Watched Last Night

[Lee]

Re: Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971). Just remembered that this got referenced in an early episode of Little Britain of all places! Matt Lucas as the grammar school teacher taking the attendance register prefaces the sketch with the line. "Unman, Wittering and Zigo... absent". I feel this must have been from Mark Gatiss as he was the script editor at the time. I doubt the majority of Little Britain's viewers would of got the joke but it made me smile.

[Tigon Man]

Dilemma (1962)

Suburban nightmare for Teacher Peter Halliday, as he comes home from work to find his wife missing and a man in the bathroom who has definately not come to use the facilities.
Implausible but gripping little thriller, most of which when not in the studio, is filmed around a semi detached in Hampton, Middlesex.
Patricia Burke is excellent as a nosy neighbour and Mr Reliable Patrick Jordan is the local detective.

[Mancunian Films]

Ran up the Laserdisc of DRACULA AD 1972 followed by the featurette showing the making of it on the old projector. Seem to remember this being a double bill in 1972 along with Horror Express at the local flicks which regretfully is now a block of apartments. Ended the film evening with Three Stooges in 3D Disorder in the court 1936.

[Odeonman]

Dilemma (1962)

Suburban nightmare for Teacher Peter Halliday, as he comes home from work to find his wife missing and a man in the bathroom who has definately not come to use the facilities.
Implausible but gripping little thriller, most of which when not in the studio, is filmed around a semi detached in Hampton, Middlesex.
Patricia Burke is excellent as a nosy neighbour and Mr Reliable Patrick Jordan is the local detective.

Implausible is hardly the word! I mean we've all come home and found a dead body in the bathroom, assumed our wife was a killer and decided to dig a hole in the front room to bury the body in, gone out to buy a load of cement to concrete over the hole whilst also dealing with nosey neighbour, mother-in-law and piano student coming round for his lesson. A more considered reaction if you thought your wife had turned into a killer might be to run a mile before she got home and started work on you! Incidentally, mother-in-law complains about his boring car. This is actually a very early Mini-Cooper, so not so boring as she thinks!

[Gerald Lovell]

The Day Will Dawn (1942). Flag-waving and propaganda-filled adventure with brave journalist Hugh Williams teaming up with plucky Norwegians to sabotage U-boat bases and thwart the Nazi war machine. The Norwegians are mainly played by British regionals (Deborah Kerr, Finlay Currie, Beckett Bould, Niall MacGinnis, etc.) with variable accents and there are roles for quisling Griffith Jones, kommandant Francis L. Sullivan and reporter Ralph Richardson. It is rather well made by Harold French, albeit filled with defiant patriotic speeches as well as library footage and while the ending is understandable, it is also silly. For modern day audiences, it's confusingly called The Avengers in America.

[BVS]

Only Fools and Horses
We have been gradually watching the complete box set over the last few months
Just a few of the Specials to watch now,I had only seen about a third of the normal shows before so very nice to actually see them all

[Mancunian Films]

GOOD OLD DAYS with Mancunian Films very own Betty Jumel followed by CUP TIE HONEYMOON 1948
Also ran the short sequence of Richard Hearne in Dance Band.

[Gerald Lovell]

DAVID COPPERFIELD (1969). Made for American television but shown theatrically here, this Charles Dickens adaptation by Jack Pulman is a very abridged one with extremely large gaps in the storyline and suffers from a non-linear narrative with an angst-ridden David reviewing his life in a series of flashbacks. The result is quite disjointed and jumps about; if the viewer doesn't know the novel, it could all seem quite confusing. Director Delbert Mann however has a fine array of acting talent to dash through the episodes with Robin Phillips as the self-pitying David, Pamela Franklin as airhead Dora and Susan Hampshire as steadfast Agnes. Doing well are Edith Evans as Aunt Betsey, Michael Redgrave as Peggotty, Emlyn Williams as Mr. Dick and Ralph Richardson as a most acceptable Mr. Micawber. However, straying into overplayed caricature, which with Dickens it's so easy to do, are Laurence Olivier as Creakle, Richard Attenborough as Tungay and Ron Moody as 'umble Uriah Heep. For feature-length versions, the 1935 MGM production is certainly more definitive and satisfying.

