TPTV Films Page 31

Sabotage (1936)

Had seen the famous bus/bomb scene recently in a doc. about Hitchcock, so was pleased to finally get to see the whole film.
Not his best by any means, but I expect he hadn't got into his full stride, and there was one very silly scene where the detective "accidentally" reveals himself to the fifth columnists, which was plain daft.

A number of faces with very brief appearances in their early careers, such as Peter Bull, Charles Hawtrey and Martita Hunt (all uncredited), and I missed Hitchcock's cameo appearance.

Young American Bette Davis look alike Sylvia Sidney was the main female lead and for a woman who had just discovered that her young son had been blown to pieces by the bomb showed little emotion, which seemed odd. Other leading parts were played by people I'd never heard of.

All considered though, it was a good film, but not as tense as some of those on the IMDb would have you believe.
Little bit of trivia - it said in the opening titles "By arrangement with and thanks to Walt Disney" and as the film was set part in a cinema, I thought that was the reason for that statement, and sure enough there was about 20 seconds of the 1935 cartoon "Who killed Cock Robin?" on the cinema screen. It gives the impression Disney let them have the clip for nowt, but I wonder how much that conglomerate would charge now?!?!

The Voice of Merrill (1952) Yank title Murder Will Out (why)

Bloody good murder mystery about a good time girl renowned for blackmailing past conquests and is murdered by one of three men, and for once I got it right by going for the least obvious (you see him, from the back and legs only of course, gun her down in the first few minutes), as the film progresses.

Two of the men are authors, one very famous and successful (the irascible James Robertson Justice at his usual grumpy, arrogant, irritable best) and the other one struggling (Edward Underdown - seen him in odd films) who has an affair with Justice's wife (Valerie Hobson - John Profumo's wife) as she takes a shine to him and uses her influence to help him make a name for himself. Needless to say, she loathes her husband. The third and most obvious suspect is Justice's literary agent who was at the time being blackmailed by the victim to the tune of £3,000 (£87 grand in today's money), BUT is it him?

The police inspector was Garry Marsh and, wait for it..................his sergeant was our old pal Sam Kydd!

Yes, good film with lots of views of London, especially BBC's old Broadcasting House and period cars, the best one being an Aston Martin DB2.

I also always look at the old cars in films. Naming the make and model is a pleasure but only for yourself.
If I say 'look, there's a Humber super snipe, it is met with indifference.

Serious Charge (1959)

I knew of this film, which I'd never seen and was put off it a bit by the fact it was Cliff Richard's first film, but needn't have worried about that as he wasn't in it a lot. But who was, was Andrew Ray (Ted Ray's son) and initially he got on my tits with all this 'hip' talk like "Man, this town is squaresville" - for f**k's sake that sounded naff even then, let alone, now.

Anyway, apart from the shit yoof language this turned out to be quite a good film, with the ever frowning Anthony Quayle as the new vicar in a small town who comes up against the local "kids in the hood" who try to wreck his church hall youth club, and one of them (Ray) sets him up on a dirty old man 'Serious Charge' (speaking of which, Wilfrid Bramble was the verger!), falsely witnessed by the retiring vicar's spinster daughter (Sarah Churchill - one of Winston's sprogs), who tries to get into his corduroy trousers, but he's not interested, so spurned she backs up Andrew Ray's story, which sets the whole town against this new vicar.

Other faces in it I knew were - Noel Howlett (headmaster in "Please Sir") as the old vicar, Jess Conrad (the singer) as one of the gang, along with Philip Lowrie (Elsie Tanner's son Dennis) and Wilfrid Pickles uncredited as the local magistrate.

All in all not a bad film, with LOADS of 1950s cars on view, and congratulations to Reelstreets for the then and now photos and the IMDCB for exactly dentifying so many of the cars.

Escape Route (1952) I'll Get You - Yank title Doesn't make any sense!! Bloody Yanks

Not a bad film considering. The token American this time a bit more famous in the shape of George Raft, who as an FBI agent slips into the UK to pursue the mastermind behind that old chestnut of kidnapped scientists being then shipped behind the Iron Curtain - this time it being three of them! The British Intelligence service and Scotland Yard were searching for him and his description was given as 5' 11", and I thought "Excuse me? I don't think so". He was actually 5' 7", so that was amusing - presumably he had that written in the contract, but that wasn't fooling anyone.

