elsewhere number24 was asking for more episode-by-episode subjective review threads. Monty Python's Flying Circus would be a good project for someone to take on, I'm sure most of us are familiar (even obsessed) with it and would join in
one thing I'd love to see is a list that makes it clear which classic sketches appear in which episode. Thats hard to guess when picking an episode to watch. Just about each episode has one classic sketch, surrounded by non sequiturs and surrealistic segues and Gilliam's cartoons. a list of all content per episode would make it harder to see as theres usually at least a dozen smaller bits, but for example the original version of Nudge Nudge sketch is in the third episode.
then of course for each of these classic sketches we would have to analyse all the ways they differ from other versions, like in And Now For Something Completely Different, or the Charisma record albums, or the multiple different live versions
Good review of the film, but I totally disagree that "Let Me" and "Poor Boy" reflect his Sun records which are in a different league entirely. Those two (+ "We're Gonna Move") are trivia, while "That's All Right" etc changed everything for Elvis and music in general.
Rambo movies are really beyond criticism, Sly, Arnie, Chuck and co., just churned out mindless actioners which entertained you while you swigged a few beers and ate a pizza, perfect for a night in. First Blood was a first rate movie in its own right, though, and is recommended viewing.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sean Connery plays the head of the Scandianavian secret service! Strictly speaking this would place the story somewhere between 1397 and 1523 since that's the only period we had a Scandinavian state, but it's actually set in the 1970's. The plot is about a hijacking of a passenger plane and it's almost entirely shot in Norway. It's fun to see the buildings, police cars, signs, the skis on Connery' car and the little boy who says "Bæsj" (poo) to a terrorist when leaving the toilet. 😁
I liked Ransom. It's a solid thriller and the passenger plane hijack plot seems both fairly believable, but it also has some inventive twists. I think at least most of them are good. Connery is also good, and his Norwegian accent is just as convincing as his Russian, Spanish, Egyptian and other accents he interpreted.
There are actually two links to the real world of espionage in the movie, and I've posted about both in AJB. One of the few Norwegian actors is Knut Wigert. He was an SOE agent in WWII and his sister Sonia was a movie star and high-level spy for Sweden and the USA. Sonja Wigert - Movie star and spy — ajb007.
Here's a movie that actually takes place in the kingdom of Scandinavia. In the late middle ages Denmark, Sweden (including Finland), Norway (including Greenland, Iceland and other cold places in the north Atlantic) were ruled by the same monarch. This movie is about Margerete I (Trine Dyrholm Brosnan's leading lady in "All you need is love" by Suzanne Bier) who was the first ruler of this union. By all accounts she was a good leader. At the start of the movie she is about to negotiate the engagement between her adopted son Erik and an English princess and create an alliance with England against the German Hanseatic League. Then a man turns up who claims to be her son Olav who was believed to have died fifteen years earlier. The man (played by Jakob Oftebro who's a star in Scandinavia and has potential on a global scale) has the potential to destroy the alliance with England and the union itself.
It's rare to see a movie about medival court intrigue at the cinema nowadays and few people know this story. But it's a good story and the fact that it's little known works to it's advantage. We also get top-notch actors. While much of the story takes place in in grey medival castles it's given breathing space in outdoor scenes were the weather and landscapes are stark and brutal. This isn't done by accident.
Like Tosca this movie isn't for everyone, but if you like quality historical drama you won't regret watching this movie.
It’s been a few years since I last saw this and having completed the new TV version I thought I would watch again. Harry Saltzman took time off Bond duties to produce an alternate view of the spy world, this time going for realism rather than the glamour of the Bond movies. Michael Caine stars as Harry Palmer (dubbed in the press at the time as 003 1/2) who has a dubious past but now works for the MOD, he is transferred to another section working for Major Dalby to investigate the disappearance of a scientist. What follows is gritty and intriguing as Palmer pieces together the mystery. Several Bond crew members are involved in the production and John Barry provides a memorable score.
