Talking Pictures TV Page 5

Quote: Chappers @ 6th July 2020, 8:32 PM

I've been watching a few things on here recently. I caught the end of "The Dummy Talks" from 1943 the other night which featured Jack Warner amongst many others and the Ivy Benson Band. I saw them - or rather an updated version - at a holiday camp in the mid-70s. I couldn't see who was "The Dummy" but it could've been Jimmy Clitheroe. I'm sure Herc will put me straight.

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It wasn't Jimmy Clitheroe (one of those with stunted growth), but I can see why you thought that, my explanation is on the TPTV films thread :-

https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/35193/14/#P1223015

Welcome back, by the way!

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 7th July 2020, 6:16 AM

It wasn't Jimmy Clitheroe (one of those with stunted growth), but I can see why you thought that, my explanation is on the TPTV films thread :-

https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/35193/14/#P1223015

Welcome back, by the way!

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Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 7th July 2020, 6:11 AM

With regards to Chappers query on the other thread - cannot be 100% sure (it certainly wasn't Clitheroe) - one of the acts was American Sylvester & Nephew, where he did an acrobatic routine of him dressed as an American cop with the cheeky street wise "boy" who he "juggled" and did a slapstick routine with. The original act was Sylvester and the Three Midgets, and one of those was in this film and was the dummy..............well, that's my two penneth.

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Yes I watched it this afternoon. The "dummy" was played by the nephew half of the act Sylvester & Nephew (whose name was Eric Mudd):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_xcyoghkeA

Terminus (1961)

Not a story as such, more a documentary by a fledgling John Schlesinger and does not suffer (THANK GOD!) from the bloody awful musical soundtrack of later works of this type - just a camera observing the toing an froing of people on Waterloo Station, which I have found fascinating - the hobby of people watching.

I have a DVD of this I bought many years ago, also a DVD of Night Mail another superb one along similar lines ('scuse pun) from 1936 and was so pleased to see it air on TPTV as it saves me digging the DVD out. By the way, another excellent one of this type I have is John Betjeman's "Metro-Land", along with two or three of his other DVDs

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 12th July 2020, 6:13 AM

I have a DVD of this I bought many years ago, also a DVD of Night Mail another superb one along similar lines ('scuse pun) from 1936 and was so pleased to see it air on TPTV as it saves me digging the DVD out. By the way, another excellent one of this type I have is John Betjeman's "Metro-Land", along with two or three of his other DVDs

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This is what you need: https://amzn.to/2WdZlPk

Thanks for that Aaron, it's now on me list, although I see it has "Terminus" on it but not "Night Mail" - seems odd?

I've got another set of 5 somewhere of Steam through the decades 1920s to 1960s inc., BUT they thought they would "improve" them by adding a musical background track on each one................GRRR!!

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 12th July 2020, 3:46 PM

Thanks for that Aaron, it's now on me list, although I see it has "Terminus" on it but not "Night Mail" - seems odd?

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Night Mail was a GPO film, not BTF.

That set is just a highlights compilation from 14 separate volumes (to date).

Quote: Aaron @ 12th July 2020, 4:01 PM

Night Mail was a GPO film, not BTF.

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Ah. The GPO did some brilliant films too which often appear on TPTV

They did! (It feels utterly bizarre to think of the Post Office having a film department. Even weirder, somehow, than transport.)

All change! When I had my photographic sales/service/repair business in the 70s, everyone local - police, hospital, gas, electricity, engineering works, newspapers (of course) etc. etc. had a flourishing photo department who I dealt with, but they've all gone now or slimmed down to a token force.

Bring on Bing (1935)

A short film taken from a short film, so you can't get any shorter than that! I suppose about 5 minutes and an interesting curio to see the 29 year old Bing in his early career.

The full length (about 20 minutes), if you ever want to see it, was called Billboard Girl

Quote: Aaron @ 12th July 2020, 3:34 PM

This is what you need: https://amzn.to/2WdZlPk

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Watched this tonight Aaron, and very good it was too! "Fully Fitted Freight". Apparently "The title derives from the fact that all the wagons are fully fitted with vacuum brakes and screw couplings, enabling the train to travel as fast as a passenger express. " Big lump of steam there going full belt through the night!!

And "This is one of a number of short documentaries made by British Transport Films, set up by the British Transport Corporation in 1949 to make films about transport in Britain. (The inspiration was probably the GPO film unit, set up in the 1930s to make films about the work of the Post Office).", which is interesting.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1753850/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eayD4H2oIqY

Glad to hear you enjoyed! It really is a marvellous collection.

Harmony Lane (1954)

Odd ball 30 minute film of variety acts of the period sort of segued by a comic policeman (who?) looking at the acts in various shop windows - this included a tap trio, a very good funny juggler (who?), The Beverley Sisters, the Television Toppers chorus dancers, some skinny bird doing ballet with some bloke clearly carrying his lunch down the front of his tights and a young Max Bygraves and Dora Bryan in an unfunny comedy routine.

Little entertainment value, but a nice curio - think Sunday Night at the London Palladium, without the London Palladium.

One of the "Glimpses" series - Highlights of Variety: The Bell & Howell Music Hall No. 14 (1938)

Listed on TPTV as "Happy tate jnr - highlights of variety" sic and this is the title on their site, so I can't make up my mind whether is was a mistake or a pun.

There were three acts featured - Radio Three, Teddy Brown and Harry Tate.

Radio Three was not the radio station but a trio of very shrill lady singers, with one on the piano.

Teddy Brown I had seen before - he was the very large, very good xylophone player.

And so we come to Harry Tate - perhaps the stooge was his son? I don't know and care even less as this has to be one of the worse comedy sketches I have ever seen. There wasn't an ounce of humour in it. Absolutely bloody dire.

Bash and Grab (1965)

This was an odd short one sponsored by Security Express with four virtually unknown actors, and others, playing the parts of a vicious gang who waylay two employees taking the firms takings to the bank in an Austin A40 Farina by blocking there way with a much larger Austin Westminster, and not only being robbed but badly beaten too, despite the fact that they didn't put up any resistance. One beaten with a pick axe handle and the other had ammonia sprayed in his face, which blinded him.
"Why risk the lives of your employees....................."

The final scenes being film of a fleet of Security Express armoured vans doing the biz.