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richard-meredith27
Reviews
El robo del siglo (2020)
Seems very familiar
I give this an 8 because it is everything other reviewers have said: well acted, fast paced at times, and absorbing. For once, the subtitles are clear and well presented without cluttering up , or losing screen space.
My one thought is that it seems too familiar despite it being advertised as based on a true Bank raid in 2006. For example: escaping from the bank through their tunnel was the main plot line in "Daylight Robbery" (UK, 2008); and, using the sewers is common enough "Sewers of Gold", (UK,1979) and "Loophole", (Uk,1981). In the latter film the gang also make their way out of the sewers using a parked van to mask their movements. So, did the real life robbers see those films, or did the makers add those elements in tribute? Who cares, it is still a great film and worth watching and cheering on.
The Devil's Jest (1954)
Truly, truly awful
I have just sat through this b-picture. The plot, dialogue, sound, picture, sets, even those in Syon House, are earth-shattering terrible, even at a time when quota quickies were all the rage.
Avoid if you can and preserve Valentine Dyall's memory in something more memorable.
Goodnight Sweetheart: It Ain't Necessarily So (1996)
Sort of loses the plot...
Goodnight Sweetheart was a strong idea which, sadly lost it in the last series when the writers/ creators lost control. However, even in this series a large fistful of salt has to be taken to follow this plot.
In the previous episode Gary manages to warn the Americans about Pearl Harbour. So far so good, as no-one knows what prompted the US to send their carriers to sea 'just in time'.
However, to cover his modern day self, Gary had told Phoebe and the crowd he was off to Singapore when he was going for a two week skiing trip with Yvonne. The problem is he arrives back at the Royal Oak before New Years Eve, and had apparently gone east, done his 'secret work' and returned all within 14 days. Not bad for an era when his only transport would have been RAF flying boat or troop ship...
Leaving that aside no-one seems aware that Japan also began fighting the British empire on the same day as Pearl Harbour. Put it another way, if Gary had got to Singapore he would have probably ended up in a POW camp on 14th Feb.
However, ignore that and the effortless way he moves between the East and Cricklewood to time-jump this is an enjoyable fantasy.
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Why?
I watched this last night and managed to get through the opening scene to Poirot getting on the train. Then I switched over. Sorry, but this was a farrago of nonsense from his demanding two identical eggs; deliberately stepping into donkey manure to catching a thief with lots of PC leftie rubbish. Branagh was once a talented and powerful player and director in this work he has degenerated into one massive ego trip. The worst Poirot ever!
Gideon's Way: The Lady-Killer (1964)
John Creasey writer?
I can't fault this film. The Actors, the scenes, everything is good and I recommend it for people who like intelligent television with that vintage feel. You know the sort of thing I mean: real police uniforms, black cars, deserted roads, lots of fields. My only niggle is that it seems too rushed .
Normally Gideon's crimes take place over a couple of days at the most. The action here is supposed to take place over several months and I think it suffers a little. It all seems too rushed and coincidental. Had it been a full length movie then it would have been perfect. But then, they may have had to acknowledge the true source of the story. A thriller called "Lady Killer" by Anthony Gilbert, published in 1951. I'm surprised that Gilbert (real name Lucy Mallison, cousin of the actor Miles Mallison) who died in 1973, did not sue!
Water's Edge (1990)
time for this to be re-released
I found a few scenes of this film on an old VHS tape I was discarding. What I've got is good and well acted. The scene where the pilots' skull comes off the corpse when the plane is dragged form the pond is superb.
I remember the whole thing as a fantastic evocation of the English rural scene and coming of age in the 1960's. There is a hint of 'Cider with Rosie' in the wild-wood scenes but none the worst for that. Dudley Sutton proves (once again) he is one of the great character actors and makes a superb Vicar which may surprise those who only know him as the frequently drunk Tinker in ' Lovejoy'. As for the juvenile actors? Who they were and what came of them I've no idea.
As Ashley Pharoah is now one of TV's top writers, it's time the BBC /BFI took it out of which ever archive this film rests and repeated it. Or at least released it on DVD.
Screen Two: East of Ipswich (1987)
thank god for the sixties!
The 50's were a strange time for British youth and families. The war was over and er...that's it. Its the fag end of empire and this film is the fag end of childhood and seaside holidays.
