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Just For You (1964). The original British version with Sam Costa in bed introducing various singers and groups, some much better known (to me) than others, including The Bachelors, Peter and Gordon, Freddie and the Dreamers, Jackie Lee and Mark Wynter. There's also a song from Douglas Sheldon, who I recognise as an actor. Quite a bizarre hour and a bit, but an interesting "Eastman Colour" curio from the 60s.
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The Big Chance (1957). And William Russell takes it in this small-scale hour long "B", but he and his eventual partner in crime, Adrienne Corri as fiesty as ever, but a lousy driver, are rather dim with their scheme to take the money and fly abroad. As with The V.I.P.s, fog causes lots of problems for them. Written and directed by Peter Graham Scott, the film is awkwardly paced and sags in the middle, but it's well performed by the leads and we also get Ferdy Mayne, Ian Colin, John Rae, Edwin Richfield and Peter Swanwick doing their stuff as required. The opening notes of Eric Spear's main title music makes you think you're about to see Carry On Screaming!.Last edited by Gerald Lovell; 24 February 2022, 03:56 PM.Comment
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She Played With Fire. Released in 1957, in Black and White. Insurance agent, Jack Hawkins investigates a fire, comes in contact with a previous girlfriend, married, and becomes embroiled in a case of arson, murder, blackmail. Effective mystery worth watching.Comment
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The Killing (Sterling Hayden 1956, Dir Stanley Kubrick). It's been a very long time since I last saw this excellent film. It's a slightly-noir movie that never lets go and slowly turns up the tension in the second half. The story is simple: Sterling Hayden and his bunch of thugs and misfits plan a big heist at a horse race, and the planning is thorough and seemingly foolproof. Despite the careful planning, random events cause things to run out of control and the result is unexpectedly violent. It's good to look at too, with some lovely lighting effects, particularly lighting from beneath which Kubrick used later in 2001 and The Shining. Apparently Kubrick hated the narration which the studio insisted on, but I think it adds a certain cheesiness which fits well with the style of the movie. It also helps the viewer to follow the time-jumps as the camera follows the activities of the various characters. The final scene is (for some reason) particularly satisfying and we both yelped with delight.Last edited by Andy2; 26 February 2022, 03:23 PM.Comment
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The Big Day (1960). Another "Big" but little film directed by Peter Graham Scott. Three employees up are for promotion to director, the meek and adulterous Partridge, the loud and manipulative Jackson and the ego-centric and over-confident Selkirk. We follow them and the women in their lives in the days leading up to the announcement by the boss with some good drama and a touch of humour. Bill MacIlwraith's screenplay captures the office politics atmosphere very well and Donald Pleasence, Harry H. Corbett and William Franklyn put in decent performances as the three candidates. Andree Melly, Colin Gordon, Marianne Stone and Betty Marsden are also strong in their roles.Comment
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The Courier (2020)
In the early 1960's, businessman Greville Wynne, who has links to the Baltic states, is persuaded to act as a go between between MI6 and a want a way Russian General Oleg Penkovsky.
One of the reasons Wynne was chosen, was that as a portly boozy businessman, he was not a man of action. Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role though, is super fit and looks like he could run a marathon and feels miscast, despite his best efforts.
David Calder fared better in the BBC's Wynne and Penkovsky from 1985.
A reasonable adherance to the period helps, but the whole thing is rather slow, and almost grinds to a halt in the middle section.
A noble failure,Comment
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Finders Keepers (1966). Cliff Richard and the Shadows meet popular 60s spy tropes in Pinewood's backlot Spain when a bomb drops there and incompetent opposing forces try to track it down. Michael Pertwee's script is not without some amusement which has Robert Morley, Graham Stark, Peggy Mount and John Le Mesurier as unlikely undercover agents. I think the film would be better if the songs were cut out, but there is a nice sequences in an underground grotto atmospherically designed by Jack Shampan and lit by Alan Hume. A bonus is a brief vocal guest appearance from John Steed and Emma Peel. The end of the Cliff and Shadows films (apart from Thunderbirds Are Go!).Comment
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Moon Zero Two (1969)
Two space salvage pliots, James Olson and Ori Levy, are forced by crooks to harness a large sapphire laden asteroid, that will be crashed on the far side of the moon.
