Larry Parks was famous for being Al Jolson.
Al wouldn't have a career these days 
TPTV Films Page 33
Quote: john tregorran @ 22nd January 2021, 7:50 AMLarry Parks was famous for being Al Jolson.
Al wouldn't have a career these days
Mammy!
The House in Marsh Road (1960)
"Horror Thriller" proclaims the IMDb about this load of hokum. Silly plot with the only things worth watching were sexy Sandra Dorne and a two tone MkII Ford Zephyr with white wall tyres.
Piss artist author spends all the couple's money while professing to be on the verge of writing a best seller, when his steady wife inherits a big pile in the country, which is haunted and his attempts to then kill his wife, so he can sell the house and leg it with divorcee Dorne, are thwarted by the resident poltergeist.
Oh and again, ITMA Sam Kydd as local property developer - my he has gone up in the world!
Despite my review, it's worth a watch.
sexy Sandra Dorne and a two tone MkII Ford Zephyr with white wall tyres.
That made me smile.Which one stirred you the most?
Quote: john tregorran @ 23rd January 2021, 6:48 PMsexy Sandra Dorne and a two tone MkII Ford Zephyr with white wall tyres.
That made me smile.Which one stirred you the most?
Can't I have her on the back seat? 
Sheer heaven
The Yellow Balloon (1953)
Bloody good "lost" thriller with a brilliant 13 year old Andrew Ray playing an 8/9 year old (?) who gets involved with a nasty London lowlife, played by William Sylvester after he persuades Ray that he actually caused the death of Ray's schoolboy chum, and that he was the only person who could protect him from the police, and Ray believes everything he tells him. But Sylvester has other plans to use the kid as a distraction in a pub robbery.
I've seen Andrew Ray in a number of films now, usually when he's much older than this, but he really was superb as a wide-eyed innocent schoolboy, and the chase/hunt to find him after the robbery goes wrong as Sylvester tries to kill Ray - him being a witness on the spot, and it's only then he finally realises that Sylvester is a nasty piece of work, as he is dragged into the labyrinth of a bomb damaged tube station.
Out of place (imo) Kenneth More as Ray's father, and a number of other faces in this, such as Sid James, Peter Jones, Campbell Singer, Bernard Lee (M), Sandra Dorne (again ), Hy Hazell, Brenda de Banzie (Too Many Crooks) and a very young Richard O'Sullivan who I didn't spot at all.
YES, a very good film, and it seems many of the London streets/buildings still exist, including the refurbished underground system, according to the excellent web site Reelstreets.
Tower of Terror (1941)
"I thought that there could have been a better way of signifying who the Germans were.", says one of the reviewers - so it wasn't just me then, that didn't realise the Dutch/Danish were the Germans and Michael Rennie was English and not a German spy. With ALL of them speaking near perfect English and some weird uniforms, it was a tad misleading.
Set in a lighthouse on a fictitious island (?) in the Heligoland isles it involves professional piss artist in real life Wilfrid Lawson as a mad lighthouse keeper who rescues a girl from the sea who resembles the wife he lost/drowned/murdered (?) 16 years ago, but she is actually an on the run escapee from a concentration camp, and throw in Rennie as a spy trying to get back to England (we find out later) with some secret papers, who gets a job as assistant to Lawson, while he waits to be picked up by the Royal Navy.
Thrilling eventually, yes; but a bit of poetic licence with the use of "Terror" in the title. Just about worth a watch.
Only other person of note, who I didn't recognise (!!) was George Woodbridge, and the leading lady was Marlon Brando's second wife, Movita. (Ewww, swipe me, get 'er with her single name) And yes, I'd never heard of her before either.
Street of Shadows (1953) Yank title The Shadow Man
There were two odd things about this film. 1/ The mix of the leading parts being taken by Cesar Romero (token Yank and TV Batman's Joker), Kay Kendall ( who died just 6 later of cancer aged only 33) and the "other Sam Kydd", Victor Maddern - three actors I would never have expected to see in a film together. 2/ Is this, has to be the most boring film I think I've ever seen.
It never seemed to get going, so about every ¼ hour I kept thinking "that's it, I've had enough", but did watch it to the end. Talk about bloody slow!! There's was also, and again, Bill Travers playing against type as a nasty piece of work.
The Teckman Mystery (1954)
Good mystery about a test pilot (Teckman) who disappears testing an advanced jet, which crashed, but then did it, and if it didn't, where is the pilot. Did he land it in foreign territory?
A fiction writer is given a commission to write an article about it, and as he starts to research it, so more people involved with the case get bumped off, till eventually British Intelligence take up the case. Then it gets complicated, making for a good story with many twists.
