TPTV Films Page 21

Turn the Key Softly (1953)

I had my doubts but gave it 20 minutes and glad I did as it turned out to be a really good film.

Three women are released from prison at the same time and go their separate ways with a promise to meet again and of course it was inevitable the meeting would see them again at the prison gate going back in, but did they................

Ravishing Joan Collins playing a prostitute determined to turn over a new leaf by marrying solid reliable Glyn Houston who is a bus driver and not very glam. Joan succumbs to her passion for jewellery and some of her old mates from the streets tempt her into the old life.

Sophisticated Yvonne Mitchell also wants to start again and after a couple of false starts finally gets a job in an office, but her old boyfriend/louse cat burglar (Terence Morgan) who got her into trouble when she was caught and he wasn't, fools her into one last big job robbing a theatre.

And finally, old dear Kathleen Harrison who is an inveterate shop lifter and is shunned by her family and her only companion is a dog called Johnny, so you know it's going to end requiring handkerchiefs.

Good sub-plots, unexpected end and I can highly recommend it, with appearances also of Geoffrey Keen and Thora Hird.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 31st August 2020, 5:44 AM

Turn the Key Softly (1953)

I had my doubts but gave it 20 minutes and glad I did as it turned out to be a really good film.

Three women are released from prison at the same time and go their separate ways with a promise to meet again and of course it was inevitable the meeting would see them again at the prison gate going back in, but did they................

Ravishing Joan Collins playing a prostitute determined to turn over a new leaf by marrying solid reliable Glyn Houston who is a bus driver and not very glam. Joan succumbs to her passion for jewellery and some of her old mates from the streets tempt her into the old life.

Sophisticated Yvonne Mitchell also wants to start again and after a couple of false starts finally gets a job in an office, but her old boyfriend/louse cat burglar (Terence Morgan) who got her into trouble when she was caught and he wasn't, fools her into one last big job robbing a theatre.

And finally, old dear Kathleen Harrison who is an inveterate shop lifter and is shunned by her family and her only companion is a dog called Johnny, so you know it's going to end requiring handkerchiefs.

Good sub-plots, unexpected end and I can highly recommend it, with appearances also of Geoffrey Keen and Thora Hird.

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I recorded this when it was on a few weeks ago. Every time I went to watch it I read the subject matter and watched something else instead. Eventually I did get round to watching it and, like you, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shadow of a Man (1955)

The Canadian Paul Carpenter again, who when looking up an old friend finds that not only is has he just died, but it looks like it could be murder with three suspects who looked in on him when he was put to bed drunk, and as the plot unfolds Carpenter finds out that his friend wasn't the very nice guy he remembered him as and that there was a bit of hanky-panky going on involving his friend's wife and a male along with a female family friend. Ooer..................

Quite a good whodunit and worth a watch.

Paul Temple's Triumph (1950)

Don't know where this fits in with the series of four ( see previous "Send for Paul Temple"), but this has a completely different set of actors, which was initially confusing and this time Paul Temple is married to the girl Steve (Dinah Sheridan) from the first film, so now they are a crime fighting duo, and also the Chinese valet has been retained although now played by an oriental actor.

Oh, and all cars were supplied by Aston Martin and Lagonda - I don't know what model of coupé he was driving but it was very nice (searched since and it was an Aston Martin DB1 drophead, and the one the villains were driving was a Lagonda Drophead Coupé).

The only problem I had with it (and I don't know why this wasn't a goof on the IMDb) was when three of them were seen in their car hurtling along with not only the top down but also the windscreen flat on the bonnet, none of them had their hat blown off or even a bit of hair flapping in the wind. Perhaps they couldn't afford a wind machine. And another goof was when they found the body of a young woman in an office cupboard, she was standing up instead of crumpled in a heap - stupid.

The first film I liked, but this was an effin' mess! Far too many characters coming in and out with subplots and nearly all in gaberdine trench coats, trilby hats and usually sporting a tash. Now, was he a spy or secret service or from Scotland Yard? I think I got the gist of it in the end, but it was bloody confusing...............

One bit made me smile and that was to see a young Peter Butterworth in a bit part as a telephone engineer - did get his name in the titles though, even though he had a small and irrelevant part (in the film, that is).

Stock Car (1955)

Simple tale of girl trying to run a garage after her father is killed in a stock car race ("Tell Laura I love her" Sorry about that - takes me back to the early 60s) and two people want to take it off her. One is a dodgy local businessman and the other is our Canadian/American Paul Carpenter again who was a friend of her father.

No shooting this time, but people getting beaten up. I must say the stock cars in the film are a lot better quality than you see today.

Few faces - Harry Fowler as nasty gang member, pretty Susan Shaw as the daughter, Captain Peacock (Frank Thorton) as a doctor and Sabrina in her first film as a bit of fluff - what a very sad life she led before she died forgotten in Hollywood. There was also an eleven year old Frazer Hines as uncredited boy apparently, but I didn't notice him.

Worth a watch if only for the two monster American cars that feature.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 3rd September 2020, 5:45 AM

("Tell Laura I love her" Sorry about that - takes me back to the early 60s)

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Yes, being killed in a road accident was a very popular subject for hit records at that time - Tell Laura I Love Her, Leader of the Pack, Terry, Teen Angel...

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 3rd September 2020, 10:45 AM

Yes, being killed in a road accident was a very popular subject for hit records at that time - Tell Laura I Love Her, Leader of the Pack, Terry, Teen Angel...

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My business partner in the 70s, Terry, hated that song.

