Vic and Janet go on Safari in 1956

Here is a delicious programmer from 1956, and amazingly, Janet Leigh says in her autobio that they really went to Africa to film it - whereas Susan Hayward and Mitchum over at Fox never left the backlot for their African adventure WHITE WITCH DOCTOR, neither did Susan & Ty Power in UNTAMED; Dirk Bogarde and Virginia McKenna also did one, SIMBA, for Rank about the same time, they never left Pinewood. KINGS SOLOMON'S MINES - the 1951 one with Stewart Granger and Deb Kerr is probably the best of these 50s treats (which MGM cannibalised for WATUSI in 1959), and at least they went to Africa, as of course did Huston with THE AFRICAN QUEEN, Ford for MOGAMBO and Hawks with HATARI!; then there was BORN FREE and THE LION plus of course there were endless 'African' potboilers like TANGANYIKA, BEYOND MOMBASA, MOZAMBIQUE etc .... I also remember seeing a black and white African drama SOMETHING OF VALUE in 1957 from a popular Robert Ruark novel, with Rock Hudson and a young Sidney Poitier, but its never cropped up anywhere since. 

A fond childhood memory is looking at the stills layout of current films in the windows of my local cinema The Astor and seeing the stills of SAFARI and then seeing the film, I particularly remember Janet in a canoe in the rapids as crocs slither into the river .... Its your standard African saga wih a rousing climax as the Mau-Mau attack, but better than usual, with John Justin, Earl Cameron, Niall McGuinness and the usual faces, directed by Terence Young who went on to do ZARAK and other trash favourites before helming the first two James Bond epics DR NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

During the Mau Mau Uprising in British Kenya in the 1950s, settler-hunter Ken Duffield is a hired guide for a lion hunting party but he also hopes to find the Mau Mau rebel who killed his family. 
Vic strides through it with his standard expression - whether shooting a rogue elephant or grieving over his son, but Janet is lovely here, just after MY SISTER EILEEN and before reporting to Mexico for TOUCH OF EVIL and then off to Norway for THE VIKINGS ....  Victor went on to dates with that other blonde Anita Ekberg in 2 guilty plreasures we like: INTERPOL and ZARAK, also by Terence Young. 

Kim Novak x 2: Boys Night Out / Of Human Bondage

Time for a Kim Novak double feature. We like Kim here at The Projector, one of those essential '50s stars - like Janet Leigh. 1958 must have been her zenith year, not only Hitch's VERTIGO (below) but I also like her other one that year with Jimmy Stewart: Quine's BELL BOOK AND CANDLE (right) where she surely never looked better - reviewed at Kim label.. (It was his last as a leading man, as touching 50 he slid into character roles next year, with ANATOMY OF A MURDER and was soon playing those bumbling fathers in 20th Century Fox comedies and in some good westerns). 

I remember being fascinated as a kid by Kim in THE EDDIE DUCHIN STORY where she appeared impossibly glamorous (before dying tragically), she is adequate in PAL JOEY and JEANNE EAGLES. This item is from a 1965 feature on movie stars in my favourite magazine "Films And Filming" by Douglas McVay (author of "The Musical Film").:

A few years ago, Kim Novak mounted a challenge to Liz Taylor: sailing up the evening river on her floral barge as the Labour Day queen in PICNIC (and that dance with William Holden); conducting touching love affairs in MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET; and being ideally cast as the witch in BELL BOOK AND CANDLE (one particularly cherishes some literally enthralling close-ups of the luscious sorceress holding her equally seductive Siamese blue Pyewacket). More recently, however, with slightly tatty offerings like THE NORTORIOUS LANDLADY and OF HUMAN BONDAGE, Kim’s goddess-potential has tended to peter out.

That was written in 1965, and 50 years later Kim is still here (82 this year) and we are still talking about her and watching her - I have a few of hers to see including the 1962 comedy BOYS’ NIGHT OUT – not seen that since its release, ditto the 1964 supposedly dreadful version of  OF HUMAN BONDAGE where Kim as the slutty waitress Mildred (one of Bette Davis’s best early roles in the 1934 version) and Laurence Harvey famously hated each other. It’s a confusing film – Henry Hathaway walked off it early so direction was taken over by Ken Hughes, Bryan Forbes wrote the script and also appears and t was filmed in Dublin, so there are several Irish players, like Siobhan McKenna, as well as Robert Morley and …..

I must also dig out a 1983 tele-series MALIBU, one of those lush American soaps. Kim is the realtor, and cast includes Troy Donahue, George Hamilton, Chad Everett. Also of course in the early sixties there was her Polly the Pistol in Billy Wilder’s KISS ME STUPID, an acquired taste for some but she acquits herself well here. THE AMOROUS ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS may be simple fun and a rip off of TOM JONES, but the cast is the thing here: not only Kim but Vittorio De Sica, Angela Lansbury, Lilli Palmer and George Sanders as well as a huge raft of British players of the time:

I simply did not care for THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE at all, though it is a camp classic for some. Kim also pops up in the intriguing JUST A GIGOLO in 1977, but the film belongs to David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich in her few final minutes on screen … (review at Kim label), and she is hilarious in those bitchy scenes with Taylor in the 1980 THE MIRROR’S CRACKED …..

BOYS NIGHT OUT:  I saw this one from 1962,  but could barely remember it as it had never surfaced anywhere since. That early Sixties was a good time for romantic comedies pushing the sexual boundaries of the era. I also liked COME SEPTEMBER from 1961 (where Rock and Gina are a treat - with Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin for us teens - but don't bother with Rock and Gina in 1965's absolutely dreadful STRANGE BEDFELLOWS, totally unfunny and set in a Hollywood backstage version of London). 1963's SUNDAY IN NEW YORK is another terrific one, with the young trio of Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor and Cliff Robertson - as per my review (Fonda label). 

