TPTV Films Page 22

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 25th August 2020, 6:04 AM

The Secret Place (1957)

Quite a tense film, especially the robbery and good ending.

Actors of note:

Belinda Lee - seen her in a number of films now.

Michael Gwynn - a favourite actor my wife and I, and you probably know him better as Lord Melbury in the very first Fawlty Towers. Lovely actor and we have fond memories of him as Joe Gargery ("Pip, old chap") in the BBC production of Great Expectations, way back in 1959!

Geoffrey Keen - just a bobby in this, but have seen him in various police ranks and even as a crook. Popped up in a number of Bond films.

David McCallum - Man from Uncle of course as Illya Kuryakin and many, many parts and TV series over the years. Still alive apparently aged 87 and originally from Glasgow apparently - well I never!

George A. Cooper - been in so many TV series and memorable as having very little hair and played mostly grumpy parts. Was the father in the LWTs Billy Liar way back in the early 1970s.

Wendy Craig - Receptionist (uncredited) Didn't recognise her at all!!

Ian Hendry - listed as "Man Inside" uncredited. I've no idea what that part is and didn't notice him. Perhaps it was cut by TPTV
Gretchen Franklin - Nope, didn't see her either.

And finally...........

Michael Brooke, a 15 year old playing a younger main part of a lad who finishes up with the haul (no plot spoilers here!) and won't let the gang have it back. This was the last film he did in a career of 8, BUT it seems he went on to become a famous barrister and judge...........so, in this case, at least we know what happened to him after his film career petered out!

Yes, a different, enjoyable film and well worth a watch.

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For those, like me, for whom this review sounded enticing, The Secret Place is on TPTV again next Friday (18 September) 2.30pm.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 11th September 2020, 4:29 PM

For those, like me, for whom this review sounded enticing, The Secret Place is on TPTV again next Friday (18 September) 2.30pm.

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So pleased to have been of service.

The Last Journey (1936)

As I've said before, pre war films are like the curate's egg and are usually dire, but this one was brilliant!! Excellent edge of your seat thriller with a bit of comedy thrown in.

Primarily involves the engine driver who has a mental breakdown, brought on by thinking his fireman is having an affair with his wife and it being his last journey before he retires - something he didn't want to do, but his appeal to the owners of the railway company to carry on working falls on deaf ears. So, he completely loses his mind and decides the race his train as fast as he can and crash it into the station, by forcing his fireman to keep stoking the boiler while he threatens him with a service revolver.

Intermingled with this are various sub plots of a bigamous cad who is being chased in a high power sports car (!) by the girl's boyfriend, a pair of pickpockets on the run, a drunk, a teetotal campaigner and various English eccentrics.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it's a must for steam train fans as they feature heavily, and I quote from somebody on the IMDb who is clearly a train buff - "The train was portrayed by 4 locomotives 2980 Coeur de Lion, 5004 Llanstephan Castle, 4953 Pitchford Hall and 6005 King George II", and the film makers acknowledged the cooperation they had from the GWR for their help in making the film - I'm not surprised as there was lots to see!

The only person I recognised was Hugh Williams, who apart from films like this was the father of Simon Williams - summat and nothin'.

Had to look up curates egg... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate's_egg
now I know.
Thanks for the heads up, looks interesting. Will tape.

Quote: Flook @ 12th September 2020, 10:32 AM

Thanks for the heads up...

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I got told off when I said that once

Quote: Flook @ 12th September 2020, 10:32 AM

Thanks for the heads up..

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Grrrr, you're welcome, but this is Britain not f**king Americky - must maintain standards and keep certain people happy

**Aaron

Live It Up! (1963) Sing and Swing - Yank title, why?

Watched this only because Gene Vincent was in it (briefly with one song).

Mostly glowing reviews on the IMDb, but I found it a pretty run of the mill pop film made just as The Beatles were exploding onto the scene. "Well, The Beatles can do it so can we" was one line from this fledgling band "The Smart Alecs" that the story was about, and yes but they had talent, which you clearly don't, apart from one who went onto become ( just about recognisable) Steve Marriott.

As for the rest of the band, there was David Hemmings, Heinz Burt (late of Tornados and one hit wonder with "Just Like Eddie") and some nerk called John Pike who disappeared into obscurity 2 years later with an uncredited part in a film.

So basically, it was about the four of them trying to hit the big time and along the way via studios and TV shows we see various singers and bands of the day with various numbers. Apart from Gene Vincent, there was Kenny Ball (who featured a lot - jazz was still a big thing then), a couple of mundane girl singers I'd never heard of, The Outlaws that included Chas Hodges in its line-up, Sounds Incorporated (good band - saw them live once) and Andy Cavell & The Saints (who?).

Various other people I recognised were love interest, petite Jennifer Moss (Lucille Hewitt in Coronation Street in the early 70s) and Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five who was playing a sort of Joe Meek recording man.

Just about watchable - listed as musical comedy, but I didn't see any laughs. **

No Room at the Inn (1948)

Wasn't sure, but glad I stuck with it as it turned out to be a really good gritty drama, the leading (as it turns out, brilliant) actress Freda Jackson, who I'd never heard of, playing the part of a drunken uncaring and scheming landlady to five unfortunate waifs and strays left in her charge, which she abused, starved and sold all the possessions of, but maintained a glowing saint like figure amongst the local business owners/councillors. Almost Dickensian.

