Persuasion, Persuasion, Persuasion ...

I have just enjoyed the 1995 BBC production of Jane Austen's PERSUASION (left) once again, its a real film (by Roger Michell, of the BBC film of MY NIGHT WITH REG, plus NOTTING HILL, FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL, THE MOTHER, LE WEEKEND) as opposed to a TV series, and is maybe the best version of this, my favourite Austen novel. It has a perfectly romantic ending. It looks great and super cast too: there's young Simon Russell Beale, Victoria Hamilton, Samuel West, Sophie Thompson and more. This is what I wrote about it, and those 2 other PERSUASIONs back in 2011: I want to see them all again now! :

Away from the Arthouse Classics and Bad Movies We Love and sometimes Utter Trash, we occasionally need a good Costume Drama - and no-one does it better than the BBC or ITV with their Jane Austen adaptations. The recent PERSUASION was an ideal treat after the Royal Wedding, so it was fun to see it again.
I absolutely love Jane Austen's book "Persuasion" and have re-read it several times and no doubt will again. This latest version is quite nice - though Sally Hawkins is a very put-upon dowdy Anne Elliot while Rupert Penry-Jones positively smoulders as Captain Wentworth, and Alice Krige is the meddling Lady Russell. Anne is only 28 after all but is practically an old maid as she missed her chance with the dashing Captain 8 years previously when she was persuaded to give him up as he had no fortune. Now he is back, wealthy and looking for a wife .... we travel from her estate to Bath and Lyme Regis with its famous cobb where that silly Louisa Musgrove famously falls from, as our star-crossed lovers slowly rediscover each other. For me it is a perfect romance. Anne, as Lady Russell knows, is so much better than her frivolous father and bitchy sisters.

.The 1971 version is in 4 parts so can take its time and Ann Firbank and Bryan Marshall are quite ideal but looking at it now it has that bright over-lit look of 70s television. The best version for me is the 1995 BBC production where Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds (below) are quietly excellent, it is nicely condensed and is a real film, as directed by Roger Michell, with able support from Corin Redgrave, Fiona Shaw, Phoebe Nicholls and Susan Fleetwood etc. The most recent version also alters the ending with our heroine running all over Bath to catch up with Wentworth - but then Austen wrote two endings both perfect but not very filmable for a romantic climax!
.The recent SENSE & SENSIBILITY is also a treat, nice to look at - I love their idea of the cottage the poor Dashwoods have to make do with! Dan Stevens and David Morrissey are ideal romantic leads and it all looks a treat
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Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman and a top-notch cast even in the small parts (Gemma Jones, Elizabth Spriggs, Harriet Walter, Imelda Staunton, Hugh Laurie) all make Ang Lee's 1995 film the definitive version, as scriped by Emma (whose playing of the final scene is a delight).
...
And of course the only definitive version of PRIDE & PREJUDICE is the BBC's 1995 version, ideally cast too with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, plus of course Alison Steadman and Benjamin Whitrow as the Bennetts and the fearsome Lady Catherine De Burgh of Barbara Leigh-Hunt and the oily Mr Collins of David Bamber, with Susannah Harker and Anna Chancellor. The 2005 film by Joe Wright with Keira Knightley enraged me with it's filleted version of the book, major characters reduced to the sidelines and its period all over the place. THAT version ended up in the trash can! - despite sterling work by Tom Hollander as Mr Collins and Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench. I just did not see the Bennetts as having pigs in their house! The 1940 film has it's pleasures too though one can hardly take it seriously, Olivier and Garson sparkle though. (A shame though to see Ehle in just the small part of Mrs Logue in Firth's success THE KING'S SPEECH).

The 1999 version of MANSFIELD PARK is also very entertaining with the likes of Sheila Gish, Lindsay Duncan, James Purefoy and Harold Pinter - though Fanny Price is the most priggish, least likeable of Austen's heroines. EMMA and NORTHANGER ABBEY though do not interest me at all! Then of course there are those Merchant-Ivory productions like A ROOM WITH A VIEW, MAURICE, QUARTET, HEAT AND DUST, HOWARD'S END, THE EUROPEANS, THE BOSTONIANS and the great tradition of costume drama continued with CRANFORD and Julian Fellowes' DOWNTON ABBEY, we will be waiting for that second series, let's hope Maggie Smith gets some more great moments. Hmm, maybe it's time to re-visit those '70s hits: Lee Remick as JENNIE Churchill and Francesca Annis as LILLIE Langtry (which also has a sterling Oscar Wilde by Peter Egan)...