Fred, George, Doug and Howie are quickly reaching middle-age. Three of them are married, only Fred is still a bachelor. They want something different than their ordinary marriages, children and TV-dinners. In secret, they get themselves an apartment with a beautiful young woman, Kathy, for romantic rendezvous. But Kathy does not tell them that she is a sociology student researching the sexual life of the white middle-class male.

The delicious thing about BOY'S NIGHT OUT is that early sixties decor in that apartment. Its lush. The film itself is a pleasant timewaster now and didn't do much for Kim - or Garner - but the guest stars amuse: Jessie Royce Landis, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Patti Page, Fred Clark. Jim Backus etc. Directed by Michael Gordon of PILLOW TALK and other frothy items. 

OF HUMAN BONDAGE. Again, not seen here since its 1964 release, I saw it but it was a distant memory, I knew it was panned, and how, at the time. Seems Kim and Harvey (as one note as ever) loathed each other and it was a troubled production with original director Henry Hathaway walking, and Bryan Forbes more or less taking over (so Mrs Forbes, "the lovely Nanette Newman", is the nice girl at the end), though its credited to Ken Hughes. It could be a Trash Classic or a more interesting B-Movie for those in the mood. The Dublin locations and Irish supporting players are of interest now, but its obvious the young Bette Davis owns the role of Mildred (in the 1934 original (right)).  We will have another look at Kim's amusing THE ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS again soon ... 

Joan and sudden fear somewhere in the night ...

A 1950s Joan Crawford movie I had not seen: 1952's SUDDEN FEAR begins well but limp to an unstisfactory ending ..... I actually like Joan Crawford's 1950s output more than that of her main rival Bette Davis, who after the enormous success of 1950's ALL ABOUT EVE was soon back in routine programmers; well so was Joan of course but they were more fun that Bette's: TORCH SONG in 1953, JOHNNY GUITAR in '54 (the first film I saw, aged 8 as per reports on that, see label) and those campy lurid items like QUEEN BEE, FEMALE ON THE BEACH, AUTUMN LEAVES, THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO up to her cameo in 1959 "as Amanda Farrow in THE BEST OF EVERYTHING - Bette too was cameo-ing in 1959 (two of them, a scene or two with Alec Guinness in THE SCAPEGOAT and coming on for the last five minutes as Catherine The Great in the otherwise turgid costumer JOHN PAUL JONES, hardly seen now. Of course 1962's WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BAY JANE? got them back in the limelight again ...). But back to Joan in 1952.where Woman's Picture meets Film Noir:

Actor Lester Blaine has all but landed the lead in Myra Hudson's new play when Myra vetoes him because, to her, he doesn't look like a "romantic leading man." On the train from New York to San Francisco, Blaine sets out to prove Myra wrong...by romancing her. Is he sincere, or does he have a dark ulterior motive? The answer brings on a game of cat and mouse; but who's the cat and who's the mouse? 

Myra is an essential Crawford role, the middle-aged wealthy woman looking for love and thinking she has found it. Palance is ideal with his odd looks, and add in Gloria Grahame at her bitchiest .... 

It plays like a delicious antique now: those early Dictaphone machines where Myra overhears the plot against her, her odd wardrobe of buttoned-up tops and showing her legs and nylons and high-heels as well as those long white gloves both ladies wear. The plot though as she counterplots against her attackers could have ended better ....... cue large close-ups of Joan agonising, suffering, suffering, suffering, yearning as she conveys the fear and rage at the duplicity of others ...... Directed by David Miller, but those empty streets of San Francisco do not look realistic. 

Now back a decade for another Noir thriller: Mankiewicz's SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT from 1941, his second feature as director. 
My friend Leon describes it thus:

Somewhere In the Night dates from 1946, the same year Mank's second directorial effort Dragonwyck was released and it's well up to snuff. A lot of 'amnesiac' films are, by definition, forgettable, but not this one. Mank assembled as tasty a supporting cast as had ever been shoehorned into one film ranging from Whit Bissell through Harry Morgan, Jeff Corey to the standout Josephine Hutchinson. Leading from the front are the slightly wooden John Hodiak - marriage to Ann Baxter didn't improve his acting -, newcomer Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan and Richard Conte and Mank keeps the balls spinning in the air leaving little time for awkward questions - like why would Conte - who'd got away with murder for three years, introduce Hodiak to a detective friend (Nolan) knowing that Hodiak was trying to get to to bottom of the very murder for which he, Conte, was responsible. This the kind of movie, popular at the time, in which a protagonist who is possibly a murderer is befriended by a girl/woman who's never met him before - for example Alad Ladd and Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia and/or in which a street-wise gal like Guild here, has to have the expressions 'private eye' and 'shamus' explained to her. None of this detracts from an enjoyable ride and it's one to add to your Blockbuster shopping list.
Leon was quite right, its a zippy intriguing little meller, essential for anyone keen on 1940s noir and Mankiewicz's style. Pleased I found it. 

John Hodiak (1914-1955) was an interesting guy, of Polish descent he was one of the second-tier actors who came to prominence during the early Forties - like Dana Andrews - when the big hitters were away during the war. He only lived to be 41 though, and had some big hits at the time, and even married Anne Baxter for several years (right). I saw him again the other day in Hitch's LIFEBOAT with Tallulah, and he is the male lead in the entertaining THE HARVEY GIRLS with Judy in 1946. We particularly like his DESERT FURY here, from 1947, one of the great camp Hollywood movies, where he and Wendall Corey are an intriguing pair, plus Lizabeth Scott and Mary Astor playing her mother, and a young Burt Lancaster - its a delirious 1940s concoction as per my review (Hodiak label). 