The film is a rites of passage film and tells us how awful it was to have raging hormones, no outlet and be in a situation where family and society did not know about teen-age, or frivolity. Everybody, from the Elderly down to Child, exists in a vacuum of dullness. The only exception to the 'rule of grey' is the sexually promiscuous Dutch girl who knows everything is so boring and has to change, or be changed. (No doubt she ended up hanging around in Hamburg with Astrid, Klaus and Stu Sutcliffe.) The film is a skillful piece of work by Michael Palin and is based on his own childhood memories of holidays on the Suffolk coast. It is a pity he has not continued to write more films like this, instead of concentrating on the lucrative travel documentary market, because he brings a mild absurdity to everyday life giving 'East of Ipswich' a dusting of John Betjeman over an Alan Bennett prosaic narrative.
But perhaps I am being too serious. It is a jolly film with some belly laughs and good lines, and well paced.
There is a lot to look and listen out for. The nod towards fellow Ex-Python Eric Idle's 'nudge, nudge' sketch; the cast, all of whom are solid TV and stage characters; the Sea Side Mission (recently the subject of a radio discussion); the skiffle and jazz soundtrack; the cricket commentary and, of course the grotesque boarding house.
Made by the BBC for Screen Two and subsequently shamefully neglected it deserves a new audience and a place on the cultural history curriculum.
The One That Got Away (1957)
British film doing what it did best
'The One That Got Away' is the story of the only German to escape allied captivity. That much is evident from the title, but the main interest for me is the accurate portrayal of the British interrogation centres for enemy offices in, and around, London. Even in the 1950's when this film was made, much of this side of wartime intelligence work was concealed.
I like the film- but I admit I always enjoy POW films- but I question the way we are manipulated to think of Von Werra as 'a good German'. It was necessary as we were rehabilitating West Germnay into a democratic Europe and NATO at the time the film was released, however, the the scriptwriter has erased most references to Nazi Germany, which obviously helped form the central character's personality and belief system. To say that Von Werra believed in nothing but himself is a cop-out.
And of course, as a historian, I suspect the whole premise of 'The One...' surely others escaped, especially from temporary 'cages' in battle zones?
The Way Ahead (1944)
You could do a lot worse
By the time THE WAY AHEAD was released Britain was sinking under American servicemen and hardware. This film excludes the allies to tell how a group of conscripts were moulded into a unit in 1940 and finally go into battle in the western desert a couple of years later.
It's easy to pick holes: yes, it was unlikely that National Servicemen would be trained by the same men who went into battle; and who was that incredibly generous woman offering baths (5 inches of water only) to servicemen? but on the whole it is a lot more realistic (and murky)than some of the US output of the same era.
Having said that, I shall add my own pick: it was unlikely that 1940 conscripts would have been as old as Stanley Holloway. The call up for older men did not happen until later in the war when we began to run out of men.
But this is forgiven by David Niven's performance. He manages to avoid John Wayne-type clichés especially at the end when they are faced with overwhelming odds and he just knuckles down to the job.
His soldiers are also portrayed as human types. Although they hold the usual film world clichéd roles- cockney, middle class shop worker, shouting sergeant and off, they cheat in exercises and whine about their lot.
The moment when their troopship loaded with supplies sinks might also be a first for wartime films. And a reminder to the audience such things happened and they had to replace it all by working harder.
The men then get R & R in Gibralter before ending up somewhere in the Western Desert. It is not a heroic war and the desert town with Peter Ustinov, as a less than happy bar owner, is less picturesque than 'Lawrence of Arabia' or 'Ice Cold in Alex'.
Give it a whirl. You could do a lot worse.
Seven Days to Noon (1950)
Still effective and thoughtful after 55 years
The Boulting Brothers stray from their usual cheery British comedy films to make this effective and thoughtful thriller. Leaving the plotting to one side, it is remarkable as, at that time, the Government was laying the basis for the U.K.'s independent atomic deterrent and the effects of Atomic and Nuclear testing were never discussed. (ask the poor soldiers who watched the tests in Australia!) The issue is never resolved, and in the end the Professor can't make his case publicly.
Part of the film shows the evacuation of London. It harks back to the great evacuations of 1939/4 and invokes the same spirit. Oddly enough, Wartime studios had not portrayed the Home Front (other than nods to Fire Services or War-Work)and perhaps this is a belated look back. It does show one incident that would never have passed the wartime censor's pencil- the shooting of looters.
