"Life during wartime" ...

Given my penchant for  1940s British movies, both of the war years and that grim post-war era, its surprising I never saw WATERLOO ROAD before. Its a 1944 Gainsborough gem set around Waterloo Road in South London, just behind Waterloo railway station and there are lots of shots of the station then and those streets and back to back houses.

I felt at times I was watching an alternative THIS HAPPY BREED or IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, as we encounter squaddie John Mills, unfaithful wife Joy Shelton (who does not register at all - it needed a Kay Walsh) and the widest of wide boys Stewart Granger (before he decamped for Hollywood) as the spiv putting the make on Mills' wife. Mills goes AWOL to track him down and that very brutal fight follows. 

Add in Alistair Sim as the local doctor, Jean Kent as local good time girl, Beatrice Varley as the worried mother and the great Alison Legatt (above)as another nagging spinster aunt (as she was in THIS HAPPY BREED). She is as under-rated as Kathleen Byron)  I loved it, directed by Sidney  Gilliat. Play it with HOLIDAY CAMP or THE WAY TO THE STARS or 2,000 WOMEN, THE BLUE LAMP, POOL OF LONDON etc.

Christmas treats: a new Moonfleet plus ...

MOONFLEET. Growing up in the quiet coastal town of Moonfleet in eighteenth century Dorset, fifteen year-old orphan, John Trenchard, dreams of the infamous Blackbeard's treasure - little does he know what is in store for him.

I was pleased to see a new version of MOONFLEET on television here after Christmas, another enterprising Sky production in two parts, which should do justice to the book, that marvellous tale of 18th century smugglers, a childhood classic, by J. Meade Faulkner, originally published in 1898, its a great tale of shipwrecks, a hidden diamond, crypts and churchyards hiding their secrets ...

Elements of it were used for the 1955 Fritz Lang film, MOONFLEET, for me a childhood matinee delight, and I like seeing it whenever it is on (I have the dvd too of course), though made in California it conjures up those secret coves and seaside adventurers, with some great Cinemascope images.The hero here is Jeremy Fox - Stewart Granger - and its a whole different story to the book, with Jon Whiteley (HUNTED, THE SPANISH GARDENER) as the boy coming in search of him. George Sanders and Joan Greenwood are the villains here, Joan in particular with only two scenes, stealing the film.

Last Christmas, Ray Winstone was a good Magwich in that new BBC version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS (the one where Pip was prettier than Estella), and also Quintus Arrius in that unnecessary new BEN HUR, this year he is Elzevir Block, leader of the smugglers down Dorset way, (a minor character in the 1955 version) leading our young hero into all kinds of escapes as they avoid the magistrates and the soldiers, and hunt down that elusive diamond.  Thrills and spills all round then ...

More television gold in THE THIRTEENTH TALE, also on before New Year, a creepy horror tale adapted by Christopher Hampton, the casting is the thing here as we follow aging novelist Vida Winter, who enlists a young writer to finally tell the story of her life including her mysterious childhood spent in Angelfield House, which burned to the ground when she was a teenager. It features Vanessa Redgrave as Vida in a long red wig, and our actress of the year Olivia Colman (below) (BROADCHURCH, REV etc) as the writer to comes to hear her story ..... 

 

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY should be good too, a three-parter from the successful novel by P.D. James imagining a murder mystery at Pemberley six years after the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth in PRIDE & PREJUDICE. More watchable costume drama then .... it may be super or send us back to the classic BBC 1995 version ...then of course there is the Christmas DOWNTON ABBEY special, with new guests including James Fox. Ok, Christmas television is quite good then with lots of plums among the glitter and tinsel. 

Treat 1: Joanna Lumley as the dancing Queen in GANGSTA GRANNY, David Walliam's new christmas film (even better than last year's MR STINK) with dear Julia McKenzie as the granny who is an international jewel thief. and Treat 2: that hilarious moment from MRS BROWN'S BOYS when Agnes tells bitchy Hilary (Susie Blake) what happened to the chocolate that was on the peanuts she has been eating ...

STRICTLY COME DANCING also finished on a high, with a great win by Abbey Clancy, who with partner Aljaz, dazzled on the dance floor. She is not only a model but a super, lovely girl with a natural charm, almost a new Brigitte Bardot!, as Bruno noted. We adore her. Here's that sizzling samba:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcuKwfbTOFY

 Award season should be interesting too, maybe the best in years. Several titles like 12 YEARS A SLAVE have not opened here yet (thats due 10th January!), nor has ALL IS LOST .... but I am already visualising a tie between Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench as best actress, with Cuaron as best director and maybe GRAVITY as best film ...