Coming up: A '60s Kim Novak double-bill, and then its off to THE RITZ in THE GAY METROPOLIS.

10 other British 1960s flicks

We are familiar here at The Projector with the popular British films of the 1960s we grew up on - titles like A TASTE OF HONEY, VICTIM, TERM OF TRIAL, A KIND OF LOVING, THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, THE SERVANT, BILLY LIAR, DARLING,  THE SYSTEM, THE KNACK, NOTHING BUT THE BEST, THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES, I WAS HAPPY HERE, MORGAN, SMASHING TIME …. and the very downbeat FOUR IN THE MORNING; that early-mid '60s heyday of Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger, Losey, Clive Donner, Desmond Davis, Richard Lester and early Michael Winner, plus Basil Dearden. Here though are 10 more, lesser-known, titles which took me a while to track down but proved well worth-while and which we recommend, if you ever come across them. All are reviewed fully at British label ...

• SATURDAY NIGHT OUT - engrossing little 1964 drama about guys and gals on a Saturday night out, it plays out very nicely, young Francesca Annis and LEATHER BOY Colin Campbell leads.
• THE PLEASURE GIRLS - an earlier TAKE THREE GIRLS as we join Francesca Annis Ian McShane and flatmates in their South Ken pad in 1965, along with that gay boy (Tony Tanner) downstairs (who is not ashamed or tragic).
  
• THE LEATHER BOYS - boy marries brassy Rita Tushingham and regrets it and the gay leather scene comes to the fore - in Sidney J Furie's engrossing 1964 drama, with Dudley Sutton. Furie also did the engrossing court trial of THE BOYS in '62. 
• A PLACE TO GO - a snappy Dearden from 1963 about moving those old communities into the new tower blocks, Mike Sarne (aargh!) and Rita Tush again and stalwart Bernard Lee.
• WEST 11 - an early Michael Winner, also '63, Alfred Lynch and Diana Dors among the Notting Hill bedsit people and drifters ...
• THE L-SHAPED ROOM  - Bryan Forbes' study of pregnant French girl (Leslie Caron) in 1962 Notting Hill bedsit land - sympathetic gay and lesbian characters too ....
• TWO LEFT FEET - Roy Baker's early ('63) coming of age saga with young Michael Crawford and David Hemmings to the fore. 
• THE WILD AND THE WILLING. The 1962 university set with youngsters Ian McShane, John Hurt, Samantha Eggar, plus lots of familiar faces.
• THE WORLD TEN TIMES OVER - the seedy world of Soho nightclub 'hostesses', a time capsule from 1963, with those early '60s iconic ladies Sylvia Syms and June Ritchie.
  
• BITTER HARVEST - Janet Munro is the naive Welsh girl who goes to the bad in the wild West End of 1963 and ends up another tragedy, with young John Stride. Its hilariously awful but enjoyable. 
• THE SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE- Anthony Newley shines in Ken Hughes' 1963   drama, as the compere of a seedy strip club tries to stay one step ahead of the bookies to whom he owes money. 

That era of course had some amusing British comedies too:  (see Comedy label):

PLEASE TURN OVER, MAKE MINE MINK, TWICE ROUND THE DAFFODILS, LADIES WHO DO.

The British early '60s and '70s had those crime movies we also covered a while back: 

THE VERY EDGE, VILLAIN, ALL COPPERS ARE, THE SQUEEZE.

And there was a lot of Trash around in the early '70s Brit movies too, as per our previous reports - Trash label. 

DORIAN GRAY; GOODBYE GEMINI; MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY & GIRLY; UNMAN WITTERING & ZIGO; SAY HELLO TO YESTERDAY, BABY LOVE; PERCY; PERCY’S PROGRESS; LOOT, and those grotesquely unfunny CONFESSIONS OF and ADVENTURES OF  bottom-of-the-barrel items.

'50s /'60s guys: Jeff and Jeff

Another comparison of two actors (see previous on Oliver Reed & David Hemmings, below). I was looking at an old Jeff Chandler picture the other day, and realised how similar his career path was to that other Fifties guy Jeffrey Hunter - plus both died aged 42 and both from complications after surgery (Chandler in 1961, Hunter in 1969). Hunter had the better career, appearing in more prestige films (including 3 by John Ford) while Chandler was mainly consigned to westerns, actioners, programmers, sudsers where he was an ideal co-star for ladies of a certain age: Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Esther Williams, Susan Hayward ...

Like Susan (and Stanwyck and Streisand) Chandler (1918-1961) - real name Ira Grossel - was from Brooklyn in New York and he also attended Erasmus High School. His odd good lucks and that premature grey hair soon got him into movies, after his war service in WWII, where he became a Universal-International resident hunk (along with Hudson, Curtis, George Nader): westerns like BROKEN ARROW, THE GREAT SIOUX UPRISING, and TAZA SON OF COCHISE, and 'easterns' like BIRD OF PARADISE, YANKEE PASHA, FLAME OR ARABY, SIGN OF THE PAGAN. There were war films like AWAY ALL BOATS and TEN SECONDS TO HELL, 

He was ideal as the beach hunk with designs on Joan Crawford in FEMALE ON THE BEACH - one of our favourite Trash classics here - and with Esther in RAW WIND IN EDEN in 1957 - Esther rather trashed his reputation in her tell-all memoir, apparantly they had been dating but she discovered he was a cross-dresser with a penchant for polka dot dresses! - it was later suggested this was a fabrication to spice up her book, but who knows now .... He squired Lana in THE LADY TAKES A FLYER and was good with June Allyson, Mary Astor and Sandra Dee in the enjoyable tosh that is STRANGER IN MY ARMS, 1959 (see Jeff label). He also starred in RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE - a real Trash Classic - in 1961, and did that silly western THUNDER IN THE SUN as a favour for old pal Susan Hayward. His last film was San Fuller's tough war movie  MERRILL'S MARAUDERS in 1961. He died from blood poisoning after a slipped disk operation.

