Senior citizens husband and wife, played by Bernard Hill and Virginia McKenna, rob rural banks to aid their finances when their pension funds are taken by inscrutable companies. Along the way they recruit further gang members to save their social club from being demolished for building land. Meanwhile two police detectives in opposition to each other, try to solve the case. It’s an odd mixture of comedy and tragedy that gels because of the terrific support cast of Phil Davis (always excellent), Simon Callow, Alun Armstrong,, Sue Johnston and Una Stubbs. It’s very far fetched, which I’m not adverse too, and goes for an Ealing comedy touch, but needed a more experienced director than first timer John Miller to make use of the material, which presumably, was expanded on in the following years more enjoyable Going In Style. Strangely, in the end credits, every single cast member is named, including all extras with no speaking parts (eg. customers in bank) maybe they all contributed to the budget in exchange for being listed?
It passes the time nicely for 90 minutes, but is more like a TV one-off special than a movie.
6/10
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
A re-release screening on IMAX. Classic re-runs here on mainstream South African screens are almost as rare as a 25 foot Carcharodon carcharias, so I didn't feel I could let this one pass me by. It has been one of my favourite films over the years, with many viewings on a TV screen but finally seeing it projected in all its glory was cinema perfection. Somewhat surprisingly the mechanical shark felt a whole lot more real when it is massive and 'in your face' on a big screen, and the performances by Shaw, Scheider and Dreyfuss really shone as well. The most memorable moment was probably seeing Robert Shaw's USS Indianapolis monologue projected so large, with Shaw giving the performance his all in his most quiet moment in the film. No classic Bond on the big screen for this year, sadly...but at least I got to see Jaws and what a marvellous experience it was. I just wish there was a cinema full of people to share the experience with. I counted only 3.
I love this superb homage to the Universal Monster films, director Stephen Sommers clearly has a love for the genre and blends it seamlessly with contemporary action. Beginning with a black and white sequence reminiscent of the early Frankenstein film, Dracula kills Frankenstein and The Monster escapes from the castle to a windmill with Frankenstein’s body chased by a wild mob of villagers with torches who burn down the windmill, where The Monster is seemingly killed. These opening scenes are terrific, echoing the classic movies of yesteryear. We then move to colour film and Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing is tracking down Mr. Hyde in Paris. We find out that the Holy Order task Van Helsing in pursuing evil and wiping out the monsters. He is told to kill Dracula and protect Anna, the last of a famous Romanian family. Jackman is fine as a young Van Helsing and Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous as the capable heroine. Along the way they encounter Dracula and his brides and the werewolf. The action is fast and furious and there is a lovely Q-style scene where Van Helsing is given gadgets to help him on his quest. Unfortunately, most of the critics hated this film and it garnered poor reviews, but I loved it and watch it every 2 or 3 years.
Nostalgic stuff, especially if you’re an Universal Monster fan, like me.
8/10
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
...and me. For those disappointed that Jackman didn't play Bond, this is something of a consolation prize. As CHB says above, there's a Q scene and also an M scene where his boss discusses the mission and gives us some exposition. There's also a line that made me laugh out loud with pleasure - "Your reputation precedes you, Mr Van Helsing" .
The first spoken lines in this movie is the narrator telling us where it was shot and when What makes this movie special is the time and space and the movie knows it. This is Japan after the war, but before the skyscrapers and neon lights we see in YOLT. I love the locations and the life on the streets! There's something special about a movie that takes us to a time place we haven't seen before. I think I would've found it fascinating even if the movie wasn't good. It's good, but not very good. The acting is passable, the story fairly good and the cinematography is really good. Sam Fuller seems to be unable to make a movie that isn't good. Thanks for the tip, Goldrush007. 👍
Glad to hear you checked out House of Bamboo @Number24. Do you have any recommendations for other Samuel Fuller films? The only other one I've seen is Pickup on South Street.
