Sixties rarities: bawdy fun with Kim, Susannah etc.

It’s a return to that bawdy, lusty 18th century with LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS, Peter Coe’s 1969 film of a stage show with songs, though the songs are gone here, as this vainly follows THE ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS in trying to capture the success of TOM JONES. It ramps up the squalor of the era and plays like a CARRY ON on speed – all it has going for it really is that cast. It basically follows the misadventures of three sailors on shore leave: Lusty (Jim Dale), Shaftoe (Tom Bell) and Ramble (Ian Bannen) who are all looking for some action – willing to provide it are Susannah York (Hilaret) who is rather underused here, Vanessa Howard (Hoyden) and Glynis Johns (Mrs Squeezum). Fabulous Fenella Fielding has the Joan Greenwood role as Lady Eager, allowing herself to be seduced at the theatre and ensuring her seducer has the correct window to call on later – Kathleen Harrison and Roy Kinnear are also funny as Lord and Lady Clumsey, and Roy Dotrice is the Gossip. Other familiar faces include Arthur Mullard, Peter Bull, Fred Emney and its good to see Georgia Brown (the original Nancy in the original OLIVER) as the local strumpet. Top billed though is another extraordinary performance by Christopher Plummer as Lord Fopington with a grotesque wig and what looks like a false nose and who can barely walk he is so effete - he is as stunning as his Inca king Atahualpa in the film of THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN, also that year.. Shot in Kilkenny, Ireland it is an amusing trifle to see at this remove.

THE AMOROUS ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS in 1965 was obviously following in TOM JONES' footsteps with Kim Novak in the lead as amorous Moll, but is good-humoured fun as Terence Young directs a good cast and practically every British comedian and character actor of the era. There is that terrific star quartet of Angela Lansbury and Vittorio De Sica having fun as impoverished aristocrats, Lilli Palmer as leader of the criminal underworld, and George Sanders as Moll's first husband. Kim was so iconic in the '50s [PICNIC, EDDIE DUCHIN STORY, VERTIGO, BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET etc] but - rather like Carroll Baker - she seems diminished in the '60s as items like BOYS NIGHT OUT, OF HUMAN BONDAGE etc did her no favours. She plays along gamely here ... its still a laugh.

Guy & Kerwin, a few movie choices ....

My friend Martin has caught up with THE GARMENT JUNGLE, a 1957 thriller with Kerwin Matthews and the lovely Gia Scala. He likes Guy Madison as well (see post below) so for you Martin, here's Guy and Kerwin AND a young Kim Novak in FIVE AGAINST THE HOUSE, that nifty 1955 thriller (a prototype for OCEANS 11, which I reviewed a while back. Guy/Kerwin/Kim labels), plus the trailer for THE GARMENT JUNGLE .... and a moment from THE LAST FRONTIER in 1955 with Victor Mature; and his SLAVE OF ROME with Rosanna Podesta in 1961 ....

Summer re-views: favourite cat moments ....

Some favourite cat moments ..... here is Orangey, a famous 1950s cat - here he is terrorising that INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN in 1957. His most famous role of course is as 'Cat' in the 1961 perennial favourite (what other 1961 movie is on television all the time?) BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S .... we have covered that here a few times (Audrey label.). Cat is a leading role really, Audrey hated having to throw him out of the taxi into the rain and we love how he gets squashed between them in the rain at the heavenly climax ... Its of course probably easier to train dogs.

Then of course another leading cat role is that of Pyewacket in the 1958 favourite BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, where Pye gets thrown around and has to run across a busy New York street - before providing that happy ending for Kim and Jimmy (Kim label). 

Our other favourite cat, another marmalade one, is Thomasina in the 1964 Disney treat THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA.  Another orange cat features in the opening credits of our long-runnng soap CORONATION STREET (below right).

We also like that black cat prowling through the opening credits of 1962's Trash Classic WALK ON THE WILD SIDE (really must re-view that again soon); there's also that kitten Anita Ekberg plays with in the Trevi Fountain in LA DOLCE VITA.  

