RIP continued ....

The new year kicks off with:

Rod Taylor (1930-2015), aged 84. Rod was a Person We Like, as per my post on him last year - see label. I always liked seeing Rod, an amiable, charming guy - like James Garner who departed last year. For me Rod centres Hitch's THE BIRDS making that flirting banter with Melanie Daniels believable - nice to hear he and Tippi Hedren remained good friends. He was certainly lucky to go from a forgotten swashbuckler (SEVEN SEAS TO CALAIS where he wore the doublets with ease) to being summoned to Bodega Bay for a film that is always on show somewhere (and a perennial favourite here at The Projector). I was trying to get a copy of his 1960 peplum COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN recently, but the supplier couldn't provide it ....  (PS: It is now on You Tube).

 

Its a fascinating career for an Australian: in Hollywood in the mid-50s, with small parts in GIANT and RAINTREE COUNTY, Debbie's beau in THE WEDDING BREAKFAST and the young husband in SEPARATE TABLES, then the perennial TIME MACHINE and stealing THE VIPs from the bigger names, along with Maggie Smith. YOUNG CASSIDY is a particular favourite, with Maggie Smith again, plus Julie Christie and Edith Evans. FATE IS THE HUNTER and 36 HOURS are fascinating thrillers; and also his romcoms like ASK ANY GIRL in 1959, SUNDAY IN NEW YORK in 1963 and those two lesser Doris Day films. He also did some rather good actioners like THE MERCENARIES and NOBODY

RUNS FOREVER. 

I puzzled a movie buff friend recently (the kind of buff who only sees 'important' films) by asking: Which actor has worked for John Ford, Hitchcock, Antonioni and Tarantino - he was stunned to hear it was that "lightweight" Rod Taylor. 
Rod was also in Antonioni's ZABRISKIE POINT and popped up as Churchill in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. We also saw him a few times on shows like MURDER SHE WROTE. 84 years is a good run and I am sure he enjoyed it all. RIP indeed. 

As my friend Daryl says: Certainly, a solid career, with a number of memorable films, and an actor who could go from George Pal to Hitchcock to John Ford to Antonioni to Tarantino. And i must say that, with THE V.I.P.S and YOUNG CASSIDY, he was one of the best partners that Maggie Smith ever had!  Right; YOUNG CASSIDY.

Gerry Fisher (1926-2014), aged 88. Ace cinematographer and director of photography on quite a lot of movies I like. He worked several times with Joseph Losey, on ACCIDENT, DON GIOVANNI, SECRET CEREMONY, THE GO-BETWEEN, A DOLL'S HOUSE and Losey's French films MR KLEIN and ROUTES TO THE SOUTH, plus THE ROMANTIC ENGLISHWOMAN'; Lumet's THE SEA GULL, Richardson's HAMLET, BUTLEY, thrillers JUGGERNAUT and BRANNIGAN, Wilder's FEDORA, and HIGHLANDER among many others.

Lance Percival (1933-2015, aged 81. Lance with that funny face, seems rather a forgotten figure lately but like the recently gone Jeremy Lloyd (RIP below), was also an essential 1960s face, and part of the David Frost set on those satire shows and he also popped up in so many films, including a moment on THE VIPs, TV shows like SHOESTRING, some CARRY-ONs, and Beatles documentaries. 

Rooney is back, and Muriel has got him ...

After all that serious drama - see posts below - time for a spot of whimsical Irish comedy, courtesy of the Rank Organisation in 1958. I saw this as a kid and it never turned up again, but is now a cheap dvd. Worth every penny for me!

ROONEY. Another 50s treat now as we join Dublin dustman John Gregson as the Rooney of the title, a happy go lucky chap, with his adorable dog, who keeps having to change his lodgings as his landladies get too amorous – the current one being Pauline Delany (right). He is also a talented hurley player (an Irish sport) so local businessman Liam Redmond gets him into the house of snooty Marie Kean (a delight as ever) with her pushy daughter June Thorburn and spinster relation Muriel Pavlow, and grand-father Barry Fitzgerald. 

