The Rocking Horse Winner

[The_Late_Peter_Cook]

Those of you with access to a multi-region DVD player might be interested in learning that the rare John Mills movie 'The Rocking Horse Winner' is due out on Region 1 DVD on Monday.



PlayUSA has it marked up for a very pricey twenty-odd pounds, but Amazon.Com has it for a much more reasonable $14 (even with the cost of postage, it works out far more cheaper).

[JamesM]

"The Rocking Horse Winner" (1950) has been available on Homevision since Sep 2002.

[The_Late_Peter_Cook]

</div><div class='quotemain'>JamesM:

"The Rocking Horse Winner" (1950) has been available on Homevision since Sep 2002. [/b]

Has it? That's strange as I just pre-ordered it today (Amazon has a release date of Feb 1st) Perhaps it's a reissue (though Amazon hasn't any details of any other DVD release, when I search by title it brings the pre-order up).

[JOHN JARVIS]

Why are most of the best British films only available on Region 1

[JOHN JARVIS]

And where is John Howard Davies now. Havent heard of him since Faulty Towers. Still the best Oliver Twist and Tom Brown

[JamesM]

John Howard Davies recorded some audio commentaries for the Fawlty Towers DVDs.

[CaptainWaggett]

He still turns up on programmes about tv and film history - he recently did a very interesting radio documentary about David Lean and his own career. But presumably at 70 he's enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

[Johnallan]

Indeed - and just to prove the point, he turned up last night on the BBC 2 documentary 'The Story of 'Are You Being Served?' as well as a similar documentary a few days ago on the making of 'Not The Nine O'clock News'.

[Chris B]

had the homevision version about 4 or 5 years ago, nice black & white.

Regards Chris Bryan

[darrenburnfan]

I saw this film for the first time today and it really is excellent. Wonderful performances; music, direction and photography all round. I can't understand why this British classic isn't available on a Region 2 DVD. I even looked in vain for it on one of the John Mills DVD box sets, but no, not even on one of those (and he produced the film). It was a Rank Organisation release, so I thought Carlton or Network may have released it on DVD. They would certainly have the rights to do so. Of course, the sexual euphinisms of the original D.H. Lawrence short story of the same name (the young boy "Getting There" on the rocking horse while remaining in one place) were, understandably, removed from the film, but that doesn't affect the high drama of it. I found the ending scene one of the most tear-jerking I'd ever seen. In fact, I highly recommend it. Below is a scan from the page in the 1950 Film Review annual featuring it. The enlarge the image, left click with your mouse on the white bar at the top of the image to enlarge it.

[Windthrop]

Wish the Kenny More TV version from the 70s would turn up along with his Rattigan In Praise Of Love.

[darrenburnfan]

I see that Kenneth More played the uncle in the 1977 television version of The Rocking Horse Winner, which would be interesting to see in order to compare it with the 1949 film version. If it was an ITV production, Network may release it on DVD. If it was BBC, probably no chance of that.

[Windthrop]

I would guess its an ITV production

[darrenburnfan]

I've just been looking at the back cover of the Region 1 DVD box for The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), released in the US by Home Vision Entertainment and it has the Carlton trademark on the back. So Carlton do have the rights to it and could easily release it here on Region 2 if they wanted to.

[jaycad]

the 1977 version was a HTV production so hopefully network will have access to it!

[darrenburnfan]

I hope they will release it in the near future. Network have far more business enterprise than the BBC, who are just letting their archive programmes gather dust on the shelves (well, yes, I know the vaults are a dust free environment, but you know what I mean). I've never seen the 1977 version, but it would have to be good to get anywhere near the quality of the original 1949 black and white version, which has a truly haunting, Dead of Night quality about it and the music by William Alwyn is superbly atmospheric. One of the best scores ever written for a British film. One of the very dramatic cues in the score, Paul's Last Ride, has been newly recorded in stereo and is available on a CD entitled The Film Music Of William Alwyn, volume 3, available from amazon uk.

[darrenburnfan]

Does anyone know where John Howard Davies was born? It just says London on the IMDb, but London is a vast area. He talked really upper-class recieved pronounciation in The Rocking Horse Winner, so I was thinking maybe Kensington or somewhere really posh. He's certainly lost his childhood accent these days.

[Steve Crook]

Does anyone know where John Howard Davies was born? It just says London on the IMDb, but London is a vast area. He talked really upper-class recieved pronounciation in The Rocking Horse Winner, so I was thinking maybe Kensington or somewhere really posh. He's certainly lost his childhood accent these days.

An RP accent doesn't necessarily mean he was born somewhere posh. Most actors and actresses used one back then - unless they were playing someone from a specific part of the country in which case they went into an accent like Robert Newton in Treasure Island (1950) (whichever part of the country their character was actually from)

Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

An RP accent doesn't necessarily mean he was born somewhere posh. Most actors and actresses used one back then - unless they were playing someone from a specific part of the country in which case they went into an accent like Robert Newton in Treasure Island (1950) (whichever part of the country their character was actually from)

Steve

Loads of people talked posher then. Even the Queen has gone downmarket according to studies of the Christmas broadcast. I don't imagine John Howard Davies sounded much different to other middle class kids of the tim, e judging by recordings of Children's Hour, and he came from a showbizzy family so quite likely had elocution lessons. All child actors either sounded like that or were lovable Cockernees.

[darrenburnfan]

"Cor, Blimey, guv'nors!"...I mean "I say, what a wizard whip! Smashing!"...me thinks you both may be right, there, Captain and Steve.