Dusty Ermine (1936) Yank title Hideout in the Alps

For once the American title makes sense as the original British one doesn't - I have no idea where the "Dusty Ermine" comes from as this is a film about banknote forgeries (specifically English fivers) that are being printed in the Alps and then by a very devious route find their way into the UK.

Glowing reports on the IMDb and it did start off with much promise as a forger comes out of Wormwood Scrubs after 4 years promising to turn over a new leaf, but finds himself involved again by of all people a youngish Margaret Rutherford (!) in her first film in a part that was written in just for her along with some typical, for her, dotty lady jokes. Also in it was Katie Johnson (The Ladykillers etc.), Felix Aylmer as a head at Scotland Yard and Wally Patch as an uncredited Thug.

For me this was a film of two halves (with some laughs) where as I say it promised much but then descended into a mess with ridiculous plot and stupid acts.

Child in the House (1956)

Good film. Young girl's (Mandy Miller, known as just Mandy) mother (who you never see) goes into hospital and her father (Stanley Baker) is a bit of a dodgy character who has gone to ground, so the girl goes to live with a rich aunt and uncle. The girl is desperate to find her father and so are the police, and it's just a matter of time before they all meet as the father tries to keep in touch with his seriously ill wife and much loved daughter.

Eric Portman was the uncle, Phyllis Calvert the aunt, with Dora Bryan as a maid and minor parts for Victor Maddern, Joan Hickson, Alfie Bass and Maggie Smith.

Good subplot too with the adult's relationships in a well written story/script.

Paul Temple Returns (1952) Yank title Bombay Waterfront

The fourth and it seems last in the series and certainly far better than the "Paul Temple's Triumph" I watched and reviewed earlier with a different girl (Patricia Dainton) playing his wife Steve.

There's a serial killer on the loose called The Marquis who sends his victims a warning telegram, but there seems no connection between them - even Paul Temple receives one warning him to stay off the case (that's cos he's always better than Scotland Yard, yer see).

I saw from the opening credits that it also starred Valentine Dyall (The Man in Black) and Christopher Lee who looks just like the Duc de Richleau, an evil part he played in "The Devil Rides Out" some 25 years later - so, there's two prime suspects, but NO, always look for the least obvious.............or do you. Also, Mr Dyall is a head of the police, so it can't be him, but then one of the police inspectors becomes a prime candidate after acting suspiciously. Oooer who dunnit?

Not a bad film with a bit of hokum thrown in, where in the end The Marquis is unveiled and in his escape climbs a tall warehouse on the dockside, so you know where this is going and I actually laughed as he plummeted to the ground with a "Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh....................."

I'm not sure if I've asked this before Herc but how do you decide whether to add the film here or give it its own thread?

Quote: Chappers @ 6th September 2020, 5:16 PM

I'm not sure if I've asked this before Herc but how do you decide whether to add the film here or give it its own thread?

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Well that's quite simple really.

I asked Aaron, but he wasn't keen on a general film thread as such, as there already was a Film thread for Comedy films, and to keep it simple and not be overrun I started up the TPTV Films thread for films on that channel only, and use the Comedy Film thread to post the TPTV comedy films, which naturally have their own thread within that Film forum.

About the same time, just to add to the mix, Billy set up the Talking Pictures TV thread, which I hadn't noticed for some weeks and so I posted on there any documentary type films, such as those from the IWM.

And now all's well in the BCG World.

Up the Junction (1968)

As you may have gathered with my penchant for post war B&W mainly, I wouldn't normally have watched summat like this, but I missed it when it came to the cinema and remember the fuss it made at the time, so..........I watched it, also because I've also had the hots for Adrienne Posta - A typical 60s Dolly Bird, and there were a LOT of Dolly Birds in mini-skirts in this all enjoying the sexual revolution...................has cold shower and a lie down

I enjoyed it also for seeing all those 60s cars, including a MkII Ford Consul soft top, of which you saw few in the day and an E Type open top Jag, which would have been brand new then.

Good story with rich Chelsea girl (Suzy Kendall - Dudley Moore's first wife and playing someone 10 years younger) decides she's had enough of the false rich life, so chucks it all in to go slumming with the lower classes in Battersea, where she falls in love with local chancer Dennis Waterman, and along the way we get to see what I remember as being very much a flavour of the mid 1960s.

Lot of faces in it, including Maureen Lipman in her first film, in fact her first anything really and she didn't make much more after that in celluloid, but went on to have a very successful career on'telly of course. Alfie Bass, Liz Fraser, Susan George, Hylda Baker and Michael Robbins (Arfur in "On the Buses" - did he ever have any hair?)

Yes, good film and worth a look if only for the atmosphere.

Jazz Boat (1960)

And here we go to the other extreme of 1960s films with this one that I managed to watch for 30 minutes but it finally got too much when they started singing - I won't learn! When I read on TPTV that it was a "Musical Comedy" (note Aaron - I didn't fall for it), I shouldn't have bothered. I mean James Booth, Bernie Winters, some other bloke who got on my nerves and a chubby bearded David Lodge as black leathered greasers who break into a seriously poor man's West Side Story "comic" song in the middle of a back street market, you get a flavour of how shitty and embarrassing it was.

Oh, and Tony Newley playing someone called Bert..........................

NO! - crap.

The Delavine Affair (1955)

Never seen him before and here we are in the second film ("Smart Alec" previous) of somebody called Peter Reynolds. A far better film for him, but yet again we have a news reporter trying to do the police's job (seems to be a trend in these 50s thrillers) .

Also starring Honor Blackman, Gordon Jackson, Michael Balfour (again, but this time not a heavy) and dear sweet Katie Johnson from The Ladykillers.

Good story of diamond theft and seemingly unrelated murder that moved along at a nice pace, and rounded off with a decent end.