And of course there's CAT PEOPLE where Natassja Kinski gives in to her feline desires .... as per review Horror label.   More on all these cats at Cat label. 

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 ... 

Vertigo poster

Here' an oddity - a poster for VERTIGO which I had not seen before ... was this an original from 1958? Was it ever used?

Some choice Oscar moments

Remember when the Academy Awards shows were exciting back in the 1970s as we saw the great stars presenting or collecting prizes. Before multi-channel 24 hour TV, these were treats indeed. Here are a few:

Susan Hayward's last public appearance in 1974 on the arm of old co-star Charlton Heston who was propping her up. Hayward was already fatally ill, she would die the next year, but here she is bewigged, medicated and determined to complete her last public outing in style. Watch the surprise on Ellen Burstyn's face as Glenda Jackson - not even there - wins a second Best Actress award for a comedy which I had no interest in seeing ...

I knew James Stewart and Kim Novak had teamed again sometime in the '80s to present an award. Here it is in 1989 .

Ingrid Bergman is choice as usual as she wins Best Supporting Actress for her cameo role in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, also 1974 - and she had wanted Valentina Cortesa to win, to the chagrin of her fellow co-nominess ...

Faye Dunaway arrives to collect her Best Actress Oscar in 1976. Some wag wrote that the goddess looked like she had been doing drugs and having sex in her limousine before arriving all tousled on stage ...

Deborah Kerr receiving her Honorary Oscar, introduced by Glenn Close, in 1994.

Rita goes Zip

I hadn't realised how fabulous Rita Hayworth is in PAL JOEY, which I saw as a kid in 1957 and only saw bits of since, it was not on my radar as a top musical -- of course the stage show was so much better, including that London 1980s production with Sian Phillips mesmerising in Rita's role of the wealthy ex showgirl Mrs Simpson, whom Sinatra's Joey sets his sights on to fund his new nightclub ... until Kim Novak gets in the way ...

It is perhaps Rita's last good role - she is excellent but somehow out of place in SEPARATE TABLES in 1958, and she and the equally ageing Gary Cooper are touching (two of the 1930s beautiful people ravaged by time) in THEY CAME TO CORDURA in 1959. She was Claudia Cardinale's sad mother in the John Wayne circus extravaganza CIRCUS WORLD in 1964, and had a few scenes with her old co-star Glenn Ford in a forgotten thriller (it was a supporting movie here) and her later films are curious cult movies now ... but she symbolised the 1940s for many - as per this BFI 1940s season back in 1970 (as per label 1940s-A). 

Rita of course will always be GILDA ... but she is perfect here too and plays Mrs Simpson with a nice teasing quality - love her shower scene!. The film at least captures One-Take-Frank at his 1950s zenith, while Kim in lavender as the vulnerable showgirl looks edible  1957 was a great year for musicals: FUNNY FACE, LES GIRLS, THE PAJAMA GAME, SILK STOCKINGS etc, PAL JOEY while fun is not quite as good. 
John Kobal wrote a terrific book on Rita: "The Time, The Place and The Woman". 

Return to Tiffanys with Pal Joey

Apartments we love - hey, thats an idea for a post: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Lazy afternoon on sofa, nursing a cold, with a divine double bill on television - well, it saves digging out the dvds. I can watch BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S any time and PAL JOEY was fairly new to me, not having seen it in years. Here's what I did on TIFFANY'S a year or two back ....