Other cultural notes: How easy it was for the studios to clear London even then the most traffic congested city in England, and to get the army to lend hundreds of personnel (and demonstrate their efficiency). And the great attraction of the old 1950's films: glimpses of bomb sites, long lost street scenes and forgotten buildings.
Watch it and remember its been 55 years since this film was made and 7/7. I don't think the genre was attempted again. Instead Studios turned to Sci-Fi ( a thin disguise for the external Russian menace).
The Walking Stick (1970)
Icon turns seedy.
David Hemmings was THE Icon of Swinging 1960's London following his performance in 'Blow Up'. Here he plays Leigh, a slightly sinister seedy artist in 1969/ 70's London, who picks up Deborah (a very beautiful Samantha Eggar) at a fashionable party in Hampstead.
Leigh is a sordid betrayer and crook who may be only using Deborah to gain access to the auction house she works in. When she realises this, Deborah proves to be capable of dealing with the problem and her walking stick, far from eliciting sympathy for her minor disability, proves to be a prop for her strengths.
It is a good example of British Cinema. A strong storyline, originally by author Winston Graham, is moved along by well lit, deep technical images of a London that has in the case of the West India Dock sequences disappeared. And unlike modern films it is not afraid of silence. The music is sparse and appropriate (check out the guitar solo. Isn't it familiar?).
This is a film to buy and watch when the alternative on a wet Bank Holiday is endless 'Carry-On' or Sitcom spin-off films being shown back-to-back on TV.
Highly Dangerous (1950)
Not to be revisited.
Margaret Lockwood is in it- "Hoorah!" And it's about a biological scientist who is sent behind the Iron Curtain as a spy, and she gets captured and, under hypnotism fulfilled her mission. "So Rex Harrison is in it, and the basic plot should be be as logical and driving the action along as (for example)'Night Train to Munich'?" Er... no on both counts. "Why?" Well, Rex wasn't in it. American B-movie actor Dane Clark plays Margaret's buddy. He is a very boring Journalist. And the plot is confused and rambles. And the plot is disjointed and includes a bizarre truth drug/BBC radio serial sub-sub plot. So subplot, I had no idea what was the point of it. "Ah! Anything else?" Yes, who is the child Margaret talks to at the start of the film? Is she married,if so, why does she kiss Dane at the film end? To be blunt, the film should have been re-scripted and re-written and it would have been as good as any film from that period. Better casting and a positive decision by the director and producer whether they were creating a serious spy movie or Light Thriller would have tightened the action,dialogue and direction. I like B&W British Film, but this is one I have seen and will not revisit.
Raising the Wind (1961)
Carry on musician in the house
I feel desperately sorry for every one involved in this film. It might be the only film that has James Robertson Justice crossing swords with Kenneth Williams. And it must have been a good wheeze to squeeze a 'Carry-on' cast into a college plot that could have, with the necessary alterations, been a 'Doctor in the house' film.
The script is written by Bruce Montgomery, film and light music composer (he wrote the original Carry-On theme) but it collapses under the demands of episodic sub-plots that effectively wreck the two main plots- Leslie Philips being taken for a ride by Music publisher Sid James, and the rivalry between the main characters for a music scholarship.
Bright spots? Yes, Esmee Cannon steals the show (again) as a deaf landlady and Eric Barker's mad professor. But that's it. However, we have at least the satisfaction of knowing Montgomery finished the script. At this time he was sliding into alcoholism, trying to live down the huge success of his early detective novels (All of which have yet to be filmed!).
The Flying Scot (1957)
American crooks plan British Mail Train robbery
In the 1950's , all the studios were churning out 'B' movies, or as their publicity offices preferred to call them, Supporting Features. Most are now just memories or entries in catalogues, but in their day they were 65 minutes of taut thriller and proved to be the training ground for actors, writers, directors and technicians, as well as the twilight zone for former top stars.
This genre has now been overtaken by the TV cop programme. Not surprisingly, in the 1970's companies like ITC snapped up many of the people who had once worked in 'B' movies.
