How very dare you !

50 signs that one is getting old - according to today's papers.   Go on - see how many you can tick off !

1. Feeling stiff.

2. Groaning when you bend down.

3. Saying: “It wasn’t like that when I was young.”

4. Saying: “In my day.”

5. Losing your hair.

6. Not knowing any songs in the top ten.

7. Getting hairy ears, eyebrows, nose and face.

8. Hating noisy pubs.

9. Talking a lot about creaking joints or ailments.

10. Forgetting people’s names.

11. Choosing clothes and shoes for comfort rather than style.

12. Thinking that policemen, teachers and doctors all look young.

13. Falling asleep in front of the TV.

14. Needing an afternoon nap.

15. Discovering you have no idea what young people are talking about.

16. Struggling to use technology.

17. Losing touch with technical advances in tablets and televisions.

18. Starting to complain more.

19. Wearing your glasses around your neck.

20. Not remembering the name of any modern bands.

21. Avoiding lifting heavy things due to fear of a bad back.

22. Complaining about the rubbish on television these days.

23. Misplacing your wallet, bags or keys.

24. Switching from Radio 1 to Radio 2.

25. Driving very slowly.

26. Preferring a night in with a board game to a night on the town.

27. Taking a keen interest in Fiona Bruce and the Antiques Roadshow.

28. Discovering your colleagues are so young they don’t know what an Opal Fruit is.

29. Listening to The Archers.

30. Falling asleep after one glass of wine.

31. Never going out without your coat.

32. Getting bed socks for Christmas – and being very grateful.

33. Discovering you can’t lose 6lb in two days any more.

34. Gasping for a cup of tea.

35. Taking a flask of tea or coffee on a day out.

36. Joining the Women’s Institute, 37. Taking a keen interest in the garden.

38. Spending more money on face creams and anti-ageing products.

39. Spending money on the home or furniture rather than a night out.

40. Taking a keen interest in dressing for the weather.

41. Putting everyday items in the wrong place.

42. Obsessive gardening or bird feeding.

43. Finding you really enjoy puzzles and crosswords.

44. Grumbling about the price of things going up, while the size goes down.

45. Considering going on a “no children” cruise for a holiday.

46. Discovering your ears are getting bigger.

47. Joining the National Trust.

48. Drinking sherry.

49. Feeling you have the right to tell people exactly what you are thinking, even if it isn’t polite.

50. Thinking newsprint should be bigger . . . because your eyesight is going.

For myself, a sure sign of ageing is whenever I see Rihanna or Beyonce or Jennifer Lopez flaunting their bare flesh while singing half (or more) naked is to yell at them "For pity's sake Love, put some clothes on, you might catch a chill"! ... then there's that other pet peeve, seeing these young guys with their pants falling down - it just ain't right or pleasing to the eye - back in the '60s and '70s a well-filled pair of jeans was de rigeour! And I simply refuse to use self-service checkouts in the supermarket!

Age of course is just a figure, its really about mindset and attitude, plus people are living longer and doing more as they get older. We do though get to the stage when being out dancing and drinking all night with strangers eventually loses its appeal and one cherishes a nice evening in with friends and loved ones, with a good meal, some decent wine and entertainment ...and that the movies and music I liked 40 years ago means as much to me now, as the newer stuff I like. Some 30 year olds of course are old before their time, while others (hopefully including me) keep on going.

New summer of disco ?

Finally summer seems underway here in London. Pet Shop Boys are back at the O2 tonight, plus they are repeating their BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN soundtrack show for Yoko Ono's Meltdown Festival and have a new album out next month: ELECTRIC, on their own new label. It is a "chunky helping of upbeat, archetypal Pet Shop Boys dance music and confirmation, following Nile Rodgers teaming up with Daft Punk, that this really is the new summer of disco" - Time Out speaks!  This is on top of the group's two appearances last summer at the Olympic Games closing ceremony where they delivered a terrific "West End Girls" and at the Paralympics Closing where they unveiled their then new single "Winner".  Not bad for a group (well duo actually) who have been going for almost 30 years., and still tour the world and sell out stadiums. I have seen them at least 4 times ....