I can never resist another look at BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S whenever it screens, and so it was again yesterday. One can look at it for so many reasons: Audrey, the wit, romance, Capote, Blake Edwards' sure direction, its a great New York Movie etc. This time I focused on the cat -
who gets quite a bit to do in it. I wonder what this cat who lived 50 years ago made of it? He (or she) is put out in the rain, thrown around, and sits and observes. It is a great feline performance.
Who can resist that climax when Cat miows and Holly picks him up and Cat is crushed between them as they kiss in the rain and the heavenly choir soars - did two people ever look better in the rain? - they must have used glycerine or suchlike. .... 
TIFFANY'S remains one of the imperishable hits of 1961 along with THE MISFITS, TWO WOMEN, ONE EYED JACKS, COME SEPTEMBER ... That ending though: in Capote's novella Holly does go off to South America, and the gay (we understand) narrator keeps looking for the cat, and finds him one afternoon, sitting happily in the window of someone else's apartment. That is perfect too but the movie went for the softer option. Its still an iconic early '60s classic ... then there is Patricia Neal's "stylish girl" waving her chequebook and coming on like a vampiric dragon lady ... Audrey oddly reminds me a lot of Kay Kendall in her early zany scenes, waking up, getting ready to go out etc. Kendall had died 2 years previously in 1959, and she and her sister were showgirls in revues in early '50s London, as was Audrey, and I understand they all knew each other.

1957's PAL JOEY is also a sanitised version of the John O'Hara original - it was a terrific stage musical in London in the 80s with Sian Phillips dynamic in the Hayworth role and those Rodgers & Hart songs. This is 1957 though but at least Sinatra looks at his peak here as the heel with that hat and the coat slung over his shoulder. Rita Hayworth is delicious as Mrs Simpson the ex-showgirl/rich bitch who bankrolls Joey's nightclub but on her terms, while Kim Novak, nearing her zenith (as she would do next year 1958 with VERTIGO and BELL BOOK AND CANDLE) gives her showgirl a sad quality that is just right,

 and then there is that adorable pooch. San Francisco is the back-drop, Barbara Nicols is a brassy showgirl and the numbers include Kim miming "My Funny Valentine", Rita also mimes the zingy "Zip" and "Bewitched /Bothered and Bewildered" while showering - dig that ritzy shower ! Then Frank sings "The Lady Is A Tramp" and we are watching another iconic moment. Musicals veteran Charles Walters keeps it moving nicely. 1957 was a great year for musicals: THE PAJAMA GAME, LES GIRLS, SILK STOCKINGS and this .... we like them a lot.  Lots of ritzy clothes too - Kim looks edible in that lavender dress, and those gloves ! ..... while Rita sizzles in some Jean Louis creations.

Cat people, or bewitched again ....

BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, 1958. A pleasure to see again yesterday. John Van Druten's play [the Harrisons - Rex and Lilli - had done it on the stage] is nicely transferred to screen in '58 by Richard Quine, with his muse of the time, Kim Novak at her zenith here as the witch who cannot fall in love - enter publisher James Stewart who has moved into the apartment above .... Its a lovely look at New York in the '50s, Stewart and Novak are teamed again right after Hitch's VERTIGO. The great supporting cast includes Jack Lemmon (just before SOME LIKE IT HOT) as her warlock brother, Ernie Kovacs as the writer on the lookout for witches, and Hermione Gingold as head witch, aided by Elsa Lanchester at her most ditzy, plus Janice Rule as Stewart's bitchy girlfriend, who it turns out was at college with Kim. Pyewacket the cat is super too. 

This is a great New York movie, and would be a terrific, if long, double bill with BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S -  which also has a great cat. 

Amusingly, this has now been seen in a gay context. Druten it seems was gay, and the coven of witches with their hidden culture and their own nightclub (presided over by la Gingold) could be read as coded for the secret life of gays in '50s New York. "They are all around us" Lemmon happily tells the bewildered Kovacs ... The Zodiac Club too is a great beat haven - in fact gays and beatniks are not too hard to find here in this Greenwich Village. It is tres amusing at the Club when Stewart and Janice turn up, and Kim causes a return of those thunderstorms which plagued Janice so, back at college. It was also Stewart's last as a romantic lead [he is 50 here], he really slipped into character parts with his next, the still terrific ANATOMY OF A MURDER, plus those father parts. [Nice to see him and Novak re-united handing out an award on one of those 80s Oscar shows].