Something for the weekend: the mystery of Cyd's skirt

Here's a mystery: Cyd Charisse is clearly wearing a skirt with a pleat at the start of this lovely number with Fred in the 1957 SILK STOCKINGS. But if you look closely during the number it turns into a pair of culottes, presumably to aid the high kicks - but did they think nobody would notice? Maybe they didn't. Cleverly edited though ...

It becomes fairly obvious during the "Fated to be Mated" duet between Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse that Charisse is wearing a skirt one moment and culottes (or flared shorts) the next. The bottom half of her costume changes on each cut of the dance when they are doing deep knee bends, and this is where the culottes show. For the upright spins and lifts, the skirt shows. The dance was obviously performed twice and edited into one sequence.

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.

Top 20 Desert Island Movies

"Desert Island Movies" don't have to be "masterpieces" or classics (though they can be of course), they are not the Best Movies but simply the movies one enjoys watching and can return to many times (you would have to on a desert island) so no Tarkovsky then, Martin Bradley, or even CITIZEN KANE or history of the cinema items (unless of course you enjoy watching Orson's classic over and over, I like it a lot, but ...). No Trash Classics either, much as we like them one would soon tire of them. Movies then with people one likes spending time with and by directors whose visions we like .... (I have written about these extensively already here, as per labels).

• JOHNNY GUITAR - a favourite western and the first movie I ever saw, aged 8, what a vivid introduction to cinema, I never tire of it. The BFI has it on the cover of their new "Sight & Sound" magazine and it features in their upcoming western retrospective. 
• A STAR IS BORN - another early one I saw as a kid in 1954, its even better now its been restored, the best musical drama ever? I love Cukor's staging of those CinemaScope images in rich Warner-color, and of course Judy and James.
• SOME LIKE IT HOT - for me THE Billy Wilder classic and the still funniest film ever made
  
• THE AWFUL TRUTH - a 30s classic thats a fairly recent discovery
• ALL ABOUT EVE - Mank's script and situations and characters we never tire of
• A LETTER TO 3 WIVES - see above
• THE QUIET MAN - back to that mythical Ireland in Ford's enduring favourite
• THE SEARCHERS - Ford's poetic vision of the West is another enduring favourite
• BLACK NARCISSUS - 2 Michael Powell classics - I sometimes think this and I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING are my top favourite films of all time ..... 
• I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING - I love that mythical highlands, those great characters and its a perfect '40s dreamworld movie. 
• BLOW-UP - maybe still my Number One, on my island I want to re-visit that green park and be back in mid-60s London
• L’AVVENTURA - Monica and Antonioni still fascinate me
• THE LEOPARD - I want the opulence of Visconti's classic and revisit that great ball sequence many times, with that Verdi waltz and Delon and Claudia being impossibly beautiful.
• BARRY LYNDON - this or 2001 ? - hard to decide, but I would get more enjoyment re-visiting this Kubrick classic 
• BRINGING UP BABY - the best of screwball, Hawks, Hepburn and Grant? 
  
• THE SCARLET EMPRESS - we also want the opulence of Josef Von Sternberg - this or Marlene emerging from the gorilla skin in BLOND VENUS or the delirious SHANGHAI EXPRESS?
• THE BANDWAGON - maybe my top favourite musical - endlessly rewatchable,
• THE MISFITS - another movie I used to be obsessed by and can live in.
• NIGHT OF THE IGUANA - another Huston favourite, maybe the best Tennessee Williams, great characters and people I like.
• EL CID - probably my favourite epic, again I can revisit it a lot, even though Sophia dismisses it in her latest book. I remember Chuck towering over me back at the BFI in 1971 ...
  
• Oh, let's have one more, it has to be CASABLANCA - a key Golden Age '40s movie that never goes out of fashion - we will always want to go back to Rick's Cafe Americain with Ingrid, and Sam playing "As Time Goes By" ...

Martin has commanded me to stick to 20, so I am gutted to leave out lots more: there's nothing fairly recent here, not even Scorsese; no '40s noirs, no Garbo or James Dean movies, or other musicals (MEET ME IN ST LOUIS, FUNNY FACE) or dramas I love (ANATOMY OF A MURDER, SEPARATE TABLES), and no Hitchcocks - I could do 10 Hitch classics, but which to decide?, then theres all those Hollywood classics and European stuff I like (PLEIN SOLEIL!), or favourites like LES GIRLS or THE WOMEN and its '56 remake THE OPPOSITE SEX or Vincente's DESIGNING WOMAN or THE LION IN WINTER or THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE Then there are Ingmar Bergman's like AUTUMN SONATA or his enchanting recording of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE - ideal for desert island balmy evenings!  It could be a different list some other day ...

Peplum veterans

Let's praise some of our peplum/epic favourite actors, great dependables who always 'add value' and make their scenes come alive .... (I am only focusing on their peplum/costume roles).