Speaking of Yoko - its a decade since I saw her live on stage at an all day festival "Purple In The Park" in 2002 where she stunned us all, before the headline act Grace Jones finally took to the stage at twilight, after keeping us waiting 40 minutes, before delivering one of the best acts I have seen, with those sounds and stagecraft.  I remember too, going back to 1966, when I was 20 in that great year, being at a branch of Cranks, that first vegetarian store/restaurant, in Baker Street, next to the Classic Cinema which I was just going into, and noticing a long-haired Japanese woman in black buying stuff in the shop. I knew right away it was Yoko Ono, who was making a name for herself then in arty circles, with her avant garde films like that one on bottoms, and this was years before she met The Beatles!  That would also be the year I saw the young Hockney with those round glasses and blond hair in that gay bar in Notting Hill .... 

Now though according to Time Out listings magazine, the new trend in the city seems to be rooftop bars and outdoor cinema - hmmm, don't think the weather is quite right for that yet, and it all depends on what is showing .... WHAT would be ideal for outdoor late night viewing on a city rooftop or a boat on the river ?

Hyde Park also has concerts by the Rolling Stones - two sold out ones, but the venerable rockers are also headlining Glastonbury which will be on the telly, also concerts by my old pal Elton John with Kink Ray Davies and Elvis Costello, a Bon Jovi night, The Beach Boys, and a funky groove with Lionel Richie and Jennifer Lopez with that man again Nile Rodgers with Chic, who is also at Glastonbury. So much for oldies ....

Just to show we are not stuck in a permanent '60s/'70s timewarp, the new hot summer sounds we will have to investigate, according to Time Out include:

Daft Punk - Get Lucky ("disco with the power of a thousand suns")

Disclosure - Latch ("romantic garage with a side order of soul")

Katy B - What Love Is Made Of  ("a pumping Ibiza anthem")

Duke Dumont - Need You 100% ("This generation's 'Good Life' by Inner City")

Major Lazer - Bubble Butt. 

Check them out on YouTube ...great clubbing nights continue then.

Broadway comes to London ....

Sunday I am off to see Patti LuPone in concert, I have not seen too much of Patti over here, but she was the original Evita, Fantine, and a Norma Desmond, a great Momma Rose in GYPSY,  among others .... can't wait - having already seen CHICAGO when Chita Rivera was in it, the young Streisand in FUNNY GIRL also 1966 (what a year that was...) and Liza at the Royal Opera House, Bette Midler at the Palladium, Carol Channing at Drury Lane, Dusty recording her TV shows, Peggy Lee at the Albert Hall, Elaine Stritch among others ... as per music/theatre labels.

Movies or TV ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mpLsLkrhiI

THE IRON MAN OF STEEL continues to hoover up at local cinemas, so hard keeping up with the latest superhero .... getting tired of them yet? Henry Cavill leads the pack in this reboot, a higher-tech remake of the original? ..... we will have to give it a go.  But after Christopher Nolan's dark BATMAN films with those stonking villains like Heath Ledger and Tom Hardy, is Superman too vanilla now ?   Meanwhile, let's watch Henry and a new improved Russell Crowe with Amy Adams on Graham Norton's show ...

On TV, well British tv at any rate, the hits keep coming:   BROADCHURCH, THE FALL, and those Americans like HANNIBAL, THE BORGIAS, DA VINCI (we didn't bother with that one), and now the French chiller THE RETURNED - along with Italy's MONTELBANO and all those Scandanavian thrillers which have upped the ante for our own domestic product, as we can see already by the slow burn of BROADCHURCH which gripped the nation for 8 weeks, turning Olivia Colman into a 'national treasure', and ended satisfactorily, unlike THE FALL which keeps us guessing into a proposed Series 2 - which may not work for me, I loved series one of HOMELAND which was perfect in itself, but lost it with Series 2 and just couldn't be bothered.  

Miss Marple meets Bond, James Bond

Some other old fashioned stuff - MARPLE is back, A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY was as fresh as a breeze running in off the sea on a hot Bermundan night, two hours of leisurely paced fun with exotic locations and a nice cast, headed by veteran Julia McKenzie, who is filling Joan Hickson's shoes admirably, (I just never liked Geraldine McEwan's silly version). Adapted from one of Christie's lesser books by Charlie Higson, it took the spinster sleuth away from her world of cosy cottages and ideal villages and plopped her down in the shimmering West Indies. Against a backdrop of palm trees and blue ocean, Marple was confronted with a snapshot of post-Colonial hedonism as she dealt with blustering old soldiers, philanderers, and drunken toffs, and a murder or two .... Not so different then from Miss Marple's exciting life back at St Mary Mead, but it was all entertaining stuff, as scripted by Higson (who writes books about the young James Bond, who knew?), who even got Miss Marple to bump into her contemporary Ian Fleming, over on a visit from his Jamaican retreat, and it was amusing seeing how Fleming got the name for his new creation, one James Bond, which gave writer/actor Higson a cameo role for himself. Perfect tv for oldies then?, gosh I will be watching re-runs of MURDER SHE SAID next ... !