This is one if the standout movies of the 60’s and is highly recommended, excellent all round.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Glad you enjoyed it Joshua. I also like this version and Robert Powell's portrayal of Richard Hannay. However, it is still a clear second best to the original Hitchcock version from 1935. You MUST watch that!👌
Oooh, the Kenneth More one is a bit rubbish! Sort of remakes the Hitchcock one - we've discussed this, it's not really derived from the book, more the Hitchcock film which riffs on the book a bit like a Roger Moore Bond movie, not that similar to its source - and it's a shame because, set in the 50s, they could have tapped into the Cold War paranoia vibe that Hitch himself was doing, sort of remaking 39 Steps with North by Northwest.
My second tense terrorism movie from 1974 I've watched in a few days. The story is based on a real incident two years earlier when the cruise ship "Queen Elizabeth II" rescieved bomb threaths and a group of Special Boat Service operators were dropped to the ship to find and defuse the bombs. Thankfully it was a hoax, but that's not the case in this movie. Tense thrillers must have a good cast. This one has Richard Harries, Ian Holm, Omar Sharif, Antony Hopkins, Julian Glover and more. The standout is Richard Harries as the veteran bomb disposal expert. The bomb disposal scenes are among the best I've ever seen. This movie is an overlooked gem!
This movie is about a 200 kilo single mother who lives on a farm in Norway. She's also a pig, and I'm not just talking about her eating habits. We also get to see the cows and chickens, but Gunda is the star. We only see humans from the animals' perspective, usually a pair of wellingtons walking by. The animals are lucky in the sense that they live on a type of farm that's getting rarer, the type where the animals are given a lot of outdoor space in the summer. But it's not all idyll, the darker moments of being a farm animal are also shown. While the pace is slow the viewer is gradually drawn in by Gunda and her small world. The movie has done very well in the award circut and I recomend it if you're looking for something unusual. The movie isn't subtitled.
Gunda sounds really good! theres not enough films from the animals point of view. could you understand the oinking without subtitles TwoFour?
I remember one a couple years back about a family dog that got lost and ended up joining up a pack of wild dogs running loose in the city, who then rose up in violent revolution against the stoopid humans. Forget the title, but I sure was rooting for them doggies
but what if the animals did watch these films themselves? would they congratulate us for really digging their point of view, or accuse of cultural appropriation? like if real apes ever watched Planet of the Apes and could use sign language to tell us what they think, would they accuse us of condescending, or anthropomorphising, or implicating them in our petty political agendas, or what? I'm sure there's zero chance us stoopid humans guessed correctly what really goes on in those ape brains, or the doggy brains, or the pig brains
Famous five-star Laurel & Hardy film. I get this movie confused because I expect to see L & H in the actual desert, like the foreign legion, when of course it doesn't refer to that. I twigged that the organisation our hapless pair belong to - Sons of the Desert - is really a riff on freemasonry, signing up to a solemn pledge that must not be broken, an organisation with a centuries old tradition, all-male and mostly about networking.
The British comedian Bob Monkhouse observed that women laugh at different jokes to men, particularly when they're on their own and not with other men, they become less guarded, less observant of social codes. He observed that women don't seem to laugh at Laurel and Hardy - if they wanted to see daft, stupid blokes they can stay at home. I have some sympathy with this however, I find their shorts far better but their full-lengths, I mean some of the gags are very laboured and drawn out. As a kid I loved the idea that Laurel is thick and Hardy is the smart sarcastic one, of course when you get older you see that both are idiots, Hardy arguably more so for not knowing it. His looks of exasperated complicity at the camera aren't so funny to me now, because you feel some idiot is trying to get you go go along with him and his idiocy.
Ironically, a lot of the humour comes from the reaction of their wives when they realise that their husbands have told them a pack of lies about having to go away for recuperation when in fact they're off to the Sons of the Desert meeting in California.