[Gerald Lovell]

Who Goes Next? (1938). A P.O.W. escape saga with a twist in that it's set during the First World War and the atmosphere in the prison is relatively relaxed with the British pretty insolent to the relatively gentlemanly Germans, led by a fairly buffoonish commandant. Barry K. Barnes is the senior British officer who spends most of his time digging away in the escape tunnel, while Sophie Stewart is his wife back home who starts up a relationship with another officer, Jack Hawkins. Jack is called back to the front at short notice as Barry gets his dear john letter and, guess where Jack ends up when he's captured? Stiff upper lips start to quiver and the ending is prime melodrama. Economically filmed by Maurice Elvey as one of the last films shot at Wembley Studios for 20th Century-Fox.

[Tigon Man]

Value For Money (1955)

John Gregson is the northern skinflint rag merchant, who left a sizeable sum in the will of his equally miserly Dad, heads to the bright lights of London. There he meets showgirl Diana Dors who determines to crack the security on his wallet and have a good time at his expense.
A bit of a ragbag of a comedy, so full of flinty northern stereotypes, you can almost smell the tripe and onions.
What fun there is, comes from Frederick Piper as John's Dad, who appears only in a painting, but dispenses thrifty wisdom in voice over and dear old Ernest Thesiger as a senile Lord.
With Susan Stephen, and Derek Farr.

[Gerald Lovell]

THE WOMAN IN BLACK (1989). Not the film starring Harry Potter, but the original television production starring his dad. Junior solicitor Arthur Kidd is tasked to go and clear out the papers in the remote marsh-bound house of a recently deceased old lady and soon finds himself descending into a world of terror dogged by the title character. Adrian Rawlins is exceptionally good as the young lawyer, bright and breezy at the start and a feverish mess before it's all over. Bernard Hepton is the local businessman who befriends him and David Ryall his senior partner, both of whom know more than they will tell. A quite disturbing and uneasy piece adapted by Nigel Kneale, a master of this kind of thing, from Susan Hill's book. And cripes, the sudden bedroom appearance of Pauline Moran as the Woman in Black is certainly hair-raising. Expertly directed by Herbert Wise.

[BVS]

Who Goes Next? (1938). A P.O.W. escape saga with a twist in that it's set during the First World War

Sounds interesting - we will have to try and watch this film thanks

[Gerald Lovell]

Sounds interesting - we will have to try and watch this film thanks

It's on Talking Pictures TV again tonight at 6 pm, BVS.

[Tigon Man]

Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958)

Heiress Anne Baxter is leading an Idyllic life on the Spanish coast, when her brother played by Richard Todd believed deceased, makes an untimely reappearance and seems set to drive her mad.
The usual frightened lady, they don't believe me, they are all trying to drive me mad storyline, is given some neat twists by director Michael Anderson and the final revelation is a real shocker.
With Faith Brook, Herbert Lom and Alexander Knox.

[Gerald Lovell]

Good-Time Girl (1947). It's good casting for Jean Kent, even though she's supposed to be 16 at the start of the film which is told in flashback as juvenile court magistrate Flora Robson regales the sad saga to up-and-coming good-time girl Diana Dors. Forsaking her violent family life, Jean gets in tow with low life instead and rapidly ends up in an approved school, which does her little good except give her a few new wheezes for her next exploits. It's fairly sensationalist stuff for 1947 from Muriel and Sydney Box with Ted Willis, who had a thing about this kind of storyline. Dennis Price is somewhat awkwardly cast as the real love of her life, a cultured nightclub musician called Red (), with Herbert Lom more happily in the role of the nightclub boss. During her escapades, Jean also gets involved with Peter Glenville, Griffith Jones, Bonar Colleano and Hugh McDermott, while her schoolchum is the vicious Jill Balcon. There's a bit of a noir-ish quality to the look of the film, moodily lit by Stephen Dade and ably directed by David MacDonald.