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S.O.S. TITANIC (1979). An ambitious but cost-conscious Anglo-American production primarily for American TV that nevertheless covers all the essentials of the disaster, with the class divisions soap opera stuff included. Because of the budget restrictions, there are few shots of the ship at sea until we get to the wobbly special effects for the sinking, lots of stock footage of ice floes, and the onboard scenes, apparently shot on the Queen Mary, are rather static and give little sense of motion. Going through the acting motions are the likes of David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Susan Saint James, David Warner, Ian Holm and Helen Mirren with Harry Andrews as a steadfast Captain Smith. Not a patch on A Night to Remember, however.
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The Agitator (1945). One of William (Billy) Hartnell's starring vehicles in which he plays a blowhard rabble rouser with a massive chip on his shoulder about his employer. When the employer dies, he finds he's been left a load of money . . . and the business . . . and the presumed ease of owning a large factory brings home much unpleasantness.
There's a cop-out in the plot which is designed to try and let us have sympathy for Hartnell's character, but it's a cardboard stereotype and he overplays the role with no shades of subtlety. John Laurie is far more successful as the foreman who hates his guts and Mary Morris plays his sometime girlfriend. Moore Marriott in Harbottle make-up is suitably bent-over and doddery and Elliot Mason as Hartnell's mother and J. H. Roberts as the loyal clerk put in good performances. There are also the bonuses of watching Hartnell play scenes with George Carney, the father-in-law of his real life daughter and having a good rough and tumble with Laurie minus stunt doubles. Now, how about one of the film's stablemates, Murder in Reverse. . . ???Comment
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The Man Who Haunted Himself
There's little to be said about this 1970 classic. We've all seen it more than once, I expect. If I'm wrong, then please do yourself a favour and give it 90 minutes of your time. It's not a work of genius but it will stay with you.
But my question is ... hang on, I can't do a "Spoiler" wrap any more! Can anybody tell me how to do it, otherwise I can't post my question. Cheers.Comment
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One of the few films where Roger Moore had a chance to do some real acting, not just raising an eyebrow.Originally posted by Seaton View Post
But it if you think that most people would have already seen it (as do I), do you really need a SPOILER warning?
But maybe make it into a separate topic with the film title and SPOILER in the title
SteveComment
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Fair point, Steve. Anyway, even if I did wrap a spoiler round my question (which, judging by your answer is no longer possible anyway) people would have to answer it with spoiler warnings, and ALL the correspondence would be back and forth with spoilers.
So here's my question:
When I first saw this on TV I was convinced that the ending showed GOOD Roger wincing as BAD Roger disappears. This is also how my offspring, seeing it for the first time, understood the ending. However, watching it this time, I'm not so sure. Flash car/sobre suit Roger is the one wincing on the bridge, and he's BAD Roger at this point. But his face mellows into GOOD Roger ... or does it? Is the end actually that newly-suited-and-booted GOOD Roger sinks with his Rover 3.5, leaving BAD Roger to go back to 'his' wife and Roger Moore?
Please excuse the pun and let me know what you think.Comment
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I always thought it was BAD Roger who survived, which I think is in accord with the original novel "The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham".Originally posted by Seaton View PostComment
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The Bank Raiders (1958). Cheaply mounted, atrociously scripted and poorly acted crime "B" with Peter Reynolds, Sydney Tafler and Arthur Mullard as the trio who rob a bank, killing the caretaker in the process. Reynolds is his usual cocky self, Sydney the "mastermind" (both of them sport interesting rugs) and Arfur the dim-witted sounding but unconvincing vicious heavy. Easily on their trail as all the clues and jumps of illogic are available to them are pipe totting Det. Insp. Lloyd Lamble and elderly immature Det. Sgt. Robert Bruce. Sandra Dorne is the saving grace as a suitably on-the-make moll.
Best scene: a witness's girlfriend has been kidnapped by the crooks to encourage him to keep shtum. He frets over it with his mother and sister. "Try not to worry" coos mum, not even moving her bum off the sofa, and after wringing his hands in frantic anxiety, boyfriend breaks into a smile and says "Let's have a cup of tea". And they happily do . . .Comment
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It depends which you think is BAD Roger and which you think is GOOD Roger. I prefer to think of them as ORIGINAL & REPLACEMENT RogerOriginally posted by Gerald Lovell View Post
They're both BAD & both are GOOD at different times as I remember it. But I haven't seen it for many years
SteveComment
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Broken Blossoms (1936). It may be well-directed (by Hans (John) Brahm), but this remake of "D. W. Griffith's Masterpiece", although ambitious for Julius Hagen's Twickenham Studios outfit with extensive modelwork at the start, is still fundamentally an overwrought silent film melodrama, albeit with sound. Adapted by Emlyn Williams who also plays the leading male role, Chen, there's the usual "yellowing up" of the period with Emlyn and several other British character actors playing Chinese roles and unpleasant racist terms aplenty. A further problem is Dolly Haas, soon to be Mrs. Brahm, playing an unbelievably innocent waif put upon by all and sundry, and when her, ahem, Cockney accent occasionally breaks into the decipherable, it is simply deplorable. How this potboiler could be entertaining to anybody I do not know.Comment
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Suspended Alibi (1957). Another hour long crime thriller filler with Lloyd Lamble in the cast, although this time he's on the wrong side of the law. Womanising Paul Pearson organises an elaborate alibi for himself so that his missus Lynn wont discover he's spending an evening with his girlfriend. But it all goes wrong when the alibi keeper is stabbed to death and all the evidence points to Paul being guilty. Briskly shot with a good build up of tension, this is reasonably good, albeit predictable, stuff and Patrick Holt does well as the luckless Paul, though why he'd want to wander when Honor Blackman plays Lynn, you have to wonder. Andrew Keir is Paul's loyal chum out to clear him, Frederick Piper and Viola Lyel the nosy neighbours and Naomi Chance the jilted girlfriend while the men from the Yard this time are Valentine Dyall and Brown Derby.Last edited by Gerald Lovell; 4 July 2018, 09:25 PM.Comment
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Spectre (2015).
Mendes attempts to rehash the elements that made Skyfall so successful and comes up with a very long, mishmash of stylish action sequences and ponderous, vacuous dialogue scenes. Craig is pretty much as before, you either like him or you don't, Waltz is sadly underused, and I have already forgotten who 'the girl' was. The only person who emerges as a likeable well-defined character is Ben Whishaw, everybody else is just morose.
It has its moments but you have to wade through a lot of piffle to get to them.Comment
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It was better than an awful lot of movies, but they set a high bar with Skyfall and I thought fell short of that. I would have much prefered bringing in another director and pushing the script in a different direction. It felt too much like reheated Skyfall for me.Originally posted by zabadak View Post
We enjoyed it, the mem sahib and I!
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He Found a Star (1941). Clunkily acted but not unentertaining musical comedy about a struggling theatrical agency run by Vic Oliver and Sarah Churchill. Vic's deft manoeuvring and Sarah's ability to get him out of scrapes are mixed with the usual romantic complications and the main drawbacks are the mostly unmemorable songs and lengthy mediocre dance sequences. Still, it's kept reasonably moving along by director John Paddy Carstairs and there are amusing turns from Evelyn Dall, Joan Greenwood and Robert Atkins.Comment
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