'The Flying Scot' is a justifiably good example of the genre. Well crafted and cheap to make! The story is quite simple. Ronnie, a young impetuous American crook, played by Lee Patterson, is looking for 'the big one', and proposes to rob the Mail Train by drilling through the compartment walls whilst the train travels from Glascow to London.
The film opens with a silent run through of the plan leading to the gang living it up in a South American Bar (shades of 'The Lavender Hill Mob)! There is not a wasted action or word as the story unfolds, and what a little cracker it turns out to be. The underrated Kay Callard gets her teeth into a role as Patterson's necessary sidekick and when it turns out the technician (Alan Gifford) is suffering from a crippling ulcer Patterson becomes more and more paranoid. And to add to his frustration the passengers are not behaving as he planned.
The story by ace script writer Norman Hudis, who later turned his hand to TV's Danger Man, builds to a nerve wracking climax that takes several insignificant incidents and modest sub-plots to bring about a satisfying and logical ending.
Oh, and another bonus. To save costs producer and director Compton Bennett plundered the studio library for actual pictures of the Royal Mail, lineside and station life.
Danger Within (1959)
Always watchable
This is one of my favourite POW films. But in fact 'Danger Within' is not just a POW film as such, it also falls into the Britfilm murder mystery genre.
The source for the story is a Michael Gilbert mystery 'Death in Captivity'published in the mid 1950's. It,s a cracking read and compliments the film as some narrative elements had to be changed for filmed purposes. The play within the story is different, and motivation of hero and villain is slightly more efficiently. It also gives you a glimpse into what happened after the mass escape.
For the Buff, spot Michael Caines first screen appearance, note the film's technical relationship to 'The League of Gentlemen', made in 1960 and watch the two on the same bill for a rewarding afternoon viewing.
To my mind this film also lifted Terrance Alexander from the rather predicable comedy character roles he was playing to top notch light drama actor. And Bernard Lee once again proved how dependable and useful he was in films filled with better known faces.
Waterloo Road (1945)
Well crafted and a must see for genre fans.
Waterloo Road is sometimes forgotten among the hundreds of films made by the late, great Sir John Mills, but it gave him one of his best roles at a time when British Film studios were churning out a handful of films each week for to satisfy the public.
He plays Jim Colter, a former railway employee, now called up who goes AWOL to find Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger), a spiv and draft dodger who is seeing his wife (an excellent performance by Joy Shelton). The action takes place over a single day in, and around, Waterloo Station. In almost social realism style the camera follows the action through real streets, and includes an early amusement arcade (check those machines and the customers), a dance hall, tea shop and a tattoo parlour in a road called 'The Cut'. I watched this with my Mother(now 79)as its her favourite John Mills Film, and she remembers passing by this parlour and seeing the 'tattooed lady' poster when, as a 14 year old shop assistant, she worked at Waterloo Station during the blitz.
It is a well crafted film: not many scenes are wasted and the script is tight and balanced between light and serious dialogue. Another surprise is how energetic Mills is. He leaps across tables and through windows like an acrobat. The fight scene is as well filmed and choreographed as any American Film Noir of the time, and even allowing for library clips of the blitz (which can be seen in other wartime films), the bombing sequence is as close to the real thing as the studio could make it.
My favourite performance and /or character? Ben Williams playing the hapless Military Policeman Corporal Lewis forever chasing Mills around 'The Cut'. How often are films today enhanced by the Extra Players?
Cottage to Let (1941)
One for aspiring film makers to watch
From the jaunty opening scenes to the thrilling ending, you could be forgiven for thinking 'Cottage To Let' was made during the post war period. But this film was released in 1941, when the outcome of the war was still in the balance.
The cast reflects the wealth of talent available in the British Film Industry at this time and for two decades onwards. Not a false note is struck: Jeannie De Casalis makes me laugh out loud playing the dotty wife (check out her introduction speech for John Mills at the fête). Leslie Banks turns in a precise low key performance. He is an antidote to all the eccentric and unbalanced scientists that were/are the staple of cinema-land. Michael Wilding is urbane and, in his scenes, a good foil for a crumpled Alistair Sim, or the intense and faintly menacing John Mills.
Sim, of course, had managed to get his protégé George Cole the part of Ronald. Cole had (I think) already played this role on the stage, but took to the sound stage like a fish to water. He moved and acted as if born to boom and camera. In an idle moment compare young George as Ronald with middle-aged George as Arthur Daley in TV's Minder. It's all there: the sideway looks, aggrieved voice, controlled energy, sheer believable and likable personality.
