Watched last night

[torinfan]

OMG. I had nightmares about that for years after my parents thought it might be a good idea for 7-year-old me to watch it.

Yeah I know. Mr. suggested I watch a Care Bears video online instead if I wanted sweet dreams. But then I mentioned should've having watched a Torin Thatcher video and he suddenly became very quiet and went to sleep.

[CaptainWaggett]

Whispering Smith Hits London (1952). American gum-shoe 'Whispering' Richard Carlson arrives in London for a holiday but is soon persuaded by gushing Rona Anderson to investigate an apparent suicide. It rattles along quite nicely and is reasonably enjoyable because although the plot does not stand up to close scrutiny, the cast is a notch up from the usual early Exclusive/Hammer thrillers including Herbert Lom, Greta Gynt and Alan Wheatley. Added fun in these B films spotting 'stars with small parts', Stanley Baker appears in a blink or miss it appearance as a reporter.

Thanks to a kindly forum member, I have also watched this recently. It's from the genre of 'dull American b-lister goes round getting thespng lessons from British character players and solves a crime at the same time' and is rather fun, with Herbert Lom and Alan Wheatley breifly reprising their memorable double act from Appointment with Crime. My only disappointment was that Herbie is supposed to be a children's party entertainer by trade but you never actually see him puppeteering

[dremble wedge]

My only disappointment was that Herbie is supposed to be a children's party entertainer by trade but you never actually see him puppeteering

That's probably a good thing though...

[Elaine]

King Rat. A grown up version of Lord of The flies. So I think anyway.

[Harbottle]

The Thing with Two Heads (1972). God this was truly awful infantile rubbish, poor old Ray Milland must have really needed the cash to make this one. The premise of bigoted Dr Milland an expert in transplant surgery having his head joined to a black man could have had some genuine comic possibilities, but oh no lets have most of the film taken up by some of the most inept car chase sequences ever filmed instead. Not enough okay lets add an incredibly tedious motorcycle race as well just for good measure, good grief.

[torinfan]

The Thing with Two Heads (1972). God this was truly awful infantile rubbish, poor old Ray Milland must have really needed the cash to make this one. The premise of bigoted Dr Milland an expert in transplant surgery having his head joined to a black man could have had some genuine comic possibilities, but oh no lets have most of the film taken up by some of the most inept car chase sequences ever filmed instead. Not enough okay lets add an incredibly tedious motorcycle race as well just for good measure, good grief.

You too eh. I think the police in that film were meant to be inept.

[zettel45]

The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947)

Intermittently enjoyable haunted house story with Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer as 18th C. soldiers condemned to haunt their house until a reigning monarch visits. The two leads are likeable (of course), but I must admit I found the film pretty disappointing. What might have been a chance to cast a wry, affectionate look at the changing nature of Britishness over 200-or-so years becomes instead a tiresome parade of "funny foreigners". Even for 1947 this is a pretty smug, reactionary view of Britain and its Empire (an Empire which, of course, it was in the middle of dismantling).

[Tigon Man]

The Frightened City (1961)



Middling crime drama with John Gregson's cop trying to clamp down on the Soho protection rackets of the early sixties. Herbie Lom and Alfred Marks are the crime bosses trying to organise the various crime groups into a uniform syndicate.
Sean Connery makes an interesting early appearance as a gang enforcer. Yvonne Romain, Kenneth Griffiths, Bruce Seton also appear.

[screenglued]

The Boss of it all (2006)
A dialogue driven farce about a boss who doesn't want to appear to be the boss, especially when he wants to lay off his staff. Danish Dialogue, but with one character speaking and arguing loudly in Icelandic(his interpreter adds to the comedy). The subtitles are fairly good, but I did need to backup and read again a couple of times. I think this would have worked very well on stage, perhaps better than the film.
Enjoyed it 7/10
It reminded me of a very similar movie(maybe TV) set in England, but can't find it searching through the imdb listing of titles(there are lots) with "The Boss"

[moonfleet]

Yesterday I watched the first 40' from John Boorman's Deliverance... before falling asleep ( when one of them is getting rapped, this is still a terrible and a very éprouvante scene )
Fortunatly, I didn't have nightmares

I liked it better since the first time I saw it some years ago (Hmm, a survival ), this time the way John Boorman filmed it realy catched my eyes and mind

[batman]

The Women's World Cup Final - USA v Japan .... a terrific match which finished 2-2 after extra time with Japan winning on penalties. The Japanese, who play Barca-style possession football, fully deserved the win .... their skillful football finally seeing off the powerful, athletic Americans .... the Japanese also won the Fair Play Award, had the top scorer in the tournament who also won the 'best player' award. Top stuff!