Now for that new blockbuster THE WHITE QUEEN, and HANNIBAL where THE FALL's stunning Gillian Anderson will be interviewing Mads Mikkelsen's fiend ....and I have not even seen GAME OF THRONES yet ! So yes, good television seems on a roll, those franchises and superheroes will have to work harder to lure us in ....

Forgotten '60s movies: Lost Command

4 of our '60s favourites (Delon, Cardinale, Ronet, Segal)  in 1 forgotten war movie! Let's go ...

LOST COMMAND, 1966. “Anthony Quinn plays a hard-headed officer determined to become a hero at any cost in this dramatic war saga” but what will today’s generation make of this muddled war film dealing as it does with the French army in Indochina and Algeria in the ‘50s?. A Hollywood version of Pontecorvo's THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS? It starts with the battle of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina where the troops surrender to Burt Kwouk. 

Mark Robson directs ably after touching on India’s problems (NINE HOURS TO RAMA), Sweden (THE PRIZE) and Nazi Germany (VON RYAN’S EXPRESS) not to mention his Hollywood sages like MY FOOLISH HEART, PEYTON PLACE or, his next, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Here in a large cast we have Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale re-teamed but Robson does not showcase them like Visconti did in THE LEOPARD. Likewise there’s Delon and Maurice Ronet, teamed again after Clement’s PLEIN SOLEIL as different types of captains, Delon the idealist and Ronet another career solider determined to do whatever is needed. Most bizarre of all is George Segal, right, (after SHIP OF FOOLS and KING RAT as per recent reviews here, Segal label) in brownface as an Algerian, initially one of Quinn’s platoon in Indochina, but soon he is radicalised and becomes an Algerian “terrorist” determined to drive the French out of Algeria – well there’s topical resonance in that. Michele Morgan is also on hand as a French countess to romance Quinn who gets another chance to prove himself when she gets him a new position in Algeria. The peasant born Quinn aspires to her class and good life. He persuades his army buddies Delon and Ronet to join him in shaping up a unit, but eventually is forced to confront his old colleague Mahidi, now the Arab terrorist leader (Segal). In a desperate struggle to achieve victory he launches a bloody battle against the terrorist rebel forces …. 

LOST COMMAND bitterly shows man’s inhumanity to man – with questions that still ask us who is the terrorist? And why are they in Algeria in the first place? A war scenario that still echoes today in different parts of the world. It’s a serviceable enough war drama with a terrific mid-60s cast in their prime, but like any film that uses real war situations it raises more questions that it answers … 
I still can’t get over Segal browned up as the Algerian who changes sides (with Claudia as his sister who uses Delon to avoid those military checkpoints).  Some exciting moments too with a well-staged roadside ambush (rather like in THE HURT LOCKER) and theres the Hitchcockian frisson as we wait for a planted bomb to go off, and helicopter chases after those rebels in the mountains. It ends with Delon quitting the army while the career guys like Quinn and Ronet ironically get bedecked with medals .... 

An odd film then, one of those big-cast expensive productions no longer seen now - Delon served in Indochina himself I understand, and Claudia hails from Tunis, next to Algeria, but there they are making "entertainment" out of a real war situation, the French military operations in Indochina and Algeria, mystifying to us now - filmed in Spain, and Segal browned up as the Algerian terrorist would surely never happen today ?  Not trashy enough to be a Trash Classic, but Trash all the same ...

First a girl .... then Victor/Victoria

The British Film Institute (BFI) has a very interesting webpage on gay (or, as they say, queer) cinema ...