The film scores on all points for me. The script is realistic and economical, the supporting cast firmly wedded into the few sub-plots. Even the sets, one or two seem to have migrated from other films, are splendid and evocative. And the final denouement is probably one of the most menacing in wartime film, if not the wettest.
Sailor Beware (1956)
It ain't slick and it ain't funny
While the Americans were churning out witty, urbane and fast moving comedy's, British audiences were treated to this offering. Adapted by a now forgotten screen writer from his own stage play, it was a vehicle for the leather lunged Peggy Mount who bellows at all and sundry. Her husband is a working class cypher, her daughter pretty, but largely irrelevant to the plot, and the two sailors are barely mobile for much of the film. Only the glorious Esmee Cannon, beautifully cast as Mount's spinster sister, and her opposite in all things: physical size, vocal power and popularity, elicits any sympathy from this viewer. There are some good lines , but these do not a 90 minute film make. The stage origins also drag the action down.
I have a nagging suspicion that this farce was already past its sell by date when it was released. I mean, compare it with any of the Boulting Brothers output during this era, and you will see what I mean. The plot has none of the sly social comment often found in films produced at this time. It could be mistaken for a pare-war quota quickie.
There are a number of reasons to pass the time with 'Sailor Beware', but none of them are the plot, acting or production values.
The Wooden Horse (1950)
Has a quiet and hypnotic dignity
In 1943, a group of RAF Officers, including Eric Wiiliams, decide to escape from a POW camp using a Gymnastic Vaulting Horse in the courtyard. In 1950, it was decided to film his account, and it kick-started a peculiar British Film Genre- the Military Prison Camp story that reached its apogee in Danger Within (1959).
The Wooden Horse is one of the quietest films I have ever watched. There are no great dramatic moments, but a steady storyline eventually builds to a climax that has more tension because the story doesn't give way for unlikely drama, jump cuts or jacked up (somethings about to happen!) music. It is utterly of its time and works beautifully.
Leo Glenn, Anthony Steel and David Tomlinson lead a curiously low key cast of extras and (I suspect) non-actors. Without exception, all are constantly mono-tonal and quiet. They keep emotion out of their roles. As so many were, until recently, ex-service, I suspect they recreated their war time roles as 'Officers and Gentlemen'.
This unemotional approach does not detract from any dramatic tension. On the contrary, unlike most Wartime Escape Films, the story doesn't end at the barbed wire: and that fact alone keeps me glued to the end.
Kill or Cure (1962)
It should have been a Classic
Kill or Cure ticks all the boxes to make it a 'must see British Film', until I switch off the Video and decide whether I want to erase the tape or not. Frankly, it doesn't work. And it should. And that is the most infuriating thing about this film. Look at the cast and plot: Terry Thomas is a private eye investigating a murder mystery at a health club/hotel (run by Dennis Price). He teems up with an obsessive physical fitness organiser, played by Eric Sykes at the height of his filmed career. In the best British Murder Mystery Genre, they try and bring the murderer to book ahead of Lionel Jeffries' neurotic Policeman. The murderer is uncovered, there is a lovely twist at the end, but I was left with a nagging 'could do better' feeling.
It lacked that vital something. The film was well cast; it was well plotted; decently filmed; enthusiastically acted, but even lacks the charm and appeal of the Agatha Christie Films made at the same time.
The Bargee (1964)
The Bargee grows on you
Yes, it is nostalgic. Yes, it is slow, but canal boats can only cruise at 4 m.p.h. so perhaps it matches the storyline. Anyway, who says film has to be frenetic all the time? Harry H. Corbett is superb. It's a shame he never received more recognition for his talents during his life time. The film also was an early chance for Ronnie Barker to shine as Hemel's dim witted cousin. But my favourite supporting players are Eric Sykes' canal enthusiast energetically freewheeling through his scenes. He turns what are little more than vignettes into perfect sketches. Jo Rowbottom appears as one of Hemel's squeezes. Her brief appearance is actually quite touching- Hemel treats her badly, and she knows it.
If nothing else, Give it a try if you are a film buff! It's a 'spot the British character actor' film. Perfect rainy afternoon fare, except it has only been shown once on television in the last ten years.