I felt a bit the same about Swiss Miss, another of their classics.
The blurb at the start of the film is a bit ill-advised, talking about how the pair got together under Hal Roach in the 1930s 'and the world hasn't stopped laughing since' er World War II anyone?
While I did grow up on an idyllic farm like Gunda, we didn't have pigs. The sleeping arrangements, diet and family situation were also somewhat different. but we did speak to the animals and at times we felt there was a level of communication and understanding. Especially my grandparents consciously spent time with the animals, talking to them and patting them. It paid off, for example if we wanted to move the sheep from one field to another they would just follow grandma. I did ponder about how the animals saw things, but we will probably never know.
You may have heard of the Norwegian concept of slow-TV. My father set up a camera in the barn and hooked it up to our TV. That way he could sleep on the couch during lambing season. He could watch them on the screen and recognize the behaviour of a sow that was about to give birth before he had to get up and go over to the barn and help out if needed. My father has given mouth-to-mouth on lambs!
We had only two channels on TV: NRK and "Baa TV". 😀
I don't have any photos, but this photo from online gives you a fair idea of how it was. Seriously.
This western is a new discovery for me. I think it's on my top ten list of westerns. Not on the level of "The Searchers" and "Once upon a time in the West", but better than "El Dorado". Dean Martin plays Dee Bishop, the leader of a brutal gang of bank robbers. After a particularely deadly robbery he and his gang are caught by sheriff Johnson (George Kennedy). Maria Stoner is a fresh widdow after her husband was killed in the bank robbery. The sheriff is a compentent and honest man, and not so secretly in love with Maria. At the hanging Dee and his gang are saved at the last minute - by the hangman! It's Mace, the older brother of Dee. Maria is taken hostage by Dee's gang who run away into Mexico together with Mace. The sheriff and a posse follow them into Mexico, hopeing to save Maria.
Both the Bishop brothers are civil war veterans. Dee fought for the south in the Quantrill guerilla gang, Mace fought for the Union under Sherman. This means both brothers were at the minimum witness to war crimes. Especially in the begining Dee is a cold, brutal and shut-in man, different from the normal charismatic performances by Dean Martin. I think Dean Martin does some really good acting. The same goes for Raquel Welch. She is of course incredibly sexy, but her character is actually interesting and worth watching for more than eye candy. Her character is Mexican and she was sold by her very poor family into marriage. Her husband was kind, but she never loved him. Will she fall for the sheriff or the bank robber?
The movie is at times brutal and serious, but it's also at times bizarre and funny. It also looks and sounds great. If you like westerns this one should be a must watch.
I enjoyed this film (I will leave the colonialist aspect out of it). It was a good action film of it's time. It starred Kenneth Moore, the person who was mentioned in the Thirty Nine Steps. I recommend it to every one.
It was on Talking Pictures so I'm sure it will be repeated.
Do you sometimes feel movies are too simular? Then this movie is for you! Don't run away after reading the next sentence: The movie is from Czechoslovakia and the origonal title is " Vynález zkázy". The movie is heaviy inspired by the works of Jules Verne. The movies don't use the names from his stories and only elements from Verne are used to create a new story, but the source is obvious. Visually it gets even more obvious. The illustrations from the novels are used in the movie in a very stylistic way. There is no real attempt to make the scenes look real. Instead actors interact in and with Verne's world. Some set elements are real and 3D, others are taken directly from the book illustrations and others are 2D elements made for the movie. We're not just talking about backdrops actors walk in front of. Elements that could easily be made for real (such as flowers) are sometimes in 2D, and even set elements that really are 3d are made to look like they're 2D.
The movie is absolutely a cyberpunk movie and I love that. It also feels like a Wes Anderson movie, where the style over realism approach makes it charming. This movie, in short, is GREAT!!
