TPTV Films Page 24

The House Across the Lake (1954) Yank title Heat Wave - WHY I've NO IDEA - GRRRR!! Bloody Yanks

Reminded me of a number of films, but nonetheless a good yarn with Sid James (how I traced the film) in a serious part and American Alex Nicol I've seen now for the third time, he being the one previous with the weird haircut and not a reporter this time doing the police's job, and the Canadian/American Paul Carpenter yet again. Mix in blonde American femme fatale Hillary Brooke (no, I'd never heard of her before too, and she had a very good English accent), and you have an explosive mix of four way love betrayal.

Oh, and the policeman I just about recognised (how short he was!) was Alan Wheatley who played the Sheriff of Nottingham in the late 1950s TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Good film

Nowhere to Go (1958)

Well this makes a change - we have an American actor (George Nader no, I've never heard of him either) playing a Canadian!!

He steals a valuable coin collection worth £55,000 (now £1,300,000 !!) and sells it to a large legit coin dealer, then puts the cash in a safety deposit box, and then gets himself arrested for the job, thinking he'll get five years but gets 10. He breaks out of jail with the help of crook Bernard Lee (! 'M' from the Bond films), who cheats on him and from then on, he runs out of options to help him stay out of the arms of the law - the money now is a secondary consideration compared to his freedom.

Various people try to help him, but either grass him up or as he becomes more of a wanted man after an accidental death don't want to know him - one being a London gang boss played by Harry Corbett (the 'H' is missing in the opening credits). One of the women who tries to help is played by Andree Melly of early HHH fame, and the main girl to help him is a barely recognisable 24 year old Maggie Smith.

Other names in various parts were Lionel Jeffries (pet shop owner for about 1 minuute), Geoffrey Keen as the Police Inspector, Glyn Houston, Noel Howlett (Please Sir!) and Arthur Howard (Whack-O!)

Very good suspense film that I really enjoyed, with a very nice Mk II Ford Zephyr, and Maggie Smith was driving a Renault Dauphine, which was a change and made me smile as I had one of these in the mid 60s.

The above film, Nowhere to Go, is on again this Wednesday (30th) 7pm. Sounds as if it's worth a watch.

I think you'll enjoy it

The Flaw (1955)

John Bentley is the villain in this film as a spendthrift racing driver who marries a young rich heiress purely to bump her off after getting her to make her will in favour of him, but an ex love interest in the shape of solicitor Donald Houston steps in to show the girl the error of her ways and points out that the racing car driver is no good, after he has a private detective follow him to an old flame's flat, who he was still having an affair with.

Up until Bentley then decides to bump off Houston before his wife it was a good film, but the end seemed rushed, leaving me feeling short changed in that it could have had a good ending if they'd devoted some time and money to it - I could see the ending long before it happened. Too obvious.

Deryck Guyler was in it briefly as a theatre manager.

Trent's Last Case (1952)

Very good suspense, murder mystery made even better with a cast such as Michael Wilding, Margaret Lockwood and Orson Welles.

Usual tale though of newspaper reporter Wilding seeming to know more than the police with Sam Kydd (hurrah!) as Police Inspector Murch. Wilding is suspicious about the coroner's court decision of suicide and so investigates, despite being warned off.

And it can't be...........but it is! Kenneth Williams in an uncredited part as the gardener (ooh ah) who finds the body, and Miles Malleson with goatee for the first time, as the dotty uncle.

Well worth a watch, with a twist at the end.

Danny Boy (1941)

Well I was about 15 minutes into this and thought I'd had enough, but my wife said it might be interesting so we stuck with it.

Apart from the seemingly sober for a change Wilfrid Lawson, there was Ann Todd (Mother) who I'd seen before, an Australian actor John Warwick (Father) and Danny was the 12 year old Grant Tyler, who it seems did only six 1940s films in his life and died in America aged only 43. Each of these played an instrument or sang quite well, so I wondered how many of them were dubbed.

Apart from Lawson, who is always worth a watch, the owner of the slum digs was played by a funny and talented Wylie Watson who I didn't recognise, but from the IMDb I see that he was 'Mr.Memory' in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, one of Richard Attenborough's nasty little razor gang in Brighton Rock and was the storekeeper in Whisky Galore! I'll keep an eye out for him again as he was in a number of films up until 1960.

As for the story - famous and rich female singer (Todd) comes back from successful career in America to find her estranged husband (Warwick) and son Danny who have fallen on hard times, but she can't find them, then a chance meeting with booking agent (Lawson) brings them together. Awww............and through misty eyes we see the family reunited as they sing and play "Danny Boy"

Bork!

The Floating Dutchman (1952)

Mediocre thriller of petty crooks stealing jewellery of rich clients out on the town at a posh restaurant, with no one of note except for a regular of this sort of fare, Sydney Tafler in his usual part of dodgy nightclub owner. Copper sent in to infiltrate the gang.

Worth watch if only for the cars of the period racing through deserted (!) streets of London where there's no yellow lines because there are few parked cars!

The Secret Man (1958)

Post Burgess & Maclean spy scandal where somebody is a mole trying to get secret plans for a nuclear device from a top secret UK research centre, and like the previous film the police get one of the top physicists to "defect" and infiltrate the spies. Another oddity of an American playing a Canadian in the main part, and the only person I recognised was Robert Dorning in a minor role as a security guard, whereas he is usually the flustered bank manager/company director in many British sitcoms.

Quite good, but am puzzled by what he is driving - it looks like a large English Ford V8 Pilot or a right hand drive American job. Whatever, a nice meaty car.

The only criticism I have is the bloody awful soundtrack that had a sort of constant white noise.