The Big Red One was mistakenly placed on the video nasties banned list back in the 80’s when VHS videos were the new rage and lots of uncertificated movies were being released. It was removed from the list once someone pointed out it was a legitimate certified movie that had gone on general release at UK cinemas. A spokesman said it had been placed on the list because of the title. What could they have been thinking of? 😳
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Bullion from a raid on a Heathrow airport bonded warehouse is stored on a coach where incompetent driver Frankie Howerd takes a group of passengers to Blackbushe airport in thick fog. Margaret Rutherford is her usual wonderful self as a battleaxe, and 22-year old Petula Clark is the stewardess helping the driver to find his way to Blackbushe. A good support cast help move things along the way. This early film outing from Frankie has all his trademark oohs and ahhs but instead of breaking the fourth wall he talks to himself. Apparently the film needed an extra 3 minutes to bring it up to feature length so Frankie did an ad-lib spot in a phone box talking to a hard of hearing woman, which was another staple of his act through the years. It’s quite good fun but even at a short 75 minutes it outstays it’s welcome.
6/10
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Finally got around to seeing the box office hit of the year. Funny how simplistic this is compared to No Time To Die, but is 'all the better for it' - okay, it's not fair. Try doing variations on the Top Gun heme for an entire series and it would soon pall.
It kicks off in much the same way as the original as if to say, we're doing the same movie but upping our game. This it does, the throaty raw of the engines sound great at the movies, where you have to see this. But you all probably have anyway.
If you thought it was odd that Bond was still grieving Vesper after all those years, or cut up about Alec nine years on in GoldenEye, well, here's Maverick still cut up about someone from the first film.
Cruise looks great, only occasionally you think, hmm, his hair's a bit black for his age. Nothing to carp about, 'the enemy' is named only as that, you think it's Iran but the actual locale suggests it's Russia.
I'm afraid the ending is where it does get preposterous and it's got that old 'back to basics' theme we see in Skyfall and I think Pacific Rising - outfox the new with old technology. The time line is all over the place, quickest funeral I ever saw.
There are some decent movies out there, I like the Harry Styles flick or the look of it. The trailer for the new MI was there, looks good too. Cruise is a bit of a one man cinema hero. In fact, much of this film seems a sort of homage to Cruise and his career as much as anything, and I have no objection. It's hard to view it objectively, I mean if you took his iconography out of it it's hard to know what to think but then again Connery's comeback should have done something with that and just didn't.
I think @CoolHandBond dislikes Brosnan's Bond but he's the one who came close to that arrogant Maverick style, thing is only in GoldenEye. He did have that youthful cocky I'm going to do something you don't expect and blow the thing sky high.
It’s personal taste @Napoleon Plural Brosnan as Bond does nothing for me, it’s like he’s an imposter 😂 but I do like him in virtually everything else he’s ever done. It’s good to read different opinions on this site, if everyone thought the same it would get very boring.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Returning to Maverick, it's odd but the time the first film was about to come out, I was doing a week's stint of work experience at a film distribution firm in Hammersmith, during the summer. Looking back, it wasn't really work experience more just being shown around and a couple of afternoons I'd get the chance to sit in the mini theatre and watch a movie - Tom Hanks' Money Trap for instance. The music trailer for Danger Zone was screened, so saw that but didn't bother to later spend pocket money on Top Gun.
Dalton had been announced as Bond - In the office, the new lad was talking about how Dalton being Welsh would send up his accent most likely, when the older guy who looked a bit like Beam in QoS demurred, the young lad - this is all office chat - said, of course he will, they all like to send themselves up, don't they?
My post is to convey just how long ago it all was, since then we've had Dalton as Bond, the hiatus, then Brosnan and only now Craig has hung up his holster do we have Top Gun: Maverick - is this the most delayed sequel of all time?
Themes in the new film talk of Maverick's remorse over events in the first film - I wonder what kind of Bond film would have him mourning his own ****-up decades later given that most of the allies or women he gets involved with bite the dust, it's commonplace.
I watched it my elderly father and he kept saying to me how much he'd loved Elton in this one.
I watched The Hunt For Red October last night. It has been a very long time since I saw it and I had forgotten what a good film it is. Alec Baldwin though. So fresh faced and squeaky voiced.
Movies about the merchant navy in WWII are very rare. This is in fact the only one I know of. This is scandalous since the the civilian sailors were absolutely vital to allied victory. Compared to all the WWII movies about paratroopers who were brave but much less important is glaring. It would've been comparable to the shipments to Ukraine today if the current war was a world war and supplying Ukraine had the risks and hardships of being an infantryman on the frontline. The Norwegian merchant navy were responsible for a larger part of the supplies to Britain than any other nation. They also helped the USSR stay afloat, using a route Churchill called the worst journey in the world. One out of nine Norwegian sailors lost their lives. If a ship went down the other ships couldn't stop to pick the survivors because stopping would make themselves sitting ducks to German submarines. All the crews on the other ships could do was to drop ropes and nets down the sides of the ship, hoping the desperate men in the sea could get hold of something before the cold made it impossible to stay afloat. The cruel sea indeed.