This was the first of the Carry On series and Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor and Hattie Jacques would become regulars along with Terry Scott who has a minor role. A pre-Doctor Who William Hartnell is the sergeant and our own Shirley Eaton is newly wed Bob Monkhouse’s wife.
The story follows a new bunch of conscripts in the army and the escapades they get up to while a side bet on the success of the training leads to the conscripts getting to grips with their task towards the end. The double-entendres are mild and the visual jokes are pretty funny.
Worth seeing. All the early entries in the series have turned up on BritBox so I will see them all again in due course. Shirley Eaton is lovely, it’s odd how her career never really took off.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Comments
joshua said:
Monty Python's Flying Circus is being shown on 'That's TV' in the UK.
not a film, but a teevee show of course!
elsewhere number24 was asking for more episode-by-episode subjective review threads. Monty Python's Flying Circus would be a good project for someone to take on, I'm sure most of us are familiar (even obsessed) with it and would join in
one thing I'd love to see is a list that makes it clear which classic sketches appear in which episode. Thats hard to guess when picking an episode to watch. Just about each episode has one classic sketch, surrounded by non sequiturs and surrealistic segues and Gilliam's cartoons. a list of all content per episode would make it harder to see as theres usually at least a dozen smaller bits, but for example the original version of Nudge Nudge sketch is in the third episode.
then of course for each of these classic sketches we would have to analyse all the ways they differ from other versions, like in And Now For Something Completely Different, or the Charisma record albums, or the multiple different live versions
Good review of the film, but I totally disagree that "Let Me" and "Poor Boy" reflect his Sun records which are in a different league entirely. Those two (+ "We're Gonna Move") are trivia, while "That's All Right" etc changed everything for Elvis and music in general.
Rambo movies are really beyond criticism, Sly, Arnie, Chuck and co., just churned out mindless actioners which entertained you while you swigged a few beers and ate a pizza, perfect for a night in. First Blood was a first rate movie in its own right, though, and is recommended viewing.
Ransom ("The terrorists" in the US) 1974
Sean Connery plays the head of the Scandianavian secret service! Strictly speaking this would place the story somewhere between 1397 and 1523 since that's the only period we had a Scandinavian state, but it's actually set in the 1970's. The plot is about a hijacking of a passenger plane and it's almost entirely shot in Norway. It's fun to see the buildings, police cars, signs, the skis on Connery' car and the little boy who says "Bæsj" (poo) to a terrorist when leaving the toilet. 😁
I liked Ransom. It's a solid thriller and the passenger plane hijack plot seems both fairly believable, but it also has some inventive twists. I think at least most of them are good. Connery is also good, and his Norwegian accent is just as convincing as his Russian, Spanish, Egyptian and other accents he interpreted.
There are actually two links to the real world of espionage in the movie, and I've posted about both in AJB. One of the few Norwegian actors is Knut Wigert. He was an SOE agent in WWII and his sister Sonia was a movie star and high-level spy for Sweden and the USA. Sonja Wigert - Movie star and spy — ajb007.
The owner of the plane and part financier of the movie also has a dramatic story: Real stories from the world of espionage and special operations - Page 3 — ajb007
Here's the movie: The Terrorists (1974)💎 - Bing video
This poster is very groovy!
Margrete - queen of the north (2021)
Here's a movie that actually takes place in the kingdom of Scandinavia. In the late middle ages Denmark, Sweden (including Finland), Norway (including Greenland, Iceland and other cold places in the north Atlantic) were ruled by the same monarch. This movie is about Margerete I (Trine Dyrholm Brosnan's leading lady in "All you need is love" by Suzanne Bier) who was the first ruler of this union. By all accounts she was a good leader. At the start of the movie she is about to negotiate the engagement between her adopted son Erik and an English princess and create an alliance with England against the German Hanseatic League. Then a man turns up who claims to be her son Olav who was believed to have died fifteen years earlier. The man (played by Jakob Oftebro who's a star in Scandinavia and has potential on a global scale) has the potential to destroy the alliance with England and the union itself.
