samkydd

I managed to get a DVD bargain at the weekend, a David Lean double bill of Hobson’s Choice and The Sound Barrier for just £3.99. I last saw both films on the telly when I was a kid.

The Sound Barrier

The Sound Barrier was interesting but nothing special, but I could imagine the excitement it must have caused in its day, but it was a bit stiff. It was almost like the government had asked a film company to produce an information film for the public about the development of jet aircraft. I was surprised it wasn’t in colour though because with the coming of the new “jet age”, black and white film made it appear almost like a film from the World War 2 era!

Nigel Patrick played the test pilot son-in-law of aircraft tycoon Ralph Richardson, married to his daughter Ann Todd. Ralph Richardson’s voice gets me, it’s hilarious, he didn’t know whether he was from up t’ north or from a public school because his accent kept changing in almost every scene. Youngsters Denholm Elliot and Dinah Sheridan were also in the film, and a minor role for Leslie Phillips as an air traffic controller.

Hobson's Choice

Hobson’s Choice was just as good as I remembered it all those years ago. The cast was brilliant, especially Brenda de Banzie, who really should have been a big star . Charles Laughton reminds me of Hancock for some reason, and there was an early appearance by Prunella Scales, and old favourites Richard Wattis, John Laurie and Raymond Huntley.

The story is almost Dickensian in its style, and if you’ve never seen it before give it a go. It’s a great comedy and very well acted and makes most modern comedy films seem like a load of old cobblers!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Marky B

I agree,Sam,Hobson's Choiceis still one of the funniest comedies and John Mills was an absolute gem in it,likewise the rest of the cast.
"I can't marry thee,Miss Maggie,I'm tokened to Ada Figgis"
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

Jim

ECHO! ECHO! ECHO! Brenda Debanzie much underused actress and John Mills is superb. Chuck Laughton was his usual self. Am going to get that film for my budding collection!!!

Does anyone have 'Miss London' with Big-Hearted Arthur Askey, please, please? dvd or vid; I'm not bothered. Ay thang'u.

Good morning boys.

samkydd

I am surprised that Ms Banzie didn't get into more British comedy like the Carry Ons. By all accounts she was very good in both comedy and serious roles, Too Many Crooks with Terry Thomas, which I've never seen but apparently it's okay and the first Pink Panther movie. She was brilliant as Archie Rice's neurotic alcoholic very sad missus in The Entertainer, and she was also in a Hitchock Doris Day/James Stewart movie The Man Who Knew Too Much, another one I haven't seen.

I've become a belated fan of this woman who was born years before my parents and died when I was just a teenager! It smacks of The Who song Pictures of Lily!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Jim

You would like TOO MANY CROOKS - George Cole; and, I think, Bernard Breslaw and Bernard Cribbins, Kenneth Griffiths.

Good morning boys.

samkydd

I've got that DVD on my birthday and Christmas list. I like Terry Thomas, he just cracks me up. The best film I've seen him in so far is How To Murder Your Wife the American comedy film, where he played Jack Lemmon's Jeevesque butler.

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

samkydd

"It's news to me we're snobs in Salford!"

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Steve Crook

Have you never seen Deborah Kerr doing her lovely Lancashire accent in Love on the Dole (1941)?

Mrs. Hardcastle: Eee Sal, you've changed. You're 'ard.
Sally (Deborah Kerr): Aye, I'm 'ard. And by gosh an' I need t'be.

That's got plenty about snobbery and everyone (except Sally) knowing their place.

Steve

samkydd

Willie Mossop was forever saying "By gum!" in Hobson's and I didn't hear it again until Monty Python when they added the "Eeeeee" to the beginning.

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Fellwanderer

Eeeee, lad - tha's had a sheltered oopbringing.

FELL

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

samkydd

Having been brought up in North Norfolk, which now has more Volvo Estates than Sweden, and more antiques auctions than a BBC programme schedule, so the culture has all but disappeared. The sinister humour, the nasty Norfolk character "You hant roight boy!" has been replaced by the corduroy trousered IKEA loving Tarquins and Nikkis ("Is that two ks or three?"), from Crouch End and Putney who have bought a bijou barn conversion for a weekend retreat! So the local dialect has also changed, from "Oil har a point a Narch ("Norwich") bitta boy!" to "I say, do you have any vegan coffee beans?"

So I have been a southern softie for yonks now and I never travel north of Ringwood if I can help it, and no, it's not because I don't like t'north it's purely and simply because the traffic is so bad in this country it just ain't worth the hassle. I could probably drive to La Rochelle quicker than Rochdale, and I wouldn't understand the lingo in either town?

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Marky B

Ebagum is Mugabe spelt backwards
Ta Ta
Marky B [

samkydd

I also noticed that Tubby the foreman was played by Jack Howarth, who was of course Ken Barlow's Uncle Albert Tatlock in Coronation Street, many years ago before they decided to make it into a sitcom!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

samkydd

I reluctantly went to a massive car boot today but surprisingly there were about 4 hours worth of stalls to walk round. Everyone is offloading VHS video tapes like this old technology has got some sort of deadly disease with prices ranging from fifty pence to three quid!

Amongst the tat (Double Impact, Beverly Hills Cop 23, Lethal Weapon etc) there were some gems and I picked up The Likely Lads feature film and Powell & Pressburger's The Red Shoes for two quid! I'm not sold on DVD entirely and so I'd rather buy a used tape than a used DVD anyway for reasons of physical robustness more than anything else, plus bargain prices, and as I don't have a fancy TV sound system I'm not losing out on the marvels of modern technology.

I could have got a few more tapes like; The Cruel Sea, The Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare, The Cockleshell Heroes, I'm Alright Jack etc. but I enjoyed the fresh air and exercise so much and the temperature soared to 20 degrees today, so I will go again next week and enjoy another bacon and egg sandwich and tea mid morning breakfast, a browse through people's lives, and stare in amazement at someone haggling over ten bob for a ancient and grubby looking Tupperware container, and a set of three scuffed and cracked plastic wheel discs to fit an Austin Maestro!

An interesting fact from today's outing is that on every stall selling video tapes they all had a copy of Brassed Off and Sliding Doors! If I was a film star or director it would be so embarassing to see one's work at a car boot sale, or even worse, in a charity shop amongst the Music For Pleasure Mantovani and Max Bygraves LPs! You'd never be able to jump the queue at Langans Brasserie again! You want people to treasure your film at home, pride of place on the shelves and taken down and dusted and shown to visitors on a regular basis like some rare first edition!

I still remember, and it doesn't see so long ago, when the first video films were available to BUY in shops! Dickie Attenborough did a TV ad for feature films on video and they were about £10 a piece. I can't remember the first one I bought but I do remember walking home feeling like J Arthur Rank because I now owned a feature film!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Rob Compton

sam - when they first came out, BLANK video tapes were £12.95 each!

rgds
Rob