This movie is about two friends from Bergen who are among these brave sailors. They are played by Kristoffer Joner (MI: Fallout, The Wave) and Pål Sverre Hagen (Beforeigners, Amundsen). Joner's character is motivated by the hope of seeing his family again, and Hagen's character has promised that family to bring his friend home. The children of the family go to school next to one of the biggest submarine pens in Europe. Of course the submarine base is a prime bombing target for the allies because the u-boats are sinking allied shipping.
Unlike most war movies, "War Sailor" doesn't end when the war ends. The war sailors didn't get the hero's welcome they deserved when they finally returned home. The shipping companies and the government didn't even give them their full wages they had earned. The general population didn't know or understand the hell they had survived. Many war sailors suffered from PTSD and alcoholism for the rest of their lives.
I think the movie is really well made. The director wisely went for character building, tension and moments of horror. He could've gone for spectacle and scale, but this is no Michael Bay movie. Some scenes are downright painful to watch, reminding us of the men and some women who actually experienced it. Thankfully it's not just doom and gloom. We see friendship, family life and love. The cast delivers very good performances. Pål Sverre Hagen would make a fine Bond villan in my opinion. He plays a warm and friendly character here, but if you ever see "In order of disappearance" or "Amundsen" you know he can play cold and cruel characters, and being 6'4'' tall also helps.
Freddie Francis was a hugely successful cinematographer ("The Elephant Man", "The French Lieutenant's Woman", "Dune" (the 1984 version), etc) winning two Oscars along the way. He had a sort of side career directing mainly horror movies and this is one of them.
It's not a Hammer film, although many of their regulars are here most obviously Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Cushing has brought a large skeleton of a previously unknown humanoid species back to England from New Guinea. He has a daughter who doesn't know her mother went insane and later died, and a brother (Lee) who runs the asylum where the mother died. While experimenting on the skeleton, he finds that it grows flesh when it gets wet....
So far, so standard. The film has a wonderful atmosphere of foreboding and is carried by its two experienced stars, principally Cushing who plays with more than his customary excellence and a terrible sense of loss- there's a scene where he mistakes his daughter for his dead wife which he plays very tenderly. Lee is top-billed as was customary at this point* but this is 100% Cushing's movie.
Definitely recommended, and I won't say any more (there's a lot more to the plot) in case someone decides to watch it. I believe it's out of copyright and freely available on YouTube.
Christopher Lee once said that Cushing was billed first for about the first 10 or 12 movies they did then he was billed first for the remainder. He never asked about this and to the best of his knowledge neither did Cushing. It makes no difference at all to watching the films- sometimes Lee does the heavy lifting (eg "I, Monster"), sometimes Cushing does (this one)- except in the very early years where Cushing is centre stage with Lee in support.
I liked Freddie Francis as a director, his filmography is full of decent horror entries including the brilliant Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors. He worked for most of the British horror production companies of the time, Hammer, Amicus, Tigon and Tyburn. One can do far worse than view his films. The Creeping Flesh is a good example of this.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Frank Sinatra plays a POW pilot in Italy. The British commanding officer is played by Trevor Howard in suitably stiff upper lip fashion. Initially, they are at odds as Ryan is suspected as collaborating with the camp commander, Major Battaglia, played by Largo himself, Adolfo Celi. But they join forces when the guards flee the camp as Italy surrenders and they capture a train and try to escape to safety. Posing as German officers they wend their way through Italy trying to get to Austria, all the time being pursued by the German army. This is an exciting war movie with several suspenseful scenes and good action sequences. There is good support from Edward Mulhare (Our Man Flint), John Leyton (The Great Escape) and The Magnificent Seven’s Brad Dexter who was cast as a favour by Sinatra as he had saved him from drowning a couple of years previously. Capably directed by Mark Robson this is well worth watching, I remember seeing the movie at the cinema in 1965 and we would re-enact the ending in the playground.
