier, classic films such as The Mudlark and Sea of Sand to the afternoon schedules, where they think no one will notice them. At any rate, some of the early classics tend to show up the modern product for the junk it really is.



Nothing will change until someone gets to be in charge who has an excellent working knowledge of all films from all eras and also knows enough to say that such and such a film hasn't been shown since the 1970's, so let's give it a another run. After all, there may well still be people out there who remember seeing a certain film on television way back in 1973, but there is a whole new generation born since then who have never had the opportunity to see it.



I've also given up hoping that the Christmas edition of Radio Times will anounce a plethora of classic films that have either never been shown, or shown once decades ago and never screened again. Instead, we get the usual repeats of Chitty Chiity Bang Bang; The Great Escape (oh, no, not Steve McQueen on that bloody motor bike again!); Mary Poppins; The Wizard of Oz and Zulu. Nice, safe bets and the only old films the youngsters at the television companies know of, because they are repeated again and again, ad infinitum, leaving no room in the schedules for films that never get shown.



There are quite literally thousands upon thousands of films to choose from, but it seems that television has a few hundred films at the most which are continually repeated.

[icestation2]

Of course it goes without saying that most films have indeed disappeared but there are some films that IMO are inexplicably missing from our screens. Seeing as ITV2 or ITV3 keeps showing The Mummy and The Mummy Returns every few weeks I think it's almost criminal being denied the opportunity to see classic films that frankly would make the Mummy series look pathetic.



It's ironic that when we had only four channels there was a far better variety of films but now with seemingly hundreds of channels there is hardly anything of interest at all. I deplore the fact that Britain went ahead with multi-channel TV when we knew from other countries that you basically end up with rubbish.



IMO, we need a government that would be bold enough to reverse what's happen over the last two decades and limited the number of channels again. Maybe not going back to four channels but certainly no more than a dozen. What's happened to TV over recent decades just isn't progress.

[Filmfan1]

Haven't seen Swallows and amazons listed in absolutely ages!

[CaptainWaggett]

name='Filmfan1']Haven't seen Swallows and amazons listed in absolutely ages!

It was on ITV3 on December 30th 2008

[Filmfan1]

Maybe we miss these things because there are so many channels these days?! We think these films have dissappeared when really they haven't at all? I don't have a digibox here in the flat- keep meaning to get one but keep forgetting!



And anyway, with online movie streaming now we can watch whatever we like at whatever time we like, so thats another factor. Its kind of is a shame though especially for older films. How will the old stuff survive?



I remember when i used to work evening shift we would clock off at 12 and all evening the women i worked with would talk about what great old film was starting at 1am or whatever on RTE, UTV or BBC. They talked about these films so much that i just had to sit up and watch. I was introduced to so many of my favourite old films in this way. Films i would never have been interested in had i worked with ones my own age and had channels not been showing them.



Films like.... Whatever happened to baby jane, Brief encounter, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Whistle down the wind, All about Eve, Countless Hammer horrors...... etc

[Leonard]

I picked up a few Christmas editions of Radio Times and TV Times today at the flea market, dating from 1987, '89 and '89. Incredibly good schedules, for films anyway - a LOT more variety (IMO), compared with the Festive Season just gone and that's including satellite and cable!



In the run up to Christmas '87 Beeb One show a Leon Errol short first thing every morning!

Beeb Two really made an effort, showing a great selection of Hollywood comedies from '30's and '40's and Channel 4 present an unbelievably good selection of British oldies.



This is how the film schedule looks from 17th to 23rd December 1987 -



BBC 1 : THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, THE MOUNTAIN MEN, THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT, SPIRIT OF THE WILD, HIGH RISK, ROSE MARIE 1954, ROCKY I, BRIGADOON, THE ADVENTURES OF QUENTIN DURWARD, POISON CANDY, THE CRUEL SEA, FERN THE RED DEER, A TOUCH OF CLASS, TOPPER(!!!!), ELECTRIC ESKIMO, ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING, THE DIRTY DOZEN-NEXT MISSION, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH.



BBC 2 : THE SAND PEBBLES, A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, GUN CRAZY(!!!!!), MEET ME AT THE FAIR, BREATHLESS, ROOM SERVICE, CHARLIE CHAN IN RENO, SHADOW ON THE EARTH, UP IN MABEL'S ROOM, TALL IN THE SADDLE, THE BODY SNATCHER, MEXICAN SPITFIRE OUT WEST, SWEET DREAMS, THE BAND WAGON 1953, GETTING GERTIE'S GARTER, VIVA MAX!, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, BREWSTER'S MILLIONS 1944, BOHEMIAN GIRL 1936, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS.