[Elaine]

Watched Simba first thing, half of The Dam Busters, got bored wasn't really in the mood, then read a book.

[Sgt Sunshine]

Probably seen enough films by now to tell when one just doesn't cut the mustard.....
One such being 1998's Lost in Space.....



Roger Ebert was right this ones very poor (and I normally like sci-fi & adored the TV series as a child).. Avoid at all costs..
3/10 (2 of those are because Heather's in it)
Cheers
Sgt S

[zettel45]

The Women's World Cup Final - USA v Japan

Good game, wasn't it? The standard of football was much better than I'd expected - though I must say the ladies were even worse than England when it came to taking penalties. Still, it certainly beat The Apprentice final over on BBC1.

[batman]

Good game, wasn't it? The standard of football was much better than I'd expected - though I must say the ladies were even worse than England when it came to taking penalties.

It was a great game, one of the best games I have watched for ages. Apparently the USA had never missed a penalty (either in regular time or in shoot-outs) in World Cup matches before last night.

[Troutbridge]

I watched the Lilian Harvey silent, A Knight in London (1928). A young Michael Powell edited it. The story boiled down to a love triangle, but there were some striking moments such as a well-crafted (and probably scandalous) shower scene and an archery scene in which one character "intimidated" another. Worth a look, if you're into silents.

[dpgmel]

Thanks to a kind forum member I watched an extended version of the BBC's Arena documentary on Buddy Holly, fascinating stuff especially the contributions from the, then, remaining members of The Crickets plus rare video and audio tapes of Buddy.

One of the best music documentaries and a reminder of just how good Mr Hooly was and his influence.

[batman]

The Ravine - David McCallum and the gorgeous Nicoletta Machiavelli play WW2 sinpers who end up isolated by snow in a wooden hut at the bottom of a ravine (unsurprisingly). This Italian film starts off well as the the snipers go about their business, but it soon settles into a rather gooey and unconvincing love story. McCallum is OK but is completely overshadowed by Machiavelli, who looks stunning throughout. She and the action scenes make this worth a look for fans of Italian cinema, but it's nothing special.

[CaptainWaggett]

A Small Voice (1949). James Donald suffering with a gammy leg war wound (don't mention Cricket) takes things out of his wife Valerie Hobson, leading to marital tensions (Val getting in some practise for later life). Things take a turn for the worse when a gang of escaped convicts led by Harold Keel (yes indeed it is Howard) hold them captive in their remote Welsh home. Donald attempts to wear down Harold while a kiddy is suffering life threatening illness. Pretty good stuff though the tension could have been ramped up a notch, not helped by the largely soporific Donald. All sounds vaguely familiar? Well the Bogey film of a few years later The Desperate Hours treads very similar ground.

Thanks to a kindly forum member, I've just watched this and concur with your opinion. I know he has he devoted fans, but James Donald can be incredibly dreary (see also Cage of Gold) and Val is at her most smug here. Fortunately we don't see much of the sick moppet and Howard manages to be more menacing that you might expect so it's not a bad way to spend 85 minutes.

[Harbottle]

Thanks to a kindly forum member, I've just watched this and concur with your opinion. I know he has he devoted fans, but James Donald can be incredibly dreary (see also Cage of Gold) and Val is at her most smug here. Fortunately we don't see much of the sick moppet and Howard manages to be more menacing that you might expect so it's not a bad way to spend 85 minutes.

Yes Harold was rather good in this much to my surprise I must confess, and I quite like James Donald but I agree he can can veer into looking rather disinterested by it all in several films. Still he was excellent in The Net and of course The Great Escape to name but two outings.