It's rare to see a movie about medival court intrigue at the cinema nowadays and few people know this story. But it's a good story and the fact that it's little known works to it's advantage. We also get top-notch actors. While much of the story takes place in in grey medival castles it's given breathing space in outdoor scenes were the weather and landscapes are stark and brutal. This isn't done by accident.
Like Tosca this movie isn't for everyone, but if you like quality historical drama you won't regret watching this movie.
Trailer: Margrete Queen Of The North - Official Trailer - YouTube
THE IPCRESS FILE (1965)
It’s been a few years since I last saw this and having completed the new TV version I thought I would watch again. Harry Saltzman took time off Bond duties to produce an alternate view of the spy world, this time going for realism rather than the glamour of the Bond movies. Michael Caine stars as Harry Palmer (dubbed in the press at the time as 003 1/2) who has a dubious past but now works for the MOD, he is transferred to another section working for Major Dalby to investigate the disappearance of a scientist. What follows is gritty and intriguing as Palmer pieces together the mystery. Several Bond crew members are involved in the production and John Barry provides a memorable score.
This is one if the standout movies of the 60’s and is highly recommended, excellent all round.
The Thirty Nine Steps. I watched this and enjoyed it. It was so entertaining that I will make sure I see it again some time. Here is the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YyI51ciTD8
I thought Rambo was pretty good. Second best of the series. Haven't seen the latest one as the trailer told me all I needed to know (and avoid!)
Glad you enjoyed it Joshua. I also like this version and Robert Powell's portrayal of Richard Hannay. However, it is still a clear second best to the original Hitchcock version from 1935. You MUST watch that!👌
I didn't know there was another 39 steps film. I will look out for it.
Alfred Hitchcock made the 39 Steps in 1935
it was the second of five spy films he made in the 1930s, based on a novel by John Buchan
very entertaining such an early film, but also highly influential
here it is on youtube in decent quality
1959 version
The 39 Steps (1959) Kenneth More, Taina Elg, Brenda de Banzie - Bing video
Oooh, the Kenneth More one is a bit rubbish! Sort of remakes the Hitchcock one - we've discussed this, it's not really derived from the book, more the Hitchcock film which riffs on the book a bit like a Roger Moore Bond movie, not that similar to its source - and it's a shame because, set in the 50s, they could have tapped into the Cold War paranoia vibe that Hitch himself was doing, sort of remaking 39 Steps with North by Northwest.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I agree, that version doesn't hold a candle to the Hitchcock one.
And then there's the 2008 TV movie, Rupert Penry-Jones version. Not bad but not as good as the 1935, 1978 versions IMO.
Juggernaut (1974)
My second tense terrorism movie from 1974 I've watched in a few days. The story is based on a real incident two years earlier when the cruise ship "Queen Elizabeth II" rescieved bomb threaths and a group of Special Boat Service operators were dropped to the ship to find and defuse the bombs. Thankfully it was a hoax, but that's not the case in this movie. Tense thrillers must have a good cast. This one has Richard Harries, Ian Holm, Omar Sharif, Antony Hopkins, Julian Glover and more. The standout is Richard Harries as the veteran bomb disposal expert. The bomb disposal scenes are among the best I've ever seen. This movie is an overlooked gem!
Juggernaut 1974 with Anthony Hopkins, Richard Harris, Omar Sharif and David Hemmings - Bing video
@caractacus potts thank you for the link. I will definitely watch this.
@Number24 I watched Juggernaut a few weeks ago. It was a good film. I didn't know it was based on a real event
@Joshua let me know if the link works, I post these links but nobody ever lets me know
have you watched other Hitchcock? the 39 Steps is probably the best/most talked about of his early British films, and influential on the spy genre
Btw, not sure if it has been discussed before but Benedict Cumberbatch is due to star in a new version of The 39 Steps on Netflix. Should be 2023.