ITV CENTRAL : THE NIGHT THEY SAVED CHRISTMAS, SANDS OF THE KALAHARI, THE LAST CHAPTER 1974, DOCTOR IN DISTRESS, DIAMONDS ON WHEELS, EL DORADO, THE CHRISTMAS GIFT, CHRISTMAS EVE (Trevor Howard), SCROOGE(Finney).



CHANNEL 4 : THE BIG LIFT, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, WELCOME TO L.A., THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL 1982, WING AND A PRAYER, THE DESERT SONG 1953, GOING MY WAY, THE TWELVE CHAIRS, MEET Mr LUCIFER, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, PARADE, MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE, RETURN TO GLENNASCAUL, SCHOOL FOR VANDALS, 42nd STREET, KING OF JAZZ 1930.



One would have needed 2 vcrs!

[CaptainWaggett]

name='Filmfan1']Maybe we miss these things because there are so many channels these days?! We think these films have dissappeared when really they haven't at all? I don't have a digibox here in the flat- keep meaning to get one but keep forgetting!



And anyway, with online movie streaming now we can watch whatever we like at whatever time we like, so thats another factor. Its kind of is a shame though especially for older films. How will the old stuff survive?



I remember when i used to work evening shift we would clock off at 12 and all evening the women i worked with would talk about what great old film was starting at 1am or whatever on RTE, UTV or BBC. They talked about these films so much that i just had to sit up and watch. I was introduced to so many of my favourite old films in this way. Films i would never have been interested in had i worked with ones my own age and had channels not been showing them.



Films like.... Whatever happened to baby jane, Brief encounter, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Whistle down the wind, All about Eve, Countless Hammer horrors...... etc

I certainly can't watch whatever I like, whenever I like except through the magic of bootleg dvds. If there are sites that stream classic British films of the 1930s and 1940s I'd like to know about them. I check through the Freeview schedules reasonably carefully and, apart from a couple of Hitchcocks (both available on dvd) on BBC4 recently, I can't remember any British films from the 1930s being shown this year (or even last)

[darrenburnfan]

I think that Swallows and Amazons (the filmed in 1973 version) was shown a year or so ago, but I can't remember which channel now...maybe Channel 5. But the version they ran was the one issued on DVD by Optimum, which is shorn of its cast and credits and Swallows and Amazons Forever! logo.



Just off the top of my head, here are a few films that have either never been shown on television or that haven't been shown since the 1970's at least.



THE PROFESSIONALS (1960). Andrew Faulds and William Lucas. A gang of crooks attempts to break into a bank vault through the London sewers. Some tense scenes.



SNOWBALL (1960) Gordon Jackson and Dennis Waterman. A 12 years old boy, for a laugh, accuses a neighbour who lives in his village of sexually molesting him...with tragic consequences. Excellent drama.



THE WILD AND THE WILLING (1962) Ian McShane and John Hurt. A young man at a university recklessly causes the death of his best friend and is sent down. Last shown on ITV in 1974.



A DOG OF FLANDERS (1960) David Ladd and Donald Crisp. CinemaScope, colour. A four-star tear jerker of the first order and undoubtedly the finest version ever made of this oft-filmed classic. Last shown on BBC 1 during Christmas, 1973.



THE INSPECTOR (1962) Stephen Boyd and Dolores Hart. CinemaScope, colour. In post war Europe, a Dutch police inspector helps a Jewish girl, a survivor of the concentration camps, to illegally enter Palestine. Tear-jerking romantic drama with one of Malcolm Arnold's very best scores. Last shown on ATV in 1975.



THE TRAITORS (1962) Patrick Allen and Jaqueline Ellis. Slick and fast moving spy thriller.



MRS GIBBONS BOYS (1962) Lionel Jeffries; Kathleen Harrison and Diana Dors. CinemaScope. Really good British comedy. Last shown on BBC 1 in 1974.



RUN WILD, RUN FREE. (1969) John Mills; Mark Lester; Gordon Jackson; Sylvia Syms; Bernard Miles; Fiona Fullerton. Technicolor. Superb drama filmed on Dartmoor about a ten years old austistic boy who hasn't spoken since he was a toddler; his love for a wild, white pony and his relationship with a retired colonel who slowly brings the boy out of his shell.



and lastly:



EYEWITNESS (1970) Mark Lester, Lionel Jeffries; Susan George and Peter Vaughn. Technicolor. Excellent "Boy who cried Wolf" thriller about a boy who is always telling tall tales and no one believes him when he says he saw the man who murdered a politician except the killer, who is out to get him at all costs! Contains one of the most thrilling life and death car chases ever filmed. Not shown on television for about 25 years. Filmed on location on the island of Malta in the summer of 1969.

[Leonard]

name='icestation2']



IMO, we need a government that would be bold enough to reverse what's happen over the last two decades and limited the number of channels again. Maybe not going back to four channels but certainly no more than a dozen. What's happened to TV over recent decades just isn't progress.