Frank Thring (1926-1994): Australian Frank was deliciously evil with a streak of camp, particularly as Aella in THE VIKINGS chopping off Tony Curtis's hand and ending up in the wolf pit, Pontius Pilate in BEN HUR ("A long life young Arrius, and the good sense to live it"), Ad Kadir in EL CID (when the starving citizens of Valencia revolt he gets thrown off the city walls), and his Herod Antipas in KING OF KINGS.  His published biography should be quite interesting.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke (1983-1964): The distinguished thespian was Sethi the old Pharoah in Cecil's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, King Priam in HELEN OF TROY, the Judge in THE STORY OF MANKIND, Tiberius Caesar in SALOME, King Edward in RICHARD III, and the owner of the balloon in the amusing adventure FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON. 

Finlay Currie (1878-1968). 90 year old Finlay clocked up 145 credits, his busy career included lots of epics and costume dramas - in fact any epic had to include Finlay for extra gravitas: David in SOLOMON AND SHEBA, Balthasar in BEN HUR, Magwich in GREAT EXPECTATIONS, the traitor in DANGEROUS EXILE, Peter in QUO VADIS, Cedric in IVANHOE, the Mullah in ZARAK, in TEMPEST, Jacob in JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS, the pope in FRANCIS OF ASSISI, Titus in CLEOPATRA, a senator in THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Right: Finlay with George and Yul in SOLOMON AND SHEBA.

Then, theres: Harry Andrews (1911-1989)  - prolific Harry did some great peplum roles too: I like his Baltor, advisor to Gina's Queen in SOLOMON AND SHEBA. He was in blackface too as Darius the deposed king of Persia in ALEXANDER THE GREAT, Peter in BARABBAS, and Hector in HELEN OF TROY, and in 55 DAYS IN PEKING, Lord Lucan in THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1968).. More on Harry at label. 

Stanley Baker (1928-1976). The very prolific Stanley also did sterling duty in peplums:  starting with Olivier's RICHARD III, Achilles in HELEN OF TROY, Attalus in ALEXANDER THE GREAT, and of course being very nasty in SODOM AND GOMORRAH. Ditto more on Stanley at label. 

We cannot forget George Sanders (1906-1972) who did a whole string of costumers and some epics among his 135 credits..... IVANHOE, Adonijah in SOLOMON AND SHEBA, Charles II in THE KING'S THIEF, hilarious in JUPITER'S DARLING, SON OF FURY, raising his goblet to toast Delilah as the temple falls around them in SAMSON & DELILAH, King Richard in RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, the villain in MOONFLEET etc. 

Henry Daniell (1894-1963) too - sardonic Henry had some good peplum/costume moments in a long career: he is good in THE PRODIGAL 1955, and the Sheik in FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON, 1962 - and in the 1930s MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH & ESSEX, Baron De Varville to Garbo's CAMILLE, Mr Brocklehurst in JANE EYRE,  THE SEA HAWK, SIREN OF ATLANTIS, THE EGYPTIAN, etc.   
Then there's Vincent Price ... and of course Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Jack Palance have also done iconic work in peplums - not to mention Steve Reeves & Co ...
Peter Ustinov too for scene-stealing beyond the call of duty in QUO VADIS, THE EGYPTIAN, SPARTACUS, where he, Olivier and Laughton seemed to be out-acting each other ... 
and the recently departed Douglas Wilmer - see RIP below.

Plus French Jacques Sernas (1925-2015) who died last year. Paris in HELEN OF TROY (right) and Laertes in APHRODITE, GODDESS OF LOVE and in THE NIGHTS OF LUCREZIA BORGIA (both opposite Belinda Lee, below), IMDB lists a lot of his other peplums we do not know here. 

Queen of the peplums has to be our favourite, the tragic Belinda Lee (1935-1961). She also did MESSALINA, MARIE OF THE ISLES, JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS and CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS. Ditto, more on Belinda at label .... including her memorial in Rome. Then there's Scilla Gabel, Rossana Podesta (HELEN OF TROY herself), Anita Ekberg and ...

Theatre news

The New York theatre season is buzzing, just as much as the London one. The Arthur Miller estate is ticking over nicely too. That recent London A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE has just finished in NY, with Mark Strong and the addition of a blonde Russell Tovey; and now that interesting new production of THE CRUCIBLE with Ben Whishaw Sophie Okonedo and BROOKLYN's Saoirse Ronan as Abigail. Here's Ben talking about it and more ....

Arthur Miller did a book signing (PLAIN GIRL) in London in his final years and one had to go along and get a copy signed by the great man. We were not allowed to speak to him, but just to be there in his presence was enough.