If you like the Where Eagles Dare type of war movie, this will be right up your street.
8/10
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
The best adaptation of Agatha Christie's whodunnit is the Hitchcockian post-war black and white version, where the guests are invited to a house on a largely inaccessible windswept island. This one is also black and white even though it's filmed in 1965. The setting is just as good - this time on a snowy rocky outcrop accessible only by cable car. Shades of OHMSS though we have to concede that as good as Piz Gloria is, it never feels particularly menacing or sinister as a design.
This one stars Shirley Eaton one year after her turn in Goldfinger. Also, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-Whyte (you forget they both starred in My Fair Lady around this time as they didn't share much screen time in the musical) and Dennis Price so unrecognisable since his career peak in the superb Kind Hearts and Coronets that I mistook him for Ray Milland. The film is too easygoing to work and the tension doesn't mount. In this, you don't really care or sit in judgement of the visitors' past crimes. Some of the score really doesn't help, it almost has the flavour of a British comedy. Don't bother with this unless you've seen the earlier version. Another one filmed in the early 70s with Oliver Reed and a couple of Bond villain actors was also a bit rough.
There's scene in the 1978 Death on the Nile that's very similar to one in TSWLM. A couple is visiting the temple of Karnak and someone drops a stone on them that barely misses.
All the filmed variations up to then used the stage version of the book, because it was too difficult to portray the original ending in a theatre Agatha Christie came up with an alternate ending , I’m glad the BBC did the official version as told in the book, it’s an excellent film.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Comments
GOLDEN YEARS (2016)
Senior citizens husband and wife, played by Bernard Hill and Virginia McKenna, rob rural banks to aid their finances when their pension funds are taken by inscrutable companies. Along the way they recruit further gang members to save their social club from being demolished for building land. Meanwhile two police detectives in opposition to each other, try to solve the case. It’s an odd mixture of comedy and tragedy that gels because of the terrific support cast of Phil Davis (always excellent), Simon Callow, Alun Armstrong,, Sue Johnston and Una Stubbs. It’s very far fetched, which I’m not adverse too, and goes for an Ealing comedy touch, but needed a more experienced director than first timer John Miller to make use of the material, which presumably, was expanded on in the following years more enjoyable Going In Style. Strangely, in the end credits, every single cast member is named, including all extras with no speaking parts (eg. customers in bank) maybe they all contributed to the budget in exchange for being listed?
It passes the time nicely for 90 minutes, but is more like a TV one-off special than a movie.
6/10
JAWS (1975)
A re-release screening on IMAX. Classic re-runs here on mainstream South African screens are almost as rare as a 25 foot Carcharodon carcharias, so I didn't feel I could let this one pass me by. It has been one of my favourite films over the years, with many viewings on a TV screen but finally seeing it projected in all its glory was cinema perfection. Somewhat surprisingly the mechanical shark felt a whole lot more real when it is massive and 'in your face' on a big screen, and the performances by Shaw, Scheider and Dreyfuss really shone as well. The most memorable moment was probably seeing Robert Shaw's USS Indianapolis monologue projected so large, with Shaw giving the performance his all in his most quiet moment in the film. No classic Bond on the big screen for this year, sadly...but at least I got to see Jaws and what a marvellous experience it was. I just wish there was a cinema full of people to share the experience with. I counted only 3.
VAN HELSING (2004)
I love this superb homage to the Universal Monster films, director Stephen Sommers clearly has a love for the genre and blends it seamlessly with contemporary action. Beginning with a black and white sequence reminiscent of the early Frankenstein film, Dracula kills Frankenstein and The Monster escapes from the castle to a windmill with Frankenstein’s body chased by a wild mob of villagers with torches who burn down the windmill, where The Monster is seemingly killed. These opening scenes are terrific, echoing the classic movies of yesteryear. We then move to colour film and Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing is tracking down Mr. Hyde in Paris. We find out that the Holy Order task Van Helsing in pursuing evil and wiping out the monsters. He is told to kill Dracula and protect Anna, the last of a famous Romanian family. Jackman is fine as a young Van Helsing and Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous as the capable heroine. Along the way they encounter Dracula and his brides and the werewolf. The action is fast and furious and there is a lovely Q-style scene where Van Helsing is given gadgets to help him on his quest. Unfortunately, most of the critics hated this film and it garnered poor reviews, but I loved it and watch it every 2 or 3 years.