Some actors' biographies ...

I had not realised that actor James Fox had written an autobiography, back in 1983, until a friend, Colin, mentioned it. I got a cheap copy from Amazon and what a fascinating read it is, a short 150 pages, with a 4 page introduction by Dirk Bogarde, who claimed he saw Fox on tv and decided he would be perfect for the role of Tony in THE SERVANT ... (Sarah Miles also claims that she was cast first and demanded that her then boyfriend, Fox, be tested as he would be ideal for Tony!). 

As I saw James, with Sarah and their co-star Wendy Craig in person about a month ago at a Q&A to promote the Blu-ray 50th Anniversary release of THE SERVANT (as per posts below, Fox label) this is all fascinating stuff - for me, anyway. Fox was the typical '60s golden boy, from a privileged, theatrical background - his father a well-known agent, his brother Edward also an actor. He had quite a fascinating life before THE SERVANT - some child actor roles,  a Harrow schoolboy, military national service in Kenya, a coldstream guard (with his bearskin) and stepping out with the young Sarah Miles. In the age of angry young men (or 'the Uglies' as Bogarde called them) he stood out and was soon in Hollywood (KING RAT, THE CHASE etc - as per reviews at Fox label). We loved his Jimmy Smith in THOROUGH MODERN MILLIE doing The Tapioca with Millie Dillmount and her pals. He then did the hippie route in Morocco (like in his film DUFFY). He describes the troubled shoot on PERFORMANCE (below) too ... as the book blurb puts it:

"Unexpected change came in 1969, when James converted to Christianity. For 10 years he worked among students for a Christian organisation The Navigators. Then came the momentous decision to return to acting. Film and television roles quickly re-established his reputation and made his comeback a triumph". 

Bogarde says it is a "moving and searingly honest" biography. James has continued acting and is still working now in his '70s in parts big and small, its a fascinating career. 

John Fraser was perhaps the Jude Law of '50s and early '60s British cinema until that new crop came along ... he is a terrific Bosie (as petulant as Jude in the Stephen Fry film) opposite Peter Finch's Oscar in the 1960 THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE, and was one of the warring princes in EL CID, among other career highlights. His book is a fascinating read, particularly on how an actor keeps going once the intitial 10 years success has receded .... I saw the openly-gay Fraser at the National Theatre promoting this book when it was first published in 2006, and it was certainly an interesting evening. There is also a very different Dirk Bogarde on view here, as Fraser co-starred with him in 1959's THE WIND CANNOT READ, and he was a visitor at the Bogarde-Forwood residence, which makes for a fascinating chapter. There is also a hilarious mad night out John describes, in the mid-'60s when he was summoned by his pal, capricious actress Jill Bennett, to join her and her co-star Bette Davis (THE NANNY) for a night on the town. This catches Davis at her most malevolent and makes for a nightmare night, culminating when they met The Beatles!  A brilliant read ...

Tom Courtenay has also done a terrific memoir DEAR TOM, now in paperback - comprising in part of letters written by his mother to him when he was a student at RADA in London, fresh down from Hull. Its a marvellous read of an actor's development as well as a testament to the love he shared with his parents, and particularly his mother. One cannot recommend this too much. 

There are also of course the Dirk Bogarde memoirs - all 8 or 9 of them, covering aspects of his life and career. I particuarly like SNAKES AND LADDERS on his Rank and international years, and A SHORT WALK FROM HARRODS on their (his and Tony Forwood's) final years in France before age and ill-health forced a return to London .... Apart from claiming he discovered James Fox, Dirk also claimed credit for discovering Brigitte Bardot, in a magazine feature, where he said he was testing young French actresses (for DOCTOR AT SEA in '56) ... whether this is true or not -
BB had already been in films before that, as in HELEN OF TROY in '55,  its certainly a good story. 

We also like and recommend Sarah Miles' volumes of autobiography, SERVES ME RIGHT, being the best and again full of marvellous stories on Olivier, Signoret, Bogarde, Laurence Harvey and others. Sarah was "Dainty Miles" as per Bogarde's nickname for her.  
Left: Sarah's recent interview for THE SERVANT re-release.

Terence Stamp's "Waterloo Sunset"?

Then for more '60s memoirs, there's Terence Stamp's trio, including STAMP ALBUM and DOUBLE FEATURE.  

Terence features in a terrific read "DON'T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN" by Robert Sellers, chronicling the rise of that new acting generation: or as the cover puts it: "How One Generation of British Actors Changed the World" - a sweeping statement if ever I heard one! (well, they certainly changed their bank balances...).