Hammer goes sci-fi, with this space western and delivers not an asteroid, but a large chunk of sixties cheese, flavoured with a liberal sprinkling of kitsch.
There are some gloriously tacky sets, space age go-go dancers and a monocle sporting Warren Mitchell as the chief villain.
All good fun, if you can stay awake through the dull story and some dubious acting.
With Adrienne Corri, Dudley Foster and Bernard Bresslaw.
Julie Driscoll, belts out the title song.Comment
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In a strange piece of scheduling (was it a coincidence?), this went on general release in the London area on the ABC circuit the same week as Doppelganger (aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun) went out on the Rank release (October 26th 1969). Not much choice that week if you weren't into cheesy British sci-fi.Comment
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My Dad offered to take me to the cinema at the time. He offered me Moon Zero Two at a cinema in a town about a British-Rail-dependent hour’s journey away, or Carry On Cowboy showing at the local boarding school literally right across the road. I insisted on Moon Zero 2. What a complete and utter idiot. I am surprised he didn’t disown me. There is NO argument in favour of Moon Zero 2 in that scenario. None. Not the location, not the film itself. Nothing. My only defence is that I was seven. But even that is a weak excuse.
I didn’t see Carry On Cowboy until years later. I am still kicking myself.
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The rains of Ranchipur. Stars, Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Micheal Rennie and Joan Caufield. Story, Lana Turner, American, married to a British Lord travels to India. She has the title, Lady. She meets dedicated Indian doctor, played by Richard Burton. They fall in love. The doctor, part of the royal family in India, his mother, the Maharani objects to this romance. Grand style film , from 20TH Century Fox released in 1955 in CinemaScope. In the film, a earthquake takes place. OK film to watch on the telly if nothing else to view.Comment
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The Offence (1972). Not DIXON OF DOCK GREEN by any measure, this is a raw and uncomfortable police drama by John Hopkins from his play, and although quite theatrical at times, it boasts epic performances from Sean Connery, Ian Bannen and Trevor Howard. Set in a bleak and cold world and mainly in a stark and impersonal modern police station, Connery is a detective sergeant mentally scarred by past experiences who cracks when he interviews Bannen playing a suspected serial child sex offender. Sidney Lumet directs with considerable skill aided by Gerry Fisher's clinical photography and Harrison Birtwistle's atonal electronic score. Plaudits must also go to Vivien Merchant as Connery's dowdy wife.Comment
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One Way Pendulum (1964). N. F. Simpson's utterly bizarre surreal comedy: Arthur Groomkirby builds an Old Bailey courtroom in his lounge and a murder trial proceeds; Mabel Groomkirby has Mrs. Gantry round to eat all the leftover food; Sylvia Groomkirby worries about the length of her arms; Aunt Mildred thinks she is in a railway station; Kirby Groomkirby teaches weighing machines in the attic to sing.
It is probably redundant to try and work all what all this means (probably nothing) and although the film gets underway promisingly enough, it does go on too long. However, most of the cast play their roles as straight as they can be, particularly Douglas Wilmer as the judge and George Cole as the defence counsel and only Graham Crowden can't resist overdoing his prosecution counsel. Eric Sykes, Alison Leggatt, Peggy Mount, Julia Foster, Mona Washbourne and Jonathan Miller fill out the other roles under the direction of Peter Yates.Comment
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Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1973)
Peter Cushing, in his Helen Hayes wig, gives the Baron his swansong, incarcerated in the Karlsbad lunatic asylum.
What do you get if you cross little Charles Lloyd Pack's Professor Durendel and Dave Prowse's giant unseen lunatic Schneider? Of course you get a lunatic who can think, but looks like a gorilla with mange.
The Frankenstein story is pretty unvarying, only the settings change. The Baron is quite happy in his asylum, where he has the free run of the place, due to a little blackmail over the asylum director, a splendidly twitchy John Stratton and where he can experiment on the in mates.
Throw in the recently incarcerated handsome Dr Helder, Shane Briant and a pretty, mute, assistant, Madeline Smith and it all adds up to to a fair if rather sombre bit of fun.
With Patrick Troughton, Bernard Lee and Clifford Mollison.Last edited by Tigon Man; 12 March 2022, 05:53 PM.Comment
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