Soon: Four 'S's: SENSO, SANDRA, SISSI, MRS STONE; another list: 12 Other British '60s Movies; Cyd Charisse's skirt; those 50s/60s Italian compendium films (GOLD OF NAPLES, THE DOLLS, THE QUEENS, BOCCACCIO 70 etc); the trio of Audrey, Capucine & William Holden plus THE 7TH DAWN and THE LION,,

Hipster boy is now 70 ...

We amused  ourselves yesterday by going through our photo albums, contrasting the changes as the decades went by from the 1960s to now. One had to be slim and 21 in 1967 to get away with these low hipster jeans, and it was the dawn of the hippie era - yes those are beads and a bell around my neck ! 

I remember this moment vividly, waiting for a bus in Clapham in 1969 with flat-mates Stan and Joe, we were going up to Kings Road in Chelsea on a Saturday afternoon, to mingle with the other beautiful people - that would be the 137 bus then ...  (we photographed each other a lot in the Golden Age, with real cameras, before digital and cellphones - all photo negatives had to be taken to the chemist to be developed ...).
Below: Posing in a caftan in front of an OZ magazine hippie poster .... very 1967! A year later we were dropping acid at The Roundhouse watching The Doors and Jefferson Airplane, as well as seeing Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger ("This Wheel's on Fire") at Middle Earth club and supergroups like The Who, Traffic, The Band (at The Albert Hall), plus Aretha and my first Joni Mitchell concert ...

1970s.

1980s

1990s

This Pride event was 1999 - I am wearing the official Total Eclipse tee-shirt (which we were stunned by watching it, with special glasses, from the office rooftop in London's Regent Street). I loved those shorts which I wore a lot (and still have those Caterpillar boots) until I got those Schotts navy blue combats which became my pants of choice for clubbing nights - with a terrific blue Ralph Lauren shirt which I literally wore out. 

2000s

So what a contrast from that 9 year old with his dog in 1955 Ireland, and doing the Beatle look a decade later in 1964,  to late last year, getting over cancer treatment .... and where does 50 year go ?
So, 70 and feeling better - a new chapter starting too, as moving at the end of this month to a brand new apartment complex, 10 floors up - great views, especially at night - and it gives one the opportunity to re-invent oneself and one's surroundings for a couple of years before we move back to the 'wild altantic way' in Ireland.. Here we go again ...
more pix at Me-1 label. 

Something for the weekend 3: the pop kids

13 albums in, the golden age of The Pet Shop Boys may be behind them,  but they remain masters of their very singular domain. The new album SUPER ticks all the right boxes for devotees: "The Pop Kids" is the standout and is their current single - I have just ordered it with various remixes (including an extra verse and lyrics) and some other tracks - their CD singles are always worth investigating for extra numbers (or 'B-sides' as we used to call them:  "Sexy Northerner", "The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On", "The Truck Driver and his Mate" etc). 

"Happiness" is also a delightful slab of boppy, nursery rhyme pop. Neil Tennant (a pop veteran at 61) still sounds simultaneously wry and mournful and Chris Lowe's (56) euphoric keyboards still tickle both heart and body. They have the pop sensibility down pat, they are indestructible, after 30 years and still going .... roll on their Royal Opera House shows in July. Nice that one can still be a Pop Kid at any age. SUPER is produced by Stuart Price, who also put Madonna through her paces. 

Something for the weekend 2: Thompson Twins

Thompson Twins were a British music group that formed in April 1977 and disbanded in May 1993. Initially a new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity in the mid-1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States, and around the globe.

The band was named after the two bumbling detectives Thomson and Thomson in Hergé's comic strip THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN. At various stages, the band had up to seven members though their best known incarnation was as a trio between 1982–86. Tom Bailey has one of the great pop voices, up there with Boy George, Jimmy Sommerville, George Michael, Stevie Winwood and the late Jack Bruce, or the very singular voices of Holly Johnson and Neil Tennant.
Actually, "Doctor, Doctor" could be my theme song this week: I had an endoscopy on Wednesday, saw my GP (local doctor) this morning, and am having a CT Scan on Monday - all to complete my cancer treatment, which finished in January ..... and which seems to have been successful. I will know the results a week later, when see my consultant on the 11th. Fingers crossed ...

Something for the weekend: Marlene & Von Sternberg

Just a couple of stills to remind ourselves how marvellous those Von Sternberg films like BLOND VENUS, THE SCARLET EMPRESS, MOROCCO etc were and they still look mysterious, glamorous and amazing now - thanks to Marlene (particularly emerging from that gorilla skin, does 1930s cinema get better?). John Lodge looks the business too ... then there is the delirious THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN .... must see that again soon, and then back to Garbo and all her classics.