I tried the link and it is working. I haven't watched it yet but it looks very interesting. Thank you again.
Speaking of links to films on YouTube, I know I have posted this before but here is a film which is well worth watching.
Callan 1974.
I recommend this film to everyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuQMzArcyLs
Gunda (2020)
This movie is about a 200 kilo single mother who lives on a farm in Norway. She's also a pig, and I'm not just talking about her eating habits. We also get to see the cows and chickens, but Gunda is the star. We only see humans from the animals' perspective, usually a pair of wellingtons walking by. The animals are lucky in the sense that they live on a type of farm that's getting rarer, the type where the animals are given a lot of outdoor space in the summer. But it's not all idyll, the darker moments of being a farm animal are also shown. While the pace is slow the viewer is gradually drawn in by Gunda and her small world. The movie has done very well in the award circut and I recomend it if you're looking for something unusual. The movie isn't subtitled.
Gunda sounds really good! theres not enough films from the animals point of view. could you understand the oinking without subtitles TwoFour?
I remember one a couple years back about a family dog that got lost and ended up joining up a pack of wild dogs running loose in the city, who then rose up in violent revolution against the stoopid humans. Forget the title, but I sure was rooting for them doggies
but what if the animals did watch these films themselves? would they congratulate us for really digging their point of view, or accuse of cultural appropriation? like if real apes ever watched Planet of the Apes and could use sign language to tell us what they think, would they accuse us of condescending, or anthropomorphising, or implicating them in our petty political agendas, or what? I'm sure there's zero chance us stoopid humans guessed correctly what really goes on in those ape brains, or the doggy brains, or the pig brains
Or indeed your brain, @caractacus potts 😁
Sons of the Desert
Famous five-star Laurel & Hardy film. I get this movie confused because I expect to see L & H in the actual desert, like the foreign legion, when of course it doesn't refer to that. I twigged that the organisation our hapless pair belong to - Sons of the Desert - is really a riff on freemasonry, signing up to a solemn pledge that must not be broken, an organisation with a centuries old tradition, all-male and mostly about networking.
The British comedian Bob Monkhouse observed that women laugh at different jokes to men, particularly when they're on their own and not with other men, they become less guarded, less observant of social codes. He observed that women don't seem to laugh at Laurel and Hardy - if they wanted to see daft, stupid blokes they can stay at home. I have some sympathy with this however, I find their shorts far better but their full-lengths, I mean some of the gags are very laboured and drawn out. As a kid I loved the idea that Laurel is thick and Hardy is the smart sarcastic one, of course when you get older you see that both are idiots, Hardy arguably more so for not knowing it. His looks of exasperated complicity at the camera aren't so funny to me now, because you feel some idiot is trying to get you go go along with him and his idiocy.
Ironically, a lot of the humour comes from the reaction of their wives when they realise that their husbands have told them a pack of lies about having to go away for recuperation when in fact they're off to the Sons of the Desert meeting in California.
I felt a bit the same about Swiss Miss, another of their classics.
The blurb at the start of the film is a bit ill-advised, talking about how the pair got together under Hal Roach in the 1930s 'and the world hasn't stopped laughing since' er World War II anyone?
Roger Moore 1927-2017
While I did grow up on an idyllic farm like Gunda, we didn't have pigs. The sleeping arrangements, diet and family situation were also somewhat different. but we did speak to the animals and at times we felt there was a level of communication and understanding. Especially my grandparents consciously spent time with the animals, talking to them and patting them. It paid off, for example if we wanted to move the sheep from one field to another they would just follow grandma. I did ponder about how the animals saw things, but we will probably never know.
You may have heard of the Norwegian concept of slow-TV. My father set up a camera in the barn and hooked it up to our TV. That way he could sleep on the couch during lambing season. He could watch them on the screen and recognize the behaviour of a sow that was about to give birth before he had to get up and go over to the barn and help out if needed. My father has given mouth-to-mouth on lambs!