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-british-gay-films?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130614-queer-cinema&utm_content=20130614-queer-cinema+CID_470c016045417fea6cdd50482c758272&utm_source=cm&utm_term=Nighthawks%201978

They also have some fascinting lists: 10 Japanese ganster films / 10 films about childhood / 10 films set in the roaring twenties / 10 films set on the Mediterranean - which annoyingly includes THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY but not its original PLEIN SOLEIL ....  Here is their 10 British gay films:

BORDERLINE – 1930

FIRST A GIRL – 1935 

VICTIM – 1961

THE LEATHER BOYS – 1964 

SEBASTIANE – 1976

NIGHTHAWKS – 1978 

MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE – 1985

YOUNG SOUL REBELS – 1991 

BEAUTIFUL THING – 1996

WEEKEND – 2011. - more on these at the BFI link above, with comment and photo on each.

I would also have to include: 

SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY 1971, MAURICE 1987, and those gay undercurrents in THE SERVANT, the mad camp of MODESTY BLAISE / Orton's ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE  and that '60s camp in HERE WE GO ROUND MULBERRY BUSH and SMASHING TIME... as well as ground-breaking (for their time) TV productions like THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES, THE HOUSE ON THE HILL (SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS - Gay interest label) and THE LINE OF BEAUTY, no, not VICIOUS! I will return to THE LEATHER BOYS soon, but had an enjoyable look at FIRST A GIRL yesterday. 

Here is what the BFI resident queer expert has to say:

One of the first spottings of the GBF (Gay Best Friend), a creature maligned and adored in equal measure. Here it’s  Sonnie Hale serving up sardonic asides and platonic friendship to Jessie Matthew's down-on-her-luck showgirl. Although made at a time when homosexuality was unmentionable on screen, Hale’s gestures and waspish delivery clearly code the character as not the marrying kind.

In this zingy comedy, based on the 1933 German film Viktor Und Viktoria, Matthews plays a woman who earns her coin pretending to be a man who masquerades as a female impersonator. Matthews is fantastic, but Hale matches her as her supportive mentor, himself a drag queen, who at last gets his moment in the spotlight in an unforgettable final number. The story was adapted again in 1982 as  VICTOR/VICTORIA starring Julie Andrews in the lead.

Well yes, its a delirious farrago with some marvellous dance sequences and so mid-1930s like Hitch's THE 39 STEPS and his early British films, with dancing to match Fred and Ginger or a Busby Berkeley spectacular. We first see Jessie toiling in the salon of dress designer Madame Serafina (Martita Hunt, nice to see her a decade before her Miss Havisham). The plot is nicely worked out, Sonnie Hale (actually married to Matthews then) scores too.  There is of course no mention of anything gay or queer in FIRST A GIRL, being a female impersonator seems a jolly good entertainment job for a chap to have - why, Hale even romances that knowing Princess whose boyfriend makes a play for our hero/heroine.

I have a memory of sometime in the '60s of being on the London underground and noticing a plumb middle-aged woman sitting down and realising it was Jessie Matthews who was well-known then too in her late middle-age as, being the trouper she was, for playing Mrs Dale in MRS DALE'S DIARY on the radio. She was one of the greatest British stars of the time, like Gracie Fields, and her career continued to 1980. Jessie Matthews: 1907-1981. The disk I watched also included some of I THANK YOU, a 1941 comedy featuring that other great British original Arthur Askey, who used to feature in my "Radio Fun" comics. Delicious.

Julie Andews too makes that androgynous quality of hers work perfectly for her turn as VICTOR VICTORIA in '82, with Robert Preston as usual firing on all cylinders as Toddy, her drag queen mentor.  Their scenes together are a joy, I particularly like the restaurant scene where the starving Victoria has the cockroach to put in the salad so she can get a free meal, particularly the moment when the snooty head waiter turns to Toddy and says "But there was no cockroach in YOUR salad"!. But after Julie's terrific "Le Jazz Hot" number it gets rather dull in the second half after James Garner has spied on her and knows she is a girl. It all seemed so much more innocent back in the 1930s and FIRST A GIRL. I would imagine though that director Victor Saville and those who made FIRST A GIRL would be surprised now to see their saucy musical comedy (which has no mention of anything gay) described as a great British gay film! 

The triple echo at studio 54

Two curious 'gay interest' items .... one in a wartime setting and then that infamous New York disco.

