Watched last night

[dpgmel]

I watched Ernest Morris' b movie The Spanish Sword in 13th century England gentleman knight Ronald Howard protects a village from evil barons led by Nigel Green.

Rather like an extended episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood but nowhere near as good it's one of those films you just have to keep watching....., Ronald Howard looks totally out of place in doublet and hose amd much older than his, then, 44 years, Nigel Green though enters into the spirit of the thing with a fine scenery chewing performance

Probably one for b movie completists, I know there are such people around here.

[Sgt Sunshine]

A film I'd been after for a long time. "On the Beach 1959 directed by Stanley Kramer & starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire & Anthony Perkins..
Struck me as rather slow with some of the romantic interludes a tad too long.......
Praised in its time......but I found it tough going. Perhaps I've already seen to many modern non-stop action Sci-Fi's....and my attention span is suffering for it...
Always a fan of Gregory though....
6/10
Cheers
Sgt S

[cassidy]

After taking part in the thread of famous last lines it just had to be "The Roaring Twenties". Cagney and Bogart at their very best, and a great supporting cast.Those great wisecracks, that fabulous music and best of all when I taped it on Channel 4 all those years ago I blanked out the adverts. If anyone hasn't seen it before I'd highly recommend it.

[batman]

Steve Reeves in The Avenger .... which also featured spaghetti western hero Gianni 'Sartana' Garko as the villain of the piece. Great action sequences and decent performances from the cast make this one of the better peplums. Recommended.

[woody123]

Mrs Bradley Mystery "Death At The Opera".Finally got round to buying a second hand copy and lo and behold BBC4 are broadcasting them from tomorrow.Followed with Black And Blue one of John Hannah's Rebus outings.I think Hannah nailed Ian Rankin's detective character except for the fact he's too young.Ken Stott has the age and gravitas but misses the essence of the character,although he did get better in the last couple broadcast.

[Mr Sloane]

Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton) - not a Brit film but with a largely British cast. Some great visuals and 3 excellent performances from Depp,Bonham Carter and Mia Wasikowska but I was greatly disappointed. The film starts well but it just drifts towards the conclusion in Wonderland, a very unCarrol CGI fight. We then return home to find the moral,female emancipation is through Victorian colonisation.
A great shame as I would have though Burton would have been in tuned with the maniacal world of Carroll and certainly did not need this strange hybrid story to set his stamp on it.

A missed opportunity.

[Sgt Sunshine]

My first Amicus production...."ASYLUM" directed by Roy War Baker...1972



Starring in four delicious different segments.....Peter Cushing, Britt EklandCharlotte Rampling, Herbert Lom & Robert Powell......
Which one indeed is the recently insane Dr Starr.......?To get the job Mr Powell needs to investigate each one
Great stuff.........I love it.....that's why I'm here
8.5/10
Cheers
Sgt S

[didi-5]

A re-viewing of the 1973 film of Jesus Christ Superstar plus one of Mr Didi's episodes of Joe 90 (set in the Wild West!). Finished off with the series 2 opener of Harry's Law (Kathy Bates as a lawyer). Looking at that list it's a bit of an odd mix!

[Rowdon]

Steve Reeves in The Avenger .... which also featured spaghetti western hero Gianni 'Sartana' Garko as the villain of the piece. Great action sequences and decent performances from the cast make this one of the better peplums. Recommended.

Still working your way through that box set? How many to go now?

[Rowdon]

Jesus Christ Superstar ... Joe 90 ...Harry's Law. Looking at that list it's a bit of an odd mix!

Not really - the theme could have been "titles including (very) christian names".

[Rowdon]

I got to the end of Cricklewood Studios without changing my opinion that it was a heartfelt tribute to British film studios, but as a mockumentary, it lacked comedy, so was ultimately disappointing. Lots of talent, wonderful recreations and spot-on satire ... but the satire was so close to the original that it was almost a question of simply putting a made up name instead of the real actor/film/studio, without adding many laughs. The same criticism could be made of the classic mockumentary "The Rutles", but although that stuck really close to the story, the changes and additions were actually laugh out loud funny. In Cricklewood Studios it was as if Peter Capaldi was worried about going too 'crazy', but then he comes out with a line like "Her death was one she would never get over". Maybe he kept rewriting until all the broad comedy was gone, leaving a loving portrait so real that you wish he'd just been doing a documentary about Pinewood or Elstree or something.

Mentions on the board (in the context of "Cricklewood Studios" and elsewhere) led me to Norbert Smith - A Life, Harry Enfield's tribute to the same era/history from 1989. I may get criticised for not appreciating subtlety, but I found Norbert Smith far better all round. OK, it wasn't trying to be mistaken for a real doc, but it was laugh out loud funny and also full of pathos. If you watch it on youtube, part 3 contains a brilliant (obvious, but brilliant) mickey-take of 60s realism - particularly Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - and part 4 has a terribly sympathetic (yet funny) take on Hancock's melancholic Face to Face interview. Oh, and there's the "past their prime" alcoholic actors doing a WWII action picture, starring, among others, "Peter O'Pissed". Not subtle, then, but very enjoyable. And Melvyn Bragg. And Barbara Windsor and Kenneth Connor and Jack Douglas.