We had only two channels on TV: NRK and "Baa TV". 😀
I don't have any photos, but this photo from online gives you a fair idea of how it was. Seriously.
Bandolero! (1968)
This western is a new discovery for me. I think it's on my top ten list of westerns. Not on the level of "The Searchers" and "Once upon a time in the West", but better than "El Dorado". Dean Martin plays Dee Bishop, the leader of a brutal gang of bank robbers. After a particularely deadly robbery he and his gang are caught by sheriff Johnson (George Kennedy). Maria Stoner is a fresh widdow after her husband was killed in the bank robbery. The sheriff is a compentent and honest man, and not so secretly in love with Maria. At the hanging Dee and his gang are saved at the last minute - by the hangman! It's Mace, the older brother of Dee. Maria is taken hostage by Dee's gang who run away into Mexico together with Mace. The sheriff and a posse follow them into Mexico, hopeing to save Maria.
Both the Bishop brothers are civil war veterans. Dee fought for the south in the Quantrill guerilla gang, Mace fought for the Union under Sherman. This means both brothers were at the minimum witness to war crimes. Especially in the begining Dee is a cold, brutal and shut-in man, different from the normal charismatic performances by Dean Martin. I think Dean Martin does some really good acting. The same goes for Raquel Welch. She is of course incredibly sexy, but her character is actually interesting and worth watching for more than eye candy. Her character is Mexican and she was sold by her very poor family into marriage. Her husband was kind, but she never loved him. Will she fall for the sheriff or the bank robber?
The movie is at times brutal and serious, but it's also at times bizarre and funny. It also looks and sounds great. If you like westerns this one should be a must watch.
The movie for free on YouTube: Bandolero 1968 - James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch, George Kennedy - Bing video
I did watch the Thirty nine Steps film and enjoyed it. Thank you for recommending it.
The North West Frontier.
I enjoyed this film (I will leave the colonialist aspect out of it). It was a good action film of it's time. It starred Kenneth Moore, the person who was mentioned in the Thirty Nine Steps. I recommend it to every one.
It was on Talking Pictures so I'm sure it will be repeated.
Here is the trailer.
Actually, I've just noticed the full film is on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSMDhBBLroI
The invention of destruction (1958)
Do you sometimes feel movies are too simular? Then this movie is for you! Don't run away after reading the next sentence: The movie is from Czechoslovakia and the origonal title is " Vynález zkázy". The movie is heaviy inspired by the works of Jules Verne. The movies don't use the names from his stories and only elements from Verne are used to create a new story, but the source is obvious. Visually it gets even more obvious. The illustrations from the novels are used in the movie in a very stylistic way. There is no real attempt to make the scenes look real. Instead actors interact in and with Verne's world. Some set elements are real and 3D, others are taken directly from the book illustrations and others are 2D elements made for the movie. We're not just talking about backdrops actors walk in front of. Elements that could easily be made for real (such as flowers) are sometimes in 2D, and even set elements that really are 3d are made to look like they're 2D.
The movie is absolutely a cyberpunk movie and I love that. It also feels like a Wes Anderson movie, where the style over realism approach makes it charming. This movie, in short, is GREAT!!
Subtitled and for free on YouTube: Invention for Destruction (1958) (English subs) - YouTube
CARRY ON SERGEANT (1958)
This was the first of the Carry On series and Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor and Hattie Jacques would become regulars along with Terry Scott who has a minor role. A pre-Doctor Who William Hartnell is the sergeant and our own Shirley Eaton is newly wed Bob Monkhouse’s wife.
The story follows a new bunch of conscripts in the army and the escapades they get up to while a side bet on the success of the training leads to the conscripts getting to grips with their task towards the end. The double-entendres are mild and the visual jokes are pretty funny.
Worth seeing. All the early entries in the series have turned up on BritBox so I will see them all again in due course. Shirley Eaton is lovely, it’s odd how her career never really took off.