THE TRIPLE ECHO. A real pleasure seeing this under-rated wartime drama again. From that early ‘70s period when English cinema was running down, but this and gems like SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, THE GO-BETWEEN and DON’T LOOK NOW as well as the Ken Russell opuses kept us going to see British films at the local ABC or Odeon. This 1972 Michael Apted film has that wartime look in spades, as in Schlesinger’s YANKS it is one of the few that bothers to get the right period flavour, which is all in the detail. 

We follow solitary wife Glenda Jackson on her remote farm, shooting rabbits and rats, and collecting eggs for the local shop. Her husband is a prisoner of war, held by the Japanese. Another lonely figure enters her horizon, young soldier Brian Deacon. They converse and get on, he is soon doing odd jobs around the farm, like getting that tractor to work …. He wants to desert and she helps him, by the odd idea of his dressing up as her sister. This odd couple make it work. Then bullying officer Oliver Reed comes sniffing around and invites the bored “sister” to the dance at the local military base …. It is madness to accept but he/she does …. This is a fascinating drama, Jackson is brilliant here conveying every facet of her character, Reed is one-note but exactly right, and Brian Deacon may have the more difficult role but carries it off perfectly. This was when British tv did a lot of period drama set in the 30s and 40s, all those H.E. Bates and A.E Coppard stories. THE TRIPLE ECHO is more of the same and a very satisfying view now. It is also an amazing study of sexual identity and ironical loss of freedom as Deacon finds himself sardonically more confined than ever by what he endures as a deserter forced to hide.

 
It is not only a perfect period piece from that interesting time in the early '70s, but also an intriguing study of identity as we ponder how serious he is about posing as Glenda's sister - she seems more masculine than him, and how trapped he becomes on the farm, as he imagines he can handle Olly's persistent opportunism .... Its a very tricky role to pull off and Deacon, who should have been better known, succeeds admirably. Young actors seem freer now in their choices than they were 40 years ago, with the likes of Whishaw and Cumberbatch et al, but Deacon is still working and - according to his IMDB profile - like Denis Waterman, he too was married to Rula Lenska! He also plays the young husband in that 1983 Schlesinger SEPARATE TABLES (at Glenda Jackson label) and is in Greenaway's A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS with his brother Eric - maybe one of those "painfully arty" movies we did not catch at the time, 1986 ...

54. Who knew decadence could be so boring? 1998's 54 certainly gives it a bad name as we follow the rise and fall of Jersey boy Shane O’Shea (Ryan Phillippe) who becomes dazzled by the bright lights of New York and the legendary club Studio 54. He though turns out to be a minor league Tony Manero (of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER) but inexplicably catches the eye of club owner Steve Rubell who lets the young kid inside – once he takes his shirt off. Soon our ambitious Shane is a busboy and before long a bar-tender which means he is photographed for “After Dark” magazine and having all the sex and drugs and fame that goes with his glamorous existence.
 
It seems the only gay person at Studio 54 though is owner Steve Rubell – a terrific turn by Mike Myers. Salma Hayek and Brekin Meyer are married and Shane’s friends and Salma has one good line regarding his lack of success at the club. She and Shane also become attracted, and he also falls for Jersey girl made good Neve Campbell. The tax people are also investigating the club’s affairs and it all climaxes at New Year’s Eve as Shane has to look after Princess Grace who is visiting, but Salma has her big number ruined when the club's oldest member, who is in her 80s, overdoses on the dance floor, which  - in the movies anyway - means the end! It is the usual morality tale dressed with with a disco soundtrack by the time Miramax and the Weinsteins had finished with the material, and certainly an amusing journey now. The legendary Manhattan disco was surely more fun than shown here, though we do get glimpses of Andy, Bianca and the other celebrities (Michael York and Lauren Hutton also appear as well as disco divas Ultra Nate and Thelma Houston). It seems director-writer Mark Christopher had a falling out with Miramax over the final cut of the film. Shane isn't a very nice guy, and he's not too bright, so is hardly a hero to root for. The other characters are equally vacuous and selfish, apart from Rubell himself. I knew the London clubs (and some of their owners) in the '80s and '90s and they were certainly more fun than this! 

It now seems that fearing a bomb, the studio, Disney/Miramax, insisted on quick reshoots and reedits (Shane was meant to be bisexual initially). In the end, 45 minutes were cut from the film, new scenes were shot and 25 minutes of new footage were added, along with additional voice-over to streamline the narrative. The movie bombed anyway, with both audiences and critics. It was yet another in a long line of Hollywood "de-gayings," where gay content is removed from a movie’s source material or edited out of a film before its theatrical release, and it’s still one of the most notorious examples. 