"It brings alive the trailblazing period of theatre and film from 1956-1964 through the vibrant energy and exploits of this revolutionary generation of stars who bulldozed over austerity Britain and paved the way for the swinging sixties. They are the most formidable acting generation ever to tread the boards or stare into a camera, whose anti-establishment attitude changed the cultural landscape of Britain. Their drinking and revelling was a two-fingered salute to the middle-class acting hierarchy that had always dominated British film and theatre".

They are Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, Tom Courtenay, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp, Michael Caine et al .... they may have started out as hellraisers on the stage, but soon though some like Caine had settled down very nicely in the movies and began making lots of money - replacing the old guard (Todd, Mills, More and Bogarde...). Others, like Shaw, who had a rivalry with Connery, died too young or burned out too quickly ....  others like Finney, O'Toole (who somehow made it to his 80s), Courtenay, Stamp are still here and working when it (or a project) suits them ... Bates had to keep his bisexuality under wraps while the others defined rampant heterosexuality! A surprising fact is that Sam Spiegel was going to replace the ailing Monty Clift in SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER in 1959 with the young O'Toole - who had to wait a few more years for his breakthrough role .... We have done quite a bit on David Hemmings here too, and his fascinating memoir on the making of BLOW-UP etc, a '60s essential - Hemmings label.

Veteran British actress Virginia McKenna has also penned an enchanging memoir THE LIFE IN MY YEARS, on her years in movies and theatre, her marriage to Bill Travers and their work with wildlife, from when they made BORN FREE, RING OF BRIGHT WATER and others. Its a marvellous, delightful story  of a life well lived. I passed Virginia in the street once - she was a very striking lady - she toured with Yul Brynner in THE KING AND I, played Desiree in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC in London (after Jean Simmons) and of course those films like A TOWN LIKE ALICE and CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE. Her one with Bogarde though (SIMBA) does not get a mention .... of course that was not really made in Africa, but safely at Pinewood!  She is still involved with her charities in her 80s. I shall shortly be catching up with her 1957 THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH. Her book has a nice introduction by Joanna Lumley with just the right amount of gush.

English actor Michael Craig (see Craig label) busy in the '50s, a Rank replacement for Dirk Bogarde, co-starring with favourites like Dirk, Susan Hayward (STOLEN HOURS), Monica Vitti, and in films like THE ANGRY SILENCE and Visconti's SANDRA with Clauda Cardinale, and popping up in Losey's MODESTY BLAISE, also played Streisand's Nicky Arnstein (left) in the 1966 London production of FUNNY GIRL which I saw, has also written an engaging memoir on being a young actor and on his long career - he is now in his 80s and retired in Australia - he writes interestingly on working with both Streisand and Julie Andrews (he was her beau in STAR!) and their very different working methods.

Other worthwhile biographiies include those by James Mason (BEFORE I FORGET), Stewart Granger (SPARKS FLY UPWARD) and Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer (CHANGE LOBSTERS AND DANCE) giving their separate views on those Kay Kendall year; plus Bacall's, Ingrid Bergman's - touching on her last night in the theatre (The Haymarket, London) and before the camera (GOLDA), and Simone Signoret's wise and witty NOSTALGIA ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE (Simone by the way was a friend of Dirk Bogarde's as well, though like Ingrid, they never worked together. He used to meet her at the Colombe D'or at St Paul de Vence, and she went to see the farmhouse he was going to buy, which she approved.).... Victor Spinetti's was a joyous read too, not only on his terrific life but his work and play with The Beatles, Marlene, The Burtons and others (he died last year, as per my RIP).
Memoirs we would have liked, if they had been written: Lee Remick's, Deborah Kerr's, Stephen Boyd's ...

Rainy day flicks

Its been raining here all week, after a warm March, its now a very wet and windy April - ideal weather for afternoons watching favourite old movies .... and quite a good bunch are on this week, ones I can settle down in front of any time, (despite having the dvds!)

I regard Fritz Lang’s MOONFLEET [and Richard Thorpe’s QUENTIN DURWARD [reviewed at Kay Kendall label] as the high points of mid-50s MGM costume dramas. MOONFLEET in '55 is a marvellous re-telling of the childrens’ classic suitably changed for the cinema with great Scope compositions. Lang shot it in California but it just looks perfectly right. Stewart Granger is another dashing hero, Jon Whiteley is the little boy in search of his inheritance [he co-starred with Dirk Bogarde in THE SPANISH GARDENER (Bogarde label) the next year], George Sanders is the perfect scoundrel and Joan Greenwood only has two (but very memorable) scenes as the mocking villainess. It captures the 18th century saga of smuggling and country churchyards just right . It’s a treat I can watch anytime…. I like the book too but Lang's version is a suitably changed for the cinema version.