Then only thing that spoilt it for me was when the head villain gets chased up a tall dockside building by the author (I thought, "here we go again") and yes, falls to their death with an "Aaaaarrrrrggghhhh". Seen it SO many times in other films - as soon as they start to climb a tall structure, which we all know is going to be a dead end - so why do it?
Only people I knew in it were Raymond Huntley as a literary agent, Michael Medwin (spoiler if I told you his part) and, at the end of the film, for about 10 seconds with no dialogue a young Barbara Murray, who I've now read was apparently the author's wife in real life - actor John Justin.
Yes, well worth a look.
The Passionate Stranger (1957) Yank title A Novel Affair
Italian stud/chauffeur thinks the novel proof (a passionate romance) he has read by the lady of the house indicates how she feels for him, and after reading it, the film goes from B&W to colour to see how it pans out in his mind, where the lady does actually climb into bed with him, and so you know we're back to reality, it goes back into monochrome where she brushes him off in no uncertain terms.
The Italian actor is Carlo Giustini (yes, who?), with Margaret Leighton (who I'd just watched in "The Teckman Mystery" - having never seen her before!) and Ralph Richardson as her disabled husband.
This is listed as a comedy (note Aaron!), but I think the IMDb has got that wrong as it most certainly isn't, and certainly one to miss.
Vengeance Is Mine (1949)
A chance for two actors to take the leading parts in this - Valentine Dyall and (Hooray!) it's Sam Kydd, both usually taking support roles.
Dyall finds he has only 6 months to live and hatches a plan to have himself killed, with the deed pointing the finger at an ex business partner who not only cheated on him, but also got him wrongly sent to prison for fraud. So now out of jail he enlists the help of his old cohort Kydd to use his underworld contacts to find somebody reliable enough to kill him. An expert is found and he must kill him without Dyall knowing when and how.
Dyall now finds the doctors have found a cure for whatever is ailing him and he won't die prematurely of it - so now the hunt is on to find the assassin again and stop him from killing Dyall.....................
Not a bad film, but clearly made on a tight budget.
The Flemish Farm (1943)
What a title - puts you off right away. Whassis? Film abart potato crops in the lowlands?
Turns out to be a not bad low burning fuse tale based on a true story about the retrieval of the buried colours of a Belgian air force squadron - honour and all that. Buried in a field as the Germans advanced and killed most on sight. What was left of the squadron of Spitfires make it back to Blighty, and how one of them agreed to be dropped back into Belgium to retrieve the flag/banner.
Quite tense in places and just about worth the time to watch it.
The Passing Stranger (1954)
Token Canadian "Yank" Lee Patterson is a USAF deserter who gets involved with a stolen gun racket from British Army bases, and goes on the run when the last job involved a soldier being killed.
He holds up in a greasy spoon transport café and is helped by Diane Cilento (Sean Connery's first wife) who falls madly in love with him, but her boyfriend lorry driver is none too pleased. Patterson decides to do one last job to get money so he and Cilento can pay for a passage on a cargo ships to The States, but then (of course) it all goes wrong.
Not bad, but clearly done on a low budget, as it looks quite crude in places. Other minor roles played by the likes of George A Cooper, Alfie Bass with Warren Mitchell and Harry (no H) Corbett in uncredited parts according to the IMDb, which was incorrect as I saw their names in the opening titles.
Suspected Person (1942)
I very nearly gave up on this in the first 10 minutes as it was Noo Yoik gangsters talking barely discernible slang and I thought I'd made a mistake in recording an American film, but then one of the crooks (Canadian Robert Beatty, usually a good guy) mentioned that the $50,000 disappeared in the hands of this Englishman (Clifford Evans) who had legged it to London.
And so we join it on the murky streets of The Smoke as the two U.S. gangsters pursue the English cheat, and all come under the beady eye of Scotland Yard DI (David Farrar) ably assisted by full head of hair (Billy [William] Hartnell). The only other person I knew in it was English rose Patricia Roc.
Not a bad little film actually, being a cut above the usual type of cop/gangster film, and even had a bit of humour running through it.
The Last Curtain (1937)
Usually pre war films leave a lot to be desired, but this wasn't bad, though the plot was ridiculous about a gang of jewel thieves (again) who hide the ice inside cakes they sell in a fictitious baker's shop. Then the American (George Raft clone) gang leader, played (again) by a Canadian Kenne Duncan (no, I'd never heard of him either) sells them to a famous theatre entrepreneur/actor/ham who smuggles them to Holland in the costume baskets.
Things start to turn nasty when an insurance investigator gets a job in the theatre and the entrepreneur/actor/ham decides to chuck it all in and retire - hence the film title.
The only person I knew in this was Mervyn Johns, playing against type as one of the gang working in the baker's shop.
Thank heavens it was a short film.