Richard Quine directs with a light touch, ably assisted by James Wong Howe's lovely camerawork making New York at Christmas in the snow, positively enchanting. Daniel Taradash did the script (he also scripted FROM HERE TO ETERNITY) and the nice score is by George Duning. Kim makes a magical rather beatnik witch, always in black and that nice cape for the snow scene - with her shop of primitive art - then at the end when she is human she is in lavender and yellow and her shop is now "Flowers of the Sea" with sea shells - perhaps this, VERTIGO and STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET are her key roles. Pyewacket excels too ..... BB&C remains a welcome treat anytime. 

Sunday fun: 2 The Mirror Crack'd.

What fun to get up Sunday mornng, and see THE MIRROR CRACK'D on early tv. I just have to include this hilarious scene when Taylor and Novak try to out-bitch each other. For priceless camp its  almost as good as that scene in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS when Helen Lawson (Susan Hayward) and Neely O'Hara (Patty Duke) meet in the powder room .... (Trash label).

THE MIRROR CRACK'D though is the clunkiest of those all-star Christies, always good for a laugh, with the '50s period detail laid on with a trowel - it lacks the wit and fun of EVIL UNDER THE SUN or DEATH ON THE NILE. Liz and Kim seem to be enjoying themselves while Hudson and Curtis seem sadly diminished, and Angela Lansbury is a very odd Miss Marple.  .... (see Christie label).  

1964 again: Sex and the single girl ...

Another 1964 sex comedy ? After GOODBYE CHARLIE (below), I thought SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL would be amusing again now - I know I saw it back then, when 18, but its never popped up since. In fact I hated it so much I can hardly bring myself to speak of it. Shall we just ignore it and it will go away again ...... well, lets say a few words. 

On the plus side: Natalie Wood never looked better than here, it is her great period, and she wears some nifty outfits too (Edith Head). Neal Hefti did the score, and Count Basie also appears. Its another Richard Quine comedy - Quine had a good run in the 50s: his films with Kim Novak, like BELL BOOK AND CANDLE which we like a lot (see Novak label), that musical I was praising recently: MY SISTER EILEEN, melodrama like STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET, and that nice one with Doris and Jack: IT HAPPENED TO JANE in 1959. The Sixties though were different: the limp NOTORIOUS LANDLADY, I never saw PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES but seems it fizzles. HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE was a hit though.

A womanizing reporter for a sleazy tabloid magazine impersonates his hen-pecked neighbor in order to get an expose on renowned psychologist Helen Gurley Brown.

Using the title of the best-seller a script was fashioned by Joseph (CATCH 22) Heller, but it is all so unfunny and dated in the worst way. I liked GOODBYE CHARLIE recently but at least that was from a George Axelrod play, but this one is just laboured and dull as publisher Curtis, on autopilot here, tries to compromise author Dr Brown. Natalie certainly throws herself into it, with lots of long scenes and endless speeches. Left on the sidelines are Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall as the warring neighbours whose problems Curtis uses to woo Wood. It must have been a difficult time for Bacall - still a working actress but not yet a Broadway legend and a long way from HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE or DESIGNING WOMAN. In fact Curtis, gallant as ever, accused her of being an older star trying to hang out with the younger ones, when in fact she was just one year older than him, but had been in movies earlier. She seems exasperated here while Fonda just looks embarrassed. Theres also Fran Jeffries who gets to sing a bit (as she did in THE PINK PANTHER in '63), Leslie Parrish, Mel Ferrrer, Edward Everett  Horton. Larry Storch, Stubby Kaye - all wasted.

As an IMDb reviewer put it: Here is a movie that could have been a 60s classic lampooning tabloid journalism, skin-deep psychology, proto-feminism, marital problems, hypocrisy, and sexual freedom. Instead, it is a cartoonish pastiche of amateurish slapstick, poorly-time jokes, silly contrived situations, and one of the most idiotic and long car chases in the history of cinema. The idea of a sleazy editor doing a hatchet job on a 23-year-old virgin psychologist who has written a bestseller affirming the sexual lives of single women should certainly have hilarious possibilities - specially if he is a liar, she cannot handle her own feelings, and they are sexually attracted to each other. However, the script is ludicrous and inconsistent often degenerating into total silliness.