Rooney’s dustman pals include Noel Purcell, Jack McGowran and Eddie Byrne (right) – so its quite an Irish contingent here. It moves along amiably to the predictable final kiss on Dublin’s halfpenny bridge, and even has a delirious theme tune warbled by Michael Holliday. Directed by George Pollock from a Catherine Cookson story. We loved it!  

John Gregson was another stalwart of British movies of the '50s - like Stanley Baker, Stephen Boyd, Laurence Harvey, he died too young in 1975 aged 55. He of course was the driver of GENEVIEVE in 1953, and in popular hits of the time like THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE, SEA OF SAND, THE CAPTAIN'S TABLE, he was the Padre in THE LONGEST DAY and played Inspector Gideon on TV. MIRACLE IN SOHO features him with our favourite, Belinda Lee, see label..

Muriel Pavlow, another Rank Organisation stalwart, is still going strong in her 90s, and was often cast against Dirk Bogarde (DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE), Kenneth More (REACH FOR THE SKY), Guinness (MALTA STORY), Finch, Sinden, Gregson etc. 

Barry Fitzgerald, Marie Kean, Muriel Pavlow, John Gregson, June Thurburn

Snapshots of Britain

Kay and Bonar at the DANCE HALL

HOLIDAY CAMP - 1947
DANCE HALL - 1950
PLAY IT COOL - 1962
SOME PEOPLE - 1962

Ken Annakin's HOLIDAY CAMP in 1947 is post-war England in aspic, with working-class families going on holiday to the new holiday camps as the new age of leisure dawned after the war, its almost a historical document of that era. Flora Robson has a great role here as the lonely spinster yearning for her love lost in the war, only to discover he is the holiday camp announcer but is now blind, and happily married and does not remember her. Esma Cannon (later in the CARRY ONs) as her twittery friend fares less well, as she falls prey to Dennis Price's murdering conman. The Huggett family (from the radio) are enjoying themselves, led by father Jack Warner and mum Kathleen Harrison, with daughter Hazel Court, Jimmy Hanley and Diana Dors as well as Patricia Roc also pop up. Below: Mr and Mrs Huggett get used to being on holiday, Dennis Price with murder in mind, and Dame Flora - noble as ever. 

Its an enjoyable time capsule now, as is:

DANCE HALL - Charles Crichton's 1950 portrait of 4 working class girls who work in the local factory and let off steam at the Saturday night dance (the Chiswick Palais). This is a roll-call of ‘50s British showbiz with a very varied cast here: the girls are young Petula Clark, Natasha Perry, Jane Hylton and the rising Diana Dors. Its a fairly grim look at working class life, but lots of fun too. Donald Houston and Bonar Colleano are among the men they attract, Kay Kendall pops in for a minute, as do Eunice Gayson and Dandy Nichols, Sydney Tafler is the dance hall manager and dear old Gladys Henson is Petula's mum who gives her an awfully old-fashioned dress to wear at the dance contest! Dors is great fun as the good-natured blonde with an eye for a hunky fella! Parry is torn between stolid Houston and wide boy Colleano, while Hylton remains a spinster. 
10 years later SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING would be a new male-dominated update on working class life, as the '60s dawned, but this 1950 version is just as pleasing and relevant now. This and HOLIDAY CAMP are as essentially '40s and early '50s British as IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, POOL OF LONDON, THE BLUE LAMP, HUNTED etc. - those movies where the likes of Jack Warner and Jimmy Hanley were bobbies on the beat or dependable guys next door, and Canadian Bonar Colleano (of the circus family, he died in a car crash in 1958, aged 34) was the not to be trusted wide boy or American G.I. in England, and young Bogarde was a spiv with a gun before graduating to war hero roles.