THE VIKINGS is a movie kids enjoyed hugely back then in 1958, and we still do now 50 years later. Its just a perfectly made period romp by Richard Fleischer, photographed by Jack Cardiff in Norway, great supporting cast, score by Nascimbene and narrated by Orson Welles. Douglas and Curtis are the warring half-brothers and Janet Leigh the Welsh princess they fight over. Janet is at her loveliest here – I have always liked the scene when Tony rips her bodice so she can row the boat as they escape, Eileen Way is great as Kitala the witch who saves Curtis from those crabs! Borgnine chews the scenery as Ragnar while Frank Thring essays another study in villainy as Ayella with the wolf pit. It all certainly brings the dark ages to life! - great castle seige too. and that final fight between Kirk and Tony as the waves crash against the rocks below -  and it remains a television staple. James Donald, Maxine Audley and Alexander Knox are all sterling support. Its always a laugh now when Kirk manhandles Janet's maid who is "silly moo" Dandy Nichols!

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK - another television staple but this is a better than average telemovie, with a sterling cast playing out the Dumas warhorse, as directed by Mike Newell in 1977 and lensed by the great Freddie Young in those real French locations. It is the oft-told tale of Louis XIV of France and his attempts to keep his identical twin brother Philippe imprisoned away from sight and knowledge of the public, and Philippe's rescue by the aging Musketeers, led by D'Artagnan (Louis Jourdan, a dab hand at this kind of thing). Richard Chamberlain is both the man in the mask and Louis XIV. A glowering Patrick McGoohan is our prime villain Fouquet and Jenny Agutter is lovely as usual. For me the movie is made by Ralph Richardson in his element as Colbert, also with Ian Holm, and the marvellous Vivien Merchant as Maria Theresa - who soon spots the duplicate King but realises she is better off with him than the real king who ignores her, also Brenda Bruce as Anne of Austria. Great derring-do then played out by a splendid cast.

Other perfect rainy afternoon movies would be sitting back again with ALL ABOUT EVE or A LETTER TO 3 WIVES or Wyler's THE HEIRESS, or indeed THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT or some '50s epics like LAND OF THE PHAROAHS or THE PRODIGAL, Sophia's BOY ON A DOLPHIN or LEGEND OF THE LOST, Janet Leigh's musical MY SISTER EILEEN with Bob Fosse, Joan Crawford's JOHNNY GUITAR or of course Kay Kendall in Cukor's LES GIRLS or Minnelli's THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, which I am seeing again on the big screen at the London British Film Institute's National Film Theatre in a few weeks with my IMDB pal Timshelboy, so more on that then ...

Saturday is rainy too, and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE is scheduled, but much as I like hanging out with Pola, Loco and Schatze, I think I will go with another Negulesco I have written about quite a bit here: WOMAN'S WORLD, that great 1954 Fox charmer with Clifton Webb leading that cast ... and fighting off the attentions of go-getting Arlene Dahl! - poured into that slinky green number with the little fur-trimmed bolero she very knowingly removes ...

Westerns I love: Johnny Guitar / North to Alaska

A western double bill!



JOHNNY GUITAR was the very first film I saw, aged 8 - what a vivid introduction to cinema, I was mesmerised by the woman in white about to be hanged, and that other woman in black shooting down the lamps and setting the place on fire. Then of course later when I knew which film it was repeated viewings made it more delirious and desirable than ever. I just simply love it. Nice now to have good dvd showing that odd Republic Technicolor, with an introduction by Marty Scorsese, no less (as good as his one for EL CID).

Then there are those tales of the feud between Joan and Mercedes on set, it is all though oddly poetic as directed by Nick Ray. Joan is perfect as Vienna "sitting at her piano in her own home" waiting for the railroad to come so she can sell out. McCambridge is Emma Small the vicious town boss who is oddly drawn to the Dancing Kid, or perhaps it is Vienna she is drawn to and cannot act on it? The men - even Ward Bond - are just stooges here, as Emma and Vienna dominate. Events move at a pace as the two women face up to the climax. Sterling Hayden is sterling again as the quiet Johnny - his scenes with Vienna as they try to recapture their lost love are just so perfect. Then the lynch mob arrive ... For a child of 8 it was a marvellous experience and led to my being taken to other westerns that year: THE COMMAND, DRUM BEAT, SITTING BULL and other movies like A STAR IS BORN. Looking at it again now the architecture is fascinating: Vienna's large casino, the waterfall hiding the way to the mountain cabin - and what a perfect cabin it is... one almost wants to live there.