It's odd: the two films about the disco era, 54 and THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, are both such "straight" films - as the Studios rewrite history and insist these discos were heterosexual places, to cater for their mass audience - the kind of studios I suppose who would not back the new Liberace film as it "was too gay", so its a hit on HBO and released in cinemas here in Europe ! (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER works perfectly as it is, being the story of those working class kids getting their relief on the dancefloor, and not purporting to be about the disco itself...).

The long run .... the 1970s California music scene

"All alone at the end of the evening, and the bright lights have turned to blue..", "On a dark desert highway..." - yup back to "Take It To The Limit", "One of these Nights" - the limits of '70s soft rock nostalgia, as THE HISTORY OF THE EAGLES unfolded in two parts here over the weekend, as screened by the BBC, along with an Eagles concert, and BBC clips of other 70s stars  - great to see that Tim Buckley clip again where he sings "Dolphins" in 1974, with that elastic voice of his, one had to replay the album again and his GREETINGS FROM LA. Watching these clips, so many of them died of overdoses, like Tim, Little Feat's Lowell George, and Judy Sill.

Tim Buckley, 1974

It reminded me that I had planned to go see Janis Joplin at the Albert Hall in late 1970, but didn't - maybe I thought there would be other opportunities to ... having already seen Joni Mitchell there, and The Band and Blood Sweat & Tears there that year, along with Dionne Warwick and a Peggy Lee evening there. We liked Janis's Big Brother album and her solo "Pearl". (On the soul front we wee also seeing Aretha Franklin twice, Robert Flack and Otis Redding back in 1967, poster below ...). There were several more Joni concerts to see, in 1972 and 1974 when I rushed back from Italy for her new jazzy sound.

The BBC also ran a Doors documentary on the making of their seminal L A WOMAN album, the final as the group with Jim Morrison. The recently departed (RIP label) Ray Manzarek was very engaging here showing how he created those riffs for "Riders On The Storm" and those other classic tracks. (Doors label has my report on their 1968 concert I was at in London..., left).

Back to The Eagles (left) documentary: We liked The Eagles a lot then, and they certainly sold albums by the truckload. a feast of nostalgia seeing/hearing them again - all that hair and denim. Was that really Randy Meisner as he looks now? I will always love "Take It To The Limit", "One of These Nights", that whole "On the Border" album, the "James Dean" song is still rocking ... and yes "The Long Run". We also get tantanlising glimpses of Joni Mitchell, David Geffen, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, J. D. Souther, Carole King, James Taylor and others, as well as the band's fallout and re-emergence as all those egos and lead vocalists collide; that crazy life on the road certainly takes its toll! A nostalgia feast then for those who were in their 20s in that decade.(Joni label has my meeting with her and Jackson Browne in 1972 .... when we were all 40 years younger). 

The Eagles documentary has interviews with the band members past and present, live footage and backstage arguements are in the mix as the band fall apart in 1980 and did not reform until 1994. Don Henley and Glen Frey have a lot to say, and Meisner gets a look in too - I like his solo version of his "Take It To The Limit" on his own album.  Following on from The Byrds and the Burrito Brothers the Eagles were the quintessential '70s rock band, with great harmonies, lyrics and that sound.  And of course again that heyday of the vinyl album with gatefold sleeves - music label. It was the singer-songwriter era which enslaved us, before the arrival of that disco sound .... those 70s Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck albums, Rod Stewart's "Every Picture Tells A Story", Elton's first three including "Tumbleweed Connection", "Madman Across The Water" ("Tiny Dancer"), and of course The Band albums, and that unique sound by Leon Russell, Canned Heat and more ... then Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and more.
we knew Elton John slightly then too, before becoming an aloof megastar he used to pop into Noel Edmonds' record shop on Kings Road on Saturday afternoons and chat and sign albums, just like Joni and Jackson were strolling down Kings Road, before rock stars and musicians got too paranoid about security ... ah, those early '70s Chelsea years! 
Our BBC4 channel is becoming very enterprising covering all kinds of music, from traditional jazz (loved George Melly on "Smokey Dives" - early jazz clubs) to that 1971 SOUL TO SOUL concert in Ghana, with the likes of The Staples Singers, Santana (bliss to see Carlos playing "Black Magic Woman" again), Ike and Tina and more, as well as covering the '60s, '70s. '80s electro and disco scenes. Now for that documentary "The Joy of Disco".