Anyway, they eventually find and "arrest" him, and on finding out what he was in the UK for, they all joined forces, especially after two agents were killed in the pursuit of this villain.

Quite a good story, with no one else famous in it. The love interest being a pretty English actress Sally Gray whose last film this was in a very short career, but then she married some Nob called Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, 2nd Baron Mereworth in 1951, so that explains it and was nice for her.

Some lovely old large limos in this (IMDCB let me down with this film) and another amusing thing is all the off street parking right in the centre of London, especially around St Paul's Cathedral - no yellow lines!! Let alone red ones. Cars parked everywhere!

Hour of Decision (1957)

"Sleep inducing murder mystery" was how one IMDb poster described this and they were spot on as I seriously struggled to stay awake watching this churn on to its boring end.

Jeff Morrow was the token Yank this time as a reporter trying to solve a murder (well that's new) in which his wife (the luscious Joan Collins clone Hazel Court) is implicated.

The "other Sam Kydd" Michael Balfour with tash was in it as a barman, Lionel Jeffries as a night club owner with god knows what foreign accent he was trying to pull off and Arthur Lowe as a calligraphy expert - did he ever look any different?

Avoid at all costs, not unless you want to give the sleeping pills a miss one night.

Fame Is the Spur (1947)

I only watched this because Michael Redgrave and Bernard Miles were in it, otherwise this type of political film is not my cup of tea as in my mind it just highlights to two faced hypocritical things politicians are.

Man int'north who comes from nowt makes good by fighting for the common man and then when he's made a success of that he becomes more involved in politics and becomes very rich and successful but he loses sight of his roots. He sees no wrong in what he's doing, but others see it differently.

Takes you from 1870 to just before the Second World War and weaves a good tale, with the likes of Redgrave in the main part and Miles who starts him off on the ladder to fame and money. Also in it were Hugh Burden, David Tomlinson, with Ronald Adam, Honor Blackman, Maurice Denham and Kenneth Griffith in uncredited parts. The love interest is played by Rosamund John who I know little about.

At two hours long it's just about bearable. Certainly recreates the periods very well.

Written by Howard Spring.He's got a plaque on a building near a pub I used to frequent.
I have seen the film a bit Priestley-esque,I thought.

State Secret (1950) The Great Manhunt Yank title

Mostly high scoring good reviews of this on the IMDb, and in my opinion well deserved, with the token Yank this time being none other than Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who plays a surgeon who has developed an operation to cure a fatal disease and is invited to (the fictitious state of) Vosnia to not only receive an award, but also operate on the country's dictator who has been in power for many years.

The dictator dies and from then on Fairbanks is not allowed to leave the country for fear the news of the death would destabilise the country. When he tries to escape, a man hunt is put into place by the country's second in command, none other than of all people Jack Hawkins - so often the good guy in films.

Along the way Fairbanks cajoles half English singer (Glynis Johns) to help him escape to the neighbouring friendly country, whereupon a tense and thrilling chase is on.

Very good film and well worth a watch, especially if you want to see Herbert Lom with an almost full head of dark curly hair!

The Ship That Died of Shame (1955)

PT Raiders stupid Yank title, because the premise was that the ship had a soul and after meritorious work during the war, it was then used for criminal activity - eventually conking out.

So, George Baker, Richard Attenborough and Bill Owen are the officers in charge of a high speed Motor Torpedo Boat, which has a highly successful kill rate in the war, and many years later they find that "their" boat was up for sale.
They buy it to do small time smuggling across the channel, but Attenborough eventually has other big time ideas, much to the disquiet of Baker and Owen, and so the partnership finally comes to a bad end when they take on seriously criminal work from a very dodgy retired Army Major.

Virginia McKenna features briefly (can't say why), Bernard Lee as a customs officer and Alfie Bass has a couple of lines.

Very good tense film

Beat Girl (1960) Wild for Kicks Yank title

Lot of sexy 60s babes, but I managed to watch ½ hour of this, as with Cliff's first film "Serious Charge" I recently reviewed, this is toe curling with it's "hip" language daddio, but at least Adam Faith is a better actor than Cliff.

Also had the gorgeous Shirley Anne Field in it, but even she couldn't make me stick with it.