Nostalgic stuff, especially if you’re an Universal Monster fan, like me.
8/10
...and me. For those disappointed that Jackman didn't play Bond, this is something of a consolation prize. As CHB says above, there's a Q scene and also an M scene where his boss discusses the mission and gives us some exposition. There's also a line that made me laugh out loud with pleasure - "Your reputation precedes you, Mr Van Helsing" .
The first spoken lines in this movie is the narrator telling us where it was shot and when What makes this movie special is the time and space and the movie knows it. This is Japan after the war, but before the skyscrapers and neon lights we see in YOLT. I love the locations and the life on the streets! There's something special about a movie that takes us to a time place we haven't seen before. I think I would've found it fascinating even if the movie wasn't good. It's good, but not very good. The acting is passable, the story fairly good and the cinematography is really good. Sam Fuller seems to be unable to make a movie that isn't good. Thanks for the tip, Goldrush007. 👍
Glad to hear you checked out House of Bamboo @Number24. Do you have any recommendations for other Samuel Fuller films? The only other one I've seen is Pickup on South Street.
"40 guns" and "The big red one".
Thanks. The Big Red One has been on my list to-watch for a long time.
The Big Red One was mistakenly placed on the video nasties banned list back in the 80’s when VHS videos were the new rage and lots of uncertificated movies were being released. It was removed from the list once someone pointed out it was a legitimate certified movie that had gone on general release at UK cinemas. A spokesman said it had been placed on the list because of the title. What could they have been thinking of? 😳
THE RUNAWAY BUS (1954)
Bullion from a raid on a Heathrow airport bonded warehouse is stored on a coach where incompetent driver Frankie Howerd takes a group of passengers to Blackbushe airport in thick fog. Margaret Rutherford is her usual wonderful self as a battleaxe, and 22-year old Petula Clark is the stewardess helping the driver to find his way to Blackbushe. A good support cast help move things along the way. This early film outing from Frankie has all his trademark oohs and ahhs but instead of breaking the fourth wall he talks to himself. Apparently the film needed an extra 3 minutes to bring it up to feature length so Frankie did an ad-lib spot in a phone box talking to a hard of hearing woman, which was another staple of his act through the years. It’s quite good fun but even at a short 75 minutes it outstays it’s welcome.
6/10
Top Gun: Maverick
Finally got around to seeing the box office hit of the year. Funny how simplistic this is compared to No Time To Die, but is 'all the better for it' - okay, it's not fair. Try doing variations on the Top Gun heme for an entire series and it would soon pall.
It kicks off in much the same way as the original as if to say, we're doing the same movie but upping our game. This it does, the throaty raw of the engines sound great at the movies, where you have to see this. But you all probably have anyway.
If you thought it was odd that Bond was still grieving Vesper after all those years, or cut up about Alec nine years on in GoldenEye, well, here's Maverick still cut up about someone from the first film.
Cruise looks great, only occasionally you think, hmm, his hair's a bit black for his age. Nothing to carp about, 'the enemy' is named only as that, you think it's Iran but the actual locale suggests it's Russia.
I'm afraid the ending is where it does get preposterous and it's got that old 'back to basics' theme we see in Skyfall and I think Pacific Rising - outfox the new with old technology. The time line is all over the place, quickest funeral I ever saw.
There are some decent movies out there, I like the Harry Styles flick or the look of it. The trailer for the new MI was there, looks good too. Cruise is a bit of a one man cinema hero. In fact, much of this film seems a sort of homage to Cruise and his career as much as anything, and I have no objection. It's hard to view it objectively, I mean if you took his iconography out of it it's hard to know what to think but then again Connery's comeback should have done something with that and just didn't.
I think @CoolHandBond dislikes Brosnan's Bond but he's the one who came close to that arrogant Maverick style, thing is only in GoldenEye. He did have that youthful cocky I'm going to do something you don't expect and blow the thing sky high.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
It’s personal taste @Napoleon Plural Brosnan as Bond does nothing for me, it’s like he’s an imposter 😂 but I do like him in virtually everything else he’s ever done. It’s good to read different opinions on this site, if everyone thought the same it would get very boring.