James as Janet

At the Projecter, we strive to bring you news of interesting new events .... such as this: 

James Franco has taken inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO for his debut exhibition in Britain. The star of 127 HOURS and MILK, among others, recreates scenes from the 1960 classic and dons a wig to play Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, on her way to the Bates Motel. 

The exhibition has been curated and encouraged by artist Douglas Gordon whose work includes that 24 HOUR PSYCHO in which a projection of the film is slowed down to last an entire day. Arty or what ? 

Franco said: "In this show we go back to the original locations and images of PSYCHO and alter them so that once again the viewer's relationship with the material changes". 

Well, we love PSYCHO here and was stunned by it again last year, during that Hitchcock summer, as per Hitch, Leigh labels. I have written on how it and Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA ushered in the new cinema of the '60s.

PSYCHO NACIREMA, James Franco presented by Douglas Gordon is at Pace London in Lexinton Street, until August 3. pacegallery.com

Marilyn exhibition at The Hollywood Museum

From THE MARILYN MONROE COLLECTION BLOG:
"Marilyn Monroe: The Exhibit" back by popular demand at The Hollywood Museum, celebrates the fabled actress' life with the nation's largest exhibit of authentic memorabilia (including new acquisitions) presenting an intimate look at her life and legacy, June 1 - September 8.

I had this Barris poster on my wall for years

"The Hollywood Museum, in the Historic Max Factor Building, is located at 1660 N. Highland Ave. in the heart of Hollywood. The scope of the exhibition encompasses Marilyn's costumes, jewelry, furs and accessories from her films; publicity gowns and personal wardrobe; her 1961 Fleetwood Cadillac limousine; original Marilyn Monroe artwork, photographs and documents from her private files; and many of Marilyn's personally owned artifacts.

In addition to THM's permanent collection, items from the Scott Fortner Marilyn Monroe Collection and the Greg Schreiner Marilyn Monroe Collection are featured in this exclusive exhibit, including film costumes from The Prince and The Showgirl, There's No Business Like Show Business, and clothing and furs from Marilyn's personal wardrobe, including the brilliant green Pucci jersey top Marilyn wore when the last ever photos of her alive were taken. 

This link brings up the astonishing range of items in the exhibition:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.607616782581747.1073741826.119074018102695&type=3

Highlighting the exhibit are exclusive photos by world-renowned photographer George Barris, who shot Marilyn's the last photo sitting while collaborating on a book at the time of her death 50 years ago".
Barris Photography: www.inhollywoodland.com

For a star whose career lasted about all of 12 years (1950-1962)  it is simply astonishing.  Photographer George Barris who took those iconic last photos of Marilyn at the beach and at her house in 1962, will also be signing his books and photos on August 4 at the Hollywood Museum. Website: www.TheHollywoodMuseum.com

RIP Esther

One of my Sunday matinee treats as a kid in Ireland was a 1955 musical: JUPITER'S DARLING which is still a delirious treat now. It was the last of the Esther Williams swimming spectaculars, directed by veteran George Sidney, and I love it. I have not seen much of her other ones, but they looked terrrific blown up for THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. Esther (1921-2013) lived to be 91 and was the swimming star of the '40s and early '50s, as Fanny Brice said: "Wet, she was a star"!. JUPITER'S DARLING is great fun with those elephants, Marge & Gower Champion, Howard Keel as a terrific Hannibal (its sent in Ancient Rome), George Sanders as the emperor who wants to marry Esther, but who is afraid of his bossy mother Norma Varden! Then there is prissy Richard Haydn (from SITTING PRETTY)  - Esther swims of course. Highly recommended. Its a good peplum too.

 
Esther's book THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (title of one of her films) is an enjoyable read, particularly on how she bagged Fernando Lamas from Lana Turner (Esther's dressing room was next to Lana's on the MGM lot and she heard Fernando and Lana making out, seemed he was so good at it she decided she wanted him too .... they later married and he wanted her to keep her children at a different house! She also - untruly now it seems - outed Jeff Chandler as a cross-dresser with a penchant for polka dots! But she was a successful businesswoman and seemed to have a ritzy life. One of her later dramatic roles RAW WIND IN EDEN - the one with Jeff - is fairly amusing now. 