Johnny on the Spot (1954)

Ask me what the plot was.............go on, and I couldn't tell you, as I've never seen such a mess of a film - it's no wonder ALL the reviews on the IMDb were just as scathing.

Two "Americans" in this one. Scottish actor Hugh McDermott, who I'd never heard of with a wavering mid Atlantic accent and the "regular" Yank - Canadian Paul Carpenter.

Throw in Ronald Adam as the Police Inspector and William Tell (Conrad Phillips) as his sergeant, Graham Stark as small time hoodlum and Valentine Dyall in a part that seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever. In fact, there were people who seemed to be walking in and out of the film for no reason, with finally the supposed villain making an appearance at the end, with me muttering W(here)TF did he come from?

Body found of an unliked business man with a girl in another room dead - take it from there if you can.

Utter rubbish, but some very nice unusual cars - 1928 Bentley 4½ Litre, 1951 Daimler 2½ Litre 'Consort', 1948 Ford V8 Pilot, 1950 Humber Hawk Mk.IV, *1951 Humber Imperial MkIII*, 1953 Singer Roadster and a 1953 Singer SM 1500. Thank you the IMDCB!!

*What a magnificent lump!*

The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947)

I'll let someone on the IMDb brief you on this one, which I thoroughly enjoyed, even though I'd already watched it some five years ago, but my wife was insistent.................

Storyline
The story of a woman who loved three men for their different ways and discovered after many a heartache, that her first love was also her true love. Edward the Peacemaker was on the throne of England when Joanna Godden's father died and bequeathed a large farm on the Romney Marsh of Kent. Beautiful, impetuous, self-willed, Joanna determined to defy convention and - a mere woman - run the farm herself. Her decision outraged the whole shire - not least her farmer neighbour Arthur Alce. Written by Aline

Pretty Googie Withers in the lead part, with even prettier Jean Kent as her precocious younger sister, and Derek Bond and moody Australian actor John McCallum (sans accent) in a three/four way love tangle, all set around the turn of 1900.

And Struth! There's another Digger, Chips Rafferty in a minor part, and playing his usual grumpy self, Edward Rigby.

Good film with some stunning scenery of Romney Marshes.

The Body Vanished (1939)

Again, a film I'd seen many moons ago, but as it was quite short and I'd forgotten the end, I was again "cajoled" by my wife into watching it again.

Absolutely no one of any note in this, but turns out to be a cracking good murder mystery, with even some very good humour thrown in courtesy of the bumbling local Police Sergeant (I actually laughed out loud a couple of times) and cranky village character who keeps getting his equally decrepit tricycle stolen.

Dodgy butler reports to the Police Sergeant, who is in the middle of an important darts match at the local pub, that his master had been murdered. This was overheard by a Scotland Yard detective who had just arrived at the pub for a fishing holiday, but when they went to look at the local mansion, the body was nowhere to be found. As nothing like this had ever happened before in this sleepy village, it caused a lot of tongue wagging.

Apparently pieced together from what was left of this "lost" film, but still seemed seamless to me and certainly worth watching for the ¾ of an hour.

Stranger from Venus (1954) The Venusian - Yank title

When you see a title like this of a film made in the mid 50s, you just know it's going to be a load of twaddle, and in this instance it didn't disappoint, as it's like a car accident in that you must look even though you know what you will see won't be nice.

So this Venusian comes to Earth to warn us against the abuse of nuclear power (topical), and to add to the mystery and intrigue you don't see his face for the first 20 minutes or so - played by someone called Helmut Dantine, and yes, I'd never heard of him either.
The only other faces I did recognise were Roald Dahl's wife, the American Patricia Neal who also appeared in the other American film in similar vein "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in 1951, and Derek Bond.

Ridiculous plot, amateurish screenplay and loads of ham acting, but three nice American gas guzzlers (thank you IMDCB) with a 1947 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible, 1949 Chrysler New Yorker, 1951 Packard 200 and fashion parade of a 1931 Delage DS, 1947 Humber Pullman MkI, 1936 Humber Super Snipe and finally the usual 1937 Wolseley 18/85 police car. Why the range of cars in this I don't know - perhaps they thought it would sell the film or perhaps the director, producer etc. wanted to show off their cars in a film.