The Small Voice (1948)
"The Hideout" effin' Yank title - confusing when you're searching as there was another called The Hideout 4 years later, which I'd already seen..................Grrrrrrrr, bloody Yanks

Three escaped convicts hijack a car, kill a policeman on the way and...........anyway, very good, gripping thriller of kidnap and hostage with actor "oddities" - Of the married couple held hostage in their Welsh cottage, I had just watched James Donald in "Brandy for the Parson" and Valerie Dobson was married to John Profumo. Of the two kidnapped children also held hostage in the cottage, the little girl did little else after this film, but the boy went on to play, amongst others, Tiny Tim in Alastair Sim's "A Christmas Carol" (the best version ever, in my opinion), Arthur in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" (made the same year) and Lord Maulevere in the brilliant TV series of "Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School" (all courtesy of the IMDb) He also won awards for theatre work, but sadly died aged only 57 when he fell down stairs at home - something that's in my head every time I descend my staircase!

But the thing that I was gobsmacked about was that I didn't recognise the (American - why?) leader of the three desperadoes as in the opening titles he was listed as **Harold Keel, and sans tash, nothing like the tall handsome baritone Howard Keel of many famous musicals and eventually "Dallas" - !!! Didn't look like him at all, but there he was in his first film - well I never!
**(Harold was his real name, and presumably he changed it when he became famous)

Oh, and there was Michael Balfour again, playing to type as one of the other kidnappers.

Very good film.

Model for Murder (1959)

"An American officer, searching England for his dead brother's girlfriend, becomes involved in a jewel robbery." (and murder). Familiar plot - searching for brother to fit a token Yank into the 1950s story......................

Despite the sour grapes on IMDb, I found this quite acceptable as a murder/jewellery theft set in the world of high fashion, with a 1950s token genuine American (Keith Andes) I'd never heard of and Joan Collins doppelganger Hazel Court, who I had seen in a number of films. Other ones I knew were the excellent Alfred Burke (loved his "Public Eye" TV series), the villainous Michael Gough and Richard Pearson, who I remember especially (and for some reason!) as Gary's Father in ONE (only!) episode of Men Behaving Badly - he obviously made a lasting impression on me in that one I watched.

Worth a look

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 5th October 2020, 6:11 AM

... and Richard Pearson, who I remember especially (and for some reason!) as Gary's Father in ONE (only!) episode of Men Behaving Badly - he obviously made a lasting impression on me in that one I watched.

View original

Funnily enough i also remember him from just one appearance in a long running sitcom. But in my case it is as Victor Meldew's brother.

Forbidden (1949) Lot of films with similar title, so Yank's called it Scarlet Heaven - God knows why.

You wait ages for the gorgeous Hazel Court to come along and two appear, one after the other.

American actor Douglass sic Montgomery who had no discernible accent, thinks he may have killed his unfaithful wife who treats him with contempt by interfering with her heart condition pills, and at the same time falls in love with the girl on the candy floss stall on Blackpool's Golden Mile, Hazel Court.

Little more involved than that, but all makes for a good story in a film that has a number of well known faces, being..............Ronald Shiner (the unfunniest man on the planet, but in a slightly serious role here), Michael Medwin, Peter Jones, Kenneth Griffith (as a sort of poor man's Pinkie**), Erik Chitty (Please Sir!), Bill Fraser, Andrew Cruickshank (Dr Finlay) as the police inspector and yes............there he is again - Sam Kydd.

** Similar setting etc. to Brighton Rock, but it would be unfair to compare as some have done on the IMDb.

Good film

Passport to Shame (1958) Yank title Room 43

Gritty film about behind the scenes of prostitution and how girls are procured (the main one in this story, Odile Versois, is brought over from Paris) and forced, beaten into service and even "treated" with acid if they do not comply.

Lots of names in this, but the best for me is Diana Dors, who not only looks drop dead gorgeous but as usual acts everyone off the screen - she is superb! Herbert Lom in his oft role of vicious gang boss and Brenda de Banzie as his "Madam", with American (again) Eddie Constantine as a new London cabbie who is inveigled into a mock marriage to keep the French girl legal to live in England.

Number of small time actors playing heavies and prostitutes etc. with Lana Morris, Jackie Collins and Margaret Tyzack as prostitutes with lines (!) AND without lines and uncredited (not a lot of people know this) a young, thin goofy looking Michael Caine as a bridegroom outside a registry office with his new wife played by Anne Reid, from SO MANY TV series, and Joan Sims as the taxi rank coordinator.

VERY Good film

Now and Forever (1956)

Young rich girl (18 year old Janette Scott) falls madly in love with young car mechanic (Vernon Gray - never heard of him and seems to have disappeared into obscurity 4 years after this film was made - why?) and decides to elope by driving up to Gretna Green in his Austin 7 2-seater sports job, and I only mention that because I nearly bought one for £20 in 1964, which I now regret.............the "nearly", that is. All concerned are dead against the arrangement and so a chase up to Scotland ensues to stop the young couple.
Filmed in colour but fortunately not that heavily saturated garish colour of 1950s UK films.

I wasn't going to watch this as films like this are not my scene, but it did have Jack Warner in it (fan of) and a plethora of English cars from that period and before!! The film positively oozed (now) classic cars, and I was in my element. ????

Lots of faces in this one, not least very oddly Janette's mother Thora Hird who is not mentioned in the credits.

Wilfrid Lawson, David Kossoff, Bryan Forbes, Irene Handl, Hattie Jacques, David Lodge, George Woodbridge and last but not least Mr. Barrowclough (Brian Wilde) as one of the pursuing policemen.