Moving on to 1960, that perennial comedy western NORTH TO ALASKA is thankfully a tv staple - one simply never tires of it. Henry Hathaway directs and 20th Century Fox producton values ensure it looks good - that early sequence with the tree loggers at their picnic is not really necessary at all but all part of the lazy rambling structure of the film. Wayne here, after those iconic roles in THE QUIET MAN, THE SEARCHERS and RIO BRAVO the previous year (and those perfect 50s programmers like THE SEA CHASE and LEGEND OF THE LOST), is having fun as is Stewart Granger - good to see them together, Fabian is the younger brother (he was cute then after HOUND DOG MAN in '59) and there is the running joke of him continually being manhandled by exasperated Wayne, especially when Capucine arrives as the replacement girlfriend. Cap is delightful here and holds her own well with Wayne and joins in the knockabout.

That muddly climax at the end has them all fighting in the mud - with Ernie Kovacs as the shady operator and lots of fun all round. It shows frontier life then almost as well as in McCABE & MRS MILLER! So, a fun film with people I like! Wayne and Granger are as adroit as ever at this late stage of their careers but they were not winding down yet - while Capucine and Fabian show comedy skills and provide the eye candy. What's not to like?

Edit: It won't let me reply to the Comment, so here is what I wanted to add:

Indeed - Johnny Guitar is so vivid it plays almost like a cartoon - very accessible for a child seeing his first movie!
Capucine is indeed a very independent woman in Alaska, holding her own with the men, even if she is playing a haughty "saloon girl" but she is not a pathetic one like Lee Remick was in the '59 western "These Thousand Hills".

Fantasy double bill: The Moonspinners / Moonfleet

Here's an antidote to grey wintry snowy skies: THE MOON SPINNERS, a 1964 Walt Disney confection set in sunny Crete - its still a delicious entertainment. One of Walt's Hayley Mills films it boasts an incredible cast of various acting styles from silent star Pola Negri to method man Eli Wallach, plus cute young leads Hayley and Peter McEnery, intense Greek actress Irene Papas (who is wasted here in a nothing role), marvellous British stage and movie actress Joan Greenwood (whom I have rhapsodised about several times here, see label) and English farcuers John Le Mesurier and Sheila Hancock - now one of England's great dames.

Directed by Disney regular James Neilson from a Mary Stewart adventure story, it has Hayley as the sweet young thing travelling in Greece with her Aunt (la Greenwood) who is collecting local folksongs for the BBC!, and becoming involved with strange young chap McEnery who it turns out is spying on local crook Wallach as he (Peter, that is) lost his job at the bank due to some missing jewels which it turns out Eli is going to sell to the reclusive wealthy Madam Habib (Pola - who makes a splendid late entrance with her pet leopard) - dependable Andre Morell (Mr Greenwood) captains her yacht where everyone converges for the climax. Add in escapes from locked windmills and lots of local colour, plus of course Hayley's first proper kiss! So it is all sweetly amusing.



A grimmer view of Crete was also on view that year, in Cacoyannis's ZORBA THE GREEK, which at least had an iconic role for Papas. McEnery (who was the boy in VICTIM) went on to an interesting career, he did another Disney THE FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONEGAL, and Vadim snapped him up for LA CUREE (THE GAME IS OVER) with sex kitten Fonda, he was with Glenda Jackson in NEGATIVES, and well as ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE (as the enterprising Mr Sloane) and THE ADVENTURES OF GERARD etc. He was the first Hamlet I saw on stage in 1967, and also in an 80s revivial of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. I always liked Hayley back then, but she grew up to be perfectly ordinary as an adult - it was nice seeing her recently as the mother in law in an African medical tv series WILD AT HEART.

This is really a Joan Greenwood double bill - she is also fascinating in Fritz Lang's 1955 adventure MOONFLEET - which is totally different from the children's classic novel by J Meade Faulkner. It is also filmed in California but captures perfectly late 18th century England among the smugglers of the Dorset coast. Jon Whiteley is the little boy sent to stay with Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger, at his most dashing) who of course is the leader of the smugglers. Add in churchyards, deserted tombs, a missing diamond, and intrigue with villains George Sanders and Joan Greenwood and one has a perfect period entertainment. Viveca Lindfors is also present. This is one I enjoyed as a child and still do now, its one of the high points (like ADVENTURES OF QUENTIN DURWARD) of the MGM '50s costume drama.