Returning to Maverick, it's odd but the time the first film was about to come out, I was doing a week's stint of work experience at a film distribution firm in Hammersmith, during the summer. Looking back, it wasn't really work experience more just being shown around and a couple of afternoons I'd get the chance to sit in the mini theatre and watch a movie - Tom Hanks' Money Trap for instance. The music trailer for Danger Zone was screened, so saw that but didn't bother to later spend pocket money on Top Gun.
Dalton had been announced as Bond - In the office, the new lad was talking about how Dalton being Welsh would send up his accent most likely, when the older guy who looked a bit like Beam in QoS demurred, the young lad - this is all office chat - said, of course he will, they all like to send themselves up, don't they?
My post is to convey just how long ago it all was, since then we've had Dalton as Bond, the hiatus, then Brosnan and only now Craig has hung up his holster do we have Top Gun: Maverick - is this the most delayed sequel of all time?
Themes in the new film talk of Maverick's remorse over events in the first film - I wonder what kind of Bond film would have him mourning his own ****-up decades later given that most of the allies or women he gets involved with bite the dust, it's commonplace.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle last night. Not as good as the first one but still a lot of fun. Elton John is fabulous.
Indeed he does
I watched it my elderly father and he kept saying to me how much he'd loved Elton in this one.
I watched The Hunt For Red October last night. It has been a very long time since I saw it and I had forgotten what a good film it is. Alec Baldwin though. So fresh faced and squeaky voiced.
War sailor (2022)
Movies about the merchant navy in WWII are very rare. This is in fact the only one I know of. This is scandalous since the the civilian sailors were absolutely vital to allied victory. Compared to all the WWII movies about paratroopers who were brave but much less important is glaring. It would've been comparable to the shipments to Ukraine today if the current war was a world war and supplying Ukraine had the risks and hardships of being an infantryman on the frontline. The Norwegian merchant navy were responsible for a larger part of the supplies to Britain than any other nation. They also helped the USSR stay afloat, using a route Churchill called the worst journey in the world. One out of nine Norwegian sailors lost their lives. If a ship went down the other ships couldn't stop to pick the survivors because stopping would make themselves sitting ducks to German submarines. All the crews on the other ships could do was to drop ropes and nets down the sides of the ship, hoping the desperate men in the sea could get hold of something before the cold made it impossible to stay afloat. The cruel sea indeed.
This movie is about two friends from Bergen who are among these brave sailors. They are played by Kristoffer Joner (MI: Fallout, The Wave) and Pål Sverre Hagen (Beforeigners, Amundsen). Joner's character is motivated by the hope of seeing his family again, and Hagen's character has promised that family to bring his friend home. The children of the family go to school next to one of the biggest submarine pens in Europe. Of course the submarine base is a prime bombing target for the allies because the u-boats are sinking allied shipping.
Unlike most war movies, "War Sailor" doesn't end when the war ends. The war sailors didn't get the hero's welcome they deserved when they finally returned home. The shipping companies and the government didn't even give them their full wages they had earned. The general population didn't know or understand the hell they had survived. Many war sailors suffered from PTSD and alcoholism for the rest of their lives.
I think the movie is really well made. The director wisely went for character building, tension and moments of horror. He could've gone for spectacle and scale, but this is no Michael Bay movie. Some scenes are downright painful to watch, reminding us of the men and some women who actually experienced it. Thankfully it's not just doom and gloom. We see friendship, family life and love. The cast delivers very good performances. Pål Sverre Hagen would make a fine Bond villan in my opinion. He plays a warm and friendly character here, but if you ever see "In order of disappearance" or "Amundsen" you know he can play cold and cruel characters, and being 6'4'' tall also helps.
Highly recommend.
THE CREEPING FLESH (1973) Freddie Francis
Freddie Francis was a hugely successful cinematographer ("The Elephant Man", "The French Lieutenant's Woman", "Dune" (the 1984 version), etc) winning two Oscars along the way. He had a sort of side career directing mainly horror movies and this is one of them.
It's not a Hammer film, although many of their regulars are here most obviously Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Cushing has brought a large skeleton of a previously unknown humanoid species back to England from New Guinea. He has a daughter who doesn't know her mother went insane and later died, and a brother (Lee) who runs the asylum where the mother died. While experimenting on the skeleton, he finds that it grows flesh when it gets wet....