Jeffrey Hunter is best remembered today for his roles as half-breed Martin Pawley in John Ford's classic western The Searchers (1956), as Jesus Christ in Nicholas Ray's King of Kings (1961) and as Christopher Pike, the first captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, in the original Star Trek pilot.

Jeffrey Hunter (1926-1969): I have already featured his career here as a 'Person We Like' - see Hunter label. He must have been one of the best looking actors ever, certainly of his time - but he seems to have had a troubled life with several unhappy marriages. He worked a lot at 20th Century Fox where he was teamed several times with Robert Wagner, and in films like NO DOWN PAYMENT (which also featured his first wife Barbara Rush), DREAMBOAT, as Little Dog in WHITE FEATHER (1955), Nick Ray's THE JAMES BROTHERS, in the all-star THE LONGEST DAY, he is fun in PRINCESS OF THE NILE in 1954, but his memorial remains John Ford's endlessly fascinating classic THE SEARCHERS in 1956 - his Martin Pawley is always on show somewhere, along with John Wayne, Vera Miles and Natalie Wood. 

We also like his war films: NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, SAILOR TO THE KING, HELL TO ETERNITY, IN LOVE AND WAR. The early 60s saw a dip in his career - going to Europe for items like GOLD OF THE CAESARS, which is a better than usual peplum, He also had a TV series TEMPLE HOUSTON which I do not know, and was famously Jesus (with those piercing blue eyes) in KING OF KINGS for Nick Ray in 1961 .... He also had the lead in a new series STAR TREK in 1965 but did not continue after the first pilot episode. 

In 1969 Hunter suffered a stroke (after an accident on set in Europe), took a bad fall and underwent emergency surgery, but died from complications of both the fall and the surgery.

Both Jeffs are always watchable - I have just had to order MAN TRAP, a 1961 thriller with Hunter and the marvellous Stella Stevens, which I have not seen. Lots more at Hunter label ... 

'70s British cinema & the curious case of Barry Evans

Today we look back at Seventies British cinema - which brings to mind that famous quote from THE GO-BETWEEN: "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there". 70s British cinema began quite well with those well-regarded films like SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, THE GO-BETWEEN (an award winner at Cannes) and DON'T LOOK NOW, as directors like Schlesinger, Losey and Roeg were at their peaks; and there were cult hits like THE WICKER MAN (originally sent out on release as supporting feature to DON'T LOOK NOW)..  British television was also good then in the early '70s, with series like COUNTRY MATTERS, WESSEX TALES, the BBC's TAKE THREE GIRLS and the hit ITV series UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS (the DOWNTON ABBEY of the era). 
The UK still only had three television channels (BBC1, ITV and BBC2, Channel 4 did not start until late 1982), video had yet to arrive - I got my first recorder in December 1979, so one either saw things at the time or missed them. BBC had a great series of sitcoms, we loved HI-DE-HI, ARE YOU BEING SERVED? and DAD'S ARMY. ITV sitcoms were generally weaker, and seen as a bit dim or low rent. I have to admit I did not bother with series like those spin-offs like DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE, DOCTOR AT LARGE or the later MIND YOUR LANGUAGE which ran from 1977 to 1986, all featuring Barry Evans (1943-1997), today's subject, or those series with Richard O'Sullivan, a spin-off from GEORGE AND MILDRED, though that may be my loss.

HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH 

As the Seventies wore on British cinema still turned out some interesting films, usually featuring Glenda Jackson (probably England's busiest actress then)  with either Oliver Reed, Alan Bates, Michael Caine or Peter Finch - titles like TRIPLE ECHO, STEVIE, RETURN OF THE SOLDIER - she is terrific leading that cast in NASTY HABITS, and there's the dreadful THE INCREDIBLE SARAH - Glenda kept churning them out; I saw her on stage too in THE MAIDS with Susannah, which was also filmed (and in THREE SISTERS at the Royal Court in 1968 - Glenda label).
People still went to the cinema a lot, the 70s was a great decade for European cinema and that new American cinema of Altman, Scorsese, Coppola, De Palma etc The CARRY ONs and Hammer Films were still going too even if getting tattier by the day, soft porn was invading them too ..... which brings me to a double bill I recorded the other day, which was on sometime during the night on one of those cable channels: ADVENTURES OF A TAXI DRIVER and ADVENTURES OF A PRIVATE EYE, dating from 1976 and 1977, when the tat really hit the fan.

Now lets go back to 1968, when the two Swinging London films we loved (being in our early 20s at the time) were SMASHING TIME (Rita Tush and Lynn Redgrave come down from the North to wreck havoc in George Melly's delightful script as directed by Desmond Davis - see label) and Clive Donner's HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH set in Stevenage New Town with a great cast of new faces (Barry Evans, Judy Geeson, Adrienne Posta, Angela Scoular) and that Traffic score - it caught the scene perfectly, my pal Stan and I loved it. The brief nudity in it was fresh and engaging too - not cheap and tatty as in those later films.