A British early '50s double-feature ...

Turn The Key Softly (1953) + The Weak And The Wicked (1954).

After Italian and American early '50s dramas, as below, here's a couple of British ones:

Three women of very different backgrounds leave Holloway prison on the same morning in this 1950s drama. Monica Marsden (Yvonne Mitchell) is a well bred young woman who served time for a crime that her treacherous boyfriend (Terence Morgan) had committed,. Stella Jarvis (Joan Collins) is a beautiful working class girl whose easy virtue led to her incarceration while Mrs Quilliam (Kathleen Harrison) is a shoplifter who is old enough to know better. Over the course of the next 24 hours, each faces a struggle with herself to avoid a quick return to her criminal ways. David still exerts a powerful hold over Monica, Stella is drawn back to her old haunts and their promise of maximum financial gain for least endeavour, Mrs Quilliam has no money but somehow has to provide for herself and her Johnny. Will the women succeed in resisting temptation or will they find themselves back behind bars?

 
TURN THE KEY SOFTLY, 1953, a treat for devotees of British cinema of the ‘50s, and somehow one that eluded me - well I was too young to see it initially. Coming in at a neat 76 minutes, this is a fascinating social document now as we look at early ‘50s London – there is extensive shooting around Piccadilly Circus as well as more working class locations, like that area where Thora Hird has that boarding house where Mrs Quilliam (Kathleen Harrison, downtrodden as usual) returns after her stint in prison for shoplifting. The film is a mix of humour and pathos as it follows 3 women on their first day out of prison. Well bred society girl Yvonne Mitchell took the rap for her no-good heel boyfriend Terence Morgan, who has new plans for her now. 
Young Joan Collins is the glamorous Stella, easily swayed by money and bright shiny objects like jewellery – can she stay on the straight and narrow with her bus conductor boyfriend in Canonbury (an outer suburb of London) or will she be like those wised-up party girls she meets? Jack Lee’s film follows the predictable pattern, but it is all perfectly done, as the trio meet that evening for dinner at a good restaurant, a treat by Mitchell. Fascinating too seeing them smoking on those old underground carriages. Yvonne Mitchell – that delicate, intelligent actress who could convey so much with just a look, and is marvellous as ever here, and Joan Collins was obviously going places - and we just know what is going to happen with Kathleen Harrison and her beloved Johnny, yes he is a dog ….. Another fascinating London film too.

THE WEAK AND THE WICKED. Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society. Some are successfully rehabilitated; some are not.

TURN THE KEY SOFTLY starts with women leaving prison, J. Lee Thompson’s 1954 drama starts with another society dame, Glynis Johns, being sent to prison – framed for not paying her gambling debts. Again we follow the procedure of life inside. Glynis makes pals with Diana Dors, playing Betty Brown, another good-time girl, who really is a good girl.
Amusement is provided by the teaming of Sybil Thorndike and Athene Seyler as a pair of battling old dears, and a young Rachel Roberts in traditional feisty mode. Dependable John Gregson is the guy outside … and humorous subplots involve Sid James and his shoplifting family. It is all rather genteel and polite but none the less entertaining. Thompson’s 1955 YIELD TO THE NIGHT (with Dors and Yvonne Mitchell again) would be a more hard-hitting look at prison and punishment. Ill-fated Simone Silva (who committed suicide) is in both films, uncredited in TURN THE KEY SOFTLY though she has several scenes with Joan Collins, as the West End girl luring Joan back ....

Another good one is THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, Lewis Gilbert's thriller from 1954 importing Americans John Ireland, Richard Basehart and Gloria Graham to this tale of a robbery gone wrong, as led by Laurence Harvey with Stanley Baker and Margaret Leighton and Joan Collins again, before she left for Hollywood. 
Later British '50s thrillers include VIOLENT PLAYGROUND, NO TREES IN THE STREET, HELL DRIVERS, HELL IS A CITY, Losey's BLIND DATE and THE CRIMINAL (Stanley Baker label), PAYROLL and others yet to be reviewed.

Well, I think thats enough early '50s social realism for now, lets head off to the '70s rock scene in California next ....