I agree icestation, but it's too late, multi-channel tv is actually killing telly. The internet will finish the job. I hope ITV don't get so strapped for cash that they have to sell off their film library to a corp like canal+. The films we love, or want to see, or want out on dvd really will disappear IMO.

[Leonard]

name='CaptainWaggett']I certainly can't watch whatever I like, whenever I like except through the magic of bootleg dvds. If there are sites that stream classic British films of the 1930s and 1940s I'd like to know about them. I check through the Freeview schedules reasonably carefully and, apart from a couple of Hitchcocks (both available on dvd) on BBC4 recently, I can't remember any British films from the 1930s being shown this year (or even last)

Yep, all the oldies they show are available on dvd! There's not a rarity to be seen, month after month.

[torinfan]

name='TomDaws']A couple of early 70s Jean Simmons films : The Happy Ending and Say Hello To Yesterday.

I once had a copy of The Happy Ending on VHS but I don't remember much about the film. I know Bobby Darin is in it. I think it was one of his last films.

[tellingbone]

I can't recall seeing The Stranglers of Bombay since I was a child. Scared the life out of me!



Cone of Silence and The Iron Maiden are another two I haven't seen on TV in an age.

[darrenburnfan]

The 1962 Cyril Smith / Hylda Baker comedy She Knows, Y'Know (originally released as the supporting film to The Wooden Horse of Troy) has never been shown on television and you'd have to be around fifty-five years old to remember seeing it at all on its initial release. I haven't seen it myself since it was a new film and the only scene I can remember from it was where Hylda is scolding her hen-pecked husband Cyril for spending all his time with his pet ferrets and she says something like: "Ferrets! ferrets! ferrets! That's all you ever think about. Have you looked into the mirror lately? You're beginning to look like a blasted ferret!"



Also The Bowery Boys films from the 1950's have never been shown on television, nor released on video or DVD.



A few other British second features that haven't been shown on television since the late 1960's and early 1970's:



THE BIG CHANCE (1957) Crime drama with Adrienne Corri and William Russell.



MAN WITH A GUN (1958) Crime drama with Glen Mason and Lee Patterson.



THE LONG KNIFE (1959) Crime drama with Sheldon Lawrence and Joan Rice.



There are many more.

[cornershop15]

name='Leonard']I agree icestation, but it's too late, multi-channel tv is actually killing telly. The internet will finish the job. I hope ITV don't get so strapped for cash that they have to sell off their film library to a corp like canal+. The films we love, or want to see, or want out on dvd really will disappear IMO.

In all seriousness, apart from James Bond and the occasional Disney film for new and casual viewers, what does the ITV film library offer us now? In case people haven't read my comments elsewhere on the Forum, I'll say for about the 5th time that since around 1990 films on the mainstream channels have dropped alarmingly in terms of quality and rarity. Yet again, I must mention Desmond Davis, something of a cult director in the Sixties, whose Black & White films The Uncle, starring Rupert Davies, and I Was Happy Here (Sarah Miles) were shown in fairly close proximity on a weekday afternoon in 1986 I think it was. That's how things were for many years on ITV, when the had their much-missed Matinees.



Okay, Channel 4 has stepped in with many interesting and obscure films since then, shown at that time, but I can't recall many forgotten Sixties, or even Seventies films. Once upon a time, Melody, The Guru, Otley, The Bliss Of Mrs. Blossom and Voices were all shown on ITV in that 2-4pm slot but never again. I appreciate that many Sky channels and DVDs are here to help but you'd be surprised just how many titles aren't being followed up. There was a time when it felt like I was going to see every Sixties film that had a star, including The Slender Thread and A Thousand Clowns or In Search Of Gregory and Nothing But The Best. It never happened. Don't despair folks, at least we have the chance to see Candy on DVD!

[darrenburnfan]

Another one comes to mind that I remember last being shown on television about forty years ago. The Navy Lark, starring Cecil Parker; Leslie Phillips and Ronald Shiner. This was the made in 1959 big screen movie spin-off (in CinemaScope) of the long running BBC radio series. I went to see it at the pictures in April, 1960. Long overdue for a repeat, I think.

[Steve Crook]

name='darrenburnfan']Another one comes to mind that I remember last being shown on television about forty years ago. The Navy Lark, starring Cecil Parker; Leslie Phillips and Ronald Shiner. This was the made in 1959 big screen movie spin-off (in CinemaScope) of the long running BBC radio series. I went to see it at the pictures in April, 1960. Long overdue for a repeat, I think.

It's been shown on TV a few times over the years. A poor shadow of the radio series, a sort of "Carry On, Left Hand Down a Bit"



Steve

[davidb]

a film that always used to come on tv [ in the 70s ] was that michael bentine film " the sandwich board man " [ or something like that ]

havent seen that for ages