Smut though was coming to the fore by the early 70s - kinky as in DORIAN GRAY or GOODBYE GEMINI (see Trash, 70s, British labels for more on these) but generally cheap and unfunny as in those CONFESSIONS OF A WINDOW CLEANER and others featuring the charmless chump Robin Askwith (still going now, as in the BENIDORM series which seems to have lost the plot completely). Then there was PERCY in 1971 and those Hywel Bennett films, like the mess they made of Joe Orton's LOOT .... Then there was that spate of '70s British gangster movies (covered here already, British label), like ALL COPPERS ARE, THE SQUEEZE, VILLAIN, SITTING TARGET, HENESSEY etc. and John Wayne (with toupee) taking on the '70s London underworld in the very enjoyable BRANNIGAN.

After MULBERRY BUSH Barry Evans had a small part in Donner's next, the interesting ALFRED THE GREAT in 1969 (David Hemmings and Michael York leading), and he was busy in television including those series mentioned. However in 1976 he starred in a CONFESSIONS OF ... rip-off titled ADVENTURES OF A TAXI DRIVER, which was an interesting view to flick through quickly (one would hardly want to see them in real time) with its follow-up ADVENTURES OF A PRIVATE EYE - Barry bailed out of that one, the lead was a charmless nonentity called Christopher Neil. There was even a CONFESSIONS OF A PLUMBER'S MATE, but we were spared that - all directed by one Stanley Long - dare one mention him.

What was so depressing about these apart from they being desperately unfunny was seeing Barry and the MULBERRY BUSH girls (Geeson, Scoular, Posta) re-united a decade later but now given nothing to do apart from situations where their clothes fall off, and seeing the likes of Diana Dors (cheerfully playing the blowsy, harridan mother in both epics), Suzy Kendall, Liz Fraser, Harry H Corbett, Fred Emney, Irene Handl, Ian Lavender, Julian Orchard, Jon Pertwee, Anna Quayle, William Rushton etc roped in and given nothing to do. It may have been the only work going, but they would hardly have earned much for doing a day or two on poverty row productions like these. It must have been a lean time for comedians and young actors when the British cinema - so prolific in the '50s and '60s - was now on its knees and just producing smutty rubbish. At least the guys had to strip off too, as Barry or Chris had to run naked from various ladies' bedrooms as the husband returned ... presumably that had them rolling in the aisles. 

Barry's MIND YOUR LANGUAGE series ran until 1986 and his last credit was in 1993. By then he was a taxi driver in real life, in Melton Mowbray, where he was found dead in 1997, aged 53, in rather mysterious circumstances. 

The circumstances of his early death remain a mystery; He was found dead in his bungalow in Leicestershire, England with bottles of whiskey and aspirins nearby. A youth was charged with his murder, but acquitted on lack of evidence. A local coroner later recorded an open verdict.

There was also some story about him being involved with a rentboy, and having had a blow to his head - maybe by the youth mentioned above. A sorry end to when he was 18 and won a scholarship to train for the stage at the Central School of Speech and Drama. 

Sad how some actors' careers and lives pan out .... some die too young (Stanley Baker), some careers are over before the actor dies (Stephen Boyd, Laurence Harvey), some simply vanish - like the interesting case of Jeremy Spenser (see label), a 1950s actor who was the young prince in THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, and in SUMMERTIME, THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE, FERRY TO HONG KONG etc, which shows that acting with Monroe, Olivier, Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Orson Welles is no guarantee of a long career. As I have said before, most personable actors though if they are fortunate get ten good years and can usually parlay that into smaller roles as they get older: Michael York, Terence Stamp etc. 

Next: a look at those pals Oliver Reed and David Hemmings and how their careers intertwined and changed over the years, as they did ...  

Suite Francaise

Today's guest reviewer is my good pal Jerry, another IMDB regular - we meet every few months for an afternoon of drinks, chat, gossip and swops and lends of obscure dvds ..... I am actually seeing him again this Saturday, as we had to postpone our Christmas meeting. Here is his take on SUITE FRANCAISE which he enjoyed a lot .... it ticked a lot of boxes for him, liking Kristin and Matthias as he does ...

"SUITE FRANCAISE, 2014 - Would you let a hot Nazi occupy your back parlour? is the probing ethical dilemma at the heart of this lush,smooth, well mounted and extremely silly but engaging tale of forbidden love. Michelle Williams is our heroine - living in occupied France in a small village - her husband a POW in Germany. Billeted with her is Bruno, a nice Nazi (hunk du jour Matthias Schoenaerts) - we know he is nice because he plays the piano, minds his Ps and Qs - and doesn't much like executing the villagers. Before you can say "Vive la Difference" Michelle loses her scruples and her knickers and they are at it all over the manor house. Will Michelle's mother in law (Kristin Scott Thomas in full frosty bitch mode) get wind of their romance? Will Matthias' superiors discover their illicit liaison? Will love build a bridge or lead to the firing squad ? - Good range of supporting villagers - at the top of the social spectrum are Lambert Wilson & Harriet Walter as the Mayor and his wife - (unluckily made an example of) .. at the bottom are dirt poor farmers Sam Riley & Ruth Wilson - and somewhere in between with her legs in the air is village bike Margot Robbie, who figures the German soldiers are fit and horny and therefore fair game (and I'm with her all the way on that one - the scene of the Soldiers performing their ablutions in the village square look like out takes from the Night of the Long Knives in Visconti's THE DAMNED ). It's all very old fashioned and tense towards the end as Riley kills the nasty Nazi who is after Wilson and hides out in KT's attic, and Matthias finds his loyalties tested . It ends a bit abruptly - the source being an unfinished manuscript by a holocaust victim discovered years after the event. Williams , who I admired greatly in TAKE THIS WALTZ and the MARILYN film - is very variable here - and KST could do this sort of part in her sleep - and whilst Schoenaerts is good I think he looks better with a beard (see FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD) Wilson seems like a star in the making - highly recommended to anyone who likes old school romances of a VERBOTEN nature - don't let the lukewarm reviews - "Mon Dieu!" said The Standard  - and absence of any other support put you off. Directed by one Saul Dibb." 