Factory girls

Diana lets rip on the dance floor

PLAY IT COOL. A hopelessly square 1962 British musical showing the pop scene at the time, showcasing pop idol of the time Billy Fury in his movie debut. We liked Billy then, an authentic rocker with a great look and voice (“Halfway to Paradise”) who died too young, aged 43 in 1983. 
He and his jolly gang (Michael Anderson Jr, Keith Hamshere, Jeremy Bulloch, and a very young David Hemmings) are en route to Gatwick Airport when they decide to help out a runaway heiress (don’t laugh, this isn’t the 1930s) – Dennis Price plays her oily father and others roped in include Mr Showbiz: Lionel Blair and his dancers. 

Statue of Billy in Liverpool

There is a twist number, the twist was big at the time – and American Bobby Vee gets to sing, as does Helen Shapiro, the school girl singer of the time (I was an early teen then, and loved her songs). Michael Winner directs and keeps it all moving. This pop scene though, along with the Cliff Richard films (THE YOUNG ONES, SUMMER HOLIDAY) and those earlier Tommy Steele, Frankie Vaughan, Adam Faith ones,  was swept away the next year, when The Beatles exploded in 1963, and 1964’s A HARD DAY’S NIGHT showed how to make a pop movie which also captured the moment perfectly.

SOME PEOPLE – more pop from 1962. I remember this one vividly, being 16 at the time. This is a lively look at teenagers in a suburban city – Bristol – with a lead role for Kenneth More as the well-meaning choirmaster with that church hall where the kids can play their instruments. It features the then up and coming Ray Brooks (THE KNACK) and a gormless David Hemmings (4 years before Antonioni made him an icon of the 60s in BLOW-UP), Anneke Wills who wears her jeans in the bath to shrink them, Angela Douglas (who married More). 

David Hemmings, centre

The bored teenagers are only interested in motorbikes and music and are convinced society has no use for them, but are hardly rebels without a cause. Kenny More soon gets them playing – this was all part of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme, which features here. The music is catchy though and it all looks nice in colour. Clive Donner – another under-rated 60s director – helms it, he also directed the Hemmings starrer ALFRED THE GREAT in 1969, after his like WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? and THE CARETAKER, and that other look at teenagers in a suburban city HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH in swinging '67. What is interesting here is the contrast between the options for teenagers in 1962 (in pre-Beatles England) and 5 years later, at the start of the hippie and psychedelic era in 1967 in HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH ... it was a different world for them then!

More early '60s British movies:

TWICE ROUND THE DAFFODILS. This 1962 comedy, adapted from a play, is a CARRY ON in all but name, produced by the regular team Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas. Of interest now mainly for that supporting cast of familiar faces. We join 4 patients who arrive at a hospital for tuberculosis patients (they are still allowed to smoke though!) – RAF type Donald Sinden with an eye for the ladies, funny man Lance Percival, boorish Wesh Donald Houston who is in denial and refuses to accept he is ill – one wants to reach for the mute button every time he starts ranting, and young Andrew Ray. Already on the ward are Ronald Lewis and snobby Kenneth Williams whose only visitor is his dowdy sister Joan Sims. Head nurse is Juliet Mills, and others include nurse Jill Ireland, Sheila Hancock as a loyal girlfriend,. Nanette Newman as the glamorous one who has found someone else with a sports car. The patients are getting better when they can walk twice around the daffodil patch … a slight amusement, matinee fodder perhaps, which shows that the 1960s had yet to begin at Pinewood. 

THE VERY EDGE. This long forgotten 1963 thriller has suddenly been re-discovered – the BFI are screening it in April, but thanks to a fellow correspondent here I have got a ‘screener’. It’s a taut thriller (filmed in Ireland), a Raymond Stross production starring his wife Anne Heywood again as the happy housewife, looking after her husband Richard Todd and her ideal early ‘60s home, who is stalked by a deranged stranger – young Jeremy Brett, terrific here. He follows her around the supermarket and attacks her in her home causing her to miscarry her child. Worried policeman Jack Hedley notes the stranger will be back. Our worried couple move home, but its no use. 