[wadsy]

Travelling North 1987

An Australian film adapted from a David Williamson play.

A middle aged couple move from Melbourne to Port Douglas in Queensland.

Leo McKern plays the bombastic, hard to live with husband & Julia Blake is his beautiful, patient & strong wife.

A good cast includes Henri Szeps as the local doctor & Aussie TV legend Graham Kennedy as a nosey, lonely next door neighbour.

A very well acted film with some funny, touching moments & some eye catching local scenery!

[jimw1]

Thanks to a Very Kind Britmovie member I watched Iris




The Life story of Writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch and her sad Demise through the effects of Alzheimer's disease....
A very touching and in some parts Very Sad.....although brilliantly Portraid by Judie dench and Jim Broadbent...

[batman]

Still working your way through that box set? How many to go now?

I've only watched ten so far, so plenty more to go .... most of them have been pretty good. I must confess that this version of The Avenger was part of my separate 'Steve Reeves Collection' and has a slightly superior print.

[Harbottle]

Night Was Our Friend (1951). Another B I found not as dreadful as the IDBM reviewers, perhaps watching so many I've developed immunity to dull plots. Admittedly after an intruiging start it falls away somewhat but the three main players are pretty good. Ronald Howard as the Doc that Elizabeth Sellars falls for in the absence of her (as usual) unbalanced hubby Michael Gough. No masterpiece certainly but I've seen far, far worse.

Pete 'n' Tilly (1972). I don't usually discuss furrin films viewed here but this was a Walter Matthau film I don't recall seeing before, and despite the final third veering into tearjerker territory I enjoyed it very much indeed. The story of Carol Burnett and Matthau's relationship over the years from their first meeting, wry comedy and moving at times too, with excellent playing from the two leads.

[Tigon Man]

Voices (1973)

After losing their son in a tragic accident, Mr & Mrs David Hemmings (Gayle Hunnicutt) pitch up in a remote mansion (Near Tykes Water Lake Elstree) to take stock of their marraige, only to find it already occupied by ghostly Lynn Farleigh and her Edwardian brood.
Hemmings & Hunnicutt are excellent but this is a so so production from an original stage play and it's theatrical origins are plainly evident from it's virtual one room set to the lengthy speeches of the two leads.

[didi-5]

Voices (1973)After losing their son in a tragic accident, Mr & Mrs David Hemmings (Gayle Hunnicutt) pitch up in a remote mansion (Near Tykes Water Lake Elstree) to take stock of their marraige, only to find it already occupied by ghostly Lynn Farleigh and her Edwardian brood.Hemmings & Hunnicutt are excellent but this is a so so production from an original stage play and it's theatrical origins are plainly evident from it's virtual one room set to the lengthy speeches of the two leads.

Completely agree with this review. Excellent performances, lots of potential, but the total effect is a bit underwhelming.

[dpgmel]

I watched Vernon Sewell's The Jack of Diamonds after WWII Nigel Patrick and Cyril Raymomd go searching for sunken diamonds lost during the war odd the north French coast. Cue lots of lovely scenery around Deauville, including the racecourse.Director Vernon Sewell also appears as the engineer of the boat.

Truth be told a fairly flimsy tale but I like the cast enjoyed it and as ever Mr Patrick is a pleasure to watch.

[didi-5]

Last night we were at the screening of Salome (1923) with Nazimova in the lead and a fab percussion score. Always liked the film and this was a lovely tinted print, which I very much enjoyed.

[smudge]

THE WOMAN IN BLACK... I was mightily disappointed in this after such a long wait for the film to emerge. Instead of giving us a creepy, eerie and unsettling experience, Hammer have created a leaden, unsubtle shocker obviously aimed at the post-Harry Potter generation.

The only thing deathly about the first three quarters of the film is the pace, as things crawl along and Daniel Radcliffe tries to keep our attention. Just in case he can't the producers throw into the (audio) mix a number of gimmicks of which William Castle would have been proud. Each time we are up for a 'fright' the music swells (just in case you don't know what's coming!) and for most of the actual frights, these are created via crash cuts and huge, highly impactive, bangs and screeches on the soundtrack - guaranteed to make the average cinemagoer jump out of their seat due simply to the volume!

Perhaps they didn't have faith in the screenplay? If they didn't I can see why. Within the first few minutes there are several linguistic anachronisms and we go so far as having a letter written to the woman in her lifetime which is addressed to her as 'Ms'. This is the revisionist version of 'The Woman In Black', for a modern generation scared of paedophiles, terrorists and serial killers. M. R. James has survived for many years without such revision or modernisation and yet remains as creepy as ever - the proper story of 'The Woman In Black' has that same creepy potential, so why tinker with it so much?

The tedium of a lot of the film is relieved only by the appearances of Ciaran Hinds (for me the creepiest scene in the film was a small, quiet moment towards the end with CH) and Janet McTeer. Even then McTeer's character has been so broadly altered as to be ridiculous. One final thought...they really should have called this (in the best Hollywood traditions of sequel) 'The Woman In Black Meets The Woman In White'; you'll see what I mean when you see it...

It is said that Susan Hill rather dislikes the original TV version of her book. I'll bet it now seems like a classic by comparison!

Smudge