Yup, its an ideal treat for a wet afternoon, with some chocs to hand ..... don't let those snooty movie buffs who only see important films put you off. A Trash Classic or superior B-Movie in the making then. 

Its a serious charge boys

Some more deliciously old-fashioned British movies from the late Fifties and early Sixties, time capsules to a vanished world now: SERIOUS CHARGE, 1959; THE BOYS, 1962.

SERIOUS CHARGE

The blurb says: Cliff Richard makes his sensational debut in SERIOUS CHARGE, and sings 3 songs including his first UK Number One smash hit “Living Doll”.

Directed by Terence Young, SERIOUS CHARGE sees Cliff (in a small role) playing teddyboy Curley Thompson, a young tearaway in a small English town, looking for kicks. Everyone thinks he is bad – except local vicar Revered Philips (Anthony Quayle) who sees the good in Curley and stands up for him in court. Unfortunately Curley’s older brother Larry (Andrew Ray) is an out-and-out hoodlum, with a switchblade in his hand, and nothing but contempt for his hometown of “Deadsville, England”.

When Reverend Phillips first humiliates him in the local young club and then confronts him about his pregnant girlfriend, Larry snaps and accuses of Reverend of sexual assault – a serious charge that seems to have been witnessed by respected church-worker Hester (Sarah Churchill). Suddenly the vicar finds himself on the receiving end of a bitter hate campaign ….  

Hester is the spinster daughter of the previous vicar and has designs on Reverend Quayle and sees herself as the vicar's wife. His wise pragmatic mother sees how dangerous this could be and so it proves when Hester sides with the town's bullies and bigots against the beleagured vicar. Will he prove his innocence and turn the tables on his tormentors? Terence Young makes the most of this drama - he would soon go on to those first two James Bonds, and of course directed treats like ZARAK. 

We are left with the idea that the vicar and Hester may have a future - but perhaps there is a doubt over his sexuality - but if so surely the sulky pouting Curley (Cliff) would be a better bet than the nasty Larry ... Regular familiar faces here include Wilfrid Brambell, Judith Furse, Jean Cadell and again (see below) pop singer Jess Conrad. The surprise is that the young David Hemmings is not among the gang, as he was doing so many small parts then. He is in 1962's SOME PEOPLE, which would be a good companion piece to SERIOUS CHARGE  as both deal with bored wayward teenagers and well-meaning vicars with their church halls. Cliff (or Sir Cliff as he is now is still touring at 75, after surviving some serious charges of his own) had another good role that year in that 1959 treat EXPRESSO BONGO.

THE BOYS

Canadian Sidney J Furie had an interesting career, directing dramas like this and THE LEATHER BOYS in England, and that interesting first feature DURING ONE NIGHT in 1961, before moving onto spy fare and hits like THE IPCRESS FILE and LADY SINGS THE BLUES, and films with Brando and Sinatra, and is still directing now, 

THE BOYS begins well as we see a court case unfold with the four boys in the dock, accused of murder after the robbery of a garage goes wrong. Richard Todd and Robert Morley are the opposing barristers and Felix Aylmer the judge. The boys are Dudley Sutton, pop singer natty Jess Conrad, Ronald Lacey and Tony Garnett (soon to go on to producing films like KES).

The supporting cast is an endless parade of familiar faces: Patrick Magee, Roy Kinnear, Wilfrid Brambell (a lavatory attendant), Allan Cuthbertson, David Lodge, Rita Webb, Betty Marsden, Colin Gordon, Kenneth J Warren, barmaid Mavis Villiers (she was on the other side of the bar in VICTIM) and young Carol White, and music by The Shadows to boot. Tedium sets in eventually as we see the boys' night out from each point of view, taking in their dismal homelife with parents in that grungy block of flats and their night out 'up west' without much money. Finally we arrive at the truth .... its an interesting time capsule of that early black and white Sixties era, before the arrival of The Beatles and the explosion into sixties pop culture. 

More B-movie British thrills: Anthony Quayle, one of the UK's busiest stage and screen actors (THE WRONG MAN, WOMAN IN A DRESSING GOWN, ICE COLD IN ALEX, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, OPERATION CROSSBOW) also leads THE CHALLENGE, a nice little B-movie British thriller with Jayne Mansfield in 1960 and is sadistically evil in TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE in 1959. Peter Sellers is the nasty villain in 1960's NEVER LET GO where he terrorises car salesman Richard Todd; another pop star of the time Adam Faith pops up here, along with Carol White again. 

1958: Touch of Evil, again

The BFI have reissued that super 1958 thriller TOUCH OF EVIL, and with a new trailer:

Orson Welles' influential, magnificently sophisticated and funny take on crime and US/Mexican relations in a border town (maybe the best B-movie ever) provides a masterclass in how to create atmosphere. The camera (lensed by the great Russell Metty) swoops around like a bird of prey on acid. Henry Mancini's music sends us into a frenzy as idealistic Mexican cop Vargas (Heston) goes head to head with corrupt law enforcer Quinlan (a bloated, padded Welles) as he uncovers the seedy corruption around him as Quinlan has his own way of getting results. Cue Janet Leigh menaced in a motel again - by the craziest collection of hoods (including Mecedes McCambridge), and gangly motel guy Dennis Weaver. Orson regulars like Akim Tamiroff are also nicely sleazy here. 