The two girls playing the leading waifs I had seen before in other films - Joan Dowling and Ann Stephens and both had died young as I found out previous. Joan Dowling committed suicide aged only 26 when she found out her husband Harry Fowler was having an affair and Ann Stephens, whose main fame was having a number of hits as a child singer with the likes of "Teddy Bears Picnic", "Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace" etc., died aged only 35, but cannot out find out why.

Both were playing pre-teen girls despite the fact that Ann was 17 at the time and Joan 20. The only other people I recognised in it were James Hayter, Dora Bryan, Sydney Tafler and the wonderful Hermione Baddeley playing her usual batty old lady.

Very good film I can highly recommend.

The Hypnotist (1957) Scotland Yard Dragnet - Bloody Yank, title took me awhile to find out which one it was. Grrrr!!!

There was no mention of Scotland Yard! And WTF Dragnet had to do with it is anybody's guess.

Again, with our Canadian/American Paul Carpenter playing a Canadian this time who is hypnotised into murdering the hypnotist's wife, but did he do it?

Not a bad story............not much more to say really. Also starred Patricia Roc as the girlfriend and William Hartnell as the investigating Detective Inspector.

Ooops, forgot to post one yesterday - it's an age thing

No Trace (1950)

Good murder thriller with a highly successful fictional crime writer (Hugh Sinclair), who is stuck for his next subject and then by chance is blackmailed by somebody from way back in his past, and sees this as his next story by murdering the blackmailer in such a way that there would be............"No Trace". Everything is fine until his secretary starts to piece things together.

Very nice large coupé in this and I said to my wife "That's a Triumph.............or a Singer", and I was right! So a bit chuffed as I identified it on Google as a 1950 Triumph Roadster

Actors in it - John Laurie ("He'll be doomed!..............Doomed....) was the DI and Barry (The Fugitive) Morse his sergeant. Dinah Sheridan (Genevieve) the PA, Dora Bryan as a floozie (what else), and there's our man again Sam Kydd as a motor mechanic who does a brake job on the Triumph and when he returns it the bill is 15/- (75p) Daylight robbery!!

Warn That Man (1943)

Oh dear....................I like Gordon Harker, who has a lead in this load of amateur hokum, about Nazis who take over a country estate, then kidnap and impersonate the Lord of the manor, who is entertaining Churchill for the weekend, with the intention of kidnapping him to take to Germany on a plane waiting in a nearby field.

Done later and far better with "The Eagle Has Landed" of course.

Also had Finlay Currie and Jean Kent were the two others I knew. Oh, and our "link" to it via Carl Jaffe's grandson Michael.

The whole thing was a ludicrous mess and the end laughable. Seriously one to miss. (Sorry Michael)

Inquest (1939)

Early film from the Boulting brothers. Not a fan of courtroom dramas but this one caught my attention as it was a coroner's court that at the time was a rather slapdash affair resulting in some amusing scenes between the coroner and the defending KC.

Man finds a hidden pistol in a cottage with one bullet used and this leads to speculation the young woman who lived there previous had murdered her husband - it gets a lot more complicated than that and to be honest they lost me a bit in the summing up.

Absolutely no one in it I recognised** and thank heavens it was a short film. Worth a watch though for the bits of humour thrown in.

** There was a Herbert Lomas, but that's as near to a famous actor I could see.

Crow Hollow (1952)

Doctor (Donald Houston) marries a girl (Natasha Parry - hadn't seen her before and very pretty) he's only known for a few weeks and takes her back to the large forbidding country house (Crow Hollow) that he inherited from his grandfather on the understanding that he would let his three spinster daughters remain living there. Add to this mix a sexy maid (Patricia Owens) who is very out of place features heavily in the story. Why is she there?

Attempts are made to kill the new young wife, so who was trying to bump her off? One of the three sisters or the maid? The plot thickens.

Apart from Donald Houston, the only other actor I recognised was the diminutive Esma Cannon (Carry On films etc) who had a bent for nature and this is where the plot gets silly when she leaves a highly poisonous spider next to the corsage the new bride is going to wear and then comes into the kitchen with a deadly poison mushroom, which she casually leaves on the kitchen table.

Good film though, in my eyes and worth a look at just over an hour long.

Marilyn (1953) "Roadhouse Girl" - Yank title.

I don't think we ever called transport caffs, roadhouses- typical American description, and you could safely lay money on it the Yanks wouldn't have the original title anyway.

Sexy blonde (Sandra Dorne) is married to Mr Partridge (Leslie Dwyer "I 'ate flippin' kids") and I only ask why?!? Let's face it Leslie is no oil painting so is punching way above his weight with Miss Dorne.

However/Whatever, tall dark and handsome drifter (Maxwell Reed - seen him a couple of times now) appears at the roadside garage/caff run by the married couple and of course you see where this is going to go, especially as Marilyn wants far more out of life than her husband can offer at this out of the way small time service station, where they argue all the time, with the husband being a miserable bastard who thinks his wife should be thankful for what she has got.

So, one argument too many when he catches Marilyn in the drifter's room and he gets nasty so the drifter punches him and as he falls he hits his head and is dead.

Now free to run her life as she sees fit, she takes up with a man with money who happens to call at the garage and the drifter has to take a back seat, which he's not happy about, especially after how close they were before her husband was killed. Anyway, it then gets more complicated and..........................well, you'll have to watch it - far be it for me to add a spoiler.

Good film and not too long. And forgot to mention that Kenneth Connor had a bit part as a caff customer, but I didn't notice him.

We used to race from one Transport Caff to another.One of them was called The Flamingo.Why it had such an exotic name I don't know.It was as insalubrious as all the others.