It must have been a difficult time for sex comedies as the swinging decade had yet to get underway ... the Rock and Doris comedies were sheer class, COME SEPTEMBER, THE THRILL OF IT ALL, THE PINK PANTHER, WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? are perennial favourites and even 1964's GOOD NEIGHBOUR SAM had its moments, but SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL is just painfully unfunny and dated now. That scene where they (Tony and Natalie) fall into the water and try to stay afload is not funny at all now. Then they all go zooming off to the airport (cue lots of back projection) in a silly ending. Its certainly one I do not want to re-visit or even think about ever again, and I thought PRUDENCE AND THE PILL was bad ! Super Trash then.

Soon: Tony and Janet in the long-unseen 1958 comedy THE PERFECT FURLOUGH (or STRICTLY FOR PLEASURE), I loved that as a kid, will I still like it now ? 

Vertigo, once again ....

It was on television again, and once again I got mesmerised watching it, particularly as on the BBC it had no commercial breaks, which always ruin the mood of a Hitchcock movie. We had that 'Hitchcock summer' in 2012, as I wrote then - Hitch label - when the BFI ran all the movies, and the BBC helped out too ... Hitch just never goes out of style, no matter how many times one has seen PSYCHO or THE BIRDS or NORTH BY NORTHWEST .... 

 

VERTIGO, now of course "Sight & Sound"'s new Number One Best Film Of all Time, having dislodged CITIZEN KANE, is the most dreamlike movie that turns cinema on its head. San Francisco in 1958 looks marvellous as Scottie (Stewart) drives around following Madeline.

And how do we feel about VERTIGO now? Some do not even regard it as the best Hitchcock. VERTIGO went missing for a long time in the '70s when it and a handful of other Hitch's were out of circulation (in that pre-video age) until he cannily re-released them to cinemas. People didn't see VERTIGO, they remembered it, as Robin Wood said. I love some elements of it - the dreamlike mesmerising early sections as Scottie follows Madeline around that ideal San Francisco, and that stunning transformation scene when Madeline comes back to Scottie, and that spellbinding music score,  its pure cinema obviously but for me NOTORIOUS, REAR WINDOW, PSYCHO, THE BIRDS and NORTH BY NORTHWEST are equally as good, and of course STRANGERS ON A TRAIN.  

One moment in VERTIGO jars for me though - Scottie follows Judy in the street and knocks at her hotel room door, she shows no reaction at all to see the man she had loved and duped suddenly at her door ....  Also, as so often with Hitchcock, the second lead female is often as fascinating as the heroine, think Barbara Bel Geddes's Midge, here, plus Suzanne Pleshette, Diane Baker, Vera Miles ....

I never bothered with THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY much, and in fact not seen it since I was a kid, but its on again this Saturday, so we may appreciate it more, after a programme on the various interviews Hitch did for the BBC over the years, at least Hitchcock always gave good interview. 

That Hemmings chap

David Hemmings directs David Bowie and Kim Novak in JUST A GIGLO, 1978

While discussing those Sixties favourites (Julie, Terry, David Warner, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Warwick, Vanessa et al, below) a few further thoughts on that very individual David Hemmings - the first of the People We Like on here, a particular hero of mine ever since seeing him in Antonioni's BLOW-UP when I was 21 back in 1967. I never met David but had a very nice evening chatting with his then girlfriend Jane Merrow back in 1966 when I was 20, about the time he was filming the Antonioni opus ...