Janet had her arm in a sling but you don't notice as she often has a coat over her arm. Then there's Marlene, with that great closing line .... This is a classic hepped-up '50s noir (along with KISS ME DEADLY and THE BIG COMBO) and has that great long opening sequence as we wait for the bomb in the car to go off. A perfect Abert Zugsmith production. 
Orson was initially hired to act, but who else could have directed it better? He also appeared in THE LONG HOT SUMMER and ROOTS OF HEAVEN and probably spent an hour narrating THE VIKINGS that year, 1958 was busy for them all: Chuck was also in THE BIG COUNTRY and THE BUCCANEER (before heading off for BEN-HUR), while Janet was kept busy with THE VIKINGS and that comedy I liked, THE PERFECT FURLOUGH (see Janet label). Heston & Janet teamed again for this nice shot in 1999 ....   

Maggie's and Vanessa's first movies, in 1958

Venerable thespians Maggie Smith and Vanessa Redgrave both made their movie debuts, when they were promising young stage actresses, back in 1958. Its quite fascinating catching them now.

NOWHERE TO GO is a low-budget B-movie (not quite a Trash Classic) by the enterprising Seth Holt (and an ucredited Basil Dearden, according to IMDB), with a script by no less than Kenneth Tynan, featuring '50s London in crisp black and white. It stars American import George Nadar - usually wooden, but not bad here actually. Its sole point of interest now of course is that Maggie Smith walks in to it, about the half-way mark, as the rather snooty girlfriend of the guy whose apartment Nadar, a convict sprung from prison, is hiding out in. We see earlier how he cons his way into the affections of wealthy widow Bessie Love in order to get his hands on her late husband's valuable collection of coins, which he places in a safe deposit box before the law catches up with him. 

His partner in crime, Bernard Lee, turns nasty and George soon has to depend on Maggie for assistance as they leave the city and head for her family's ancestral pile in the country with its remote shepherd's hut, where he can lie low, but of course, in B-movie fashion, things fall apart and our man on the run faces a bleak end, accompanied by the appropriate jazzy music score. So, it ticks all the B-movie boxes, and I rather liked it. It does not linger too long too, all wrapped up in 85 minutes. Maggie is fascinating here, with the distinctive voice already in place. Nader (who was gay and later became an author) who was ok in AWAY ALL BOATS, FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN, THE FEMALE ANIMAL, CARNIVAL STORY etc - see Trash label) - so its more of the same here. If there is such a genre as 'British Noir' this qualifies. 

BEHIND THE MASK, also 1958, is a solid hospital drama by the ever reliable Brian Desmond Hurst, less soapy than NO TIME FOR TEARS or LIFE IN EMERGENCY WARD TEN, it focuses on the surgeons and their problems, it doesn't quite though turn out as one imagines ...

Michael Redgrave is in his element here as the rather pompous senior surgeon, with Niall MacGinnis as his rival eager to trip him up; Tony Britton is suave new doctor whom Redgrave wants on his team and who is almost engaged to Pamela, Redgrave's daughter: a porcelain beauty Vanessa - suitably patrician and Sir Michael's real daughter making her debut here. Carl Mohner - that interesting Austrian actor - is also new to the hospital as he fights a drug problem which was have repercussions on an operation going wrong leading to the death of the patient and the subsequent investigation. 

So the story is a bit soapy, but its the cast that fascinate here: Margaret Tyzack, Joan Hickson, Ann Firbank, Lionel Jeffries, Miles Malleson, even William Roach (TV's Ken Barlow in CORONATION STREET), Ian Bannen, Brenda Bruce excellent as ever for a few minutes (as she would be the near year as the first victim of PEEPING TOM) - I didn't even catch Victor Spinetti, also listed. 

It is a hospital tale of jealously, suspicion, ambition, and features a fascinating operation sequence. This was made at that late 50s time when hospital dramas were in vogue, with EMERGENCY WARD TEN on the telly, and CARRY ON NURSE was in production.  The colours are washed out on the dvd. Apart from television work, Vanessa did not film again until MORGAN and BLOW-UP in 1966 ...

Soon: More British '50s B-movie dramas and Trash Classics like Cliff Richard singing "Living Doll" in SERIOUS CHARGE, Jayne Mansfield in THE CHALLENGE, Ava Gardner in TAM LIN, Oliver Reed in THE PARTY'S OVER, THAT KIND OF GIRL and more .... 

Fifties noir: This Is My Love = B-movie heaven

This was one of my first posts here, on a 1954 rarity, a superior B-movie I like a lot

THIS IS MY LOVE, 1954 - Linda Darnell is Vida, the unmarried sister of the more vivacious Faith Domergue married to crippled ex-dancer Dan Duryea who is very jealous of his young attractive wife. Vida lives with the mismatched couple and works in their diner and is engaged (or stringing along) a very dull boyfriend, until one day his friend, Rick Jason, walks in and seems the answer to Vida’s dreams. He is merely leading her along however until he meets the vivacious Faith, thus setting in motion a tale of rage, murder and revenge, played out in lurid colours as the girls sling hash in the diner. 

'50s lurid melodramas don’t come much better than this, as directed by Stuart Heisler. Unlike the glossy memodramas of Douglas Sirk, this is a gritty, downbeat affair. Linda Darnell is as terrific here as she was in A LETTER TO 3 WIVES. 
A friend of mine, Jerry, loves it too, and his IMDB review is perfect:
As soon as Franz Waxman's lush score swelled up over the credits I knew this one would deliver - and I wasn't disappointed. Vida (Linda Darnell) is a "spinster" who slings hash in her Brother in Law's diner and is engaged to the world's most boring man. Into the diner wanders her fiancée's army buddy - foxy Rick Jason - a "gas station casanova", and when left alone together Rick comes on to her... she plays hard to get - so hard to get in fact that Rick turns to her married sister Evelyn (Faith Domergue) for comfort, and the stage is set for resentment, deceit, adultery, jealousy, sibling rivalry.. and murder. 

