M.Powell

Hello all,

I'm mad on Powell and Pressburger and I am further fired up after reading the imdb entries on 'Herzog Blaubarts Burg' and 'The Fire Raisers'. I wonder if anyone here might be able to help possibly with copies, as they haven't been released... The episode of 'Espionage', 'A Free Agent', written by Leo Marks, would be 3rd choice but much less can be expected of that in comparison.

All the best,
M.Powell

D Cairns

I have BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE but sadly without subtitles. I think this is the only way it's (semi) available at present.

M.Powell

Opera ought not to need subtitles really and then there's those Powell visuals..!
I would very much like a copy if that would be at all possible...

Steve Crook

I saw a print of Herzog Blaubarts Burg at San Sebastian in 2002 (40 Powell films in 10 days) that had English subtitles as well as the Spanish subtitles that they projected onto every film they showed. But nobody seems to know where it came from. However, as you say in your later message, opera doesn't really need subtitles although having at least a smattering of German helps.

But as for their availability, although they've been shown at various festivals and special screenings, none of the ones you mention have ever been released commercially or shown on UK TV. Herzog Blaubarts Burg was made for German TV and was shown there but that was back in 1964 and I don't think many people had video recorders then. The Espionage series was made for US TV (NBC) but that was also in 1964.

Powell directed two other episodes of Espionage in 1964 and one each of The Nurses and The Defenders in 1965. Some of these might be available for viewing at the BFI Library in London but I think that's probably your best bet.

Steve

batman

Espionage is a series I know absolutely nothing about, other than what I have just read here. There is very little on IMDB. Do you have any more info Steve, or is there a site you can point me in the direction of? It sounds really good. I have seen a couple of episodes of The Defenders but have never heard of The Nurses either.

Bats.

Steve Crook

I only really know about the episodes that Powell directed, and not all that much about those. They were all quite big and successful series on US TV but are hardly ever seen on this side of the pond. The Defenders series led to a few TV movies being made in the 1990s. These starred Beau Bridges but weren't very directly connected to the TV series except by what was almost a guest appearance by E.G. Marshall who was the star of the 1960s TV series.

The Defenders TV series ran from 1961-65 and was about a father & son team of lawyers that took on cases often reflecting the issues of the day

The Nurses ran from 1962-65 and was about the lives (and probably loves) of two nurses in a busy hospital. Liz Thorpe (Shirl Conway), was the older head nurse, and Gail Lucas (Zina Bethune), the naive student nurse. The two nurses were joined by doctors in 1964 and these doctors tried to help the nurses resolve moral and ethical problems.

Espionage ran through 1963-64 and was quite an unusual television series for the time - a potpourri of individual dramas that were only linked by the fact that they were about spies and spying.

Some were fiction, but included interesting explorations of the theme. One, for example, was based on the British 'spies for peace' episode, in which anti-nuclear campaigners released details of government bunkers. The scripts were usually of a high quality.

Other programmes were about historical events. Although not strictly 'espionage', one dealt with the landing of Roger Casement in Ireland prior to the Easter Rising. Another was a recreation of the attempt of Dr. Johnson, no less, to thwart an American female spy in eighteenth century London!

Of the three episodes that Micky Powell directed, one (A Free Agent) was written by Leo Marks about cold war spies from either side getting together romantically and had Anthony Quayle and Siân Phillips in the cast. Another (The Frantick Rebel) was set in the time of the American Revolution and had Roger Livesey as Samuel Johnson. The other one (Never Turn Your Back on a Friend) was about Operation Swallow, the attack on the Nazi's heavy water plant in Norway (as portrayed in The Heroes of Telemark) and had Pamela Brown in the cast.

So you can see he was still working with a lot of the same people.

Steve

batman

Cheers Steve.

Bats.