So far, so standard. The film has a wonderful atmosphere of foreboding and is carried by its two experienced stars, principally Cushing who plays with more than his customary excellence and a terrible sense of loss- there's a scene where he mistakes his daughter for his dead wife which he plays very tenderly. Lee is top-billed as was customary at this point* but this is 100% Cushing's movie.
Definitely recommended, and I won't say any more (there's a lot more to the plot) in case someone decides to watch it. I believe it's out of copyright and freely available on YouTube.
I liked Freddie Francis as a director, his filmography is full of decent horror entries including the brilliant Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors. He worked for most of the British horror production companies of the time, Hammer, Amicus, Tigon and Tyburn. One can do far worse than view his films. The Creeping Flesh is a good example of this.
VON RYAN’S EXPRESS (1965)
Frank Sinatra plays a POW pilot in Italy. The British commanding officer is played by Trevor Howard in suitably stiff upper lip fashion. Initially, they are at odds as Ryan is suspected as collaborating with the camp commander, Major Battaglia, played by Largo himself, Adolfo Celi. But they join forces when the guards flee the camp as Italy surrenders and they capture a train and try to escape to safety. Posing as German officers they wend their way through Italy trying to get to Austria, all the time being pursued by the German army. This is an exciting war movie with several suspenseful scenes and good action sequences. There is good support from Edward Mulhare (Our Man Flint), John Leyton (The Great Escape) and The Magnificent Seven’s Brad Dexter who was cast as a favour by Sinatra as he had saved him from drowning a couple of years previously. Capably directed by Mark Robson this is well worth watching, I remember seeing the movie at the cinema in 1965 and we would re-enact the ending in the playground.
If you like the Where Eagles Dare type of war movie, this will be right up your street.
8/10
Ten Little Indians (1965)
The best adaptation of Agatha Christie's whodunnit is the Hitchcockian post-war black and white version, where the guests are invited to a house on a largely inaccessible windswept island. This one is also black and white even though it's filmed in 1965. The setting is just as good - this time on a snowy rocky outcrop accessible only by cable car. Shades of OHMSS though we have to concede that as good as Piz Gloria is, it never feels particularly menacing or sinister as a design.
This one stars Shirley Eaton one year after her turn in Goldfinger. Also, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-Whyte (you forget they both starred in My Fair Lady around this time as they didn't share much screen time in the musical) and Dennis Price so unrecognisable since his career peak in the superb Kind Hearts and Coronets that I mistook him for Ray Milland. The film is too easygoing to work and the tension doesn't mount. In this, you don't really care or sit in judgement of the visitors' past crimes. Some of the score really doesn't help, it almost has the flavour of a British comedy. Don't bother with this unless you've seen the earlier version. Another one filmed in the early 70s with Oliver Reed and a couple of Bond villain actors was also a bit rough.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Von Ryan's Express is a great traditional style WW2 movie
I very much enjoyed the BBC version of this from 2015 starring Charles Dance, Aidan Turner, Toby Stephens, Miranda Richardson and Sam Neil.
It goes by the title of 'And Then There Were None.'
Agreed @Lady Rose It's the best version and keeps the original down beat ending, instead of the Happy one they usually tag on.
Guess that also featured two Bond villains, not to mention two would-be Bonds.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I may or may not have watched initially because Aidan Turner was in it .... 😉
It was after this that his name was bandied about as a possible Bond because he has short hair and wears a dinner suit.
I don't mind a bit of Agatha Christie. I really enjoyed the two Kenneth Branagh Poirot movies. The sets in Death on the Nile were fabulous.
I enjoyed Murder on the Orient express more than Death on the Nile as I love the 1978 version. The double act of
Bette Davis and Dame Maggie Smith is simply brilliant with their constant bitching at each other.
And only yesterday heard that a third film is set to be made, with Branagh's Poirot retired in Venice.
Excellent news. A Haunting in Venice. I approve.
There's scene in the 1978 Death on the Nile that's very similar to one in TSWLM. A couple is visiting the temple of Karnak and someone drops a stone on them that barely misses.
All the filmed variations up to then used the stage version of the book, because it was too difficult to portray the original ending in a theatre Agatha Christie came up with an alternate ending , I’m glad the BBC did the official version as told in the book, it’s an excellent film.