This one really deserves to be better known. I'm not sure whether the lurid greens and purples that dominate the colour scheme are symbolic of the jealousy and anger simmering below the surface, and mark out Stuart Heisler as an neglected auteur... or it was just a lousy print. Connie Russell sings the title tune with lyrics as Darnell and Jason go out dancing. Dan Duryea is a bitter cripple. and Darnell is absolutely heartbreaking here - never knew she had it in her. Its everything I wanted from Douglas Sirk or late period Minnelli and never got. Absolutely delicious from start to finish and highly recommended. 9/10

[Rick Jason was back in the '50s diner milieu in the downbeat '57 Fox film of Steinbeck's THE WAYWARD BUS as the bus driver married to shrewish diner owner Joan Collins (which Linda has tested for and would have been ideal casting) and with down-on-her-luck stripper Jayne Mansfield also on board the bus]. 

Bad things

Before moving on to some classy repeats on television this week (Antonioni's THE PASSENGER and Haneke's AMOUR - I have covered them both previously, but more in due course), here's a round-up of some trashy items we enjoyed or endured recently ...

Its always a pain to see performers one likes doing something rubbishy later in their careers, say hello to HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN a so-called shocker from that year of Trash Classics 1970 - its by Curtis Harrington who gave us the campy delights of WHATS THE MATTER WITH HELEN?, WHOEVER SLEW AUNT ROO? and GAMES (reviews at Horror label) but this one is dull fare indeed and wastes the talents of Anthony Perkins (perfecting his twitchy neurotics a decade after PSYCHO) and one of my great favourites Julie Harris (see label) in a thankless role.

After an eight-month stay in a mental hospital, a tormented man comes home to live with his sister; but a mysterious boarder may be trying to kill him.

Its a drab affair, that also features Joan Hacklett, and is thankfully only about 70 minutes.

More campy and glamorous is 1973's NIGHT WATCH, which re-unites Elizabeth Taylor with Laurence Harvey, and adds in Billie Whitelaw. 

Ellen Wheeler, a rich widow, is recovering from a nervous breakdown. One day, while staring out the window, she witnesses a murder. But does anybody believe her?

This is one of those campy thrillers with a twist ending - think Doris Day in MIDNIGHT LACE or Lana in PORTRAIT IN BLACK. They also ramp up the glam here with Liz in different gowns and furs and diamonds for every scene .... she and Larry were much more fun in BUTTERFIELD 8, both their careers were on the slide by this time, he was terminally ill and died later that year. NIGHT WATCH is an efficient potboiler which passes the time agreeably as one laughs at it, as dully directed by Brian G Hutton, who also helmed Liz's other 70s Trash Classic ZEE & CO. One cannot reveal the twist .... but its a howler. 

On to 1998 and VERY BAD THINGS - a thriller starring Christian Slater and Cameron Diaz.

A group of friends head to Las Vegas for a bachelor party.. only things go wrong and a woman is killed. Soon, the bodies are piling up and the friends find themselves turning against one another as the cover-up builds.

The main interest in this now is that one of the guys (the one who accidentally kills the prostitute) is an almost unrecognisable Jeremy Piven (right), well it was 17 years ago - a long way from his sleek MR SELFRIDGE which entertains us on Sunday nights here now.

Its a dark black comedy which keeps one watching, as director Peter Berg mixes laughs with chills as bodies get cut up to be buried out in the desert. Daniel Stern is good too and Cameron is ace as the bride-to-be from hell. Chunky hairy Piven is deliciously sleazy and its certainly ramps up some scuzzy Tarantino-esque fun as we watch some good guys do evil things as events get progressively out of hand. VERY BAD THINGS remains a polarising movie, with some either loving or hating it.

Back to 1944 for FRENCHMAN'S CREEK, a costume drama about pirates from a novel by Daphne De Maurier, with her REBECCA star Joan Fontaine. This is now a Spanish dvd: EL PIRATA Y LA DAMA (The Pirate and the Lady), by that interesting gay director Mitchell Leisen. Mexican Arturo de Cordova is the pirate, with hissable Basil Rathbone, dependable Cecil Kellway and blustering Nigel Bruce. 

Joan is the noblewoman who tires of her husband and his decadent friends in bawdy Restoration London and who decamps with her children to her country estate, run by kindly Cecil, in remote Cornwall. She soon finds out that a French pirate moors his ship in a nearby cove and has been using her house and bedroom. They get to meet and have a chaste affair.  She soon enjoys herself dressing up a his cabin boy and getting involved in his pirate activities. 
Then her husband and suspicious Basil turn up as the plot works out to a satisfactory, for its time, conclusion as she has to give up her pirate lover and settle for dull marriage and looking after her children. Joan gives it her all and gets to wear some nice gowns. Arturo and his pirate gang seem a gay lot .... a subtext picked up by my IMDB pal melvelvit, who commented:  "I see what cinema scribes mean when they speak of Leisen's "gay sensibility"; the camera practically caressed Arturo's hairy (unusual for the time) chest and there were lots of lovingly photographed bare-chested pirates" ... A sometimes campy, sometimes dull swashbuckler then. Joan's and Basil's fight to the death on the stairs is certainly well done and packs a punch!