Brett soon has her in his power again as she tries to fight back. We end up on the roof as our brave heroine has to outwit him before help arrives. Add in Nicole Maurey as Todd’s super-efficient secretary with a yen for him, as his and his wife’s marriage falls apart and tension is maintained to the very end. A routine thriller perhaps, but certainly watchable now. With Pauline Delaney, Gwen Watford, Maurice Denham, Barbara Mullen and Patrick Magee, and ably directed by journeyman Cyril Frankel.We liked Heywood recently in that revived I WANT WHAT I WANT from 1972 - Heywood label - where she is a transexual ...

John Wayne in London, 1975

Following on from checking out Gary Cooper in London in 1959, see recent post below, I have now discovered a proper lulu - John Wayne as BRANNIGAN, a DIRTY HARRY type cop taking on the London underworld in the mid-70s, complete with that trashy '70s look, in Douglas Hickox's vastly entertaining movie. BRANNIGAN was the kind of fodder at the local cinema that a young movie buff like me wouldn't bother with in 1975 - we had more arty things by the big boys (Antonioni, Kubrick) to go see (like THE PASSENGER or BARRY LYNDON), but now it could be a new cult classic. It is dizzyingly enteraining, very well cast with all the usual types, as Big John shoots it up and causes car chases, fist fights and general mayhem. A cheerful cheesefest then, with Big John amiably guying his usual shoot-em-ups.

As I said before we grew up on John Wayne films in Ireland - THE QUIET MAN and THE SEARCHERS will always be Top 20 movies for me, and we liked going to see stuff like THE SEA CHASE or THE CONQUEROR and of course RIO BRAVO, followed by good-natured romps like NORTH TO ALASKA and another perfect Hawks film HATARI! ... I also loved LEGEND OF THE LOST in 1957 (Loren, Wayne labels) where he and young Sophia Loren are ideal together in this Sahara western - which was photographed by the great Jack Cardiff, he amusingly relates in his book MAGIC HOUR how Wayne came on set, as explorer Joe January, dressed in his usual cowboy gear. Cardiff asks directed Henry Hathaway"why is he dressed like a cowboy?" Hathaway replies "He always dresses like that" ...

Back to BRANNIGAN - Wayne's detective arrives in London to collect and take back two Mr Bigs: John Vernon (as good as he was in Hitch's TOPAZ) and the oily Mel Ferrer. Brannigan is given pert young Judy Geeson as his driver/assistant, and she looks better here than she did in the dreadful GOODBYE GEMINI IN 1970 (Trash label) and seems to be enjoying herself; Richard Attenborough is the pompous Scotland Yard chief who seems to operate from his Mayfair gentleman's club, assisted by a silent John Stride, while James Booth, Del Henney and others play various sleazy underworld types. I was delighted too to see Pauline Delaney again - she specialised in playing randy Irish landladies (as with Alan Bates in NOTHING BUT THE BEST or with Rod Taylor in YOUNG CASSIDY - '60s label), she is Mrs Cooper here whom Brannigan is billeted with. Wayne seemed relaxed and having fun (its his second last film), he was so iconic in the '50s, but here he is rather an outdated dinosaur with a toupee, but it is all good-natured fun where everyone seems to be in on the joke and having a laugh. An endearing trash classic then, and a fascinating look at mid-70s London. (Wayne is 68 here, he died 4 years later in '79, after those last roles in ROOSTER COGBURN and THE SHOOTIST in '76.

Nothing but the best in 1964

"Let's face it. It's a rotten, stinking world. But there are some smashing things in it - and I want them!" so says our anti-hero we end up rooting for in NOTHING BUT THE BEST, a splendid satirical comedy that is seldom seen now, from 1964 just as London started to Swing. This is a delicious black comedy that is a treat to see again now, as directed by Clive Donner, photographed by Nicolas Roeg and scripted by Frederic Raphael - he went on to script DARLING and TWO FOR THE ROAD next. This is another key British '60s movie then, and should be as well known as ALFIE. Our amoral hero here is Jimmy Brewster who is another Joe Lampton from ROOM AT THE TOP.