What an varied career he had, a child actor and young opera singer for Benjamin Britten (in his TURN OF THE SCREW), then those early 60s movies where he is rather insignificant - I did not spot him at all in SINK THE BISMARCK! on again the other day (left), and there's PLAY IT COOL, SOME PEOPLE (more on these soon), WEST 11, TWO LEFT FEET, and one of the gang in THE SYSTEM in 1964, where lead Oliver Reed romances rich girl Jane (Merrow). 
Then he is in EYE OF THE DEVIL in 1967, just before he burst on screen as the idol of the zeitgeist in BLOW-UP. (Left: Terence Stamp in the 1993 BBC documentary series HOLLYWOOD UK, where he states that he had been promised the role in BLOW-UP. Hemmings was also interviewed for the series, below, as per label.).

David's memoir, which he completed before he died in 2003, is great on all these and living the high life in the 1960s. Films like CAMELOT, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (he was iconic also as Captain Nolan in that hussar uniform, I had a poster of it on my wall - he called his son Nolan too), BARBARELLA, ONLY WHEN I LARF, ALFRED THE GREAT etc. He turned to directing with RUNNING SCARED in 1972, and there's his oddity JUST A GIGOLO in 1978, where he deftly merged David Bowie in Berlin with Marlene Dietrich in Paris (it was Marlene's final outing, as per review at Hemmings/Dietrich labels).  And we mustn't forget his madly camp act as the gay fashion photographer in the deliriously awful Trash classic THE LOVE MACHINE, in 1971, with the hots for John Philip Law - review at Hemmings/Trash labels).
 

David, as per his memoir, had various problems and went off to America where he directed lots of episodes of THE A-TEAM, MAGNUM P.I. and other series, and turned up in lots of series including MURDER SHE WROTE, and in films like Ken Russell's THE RAINBOW or, re-teamed against Oliver Reed, in that terrible '70s version of THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER. 
An actor with no vanity at all, he had a comeback in the 2000s (before his death aged 62 on a set in Bucharest, in 2003) with roles in LAST ORDERS, THE MEAN MACHINE and some high-profile movies like Scorsese's THE GANGS OF NEW YORK and Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR where his old hell-raiser pal Oliver died during filming. One got the impression from the book that David lived life to the full. 

Summer fun: high camp

Is there anything camper than those lush Agatha Christie adaptations, starting with 1974's all-star MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, as directed by Sidney Lumet. Its spot the stars here (Ingrid Bergman is particularly droll as the rather dim Swedish missionary, and Wendy Hiller a splendid Princess Dragomiroff) ... its a bit overlong and turgid though, as to a degree is DEATH ON THE NILE in '78 though the double act of Bette Davis and Maggie Smith keeps one amused, and Angela Lansbury chewing the scenery as novelist Salome Otterbourne! Mia Farrow is terrific here too, one of the few times I like her. 

The campest of all though has to be 1982's EVIL UNDER THE SUN with Dames Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg both at the top of their form. Its marvellous seeing Maggie in her prime here, and Diana's superbitch Arlena is a wow too, particularly when she wows us with Cole Porter's "You're the Top" as she vamps Nicholas Clay, 
who runs around a lot in those swim-trunks .... his mousey wife Jane Birkin makes a stunning transformation for the climax, while Roddy McDowell essays a vicious queen, and its nice to see old-timers James Mason and Sylvia Miles having a paid vacation in the sun. Marvellous Dennis Quilley is also to hand; its a terrific setting in the Med as well - what's not to love? Ustinov and Niven amuse too, though Albert Finney is just all wrong as the ORIENT EXPRESS Hercule.

THE MIRROR CRACKED in 1980 is the least of them, though generated a lot of publicity at the time, with the teaming of '50s legends Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak, both bitching marvellously together. Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis are sadly aged here, and Angela Lansbury is a rather odd Miss Marple ... the English village is nicely depicted, and splendid Margaret Courtenay is ideal as Dolly Bantry, while Elizabeth seems to be chanelling The Queen Mother. These Christies are ideal summer re-views, and are always on show at Christmas and the like. A box of chocolates to hand is also essential for viewing these delirious concoctions.