Instead of North of England black and white angst, here we are among the movers and shakers in London as humble clerk Jimmy (Alan Bates in as key role for him as his lead in A KIND OF LOVING) works at the offices of property tycoon Harry Andrews, whose high class daughter Millicent Martin (then the star of the weekly satire show THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS) visits regularly. Millie and Alan appraise each other .... Jimmy though soon meets down and out toff Charles Pierce (Denholm Elliot in the role that re-established him) and soon realises how (in return for room and board) he can use Pierce to teach him how to improve his social standing: how to dress, talk and act like a proper upper-class chap able to socialize with the ruling classes and thus climb the ladder of success to become one of them. Jimmy is a willing pupil as he covers up his working class tracks, ultimately sending his unsuspecting parents off on an assisted-passage trip to Australia, leaving him free to pursue the boss's daughter and improve his standing at the company, as he gets rival James Villiers out of the picture.
There is also that very obliging landlady (Pauline Delaney - that marvellous Irish actress who had a similar role in YOUNG CASSIDY) who also sees how she can improve her lot.  Denholm comes into money and begins to realise how Jimmy is using him, even wearing his good clothes and ties which he wants back. So we have a shocking sudden murder leaving Jimmy free to move ahead, the landlady too plays her part in disposing of the body, as long as she gets a regular visit from our rising young man about town. 

This is deliciously played out with many amusing scenes and the large cast including Andrews and Allison Legatt as Jimmy's deluded mother are all just right. Can Jimmy though get away with it? There is a nice twist and Jimmy realises his new wife is on to him but she does not mind, as she knows what a go-getter he is. Like Joe Lampton he too has arrived at the top of the heap but unlike Joe he is determined to enjoy it - and so will audencies for this nice slice of London as the '60s were taking off. 

Clive Donner, who died in 2010 aged 84, seems one of the under-rated '60s directors now, he went on to the success of WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? next, a favourite that defines the '60s for me, as does his HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH, his hippie take on ALFRED THE GREAT is an interesting late '60s costumer with both David Hemmings and Michael York at their best.

Young Cassidy - a John Ford film directed by Jack Cardiff

YOUNG CASSIDY Or: SEAN O'CASEY IN LOVE ? One of 1965's under-rated gems is this biopic of Irish writer Sean O'Casey, a perfect example of American film-making in England in the '60s. It was a project dear to John Ford, but he only spent a few weeks on the film due to illness, so esteemed photographer Jack Cardiff took over, having directed the successful D.H. Lawrence adaptation SONS AND LOVERS himself in 1960.

Ford may only have directed a couple of scenes - the pub fight and meeting Daisy Battles (the radiant young Julie Christie) and the death of Sean's mother, the noble Flora Robson. The cast here is the thing: Rod Taylor is an agreeable presence, ideal in THE BIRDS etc, and certainly makes for a brawling playright! Maggie Smith is Nora, the bookshop girl he loves, but she cannot deal with his growing success and the world he wants to live in. Julie (just before DARLING and DR ZHIVAGO that year) is the happy prostitute he meets a few times, Dame Flora is perfect as the ailing mother, Sian Phillips his poverty-stricken sister - and then theres Edith Evans as Lady Gregory who runs the Abbey Theatre, and Michael Redgrave as W.B.Yeats - heavyweights indeed. Add in Pauline Delaney as the randy landlady, Donal Donnelly, Joe Lynch, Jack McGowran and other assorted Irish characters.

Ford and Cardiff on set, above right.

The Easter Rebellion of 1916 plays out in the background as O'Casey steals books from Maggie's shop and gets his first play written and staged, but he cannot cash his first cheque to pay for his mother's funeral! Finally, he leaves for England and the successes waiting for him. The Dublin backgrounds are nicely staged along with the poverty of the time and its all a breezy romp touching certainly on events in the early O'Casey's life. O'Casey's plays are still being revived, I am off to a National Theatre revivial of JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK in the new year.